Finding Big Delights In Writing Into The Wet Paint...

I recently bought a new book 'Creative Paint Workshop For Mixed Media Artists' by Ann Baldwin. This book is a goldmine of ideas and techniques that keeps me praying for more hours in the day, so I could try some of them firsthand.

One technique that I begun to experiment with and can't get enough of is writing or carving letters in wet acrylic paint. I've done three little projects and I can see some improvement in my ability to control 'the writing devices' in each consecutive piece. Though the book's author presents this technique as writing directly into the wet paint, I decided to try mixing the paint with either extra heavy gel or hard molding paste and see where it'll take me... When applying gel/paste-paint mixture you can actually create a nice texture and bring out more depth of the writing. I learned that hard molding paste gives you more time to work with, where the gel begun to dry much sooner, and in this technique rushing is not recommended.

To write or make marks in the wet paint I befriended my rarely-used color shapers and I'm planning on extending my collection with some help form Dick Blick this weekend... I really love the 'angled chisel' color shaper as it allows you to add a calligraphy-type character to your letters, gently winding angles and curves set 'an original vintage' mood into your artwork.

What probably draw me the most to this particular technique is the underlying message of 'subtracting' - normally we keep on adding to our artwork more..... more colors, more elements, more texture, more layers. This experiment is very refreshing as we can begin to take away, perhaps from the excess, and curiously await what will emerge in the end....