Finnabair’s Art Alchemy line has grown to include three distinct types of paint; Metallique, Opal Magic, and the newest, Sparks. With the addition of Sparks a comparison seemed a good idea, especially since the Opal Magic colors, with their interference properties, can be a bit of a mystery.
My loose color drawdowns really highlight that interference effect of the Opal Magic colors and will hopefully allow you all to use them more effectively. Metallique is a marvelous paint that produces, as the name suggests, a lovely metallic finish. Sparks is another animal altogether, producing a glimmer look unlike either of the others.
I demo and tested each of the styles on a Gel Press Plate since they’re a tool I reach for quite often and as you’ll see, they create awesome prints. While I didn’t have access to the Carabelle Art Printing Textures when I filmed today’s video, they another easy and very effective way manipulate the paint before pulling a print. And, as you saw in last week’s video (click here to see it), most of the Printing Textures can also be used like a rubber stamp, furthering their usefulness. I like tools that allow me to work with them in different ways.
Another option I exlore is putting the Art Alchemy Paints through stencils, using a Mini Ink Blending Tool to lightly apply the colors. My surface of choice for today are our Itty Bitty Accordion Books. The colors work beautifully on that Strathmore 140# cold press watercolor paper we make the Accordion Books from and the Bristol paper used in the Artist Tiles. I’ve been admiring the Itty Bitty Accordion books I created in the process of filming today’s video. While I haven’t quite decided what to do with them, they’re pretty eye candy till I do!
Supplies For This Video:
Strathmore Artist Tiles – white and black, plus different styles of paper
Joggles 9″ x 12″ Stencils – I used Bubble Blast, Curvaceous, and Cyclone
Joggles Itty Bitty Accordion Books
Inkssentials Mini Ink Blending Tool & Foam Refill
4 Comments
Hi Barb,
I have used Art Alchemy paints on some collages and love the affect and I learned a trick from a class to get stencils clean was to use Murphy’s Oil Soap on them and it worked great, however I wasn’t able to get all the Art Alchemy paint out of the brushes. Is there another product that might do a better job of getting the paint out of brushes? I love your vidoos, thanks for sharing your talent with all of us!!
You can try 91% Isopropyl alcohol. I’ve used it to lift dried paint off a brayer and imagine it would also work on a brush.
I know I’m not alone in this but man oh man do I love those Rose gold shades. 🙂 That interference violet on black was spectacular. Love these.
Barb, looks like I will be adding more beautiful paints to my wishlist….