A little while back I had this a guest post on the
StencilGirl blog and wanted to share this here as well.
For a while now I have been experimenting with watercolors and creating patterns with stencils. And today I would like to share a project which was a result of the experimentation which is an interactive watercolor painting.
The base is a large piece of watercolor paper by Viking 1914. I used the landscape pad which is 15x42 cm, 310gms in weight & 50% cotton. The paper was glued on all sides to the block so the paper doesn't warp with using a lot of water. Great quality paper and having it taped down is very important for a successful watercolor painting. The paints I used are from Sennelier, a french professional watercolor brand which I have filled the wells of my Koi travel pocket box with. The brush I am using is a large quill brush and I made sure to have 2 water cups, one for cleaning and one for mixing. I traced the face silhouette from Seth Apter's Borderliners Large stencil (a
dec. 2017 StencilGirl® StencilClub stencil release) on the right hand side and then went to work to create a galaxy color composition over the entire page.
When working with watercolors, timing is key, so I do not have many mid process pictures. I've worked on these layers for about 30-45 minutes, adding color and letting them blend out in a process you have to practice with patience and appropriate speed. I have watched many tutorials on YouTube on how to create galaxy watercolor paintings and this is a very simple & effective tutorial:
https://youtu.be/ZFVLLjS912E and I have applied the same technique in my painting.
After the piece was thoroughly dry I took a medium damp cloth and created texture by removing some color over the dotted pattern in the large stencil. I only did this on the aria's opposite the silhouette.
I made sure the silhouette was standing out by using contrasting colors and keeping the edge of the line as sharp as possible. Darkened the face up more and used an opaque white ink for the starker contrast. Now to add more patterns in the piece.
With a black paint pen I have traced the large bubbles which were in the same large stencil as the face, then colored them in with the opaque white acrylic paint. I also splattered some of the white paint over the painting. The added in the quote "Imagination is more important than Knowledge" with the black paint liner. The quote by Einstein is found on the
Pen & Ink Large stencil by Lesley Riley.
After I was done with the painting I took it off the watercolor block I folded the painting because I planned to make an interactive piece out of it.
I took a semi transparent acrylic dark blue and a semi opaque lighter blue paint and sponged it through the large numbers of the Borderliners stencils. Then traced the numbers in with a black paint liner. I cut out the silhouette face so it folded over the quote. I traced the quote lines with a wite paint liner for some contrast.
This is what it looks like when you open up the side of the face. With an exacto knife I cut open a portion of the silhouette line, folded in half to glue it in place like this. Added the same numbers border with a mix of the paint and traced it with a white paint liner. With this last detail added I called the interactive painting done. Here are some close up pictures.
I hope you enjoyed seeing how this interactive painting came together and that you might try making something like this yourself. Have a lovely day.
xo Cheetarah
