VIDEO ART TUTORIAL | Gold Foil Leaf & Watercolor

Hiya Oddballs!!!!

I'm back again with another "Technique A Week" Video Art Tutorial!

This week I experimented with Gold Foil Leaf and it was soooooo much fun!

Since this was my first ever attempt with Gold Foil Leaf there was a bit of a learning curve but overall I was extremely pleased with the results, and the good news for you is.....

I made the mistakes .....so YOU don't have to! 

Check out my new video see how I did it and then continue reading down below for my TIPS on how to get the best results using Gold Foil Leaf & Watercolor!

My best tips for applying Gold Foil Leaf to your watercolor painting are:

• Be sure to use an old crappy brush to apply the adhesive and wash the brush out immediately after using it with warm soapy water, this way you can continue to use the same old crappy brush for this adhesive in the future. [DO NOT LET THE ADHESIVE DRY ON YOUR BRUSH!]
• Find the softest cleanest good quality brush to apply the gold foil leaf - the gold foil leaf is so soft and it doesn't take much to tear it away from the glued areas.  You also don't want bristles to fall out and stick to the glue, a good quality brush can solve this.
• Use bigger pieces of the gold foil leaf then necessary to obtain a smooth gold finish, the over hang will tear away easily.  Smaller pieces of the gold foil leaf to fill an area will give you a textured gold look.
• The jar says to wait half an hour before applying the gold foil leaf however I found it only necessary to wait 15 mins as any longer and the adhesive was too dry and no longer tacky. You want the adhesive to be tacky but not wet, and not dry either. If its too wet still you will have problems, the gold foil leaf will not go on nice, not sticking where its suppose to and "gumming up". If you run into this problem its likely you didn't wait long enough, so just wait a little longer. If the adhesive is too dry the gold foil leaf wont stick at all and it will not feel tacky to the touch, if you run into this problem simply brush on more adhesive and wait 15 mins. for it to become tacky.
• Paint or Outline in paint the areas you want to gold foil...... If you wanted to go back and add some gold foil leaf to a watercolor painting that you already finished some time ago that would work great. You can apply the adhesive right over top of dry watercolor paint or ink. It may or may not change the color of the adhesive but its ok if it does, the gold foil leaf will cover it up anyhow.
• Apply a thin even layer of adhesive, DO NOT leave puddles of adhesive anywhere! Apply it liberally in the areas you want the gold foil leaf to be. 
• Finally this is probably my most important tip.....you saw that I used a very tiny brush to apply the adhesive as I wanted to be as accurate as possible with that adhesive....... as the detail that you are able to achieve with the gold foil leaf is directly related to your accuracy of detail when applying the adhesive......if you go out of the lines with the adhesive the gold foil leaf will stick to it and you will lose detail this way,  you can't remove the adhesive once applied and you can try to scrape the gold foil leaf off after the fact but you risk tearing your paper and making a mess, small mistakes like this are probably best left alone untouched if you do make them.

 

 SUPPLY LIST:

• watercolor paper
• watercolor paints
• watercolor brushes
• masking fluid (optional)
• digital stamps (optional)
• gold foil leaf
• soft clean brush
• adhesive for Gold Foil Leaf
• old brush to apply adhesive

The images used in this tutorial were just newly released same day as the video and can be found in my Etsy Shop, they are..... 

 

Baby Elephant Kisses

img#375

&

Birch Trees

img#376

You could use any digital stamp image for this project by simply printing the image out onto your watercolor paper before you paint.

I hope you will give this technique a try, and I would LOVE to see it if you do!  Join us in the Oddball Art Stamps Facebook Group and share your creations using Oddball Stamps.  Enter your creations in our Monthly Challenge to win free stamps and use one of the prior months "Techniques" and win an extra stamp if you are chosen as our winner!

Thanks for stopping by,

Lizzy xo

ps..... have you seen DT Tina on the Oddball Stamps Blog today with her stunning take on the new Baby Elephant Kisses stamp!

