Watts Gallery Sketch Saturday March 2025

Watts Gallery, nestled in the Surrey hills on the 

North Downs Way

Had an amazing day at Watts Gallery today attending a workshop that I thought was going to be just about sketching but actually turned out to be an brilliant mixed media session. Kerry, our tutor, took inspiration from the gallery and 'The Spirit of Charleston' exhibition, building sketchbook pages with a variety of studies influenced by the decorative Bloomsbury style. This style is completely new to me and outside of my comfort zone but I still enjoyed using a number of photographs, Kerry provided, to do some pieces of my own. We experimented with watercolour paints, acrylic paints, oil pastels, watercolour pencils, gelli plate, a technique new to me called Dry Point using a water based oil paint, so here are all my designs and a couple of the photos I used for inspiration.

Dry Point

Painting on a gelli plate.

Everyone's finished art.

xx

Vintage shabby emboss resist - New Technique

I'm using some of the Andy Skinner new release stamps today - Mandal and Pebble Beach to create this emboss resist background.

I started by scraping some gesso thinly over my card and when it was dry I added some London Brick chalk paint rubbed it around, spritzed it with water and dried it.

I stamped the mandala and pebble beach stamps with embossing ink, covered it with the embossing powder and heat set it . When the card was cool  I squeezed over a little white chalk paint and  again spritzed with water and rubbed it around then took my heat gun and gently wafted it over the surface not getting too close. I let it cool and repeated heating until it was almost dry, then took a wet wipe and gently rubbed over the surface to reveal this gorgeous shabby design

I wouldn't recommend stamping over the surface, it was a nightmare and I had to use both black and white posca pens to touch it up!!! ;o))

xxx

Andy Skinner Creative Expressions - Stamps - Mandala, Pebble Beach,
Andy Skinner Creative Expressions - Matt Chalk Paint - London Brick
Miscellaneous - White Gesso, White Chalk Paint

Revisiting old techniques - Water Distressed Layers

Here's another of my techniques and layer combinations using acrylic paints. I like to turn to these when needing some inspiration and I have been documenting them on media boards as a resource.

You will find them added to my Tutorials and step x steps page found on my sidebar.

This one - Water Distressed Layers - I taught at Ministry of Mixology in April 2019.

Process steps

1. Paint a coat of acrylic paint (phthalo green-yellow) and heat dry.

2. Paint a thickish coat of a different colour (I mixed PGY with some hansa yellow and titan buff) and splatter with largish water droplets. 

3. Start to heat the board but before the watery spots dry lay a piece of clean dry kitchen paper over it to absorb the water. It sucks up some of the paint that has mixed with the water and leaves these gorgeous splatter spots.

4. Repeat step two and three with a coat of another colour (I used the above colours with titanium white). 

5. Move straight onto step six or stamp some text first using archival ink.

6. Finally repeat steps two and three with titanium white. 

7. Finish with some brush splattering of the same colours (I used the last green that was still on my palette and added water to it).

You could leave the finished background looking clean or you could add a watery frame around it.

I'm loving making these technique boards into mini pieces of art.

xxx

Revisiting old techniques - Scraped Gesso Layer

I've devised a number of techniques and layer combinations using acrylic paints over the years and I am returning to them for inspiration and to document them on media boards as a resource.

This one - Scraped Geso Layer - I taught at Ministry of Mixology in April 2019.

Process steps

1. Seal substrate with a layer of gesso.

2. Tear and add some tissue tape.

3. Dip in watery colour/s and dry.

4. Stamp text and/or numbers using black archival ink.

5. Scrape gesso randomly and lightly over the surface using a palette knife keeping it flat.

6. Splatter using leftover watery paint.

7. Create a dark frame firstly dabbling and spritzing some watery burnt umber mixed with quinacridone gold - dry.

8. Mix neat quinacridone gold with paynes grey and slide the brush around the very edge and dry.

xxx

Revisiting old techniques - Blended acrylics

I originally discovered this blending technique when making and experimenting with the blending tool and my decoart media acrylic paints for a tag for AVJ and then I used it for an experimental post for the DecoArt Media Team blog. I am revisiting this technique again as I create a board for my resource box of techniques.

