Tag Archives: glazing

Mystery Technique

Mystery Technique #135

February 20, 2024 – 7:35 pm

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ANSWER TO MYSTERY TECHNIQUE #134:

Intriguing effects happen when you let gravity assist the painting process! First I lightly primed raw unstretched canvas with diluted gesso. After this dried, I tacked the canvas to the wall and used paper cups to pour a series of acrylic glazes; each layer had to dry before another could be added. To vary the shapes, I pinched the cup’s rim to make a spout and changed the direction and angle of the canvas for each pour. I created the ghostly white shapes by letting the paint start to dry around the edges and then pouring clear water to wash most of it away.

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Mystery Technique

Mystery Technique #127

June 20, 2023 – 6:50 pm

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

ANSWER TO MYSTERY TECHNIQUE #126:

This technique uses ice cream salt and requires a little patience! First I used a template to draw a circle before painting it with intense yellow watercolor paint. After the yellow dried, I glazed the circle with a layer of blue-green and placed some big crystals of ice cream salt into the wet paint. As the salt and the watery green slowly interacted, some of the yellow underpainting began to reappear. Interesting textures gradually developed around and underneath each crystal.

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Mystery Technique

Mystery Technique #126

May 20, 2023 – 9:39 pm

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

ANSWER TO MYSTERY TECHNIQUE #125, PART 2:

Watercolor pencils are a big part of this technique! Intriguing edges can form as watery paint slowly evaporates:

Here’s another part of the same painting where less is happening, and some enhancement is needed:

Because watercolor pencils can make so many different kinds of marks, they can effectively mimic what happens during evaporation. It’s fun to experiment with working on both wet and dry paper, dipping the pencil tip in water, and drawing with the side of the tip. See if you can spot the differences in this final version, which also includes the background and another layer of paint for increased depth:

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