Hey friends, it’s Sarah from @essjay_florals and I thought it was time to share something really exciting with you all, something that I can’t believe I wasn’t aware of until recently. Many of you may have known you can paint with your Calliographs (if you aren’t, check out over here how to do so). And we all know Acrylographs are super versatile and can be used on many different surfaces (If you don’t, check the list of surfaces I’ve tested them on over here ). But did you know you can use Acrylographs as watercolour? Whaaaaaaat. I know, mind blown! Just when you thought Acrylographs couldn’t get any better! So today I thought I ought to create a tutorial for you all and the fun thing is you can use these steps with all of your Acrylographs to paint anything you like. Here are the materials you’ll need to paint using the various methods:
- Jewel Acrylographs
- Moss Green
- Olive
- Indigo
- Dusty Rose
- Maroon
- A&O A5 notepad
- Pencil
- Paintbrushes – I am using Round brushes in sizes 8 & 2
- Palette
- Glass of water
- Fineliners – I am using Sakura of America Pigma Micron Sizes 05 & 01
The Art Playroom : Make a home art space for kids; Spark exploration, independence, and joyful learning with invitations to create
With an inviting, open setup of art supplies, kids can easily access tools and materials to work through ideas, tinker, discover, solve problems, learn techniques, and create anything they can imagine. Your art space becomes a creative workshop that allows children the opportunity to explore open-ended materials with a sense of independence, confidence, and responsibility.
In The Art Playroom, author Megan Schiller—a Reggio-inspired preschool teacher, art studio owner, and interior designer—guides you step by step through the process of creating an art space for your children and shares her simple approach to encourage creative exploration for years to come.
This book is for parents and caregivers of children ages 2–10, with tips on how to create an art space that works well for a variety of ages. The Invitations to Create offer over 55 ideas for setting up art prompts—categorized by skills and ages—that will spark a creative session with simple materials and minimal setup.
Hesitant about the potential mess? Megan provides a unique solution by combining her background in art education and interior design to help you set up a productive art space for your kids that is also organized, easy to clean up, and looks great!
- How to set up an art studio for kids, step by step
- How to customize your art space for specific ages, including toddlers, preschool-age kids, and tinkering- and making-focused older kids
- How to introduce the materials to your child
- How to keep your art space organized
- How to keep your children engaged with open-ended art prompts
- Mastering tools such as scissors, stapler, hole puncher, and hammer
- Fine motor and focus with beading, sewing, and droppers
- Self-sufficiency with squeezing, pouring, and scrubbing practice
- Writing with greeting cards, book-making, and comic strips
- Collaboration with siblings and friends through shared projects
- Science and investigation with chemistry and nature projects
- Making toys and accessories such as clay creatures, dolls, and puzzles
How To Use Acrylic Paint Pens As Watercolor
Hey friends, it’s Sarah from @essjay_florals and I thought it was time to share something really exciting with you all, something that I can’t believe I wasn’t aware of until recently. Many of you may have known you can paint with your Calliographs (if you aren’t, check out over here how to do so). And we all know Acrylographs are super versatile and can be used on many different surfaces (If you don’t, check the list of surfaces I’ve tested them on over here ). But did you know you can use Acrylographs as watercolour? Whaaaaaaat. I know, mind blown! Just when you thought Acrylographs couldn’t get any better! So today I thought I ought to create a tutorial for you all and the fun thing is you can use these steps with all of your Acrylographs to paint anything you like. Here are the materials you’ll need to paint using the various methods:
- Jewel Acrylographs
- Moss Green
- Olive
- Indigo
- Dusty Rose
- Maroon
- A&O A5 notepad
- Pencil
- Paintbrushes – I am using Round brushes in sizes 8 & 2
- Palette
- Glass of water
- Fineliners – I am using Sakura of America Pigma Micron Sizes 05 & 01
Remember you can use my affiliate code SARAH10 to get a discount on your Acrylographs, Notebooks or any other Archer and Olive products!
1. Pencil in your design
First pencil your design in, you can use the printable I’ve included or draw up something yourself.
2. Get your palette prepped
Pump/draw onto your palette with your Acrylograph, it may take a few pumps to get the paint flowing out, you don’t need a lot, just a small dab about a pea size. I straight away add a drop of water into the paint and give it a little mix (I do this as the paint dries quite quickly and you want to get water in before it starts to dry or you will end up with little dried bits of paint that can’t be reactivated). I then add some more water and begin mixing the paints together as you would watercolour.
3. Begin Painting
Now for the fun part, start painting! The paint can be treated very similar to watercolour, except of course be sure to keep it wet as once it starts to dry it cannot be reactivated. If you watch the tutorial, you can see I go back in and add layers to some leaves and whilst some of the leaves are wet I drop in more pigment which works in a very similar way to watercolour. Even with using quite a bit of water and layering the paper didn’t bleed!
