#164 – MAKING A SPLASH

I had to walk away from yesterdays painting.  I am going to try to finish it Monday after taking a break from it.

On to today!

I have to say THANK YOU! THANK YOU! THANK YOU! To Andrea at South County Art Supply.

I have been complaining about my acrylic paints for months, mostly because of the mess I keep making!  My tubes are so junked up with excess paint, that the caps will no longer fit and the tops are all dried and caked causing me to waste way too much time on getting the paint out than painting.

First, South County Art supply special ordered me flip-top caps for the higher-end Golden Acrylic Paints. This has worked nicely, but I don’t know, there is something about acrylics that isn’t hitting the mark for me personally.  I don’t find it instantaneous enough to have to continuously mix paints.  Acrylics you mix and blend, watercolors you layer and they bleed into one another -instantly (meaning quick for my spastic personality!) I think I am more prone to use watercolors for their bright translucency  and bleeding capabilities. However, sometimes I am frustrated with the fact that watercolors will run and bleed when you don’t want them to.  Like when I accidentally spill water or hit them with my sleeve.  Again, I can be a  little spastic, I just can’t help it!

OK. Back To South County Art Supply….

I popped in there the other day to buy supplies and Andrea surprised me with this little kit.

“Splash Ink?  What’s that?” I asked.

She said she didn’t know too much about it, it is fairly new and her sales rep highly recommended it.  She told me to take it home, try it, and get back to her as to whether or not the product is any good.

Andrea, here is my answer:  YES!!!

I absolutely love it!!!

Check out the quick description on their website:  http://www.yasutomo.com

This is acrylic paint in clean no-mess bottles and it is very highly concentrated so you do not need to use much of them.  You only need 4 bottles!  Do you understand how mess-free that can be??? What I LOVE about these Splash Inks, is you can quickly let a color dry and then go over it with another color.  The color changes, but it does not move or re-activate the paint like watercolor sometimes does.  You can create fixed, calculated colors. You can also allow the colors to bleed like watercolors if you choose to by simply keeping them wet when applying them.  Acrylics don’t usually bleed and pool, but these liquidy paints do. They also come with this color chart, which I thought would be lame, but it is not.  Because the ink comes out of the bottle like an eye-dropper, You can be quite scientific and exact in color making.  1 blue + 40 yellow drops makes the prettiest green I’ve ever seen!

Also, the acrylic ink colors are similar to printing press colors.  Magenta, cyan, yellow and black.  Using these colors always produces crisp bright non-muddy colors, which if you couldn’t tell, I’m obsessed with!

I absolutely adore this product and look forward to using it.  It’s the best of watercolor and the best of acrylic, all in an itty-bitty package.

THANK YOU to Karen Thomas, the artist that invented these! Brilliant! kudos!

The packaging looks a little cheesy, like it is going to be some lame craft product or some infomercial product for 3 easy installments of $3.99, but it is not.  IT IS ALL ART.  I swear!

Today’s floral measures 16×16 on watercolor paper and I think it’s loose style and bright color was in response to yesterday’s painting, which to me, was a little too serious and mono-tone.  As I paint every day, I am starting to sense what makes my heart sing and what kind of goes…blah..for me.

IT’S GOT TO BE COLORFUL ALL THE WAY!!!

I have a little more time left today, so I am going to go back to playing with these paints some more.

I’m telling you, every time I go to South County Art Supply, it is like Christmas for this little budding artist! I feel really lucky to be on this journey!

http://www.becreativemary.com

Like me on Facebook:  Be Creative Mary