Watercolor inks abstract

A few days ago I decided to switch over to satercolor inks and treat them in the same way I have done with acrylic inks and gouache paints: I grabbed three bottles of watercolor ink (Golden ochre, dark yellow and forest green), sat down and did some mixing swatches. I used some small empty yoghurt containers to drop the inks into.

Doing the color mixing swatches I noticed how important it is to clean the brush between the mixes; watercolor ink is so intensive that you have to be very careful to clean your brush when you are putting down the second color. I first put the forest green on the paper, and then the golden ochre.

When I was done with the color mixing swatches I began to paint a "real" painting. I not only applied the experience with the color mixing process but also noticed that you can layer these inks in order to create darker shades. 

The blue background was added as the last step. In this case I didn't use an alcoholbased marker, I used a waterbased one. 

Playing with one-sentence-Prompts

 

Some prompts are very detailed and very lengthy. You have a certain scene in mind, you describe it as detailed as possible and voilà - there it is.

But I also like to play with very short, one sentence prompts.
The prompt for the image on the left is:

A strong wind is driving a maple leaf over a cobblestone street

It took two tries to get an image I liked. (I have to add that I have enough credits to use on Nightcafe Studio, so I could have tried even more with the sentence above.)

Gouache color sketch #2

I continued with my Gouache color swatches and sketches. This time I used Blue Lake from Reeves, and Magenta, with adding white for the lighter spots. 

Blue Lake from Reeves is a blue with a tint of green in it. In my opinion it creates a better contrast with Magenta because of this. 

In addiiton to that I decided to use alcohol markers for the background. In this case I chose a light apricot. 

I used very inexpensive watercolor paper. Watercolor paper has a smoother and a more textured side - I used the smoother side for the painting this time. 

Gouache color sketch

I have been doing color swatches with acrylic inks. I then decided to switch over to doing color swatches with gouache paints. Gouache was my first medium when I started my "artist career" after the death of my husband in 2007. For some reason or another I never got on very well with Gouache and soon started to do art with other mediums.

Now, almost 20 years later, I decided to give Gouache another try. I am doing color swatches and - together with each color swatch - color sketches. 

I only used three colors here: Violet blue (Akademie Gouache from Schmincke) and Magenta (Rico Artist Gouache), and White.

I experimented with different amounts of Violet blue and Magenta. I used watercolor paper as surface; when the color swatches were done I stored them in a box, together with notes about the mixing process.

Then I decided to do just a color sketch with the color selection. I not only wanted to see the mixes in a "real" painting, but also to practise painting with gouache in general: how to get the necessary amount of water in order to create a smooth, even looking painting. I am still at the very beginning of the whole "Learning-to-paint-with-gouache" - process, but I do not only learn, but also have fun!