Thursday, May 23, 2013

Twinkling H2O's

Wow life is busy!!! I taught my monthly art journal club this week & it was fun, fun, fun!!! The girls seemed to have a great time, this is really a wonderful group of women, very encouraging, positive & welcoming of new people. This month we worked on twinkling H20's a product I was not familiar with, but have learned to love! Pigment in a cake form infused with mica with the properties of watercolor only different because of the mica - shimmery goodness!

They come in these pots of yummy colors. You start by "waking them up" or spritzing liberally with water to activate the color & the mica. Let sit for 5 minutes, a spritz more  water & they are ready to play! I must admit there is a learning curve with these. I started using them as I would an acrylic paint and wasn't doing too well with the whole blending thing. I did some blending exercises as in water color and started to get it. Lots of water is the key so the colors can pool & run together. What helped me to understand was making these swatches of 2 to 3 colors. I wrote the colors on the back & now I have some great color combinations to use in future. This was learning to use the color & water in good proportions.
I encourage you to play with this product to get used to how to use them. To make the colors richer, darker with more mica it is best to build the color in layers. Here are a few of the backgrounds I did. 

 I used stencils with metallic acrylic paint to create a resist- once dry I played with the twinks. Hard to see but the page is shimmery.
I also colored in a stamped image trying to get better at blending. Again the colors look much more luscious & shimmery than in the photos.
Here was a page I did right in my art journal to help with the learning curve.
The key is practice & practice but this product gives you a very unique look in your book and is very addicting!

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