Inspiration - Effects on watercolor Salt and alcohol - Week #32 Artful Journeys

Oooo! I love it when I get to to do a 2 for 1! and this week I got to!

Those of you that follow my art page on Facebook (Shana Conroy) may have noticed that I have been doing quite a few cancer ribbons with wings lately, these have all been commissioned by my Aunties, like most of you reading this our family has had to deal with the scary reality of cancer and with the 3 Aunties we have had 3 different types, they want to have purses and bags made with awareness ribbons so I obliged! I made the custom art for them and uploaded it into my Society6 Store and into my Zazzle Store

The latest one I did I was also able to use the Artful Journeys prompt for this week, it is a red and white ribbon with dragonfly wings for basal and squamous cell carcinoma awareness for my Auntie Kathy.

The prompt for this week is to use salt and/or alcohol with watercolors, because I knew I would be using watercolors for this piece I was excited to use these effects, and because I wanted to try something new I used the effect on Yupo.

Yupo is a synthetic 100% recyclable paper that is tree free it is made from polypropylene pellets, the paper is non-absorbent so the effects with water color or even acrylic inks is awesome!

To get the background effect I painted my subject with a heavy hand in red then used a paper towel to pick up the excess around my image, I then used alcohol ink to paint the dark red areas and the effect on the watercolor was a cool marbling of color, to make it more so I added alcohol to it as well!

I then went over it again with the watercolor with a heavy hand and applied table salt while it was still wet and let it dry fully before removing the salt with a large soft bristle brush. using a soft brush to remove is important on Yupo, because the paint sits on the surface of the paper and is not absorbed it can be easily scratched.

this is how the piece looked after my 1st color and the addition of some white

I sent the above picture to my Auntie and we both agreed that even though it looked cool with the splatter and the salt effects it did kind of look like blood! So with her input we decided to add purple into the background to signify the awareness of all cancers and some black for contrast.

I applied the purple with a lot of water around the dragonfly then added drops of alcohol and red alcohol ink to it, I kept adding the purple then salting and adding alcohol until it no longer looked like a crime scene, I then added the black around the page using both watercolors and india ink, I used the alcohol in the black to give a neat effect then used a paper towel to pick up anything that looked to dark.

I finished the dragonfly wings and the ribbon with black, white and red India ink and a dip pen with a fine point nib.

Here are some close ups of the finished piece and the awesome effects that alcohol and table salt can make in a project.

I love how the finished piece came out and love that is was made for someone I love!

If you would like to see some of the products available with these images just click them and you will be brought to my Society6 store

Finished Red and white Ribbon for basal and squamous cell carcinoma awareness for my Auntie Kathy

Periwinkle Ribbon for Esophageal Cancer for my Auntie Deb created using prismacolor pencils

Black Ribbon for Melanoma Cancer for my Auntie Gwen created using prismacolor pencils

Purple Ribbon for all CancersCreated using acrylic inks on Yupo

I hope you enjoyed my process! big hugs and mushy stuff! XOXOXO

Go on over to Artful Journeys of Facebook to show us how you used this prompt and to see what the others in the team did go over to the Artful Chicks!