Never Give Me a Marker and a Blank Surface

All of my notes from high school and college, as well as book margins, folders, notes to the teacher, etc. all got doodled on. Anytime I had a blank surface and a pen and some time to kill meant there'd be drawings and words and notes and swirls and eyes and whatever else I had on my mind. Sooo, when I got my brand-new Artistro Acrylic Markers about the same time I got a new, plain black glasses case, well...I got busy.

True, I did plan this one a little more than I usually do if I'm drawing on scrap paper, but aside from the quote, it all came together rather haphazardly.

I used the light green marker at first for the drawing and lettering, but switched Elphaba's outline to dark green. I had to use the black marker to cover up my mistakes, since I didn't plan ahead. And I added the poppies after a million tries to get some kind of wing or monkey in the corner. I added the sparks to "don't" just because I left too much space around the word. But after all that, I'm happy with how it turned out. I used the same markers on my phone case.

The color isn't great because I had my hubby take the pic and text it and then I screen shot it and emailed it to myself. It was a whole thing. Could've just taken my phone out of the case and then taken my own picture, but that's a hassle—lolol. At any rate, to create this, I dripped some alcohol ink on the cover, then colored my doodle with the markers. I added way too many dots, but that's okay. The quote is one of my favorite Doctor Who lines but it works here too. And cupcakes are definitely another fave of mine.

I'm adding Mod Podge waterproof to both projects because I handle them so much, but if it were on a storage container for craft bling or something, I probably wouldn't bother with it. The paint is pretty sturdy on textured surfaces.

As for my doodling while on the phone or watching tv, trust me when I say it's out of control and if it's something you want to keep, do not put your paper near me when I'm holding a marker. Just ask my kids or hubby!

Happy Friday!

Chark

Paint the Town Red...or Pink

I got the chance to try out the brand-new Artistro Acrylic Paint 24 set and I thought I'd let you know how it went. I have to start by saying I use acrylics only occasionally, in my art journal. And I took some Life Book classes and learned to use them a little more there. I am in no way an expert but I love all the art media, so I gave these a try.

The colors in this set are vibrant and rich, with a range of colors including gold and silver and large tubes of both black and white. The set also comes with three brushes and a palette. The paint has a nice smooth body, not too thin. I used water to thin some out and the color stayed bright, though it became more transparent. 

I drew some simple flowers with a sharpie on 80 lb. paper and used just a pink, yellow, blue-green and white to paint both doodles.

You can see that the paint does cover the black lines some and if I'd wanted to, I could've gone back in with the sharpie to darken them back up, but I was okay with how it turned out.

In this doodle, I watered down the orange I made, the pink and the green. The lines show up better when the paint is thinned out like this. But the paint still has enough body to show the paint strokes. I think if I had been working on gesso, the brush strokes wouldn't have been as pronounced.

The price point for these 24 paints, the three brushes and the palette run $32.99 on Amazon. It's a good price for the amount of paint, the vibrancy of color and the quality of the brushes (no stray bristles in my work). I'd purchase these for myself or a crafter. I love that you get larger tubes of white and black as well. I know I'll be using these paints more in the future. 

Hope you have time to play around with a new medium this weekend!

Happy Friday,

Chark