Citra-Solv Paintings

Into the World of Metals

After completing the sewing challenge, I decided I needed a serious break! Now I have an urge to get out my paints and do a little painting. Honestly, its been a very long time since my art table has seen any paint. Its about time I change that!  For these paintings I've decided to use the photos from my cabin experience from the previous post, "Cabin Fever."

Several weeks ago I created some wonderful pages using a National Geographic magazine and Citra-Solv which is a natural cleaner you can find at any health food stores like Whole Foods.  The Citra-Solv dissolves the ink on each page to create a marbleized effect. If you want to see how this works, head on over to my fellow blogger and artist, Jenny Ann Artist, (www.jennyannartist.blogspot.com) who has just posted a great tutorial on this very subject.



I have a whole magazine full of marbleized paper, so going through them was sort of a challenge to figure out which one would work best with each photograph.  I finally picked three to go with the photographs that I wanted to paint. Since this paper was glossy, the best medium to use was acrylic ink. This stuff is amazing! It can be used like watercolor and can be layered with light washes. When used like watercolor, the inks can be watered down to become transparent.  This transparency allows for the texture of the paper to bleed through. So here we go!

The start of a pencil and ink drawing on marbleized paper.

This is a new medium for me, so I'm continuously trying to find what works.  The first thing I like to do is get my drawing down on paper.  I've learned that pencil is very hard to see on this paper, so I'm trying to become brave by drawing with pens. They are slightly erasable, so if a mistake is made it can be erased. If I have to erase, I rub lightly with a kneaded eraser. This eraser works best because it won't rub the paper and ink off when erased lightly. Now to paint!

 

 



Dark values added.

 



Medium and Light values added.
 



Highlights, and rust color added to the metal.
 

When adding in the ink, working in light layers worked the best to get the transparency I wanted. With this painting I first added in the deep shadows because there were a lot.  When painting the object, I painted in the dark values very lightly by watering them down and layering them.  This keeps the shadows from getting too dark to quickly. The medium values were painted once the shadows were achieved. The light values and extreme highlights were painted last. I had forgotten when I started these paintings that trying to create metals on a flat surface is difficult.  All three paintings have metals, so I'm really in for a treat.



I hope that you try this new medium that I have been experimenting with.  When creating these pages no two are alike. You will be amazed by what is created when Citra-Solv and National Geographics collide.  Happy Painting!