Wednesday, June 25, 2014

Baby Giraffe


Baby Giraffe, Watercolor, 18 x 24'


I have been inspired this past week to make my watercolors look more brilliant and lustrous on the paper, so I was excited to hear about a nifty little product called Gum Arabic. When I worked on this cute little baby giraffe and mixed some gum arabic with the paints, I did notice that the colors were brighter somehow.

Gum Arabic seems even more exciting though when used to controlling spread of paint in wet-on-wet, so that rather than getting a big muddy mess of colors pooling together I was able to separate them to some extent and just get some nice bits mixing at the edges of overlapping colors. Here is a flying parrot I created using gum arabic mixed with watercolor. It has a rather nice, loose abstract feel to it I think:


Parrot in Flight, watercolor, 18 x 24'

Have you ever used gum arabic with watercolors? Did you like the effect? There are all sorts of watercolor mediums I haven't tried yet but which seem rather exciting: Ox Gall, Aquapasto, Texture Medium, Granulation Medium etc. etc......I will try them all one day!

Linking up to Paint Party Friday and Creative Every Day! Click the buttons and come join in the fun....





giraffes art for sale

children paintings for sale
Posted by at
Labels: , , , ,

18 comments:

  1. Holly Hollyson @ Full of Beans and SausagesJune 26, 2014 at 12:41 PM

    The baby giraffe is beautiful! Giraffe are such awkward looking creatures!

    ReplyDelete
  2. Valerie-JaelJune 27, 2014 at 8:06 AM

    Both are beautiful, the baby giraffe is adorable. Valerie

    ReplyDelete
  3. FayeJune 27, 2014 at 9:56 AM

    Love the giraffe! I have some gum arabic that I got to use with PearlEx. I will have to experiment with it and watercolors.

    ReplyDelete
  4. Linda KunsmanJune 27, 2014 at 3:38 PM

    thanks for sharing the use of gum Arabic (which I have never used but heard of). I ADORE the giraffe!

    ReplyDelete
  5. JoJune 27, 2014 at 4:24 PM

    Great paintings. Love the giraffe.

    ReplyDelete
  6. myra andersonJune 27, 2014 at 4:41 PM

    love your work! thank you for the title! I'm going to use that!!!

    ReplyDelete
  7. alarmcatJune 27, 2014 at 5:04 PM

    what a cute giraffe!! adorable :)

    ReplyDelete
  8. Tweedles -- that's meJune 27, 2014 at 7:22 PM

    Thank you for coming to visit me!
    My gosh-- your art painting are soooo beautiful!
    love
    tweedles

    ReplyDelete
  9. Arnoldo L. Romero, MLAJune 28, 2014 at 5:07 AM

    I LOVE the expression you captured in your beautiful giraffe. I like using gum arabic to, because I like the brilliance in the colors that you can achieve. Blessings!

    ReplyDelete
  10. DVArtistJune 28, 2014 at 4:06 PM

    Fabulous art this week. Well every week but I really love what you have done.
    Nicole/Beadwright

    ReplyDelete
  11. JulieJune 29, 2014 at 5:41 AM

    I love the baby giraffe. Beautiful color choices and is expression is so sweet.

    ReplyDelete
  12. GigglesJune 29, 2014 at 8:14 PM

    So sweet...love the colors too!

    Hugs Giggles

    ReplyDelete
  13. SaskiaJune 30, 2014 at 10:03 AM

    Lovely work!!

    Saskia :)

    ReplyDelete
  14. froebelsternchenJuly 1, 2014 at 7:48 AM

    just beautiful!

    ReplyDelete
  15. jshiaJuly 25, 2014 at 5:31 AM

    Aww I love how you use aquarells, amazing art, and the colours are so many :)

    ReplyDelete
  16. Quinn and Angel brandiJuly 26, 2014 at 9:30 AM

    Lovely work! We saw you mentioned on Cody's blog (we love the painting of Cody!).
    Mommy just wanted to say you don't have to give up crumpets. They sell them in supermarkets here!

    ReplyDelete
  17. General PostAugust 21, 2014 at 12:29 AM

    This comment has been removed by the author.

    ReplyDelete
  18. General PostAugust 21, 2014 at 12:32 AM

    Gorgeous portrait so far I was stunned to watch this portrait. pet portrait

    ReplyDelete

Subscribe to: Post Comments (Atom)