Another fun intuitive painting! This time though I decided to ditch acrylic and do something different. In my drawers sit some Dr Ph Martin’s goodies. Most have been used one time or another but I feel they could be used more creatively. With the time I have these days to idly experiment, I thought I’d paint something funky!
Please note that I am in no way influenced or hired by Dr Ph Martin’s to promote their products. I am merely giving my account of how I arrived at this painting and my independent opinion about their stuff.
Hydrus Liquid Watercolors
I got in a frenzy some time ago and invested on all three sets of the Hydrus Watercolors. They’re great because the colours are so intense and vivid, and a little drop goes a long way when spreading with water or wet brush. Mostly I use these when painting large areas like backgrounds. I wonder what would happen when drawing doodles like I do with acrylic ink!
I started with just randomly doodling using the dropper and then with a wet brush spreading the colours. Working methodically by starting with light colours from yellow and working my way to violet, as if it were a range of colours in the rainbow. At this point I was just getting the feel for different shapes, squiggles and lines. The appearance is similar to that of acrylic ink except the Hydrus is watercolor and hence not feasible for layer painting as the colours will smear. Nevertheless I liked it the way it all looked, but maybe more could be added. Once completely dry, I began playing around with my India inks
Iridescent India Inks
The India inks by Dr Ph Martin’s, otherwise known as Bombay Ink, come in three sets of package of ten. For this painting, the Iridescent set was chosen to add some sparkles. I tried out all the shades with the exception of the Black one (not pictured anyway). They are gorgeous! One needs to give them a good shake before using them. As I do with nail varnish bottles, I turn the tightly-closed bottle upside down and roll them between my hands to minimise bubbling.
Like the Hydrus watercolors, I doodled with the inks straight out of the dropper tip, being careful not to squeeze out too much ink. I was afraid that the watercolors below would move so used a soft touch and avoided using a wet brush. If I wanted to spread the ink, I lightly did so either with a satay stick to my ring finger. I also made sure that the ink was dry before using another colour next to it or on top of it so the colours don’t contaminate each other. After a few tries and layers, I decided I was done! Maybe I might go back to it but as of now I’m happy with it.
It’s just a messy doodle this time with no real purpose but being colourful. However, I guess it does express my state of mind at the time. A tad of frustration that we are restricted to where we go out like not being able to walk in the park or wilderness to enjoy the flowers and pretty things. And hoping that this crisis will go away soon and we can go back to normalcy. That said, I do enjoy staying in and developing my creativity with painting and blogging so can’t complain!
My Kawaii Quarter 