VIDEO ART TUTORIAL | Lets Make A Reversible Mini Art Journal!

Hello Oddballs!

Are you ready to have some fun??!  This Reversible Mini Art Journal was super fun and easy to make and I must say......turned out sooooooo cute,  I am super excited about it;  and hope you are as excited as I am....

I used 2 brand new stamps that I created for a creepy cute take on Easter, they were  released in the Oddball Etsy Shop yesterday,  but you could use any stamp(s) you want for your journal using the template in my last tutorial to design your front and back covers in photoshop before you print & paint.  

Simply download the zip file containing the template (includes a free digi stamp) if you haven't yet downloaded it.  The template is a .psd file which is a photoshop file and it contains layers.   The layers are labeled so you know where to place your digital image and then which layer to delete the borders before you print, When you place your stamp image you will want to keep it inside the border as anything printed outside of the border will be folded over the cardboard and covered up with glue and the inside pages.  Once you are happy with your front and back covers, save and print to size 6" x 6" art paper.

SUPPLY LIST

• 2 pcs of 6" x 6" craft or art paper
• 2 pcs of 4.5" x 4.5" cardboard or chipboard
• 1(+) pcs of long craft or art paper 4" x  (a # divisible by 4)  
• ( I used 2 pcs of mixed media paper 4" x 24" and connected them together....you can connect as many pcs as you want together to make it as long as you desire as long as the total length is divisble by 4)
• Mod Podge or strong craft glue
• ruler
• pencil
• craft knife or scissors something to cut the cardboard and paper
• watercolor paints and brushes or any medium of your choosing
• digital stamps (optional) 

The 2 images used in this tutorial are...

Horrible Hare Img#373

&

Ghoulish Gifts Img#374 

I hope you have fun making your own Reversible Mini Art Journal and I can't wait to see it if you do!!!  
I would love you to share your makes in the Oddball Art Stamps FB Group and if you're chosen by random.org as our monthly Facebook Challenge winner and you've created a project using 1 of the techniques from a previous month you will get to pick an extra digi stamp! So that means you will get to choose 4 stamps instead of 3!!!!!   (This Tutorial is a March Technique even though the blog isn't getting posted til April 1.)

Did you catch DT Pennies Technique from last week?
Pigment & Distress Ink Background by Penny

I will be back on April 5th with a new Technique Tutorial for you......and if you have any requests for tutorials you would like me to do feel free to post in the comments below and I will try to work it in.

And lastly before I go.......there is still 2 more weeks to enter our "Best Friends" Blog Challenge so lets see what you've been creating.....   :)  

Thank you for stopping by & Happy Creating!  

Lizzy xo

Pretty Little Monsters Speed Painting Part 1

Hey there Oddballs!!!!!!

I am finally getting things back on track and enjoying every minute of it!  Today I have a brand new speed painting video to share with you...

I have been working on a new painting that I am calling Pretty Little Monsters, painting entirely in Acrylics on a gallery wrapped canvas.

So as not to bore you or have to cut too much out of it I have decided to split it up into 3 parts each 10 mins long, so today I have part 1 to share with you and I will have part 2 up next week.

If you would like to create your own masterpiece using this image you can download it HERE

Hope you enjoy!

Painting A Creepy Cute Fairy In Watercolors

I created this watercolor painting I titled Stardust using Twinkling H2o watercolors. (my favorite type!) 

I LOVE the Luminous Faces  set which is what I used to achieve this look of the girls face.  I don't remember exactly which ones I used in this video for skin color but they definitely came from that set.  The colors I find myself coming back to the most for skin tones are Amber Bronze, Golden Sand, Pink Cloud & Cinnamon Stick which are all part of this Luminous Faces set.  Check out my unboxing video of it HERE.   