4. Add Outlines
Once the paint is dry it’s time to outline. Use the 05 micron to outline the leafy branch and flowers. Then go back in with the 01 micron to add details to the leaves and flowers, I kept it super simple but feel free to add as much detail as you like.
- Be aware of how much water you use, particularly in a regular notebook, as too much water will cause bleeding (make sure to test how much water your paper can take before bleeding). I was able to use a fair amount of water here, but there is a limit.
- As I mentioned before make sure you keep the paint wet on your palette as once it dries it can’t be reactivated.
- If you want to outline your painting make sure the paint is completely dry as outlining when wet can cause bleeding.
- By now I’m sure you know that the important thing to do with any of these tutorials is to make sure you have a play and test. Test the amount of water, colour, paper etc that you need for it to work with the best success for you.
Paint along with me here!
If you’d like to use the design I created for this tutorial, download the free printable over here.
I’d love to see your recreations or take on this tutorial, and don’t forget to tag myself at @essjay_florals & @archerandolive if you’d like to share.
- Acrylograph Pens
- Essjay Florals
My Thoughts on Gel Pens and Acrylic Paint
Can gel pens and acrylic paint be used for adding highlights and accents to colored pencil artwork? Is there ever a right time to use them?
Carrie L. Lewis Reader Questions January 6, 2021 June 25, 2022
Today’s post question comes from a reader who wants to know how to get bright highlights in eyes. The reader also mentions using gel pens to create highlights, so I’ll answer the question with two posts. Today, I’ll share my thoughts on gel pens and acrylic paint.
Next week, I’ll show you how to get bright highlights in eyes using archival materials.
But first, here’s the question.
How do you get that realistic look of a shiny glaze in eyes, besides just having a white dot from a jelly roll pen? Please, I’m lost on making this seem real, Thanks.
Thank you for the question!
My Thoughts on Gel Pens and Acrylic Paint
A lot of artists use gel pens, acrylic paint, and other similar tools to add bright highlights to their colored pencil drawings. Many of those artists are artists whose work and talent I respect. They get excellent results, in most cases.
Acrylic paints are another medium I’m often asked about for adding highlights to colored pencil drawings.
Acrylics seemed to make sense when I tried them decades ago. I was a painter, after all, so using a brush and paint came naturally. What better way to add highlights and accents than by brushing them on with acrylic paint?
But unless you’re drawing for your own pleasure, it’s wise to avoid gel pens, acrylic paint, and any similar substances. They look good when you first use them, but they won’t stick well to the colored pencils. Sooner or later, they will flake off.
Why That Doesn’t Work
No matter what brand of colored pencils you use, the pigment is held together in lead form by binders. The binder is made up of a mixture of wax, oil, clay and fillers.
Gel pens and acrylics are water-based.
You can safely use water-based mediums under oil- or wax-based mediums. Artists have been using acrylics under oils for decades.
Many colored pencil artists use watercolors, watercolor pencils, India ink and even acrylics under colored pencils. In most cases, you can use colored pencil over any water-based medium as long as you use the wet medium as intended, and let the paper dry thoroughly.
But using a water-based medium of any kind over a wax- or oil-based medium of any kind often leads to problems down the road.
That’s because water and oil (or wax) do not mix.
If it helps, try a little experiment. Fill a glass with water, then pour a little vegetable oil into it. You’ll get something that looks like this.
Leave the glass sit for a moment or two and the oil rises to the surface. Once all the oil is on the surface, it’s fairly easy to skim the oil off the water.’s surface If you’re careful, you might even be able to pour most of the water out of the glass and leave most of the oil behind.
The same is true for dry mediums. It takes longer for the separation to happen, but it will happen. Since the pencils are dry and the gel pen or acrylic dries after application, the two will eventually separate cleanly. The gel pen or acrylic flakes off and your drawing is without those lovely highlights.
Is There Ever a time to Use Gel Pens or Acrylic Paints?
If you’re doing artwork in which permanence isn’t important, then you can use whatever tool or material gives you the result you want.
Greeting cards are an excellent example. A lot of people make their own greeting cards with stamping, colored pencils, markers, stickers, and other things. Greeting cards aren’t meant to last for decades, and they’re not usually framed or displayed. So it doesn’t matter if they’re absolutely archival.
Any type of craft use involving colored pencils is also suitable for using gel pens and acrylic paints to create highlights are accents. And, of course, adult coloring books are good places for gel pens.
And as I mentioned at the beginning, if you’re making art for your own pleasure, then by all means make use of those gel pens.
So if you shouldn’t use gel pens, how do you make bright, realistic highlights in eyes? I’ll answer that question next week.
