Art journaling is a wonderful way to freely explore ideas, new techniques and art supplies. It helps to sort out creative blocks and sparks unique ideas and solutions for everyday life.
The reflective beauty of iridescent, pearlescent and interference colors has fascinated me for a very long time. I especially love the soft sparkle and shine of these colors on a black background.
I like to use black gesso for creating areas of drama and contrast on a page. Recently, I purchased a jar of black watercolor medium. I thought it would be interesting to try the two mediums to see differences in quality and absorption with watercolors.
Using an old planner, I primed one side of a blank two page spread with black gesso and the other side with the black watercolor medium. The manufacturers of both mediums state that the paint should cure for 24 hours before painting on them. The hardest part was having to wait a day before I could try my sparkly paints!
Once the mediums were dry, I painted both sides with the same images. I used the same amount of paints and colors so that I could compare the two. I noticed the gesso side was a bit smoother and the colors sort of floated and puddled on the surface.
The art journal page with black watercolor medium was a bit toothier and accepted watercolors similar to 100% cotton rag paper. They look luminous on the watercolor ground!
Watch the video to see the process and results!
I would love to hear about your experiments in art journaling! Thank you for stopping by and reading this post. 🙂