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Here I have my acrylic paints, and I'm going to show you how
you can create different effects on paper with acrylic.
You can also use acrylic on canvas, but here I'm going to
show you how you can paint on watercolor paper.
So, what happens when you paint with acrylic and water,
it dilutes acrylic and makes it look like water colors.
So, if you are looking for a water color effect, basically
you just have to take the acrylic paint and dilute it
with water.
And you don't want to use a large amount of paint.
So this is one example of just creating different washes.
Impasto is a technique where you use a lot of expressive
marks, and you layer the paint on, rather
than mix it with water.
You can still dip your brush every once into water, but
mainly it's about expressive marks.
Also, you could try and apply your paint with a knife.
So, this is more of an Impasto look.
And what's fun is that you can really move around and scratch
the surface with your painting knife.
Now I would like to show you two watercolor techniques, one
is called wet-on-wet, and the other one is called
wet-on-dry.
For wet-on-wet, you're basically adding colors to one
another while they're wet.
For the wet-on-dry, you're applying a layer, allowing it
to dry, and then going over it and adding another layer.
So when you create the wet-on-wet effect, it makes
your work look very spontaneous.
And it allows for a lot of accidents and bleeding.
And the wet-on-dry allows you to layer, and make it look
more realistic and refined.
So, I'm just going to show you both techniques.
Any time when you're working with watercolor paper and
watercolor, you can map out a large area with a wet brush.
And that allows the paint to flow freely.
And it also allows you to create a nice, even surface.
So, this will be my wet-on-dry.
So, I'm going to let this section dry, and I'm going to
work with this section.
I can start going in with other colors, and these colors
will be bleeding in together.
And you can see they create these hairy edges that can be
really beautiful.
And you go in with more intense colors.
And also depending on how this is drying, if it's still
really wet, it might not bleed as much as areas that are
already drying, but are still damp.
So this allows you for a lot more spontaneity.
While my area is drying in here, I'm going to show you
also how you can create washes with color ink.
And you will see how similar ink is to watercolor, but it's
a lot more intense.
And it can give you a better bleeding effect.
There are two types of ink that you can buy.
There's water-based ink and there's acrylic-based ink.
They look pretty similar, but acrylic based ink, which is
what I have right here, is a lot thicker, and more intense.
So, you're able they get much brighter colors.
You can get really, really light, and transparent, just
as with watercolor.
Or, you can go with much more intense, darker colors.
You can also create very flat shapes.
When I say flat, I mean there won't be
variation in their hues.
They will be one color.
It won't vary from dark to light.
Here I have my quill, and I just want to show you how you
can incorporate line drawing into your color ink washes.
You will see areas that are still wet.
When I go over them, it creates a nice bleeding,
puddling effect.
So, you can really take advantage of that.
I can purposefully go into this area in order to have
this more creative line, and also add some
dark shapes into it.
A big part of working with ink is reacting to the medium, and
being spontaneous with it.
Don't be afraid to create accidents.
Accidents--
whoops--
like this one.
Accidents are not always a bad thing, so you can use them to
your advantage and incorporate them into your drawing.
So, if this was an accident and I didn't want this there,
I could somehow integrate it into the piece, and make it an
intentional part of the artwork.
Now I think you can see that my dry layer of
watercolor has dried.
So, I'm going to go in with another layer.
The trick is to put it over the areas
that are already dry.
So what happens is that you create this edge, and that
edge is something that you can blend in, or
leave as a hard line.
And then, the next step would be to allow this to dry.
And then go with another color, and allow it dry, and
go over with another color.
And basically, artists can have hundreds of layers in
their watercolor drawings, and that's what makes their
drawing really vibrant, and have a lot of depth.
And these areas don't necessarily have to be big.
They can be on much smaller scale, such as individual
shapes or stones that you're layering over and over again.
The idea is to build up your colors, and not to get too
dark right away.
So if you start out with a lighter undertone such as the
yellow, you can keep adding other colors such as red, or
blue, or brown, and gradually build them up to the image
that you like.