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Tuesday, October 31, 2017

Do You Want an Explosion of Color?

'Nature's Peace'             9x12          pastel        ©Karen Margulis
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 I came home from New Mexico to a wonderful surprise. A friend had sent me two wonderful aprons and a set of Derwent Inktense sticks. What special treats!  I couldn't wait to put the sticks to use. I pulled out a piece of Uart paper and a photo from New Mexico and set to work.

I've used the Derwent Inktense blocks as they are called but I only had a few single sticks. I was like a kid in a candy store with the set of 24 colors. I have a set of 24 Intense pencils but the blocks are better suited for underpaintings.

Derwent Inktense Blocks are ink in stick form....wet and watch them explode with color
 If you aren't familiar with this product they are actually inks in solid form. They are called blocks but they are the same shape and size as a Nupastel stick.

  • You can work with them in a variety of ways but they are meant to be wet. Once they are wet they turn into liquid inks. You can wet them with water or rubbing alcohol or even turpenoid. Once they are wet they just EXPLODE with rich vibrant color. 
  • They can be mixed and layered. You can manipulate the wet ink with sprays of water or alcohol. I got some great drips with the rubbing alcohol.
  • They are fantastic for underpaintings for pastels. They are more vibrant than watercolor and very portable. 

My reference photo and underpainting on mounted Uart (the old uart mounted paper) 
I had a lot of fun with this underpainting. I used yellow Inktense sticks for the foliage to give my trees a head start. I find yellow very challenging to keep vibrant!  I loved the effects I got with the alcohol wash. Look at the interesting drips!  My goal was to allow some of this underpainting to peek through. If you haven't tried these yet put them on your list. They are too much fun!

The finished underpainting. Look at the cool drips!
Watch the underpainting come to life in this week's Patreon Video!
Come join the fun on my Patreon page. This week I posted the video of the underpainting and step by step demo of this painting. The cost is $4 a month for unlimited access to all of the content on the page. I also have a community page for you to share your work and ask for feedback. www.patreon.com/karenmargulis

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3 comments:

  1. Diamondschris4:16 PM

    Hello. I love the inktense pastels which you have used to underpaint this paint. I have just bought a 36 box at an art demonstration near me in Lancashire in England. Iam so pleased that you have used these pastels on this painting. I am just getting used to pastels and was wondering what pastels did you use over the top of the inktense? Can you use the same inktense pastels? Or did you use others. Love your work and your videos. Thankyou. Christine x

    ReplyDelete
  2. Karen8:38 AM

    Christine, I sued soft pastels such as Terry Ludwig over the inktense. The intense blocks are not pastels but compressed ink. If you have pastel sticks you can use them for both the underpainting and the top layers.

    ReplyDelete
  3. Unknown5:36 PM

    Beautiful!

    ReplyDelete

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