Playing with Gelatos in my ABC Journal - #WOIW

Hello Friends,

This morning I woke up at 4:00 AM wanting to get busy making art in my ABC art journal. I had an idea for the Word of Inspiration Wednesday over at Kraafters Kommunity. It also happened to go with my letter 'C' page in my ABC of my favorite things journal. But before 'C' comes 'B' you know....so I had to do that one too :) It is 8:00 AM now so the two completed pages, plus photo edits, took me around 4 hours. Not bad.... plenty more time in the day to do art!


My main focus for today was playing with my new Gelatos... a water soluble product from Faber Castell that comes in little lipstick tubes. I had seen these being used by many artists on Youtube and I REALLY wanted them, so I asked my Mother as a gift for Christmas. She got them for me :) 
However....these have not performed for me as the 'wonder product' they seem to be for everyone else :( I have trouble blending them...and have been rather annoyed. So I decided to try them in a few different ways.


On my 'B' page I did a pretty cool technique with the Gelatos. I scribbled a few colors hard on the edge of the page to get lots of pigment...then sprayed water to get drips. On one edge I did cool colors, On the other I did warm. I liked it! After doing my sketches and pasting on my words, I also tried drawing directly on the page with the gold Gelato and blending with my finger. It turned out OK but needed a lot more work.


On my 'C' page I first tried doing the sky by directly drawing on the paper with the Gelatos and then blending with a wet brush. It was still streaky :( So, I tried writing with the sticks onto a piece of deli paper and then using a make-up wedge to pick up color and apply it. That worked much better.


Next I tried out using the Gelatos as a watercolor palette. I wrote on the same deli paper directly with the sticks and then picked up color and applied it with a waterbrush.  That worked really well. The colors were smooth and creamy, I added some highlights after it was dry with my white gel pen.


To highlight the sky, I again wrote directly on the paper with the white Gelato over the blues and purples, and blended with my finger. I also added some silver around in places the same way. Then I used a white Pitt big brush pen to add more white along the mountains.

Finally...I colored in the cougar with my standard cheap acrylics..lol I had had enough of Gelatos and also figured I needed a more opaque look to the colors. After it was dry I added in black with my stabilo pencil and a micron fine tip pen to finish. I also used the micron pen to write and go over the printed words because all the media had made them dull. 
Hope you enjoyed my attempts with Gelato.
<3 Shel


Comments

  1. Oh how I love these pages! You really are up early to do art, but then to get all edits and post written??? WOW!

    I love gelatos, but they have their place and use - they are not like other mediums for sure.
    Keep it up - I love this ABC journalling and that you can incorporate #WOIW too - way to go!

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    1. Thanks for visiting Heather <3 Yes, Gelatos will be cool for some things but not a universal 'save it all' like I thought! The ABC journal is fun so far, although drawing and painting intensive. I think I might try something more quick and abstract in the Gelli jumpstart journal for tomorrow :)

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  2. These pages are gorgeous and you are so clever to use the Gelatos like water colour paints. I was disappointed the first time I tried mine too. They do take some getting used to. Baby wipes work great for blending. Just dampening my finger on a wipe first also helps with the finger blending.
    Hugs & smiles,
    Teresa

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    1. Thanks for visiting Teresa :) I will for sure try it out with the baby wipes. I was going to last night then I found out my package was open and all the wipes were dry..grrr... Time for a trip to the dollar store.

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  3. Your drawing skills truly amaze me, Shel! Both the cougar and the flowers are wonderful!

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    1. Thank you so much Zsuzsa. I guess we will be seeing if I can pull off whimsical lol. I think I have that illustrator vs painter argument in my head.

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  4. Wonderful pages Shel...I like that you tried different things with the gelatos!!

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    1. Thank you Roz. I really thought the Gelatos came out of the package and did the art themselves..but no..I had to actually try stuff. LOL

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  5. Amazing spread Shel, love your drawings!

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