Month: July 2012

I’m a sucker for special effects, so today’s challenge proved to be a fun and exciting one! Using regular table salt, the tip of a mechanical pencil (no lead), and a plastic square that I scrounged up from my odds and ends drawer, I painted the following picture:

All of the dotted areas (mostly on the left side) are the result of the table salt. The trees, branches, and grass were created using the sgraffito techniques, and paper towel was used for reverse printmaking on the ground. Not only was it a lot of fun to explore these special effects, but it also gave me a lot of great ideas for ways that each can be used for my nature explorations! (I could definitely see the “magic” factor of the salt (or rubbing alcohol) going over well with my students!)

For tomorrow’s challenge, explore a natural texture that you find…

Happy Friday night! Thank goodness the first day of this challenge was a quick one–as I spent the majority of my day apartment hunting! Nevertheless, the small amount of time spent exploring watercolor painting was worthwhile.

Here is the result of today’s explorations:

I had a wonderful time exploring different texture possibilities and types of washes using small thumbnail-sized boxes for my experimenting.

For tomorrow’s challenge, explore some special effects that can be achieved using items such as paper towels, salt, and the scratching effects that can be achieved through the sgrafitto technique.

Enjoy tomorrows explorations! Have fun with the process! Tomorrow will be the last day of paint technique explorations before we head out to explore the natural world through watercolor!

‘Til tomorrow…happy explorations!

I was lucky enough to travel to the seashore this weekend.  Like all of the other little kids, I found myself filling my pockets with seashells.  Today as the sun shone brightly throughout the house, I took photos of the shells in a series of different poses, so to speak.  As with the sunflowers mentioned earlier, I leaned toward the abstract.  Still working with the images, but here are few.  We’ll see what the rest of the summer holds in store.