. . . one more trick, that is: Isopropyl Alcohol Magic. I first learned of this one from Wisconsin fine artist, Karlyn Holman. Simply dip a paint brush or Q-Tip in alcohol, and spatter droplets onto your wet paint. The “magic” works especially well on YUPO paper, because of it’s glassy surface where the paint sits without soaking in. The droplets scatter the paint particles and cause whitish rings, often with a colored dot in the center—or fan out into interesting patterns resembling bacteria under a microscope. You can see a microscope effect above, in “Under the Deep”.
Then, just this week I did still another “Underwater” (below) and discovered a variation of the alcohol trick. Wanting to move the microbes around a bit, I sprayed water on them while they were still wet—shattering the rings and sending them scurrying, while creating a marbleized look. Not knowing when to quit, I went even further. In some areas I applied alcohol before the paint, causing a kind of resist which also sent color particles scurrying. As the paint dispersed, sedimentary colors deposited speckles simulating texture.
I was delighted with this seemingly inadvertent happening and the additional ideas to share with children and adults who occasionally join me for a day of painting at our dining room table. Then I recalled something fine artist Jean Haines says in one of her DVDs—that there will always be more to discover about watercolor. According to Jean, when we experiment we may stumble on something new—at least to us. Admittedly, when I heard Jean Haines say that, I figured I’d probably not be one of those pioneers. But now, here is a discovery indeed—a mutation of Isopropyl Alcohol Magic.
If life were to get any more exciting, I don’t believe I’d be able to handle it! 🙂
Margaret L. Been . . . January, 2014
NOTE: In “Under the Deep”, alcohol formed the dots, blurs, and blobs. But the sea-creature type points, prongs, and “flowers” were formulated with my paint brush.
Wow! The use of color, the patterns you can make is truly from above! Enjoy, I sure am! Sent from my iPad
Hi, Sue! I have a great idea. Why don’t you come over for an art day sometime soon?!!! So much fun, and you’ll be amazed at what you do!
In His love,
Margaret
Hi Margaret … made it over to your art blog:-) I appreciate your enthusiasm to learn and experiment. I “love” colour and the Isopropyl Alcohol Magic looks wonderful. I checked out Karin Huehold’s website. You mentioned her being a Canadian. We have much family living in Alberta, especially in the areas where she claims to do many workshops … Calgary, Canmore, Red Deer, Edmonton … I have not seriously experimented with artwork. I’ve been tempted but was so distracted with reading, sewing, knitting, etc …oh, and gardening. I have a very small garden but our small patch of raspberries produces buckets and where we live, Flin Flon which is centrally located on the Manitoba/Saskatchewan border is known as being wonderful blueberry country. I pick as much a possible as they freeze well and because we have the odd year of drought and alas no blueberries;-( Now that our daughters are gone we don’t pick quite as much but I still manage to pick enough to share when we travel to visit with them.
Hey, this is the art blog … we’ll talk about food later! Back to art.
The Lord shows HIS sovereignty and that HE alone is the creator of all our talents. The three daughters did very well with art (and music) … it certainly did not come from me! I encouraged them but this definitely was the Lord’s work. We eventually bought artist pencil crayons as two of them were able to create some very nice work. Our middle daughter was better at caricature.
All in all, our years of home education showed me that I could not take the credit for our children’s gifts. We can encourage and pray that they would use the talents that the Lord has made available. It’s a good lesson for all of us. How often do we take for granted the many capabilities HE alone has given us? Are we glorifying HIM by using these talents to bless others?
You live in a GORGEOUS place! And amen, it’s all HIM! We are made in His image, what a praise is that!!1