Wanderlust 2022 - weeks twenty-two to twenty-eight - Craft Acrylics

I have thoroughly enjoyed learning about Craft Acrylics.  These are found in many different brands, usually in little flip top bottles, are cheaper than artist acrylics and have names such as rose, ruby, teal.  Week 22 was not my favourite.  Paint abstract flowers from the garden or a bouquet - it seemed simple enough but I had three goes and the one above was the best.  Not my forte.

Week 23 was so much fun - we worked on a big scale (the image above is an English A2 - poster size) and I laid it on the floor in the kitchen to paint.  It was about being free, using big brushes and enjoying what we were doing.  Funnily enough, despite the disaster of the previous week, I chose flowers as my theme! However, this time they were imagined flowers.

We could cut the image up to add a section to our art journals, so I did that.  I may well try another bigger painting as I really loved creating it. 

Week 24 was about using the craft acrylic to pour onto the page and create a galaxy kind of background with magazine images added.  

Week 25 was my absolute favourite.  Bright, bold, happy and colourful. We created collage papers using lots of different types of paper including tissue paper, tracing paper, book pages and packaging paper.  I used some of my own stamps on top as well as some stencilling and adding glitter mixed with gel medium.  I then built up a frame of collage pieces around the image of the lady.  It has a definite exotic look - possibly Indian. 

I enjoyed it so much I made another version in my cardboard journal.  I really like this one too!

Week 26 was about painting whimsical faces which sort of represented us.  This page took a long time to make as I had to let the layers dry in between.  I like the end result and the busy background.

Week 27 was just fun. Lots of layers again, using watered down craft acrylic paints so that they behaved a bit like watercolours.  Adding coloured pencils and oil pastels and finishing with lots of doodling made this a really lovely page to create.  I like the contrast between the black background and the white - the same colours were used on each side but they look quite different. 

Finally, a page inspired by Andy Warhol.  The background was craft acrylics applied with a sponge and masking off areas to try to get some sharp lines.  The images are flowers and leaves out of the garden, dipped into black paint and printed onto the gel plate, then a print taken of that.  I used salvia leaves, an osteospermum flower, hardy geranium leaves and a fern frond.

A hugely enjoyable few weeks.  I have added to my stash of craft acrylics by a few bottles, but I think I will be revisiting some of these techniques.  On to Watercolours next...