The colors used everywhere else in this painting including her hair were

Wisteria 

Rich Cobalt (also part of the Spiced Sorbet Set)
Wild Plum (is part of the Spiced Sorbet Set)

Natural Linen (this color is part of the Luminous Faces set and its also part of the Native Blush Twenty Four Piece Mini Kit which is basically the  Luminous Faces with the addition of 12 more fun colours)

China Black (is part of the Spiced Sorbet Set)

If you've never used Twinkling H2O's before, I just have to say these little gems are such luscious, yummy colors in convenient little pots, you just spritz with water, wait a few mins and start painting, the paint never goes bad or moldy or anything, the cakes just dry and harden back up til you go to use them again!   You can use a brush, sponge or stamp to apply the paint which is so versatile, you control the consistency with how much water you add.   Then there's my favorite part, they are completely cruelty-free, everything from their company Colourarte is cruelty-free! My kind of business! <3  (I say that out of my pure joy for their products, they are not giving me anything to say that, I have in fact bought all of my paints from them.)

The only other supplies used in this painting were...

  

Masking Fluid

uni-ball Signo Gel 207 Black Ink,

And if you enjoy this image you may like IMG#160 Starlynn Queen of the Sugar Web Fairies, it is very much similar to the image in the video.

I have lots of footage now so I just need to get thru it all and hopefully can get some more of these out real soon!  Thanks so much for checking out my process.
Lizzy xo

The Wolf

Sorry its been so long between posts but I have been a busy bee all week making a new painting and speed paint video of the process.  I am now finished and so excited to share it with you!!!! I can honestly say that I think this may just be my absolute favorite painting to date!  

Titled Red Riding Hood and done on a 36"x24"x.5" canvas in acrylics, it took me approx. 20 hours to do in real time but you can watch me do it in approx. 13 mins in the video I put together.

Prints are available on Etsy & Fine Art America

If you are interested in purchasing the original painting contact me via email at oddballart(at)hotmail(dot)com

3rd Video & Counting

I just finished putting together and uploading my 3rd speed painting video earlier today and as I promised with the first one, each one is getting better then the last!  However I guess I will let you be the judge of that. lol

My most recent painting is titled Over The Rainbow and only because I was inspired by The Wizard of Oz when I painted it, there isn't actually any rainbow in the painting.  I kind of thought that you might find a scene like this over the rainbow in Oz.

Over the Rainbow

4x12x1.5

Acrylic on Gallery Wrapped Canvas

This is how it happened....

Big Juicy Tears No. 9

I finished Big Juicy Tears of Blood and Pain No. 9 a couple of days ago titled Bye Bye Bunny and also recorded myself painting this one making this my second speed paint video.  As I promised in my last post the next video would be better then the first and it is!!  I used my video camera instead of my webcam and so the video is much cleaner looking, I am really happy with it!

Big Juicy Tears of Blood and Pain No. 9

Bye Bye Bunny

8x8x1.5

Acrylic on Canvas

I Wish I Could Paint This Fast!

This may sound crazy but I have finally got my very first webcam a couple of days ago off Ebay and decided to put it to use right away!   I do not have any experience with making videos at all, never owned a video camera either so this is all brand new to me but I decided anyhow that I wanted to make a speed painting video of my recent painting. 

The painting took me apprx 12 hours to complete but the video is under 10 mins long and I know that it is not the greatest video out there but for my very first one I think its not too bad.   I know that the next one is going to be way better and I will tell you why if you promise not to laugh at me....

I previously mentioned that I have never owned a video camera and it turns out that that was a lie! lol  Atleast I THOUGHT that I have never owned a video camera!  Little did I know that I had one right under my fingertips this whole time! lol  My Kodak 14 megapixel camera that I use almost everyday is also a video camera and it records a very nice video I just found out today.   So for my next speed painting video which I am starting in a few minutes I am going to use my regular camera on my tripod and hopefully get a much nicer looking video then the one I did with my new webcam which was attached the computer the entire time and making it really difficult to shoot the video and paint at the same time. 

Anywho, we all have to start somewhere, so without further ado, here is my first attempt at video making.  Comments and criticisms are welcomed below.

Boundless Beauty

12x12x1.5

Acrylic on Canvas

www.oddballartco.etsy.com