Many of you know that Margaret Applin and I are great friends who have collaborated on many projects and have shared trade show and travel adventures. Whenever we can, we squeeze in a weekend of play time or planning, or both.
The last time she was here and we had a studio day we worked on a bunch of ideas, some of which you will be seeing before too long, and others that are more long range. One of the best things that came from our creative time was her showing me the technique she developed for using watercolor paints with stencils. Any initial skepticism I may have had was overcome weeks before when she’d sent photos of some of her work. It was clear that the process not only worked, it produced beautiful results.
At first blush the combination certainly seems unworkable; how would anyone use a medium like watercolors with stencils? The key is a big flat brush and discipline. Both will make sense once you have a chance to view the video, but in terms of discipline, you simply need to resist the urge to go over the same area of the stencil more than once. Having made a mess of the first few I tried, I can say from experience that discipline will make all of the difference!
Once I pulled out all of the supplies and began to play my brain began wondering “what if”, as in what if I used watercolors with a Gel Press Plate? Again, not a combination that seems workable, but as you’ll see in the video, if you throw away preconceived ideas about what the results need to look like, I think you’ll find them pretty interesting.
I really like the Zig Gansai Tambi Watercolors and brought in all four sets: 12, 18, 24, and 36 colors. I hope that you enjoy working with as much as I do.
Supplies For This Video:
Zig Gansai Tambi Watercolor Sets
Loew-Cornell All Purpose Brush Set
All the Stencils we stock can be seen by clicking here
Strathmore Artist Tiles. I used the Bristol 6″ x 6″ and the Watercolor 6″ x 6″
PITT Pens. I used the XS-Extra Super Fine tip style in black.
12 Comments
Such great inspiration in this! I want to try it first with sketching outlines of the stencil, move the stencil and then do thw watercolor technique. That way there is a black and white background showing. So many ideas are stirring. Thanks so much to you and Margaret.
Fabulous Video, Barb! So many wonderful prints using the Watercolors!
This technique is fabulous but as our minds get meandering around I thought how cool it would be to cut out one of your funny little creature stamps, Ernie etc, and insert it after the second printing, remove him then print again . There are lots of possibilities. Thanks Barb for sharing your fun ideas!
Love this technique Barb. Beautiful results.
Thanks very much! It’s simple and produces wonderful results.
Wonderful inspiration! I need to make playtime for this very soon. Thanks Barb and Margaret.
Great idea – thanks for sharing. Love it. PS I’ve always admired your ability to make watercolor backgrounds with FW Pearlescent’s
Can you do this technique on paper that has gesso ?
I don’t think you’ll get the same results since the gesso will prevent the watercolors from absorbing into the paper. The only way to know… give it a try!
Barb this was great video ! I always forget to leave a comment but watch them all ! I love the prints I see with muted colors and either sketchy pen or pencil abstract flowers . This technique would be perfect for that ! Thanks so much for another excellent tutorial!
Thanks Sandy! I hope you have fun with the techniques. :+)
Very cool Barb, I have had the large set of these watercolors for some time now and really love the intense color they produce. Now you have opened another door to their use and I am loving it. I don’t have the gel plate as of yet but have been trying it on some cling wrap and my non stick craft sheet with some interesting outcome. Thanks again for yet another awesome video.