Water Coloring With Aqua Painter & Re-Inkers Tips
- Keep a piece of paper towel handy…it helps to keep the water flow of the Aqua Painter in check.
- You want a very slight flow of water coming out, just so that it just dampens your paper and
- blends the color. If you experience too much flow – blot the excess onto the paper towel.
- Me mindful not to hold the barrel too tightly. Squeezing it may allow more water to flow than you want…so relax and hold it loosely, and have fun while coloring!
- I mainly use the Aqua Painter brush with the smaller nib for most of my coloring. When I want to apply a wash of color to a larger area I use the larger nib brush in the set.
- After re-inking brush, test on scrap to allow the ink to flow and mix with the water before adding it directly to your image. You can always darken later but it’s very difficult to lighten once it’s too dark.
- Blot off excess color onto scrap if you are done with the darkest areas.
- Look for shading in the image created by the artist to help you with darkest ink placement.
- Use freshly inked brush tip in the areas you want the darkest. Allow the colors to blend and fade before reloading your brush with more color. This will allow for variances in color and gives a nice shaded look with just one color of ink.
- Use different shades of a color to create shading. For example start with a light blue shade for the lightest, brightest area of an object and add a darker shade of blue where the shadows appear.
- Make sure to leave some very light or white, uncolored areas for dramatic highlights.
- Using the ink pooled inside your lid is handy, but if you are doing a lot of water coloring you may find it easier to create a palette by dripping a drop or two of each color onto an extra image sheet, or plastic lid that you would normally recycle.
- Certain colors work well when mixed and will blend into pleasing tones. For instance, when blending blue and yellow tones together you will create green tones, but if you were to mix the green tone with red tones you would end up with a brown or muddy color. So it’s good to know how two colors mix before blending them on your project.
- If your finished water colored piece has slightly curled a bit after it has dried, this simple trick should help when attaching it to your card. I have the best luck using Stampin’ Glue Sticks. I simply apply the glue stick to the entire back side of the image and then adhere it to the mat or card front; burnishing it into place with a bone folder or brayer. (While covered with scrap paper) The image should then remain flat with no buckling.
- Practice, practice, practice! The more you practice the better you will become! Remember…it’s just paper and paper has two sides…so have fun, experiment and don’t worry about mistakes!
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