Category Archives: Mystery Technique

Mystery Technique

Mystery Technique #133

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ANSWER TO MYSTERY TECHNIQUE #132:

First I created irregular branching shapes by applying diluted acrylic gloss medium with a pipette. I let these dry before painting the paper with a watercolor mixture, which only partially adhered to the acrylic. After this layer dried, I used a brush to spatter the surface with diluted acrylic gloss medium and white acrylic ink and also added a few lines with a white Posca pen. Once the spatters dried, I rewet the painting and blotted with paper towels to partially lift off the watercolor paint; this left soft halos around some of the spatters.

I then let the painting dry before adding more white Posca pen lines and finishing with a wet-in-wet mixture of French Ultramarine and Permanent Rose.

Mystery Technique

Mystery Technique #132

Curious about the techniques used here? You can learn more next month if you’ve signed up for email updates!

ANSWER TO MYSTERY TECHNIQUE #131:

I started by wetting the paper and adding pale blue for the sky. While it was still wet, I wadded up a paper towel and lifted some irregular patches out of the blue before adding yellow. After this layer dried, I drew the split tree trunk, then painted several layers of foliage.

Next I added the trunk. To create the bark texture, I scratched the paper with the end of a metal paint tube to make dark lines in the wet paint and then quickly added kosher salt, which absorbed some of the color. After this layer dried, I brushed off the salt.

Mystery Technique

Mystery Technique #131

Curious about the techniques used here? You can learn more next month if you’ve signed up for email updates!

ANSWER TO MYSTERY TECHNIQUE #130:

Fun with Yupo continues! I wet the paper first, then added diluted acrylic ink. Next I dropped in isopropyl alcohol, which repelled the wet paint to create all sorts of mysterious effects. As the water evaporated, concentric dark edges formed around some of the shapes.