Adding Bright Color is Easy

 

So how does one go from plain white paper to these beautiful, lovely, bright colors? It is really easy - and a little bit messy - and I am going to show you how. You are going to love it!

I needed to make enough color to cut out thirty-one twinchie tiles. Two inches square. For Twinchietober! My Facebook group Tangle All Around is creating a small piece of art each day this month and we are using these little 2" tiles as our base. I had some Bristol Illustration paper from Hahnemühle to use and I decided on three colorways. For product I used Dylusions Ink Sprays. They give so much bright color and they last forever. 

I began by wetting the entire piece of paper. I used a spray bottle of water but sometimes I use a mop brush - it's faster. And I added my first layer of color. The color you see is Lemon Zest. Just a few spritzes of color here and there. 

While the paper was still wet I added some sprays of Bubblegum Pink. I sprayed a little more water on top and let the colors mix and run and do their thing.  I like all the wet and puddles, but if that isn't your thing you can roll some paper towels loosely over the top to pick up some of the water. Or you can use a tissue and dab up color here and there. Both these methods will remove some of the wet while leaving behind some wonderful texture. 

While my paper was still a little damp I placed a stencil over one corner, held it down with a finger and sprayed water through stencil. You could wait till the paper is completely dry to do this technique. I am just impatient. Hahahaha! Wait 10-15 seconds or so and carefully lift that stencil off the paper. Give it another 10-15 seconds, then blot the residual water off the paper. This technique essentially lifts the color away and leaves you with faint impressions of the stencil design. 

I used the stencil on all four corners of the paper. You can see the results in this photo. Instead of water I could have used a third color to spray through the stencil. I was keeping in mind the purpose of this paper. I needed to be able to draw on it and have my lines visible, so I used water to add some cool texture. 

That worked so well I tried it again. For this one I used the colors Fresh Lime and Vibrant Turquoise. I have the most trouble spelling that word! Hahahaha! This time I completely dried the paper, then placed down my stencil and sprayed it with water. 

My steps were the same. I love this piece! Those 'orange' splotches are from my first pink and yellow piece. I told you this could be messy. I should have taken a photo of my hands. Hahaha! I never wear gloves. 

This piece was made using a darker blue called After Midnight and a beige-pink called Rose Quartz. The colors blended into these beautiful ones. I didn't use a stencil for this sheet but I did want to add something more to all three pages before I cut them down into two inch squares. 

I reached for this bottle of acrylic ink from Daler Rowney - Purple Lake. I have various acrylic inks but Daler Rowney is my favorite. 

These bottles have a dropper built in. I used just a few drops of color on my styrofoam plate and sprayed some water onto the color. Then I picked up some color by tapping my fan brush into it. 

Making splatters of color is easy. Take that fan brush with the color loaded onto it, hold it over the area you want to splatter and tap the brush handle against a finger of your other hand. Or you can use a pencil or another paint brush or shake the fan brush hard. All these techniques will work to get some beautiful splatters onto your art page. 

I liked it so much I made splatters on all three pieces. It's all about texture and mark making for me. 

I like how you can still see the stencil fades. The splatters did not cover them up. 

All that was left for me to do was cut my pages down into two inch squares. Because Twinchitober is a thing! Hahahaha! To make my tiles look more 'finished' I used my trusty Creative Memories corner rounder and rounded off those corners. And I am using these tiles to tangle on each day of October.

I have a couple paper cutters - paper trimmers - to cut my squares. Don't worry if you don't have one. You can use a pencil and a ruler and draw a 2" square on a piece of heavier paper like card stock and use it as a template to cut your own twinchies. I would love for you to join us at Tangle All Around and you can do just that by clicking here. Hope to see you there!

Bristol Illustration Paper from Hahnemühle can be found by clicking here.