Process steps

Firstly scrape gesso over the surface of the tag and dry. It is fine to create a little texture here.

Step 1 Use a blending tool and foam, choose a light colour acrylic paint (Titan Buff). Taking a small amount and some glazing medium, blend from the craft mat onto the tag, just like you would do with distress inks. Rub with dry kitchen towel and or wetwipe to get effects you like.

Step 2 - Buff the surface with a soft cloth.

Step 3 - Repeat steps 1 and 2 with a couple more colours, deepening them towards the edges Cobalt Blue Hue, Transparent Yellow Iron Oxide, Burnt Umber.

Step 4 - Very lightly stamp flourish/texture/pattern and text stamps using a similar colour to the background to get and light and almost monochrome effect with them. (archival peat moss).

Step 5 - Blend some darker colours around the edges of the tag as in steps 1 and 2 and very lightly splatter with them.

Step 6 - Dabble raw umber, paynes grey. quin gold at the very edge to create a timeworn vintage look.

I used a greyboad media tile and sanded the edges and blended in ground espresso distress ink.

Optional - You will see from the panels on the DecoArt post I also painted in the swirls and made the stamping more evident than in the AVJ tag.

xxx

Revisiting old techniques - watery layers with stencilled textures

Here's another of my techniques and layer combinations using acrylic paints. I like to turn to these when needing some inspiration and I have been documenting them on media boards as a resource.

You will find them added to my Tutorials and step x steps page found on my sidebar.

This one - Watery Layers with Stenciled Texturen- I taught at Ministry of Mixology in April 2019.

Process steps
1. Apply black modeling paste through a stencil. Leave to dry.
2. When the paste is dry paint a coat of white gesso over the whole piece.
3. Paint watery acrylic washes over the whole surface and dab with some kitchen paper to remove some of it from the gesso. Dry.

4. Mix a little prussian blue hue 50:50 with glazing medium and paint over the tag and gently rub back with dry kitchen roll and a babywipe keeping the dark blue to the edges.

5. Mix a little quinacridone gold with water, dribble on one place spritz with water and move around and dab some off with dry kitchen paper before drying. Repeat in another couple of random places.

6. Mix a little paynes grey with water and dribble around the edges, spritz with water and dry. I worked on about a 2 inch spread at a time.

7. Using a small brayer, roll carbon black paint over the raised areas, if some catches in the background don’t worry it adds to the distressed look.



Or a little different -

 

Step 1- Apply some gesso to the  board, squidge it on the craft mat/palette. Dry
Step 2 - Use white modeling paste with white with acrylic paint added to it and apply through a stencil - leave to dry.
Step 3 - Add some dip, drip and dry washes.
Step 4 - Lightly sand raised textures to get some of the colour back.
Step 5 - Add some splatters.
Step 6 - Using a palette knife drag clear crackle glaze around the edges and leave to dry.
Step 7 - Cover crackles with titanium white antiquing cream, leave to dry and wipe back.
Step 8 - Sand the edges and add some quinacridone gold and prussian blue around the edge to frame it.

xxx

Stencilled background with acrylic paints - new technique

I have been revisiting old techniques and posting them recently but this one came out of the blue and is now a new technique I'm sure I will call on often.
I was so excited at the results of the layers building this background and made it into a card for this post.

Process steps

1. Scrape a layer of tinting base over the card using a palette knife.

2. Mix a watery wash using the most tiniest pin prick amounts of cobalt teal and grey paint. Dip and dry.

3. Into what is left of the wash add a tiny amount of primary yellow and repeat step 2.

4. Mix a new wash of prussian blue and repeat step 2.

5. Add tiny dots of the yellow, cobalt and prussian blues on a palette. Take a stencil, a small blender with blending foam and a water spritzer. Spritz over the stencil so water goes through onto the background, pick up tiny amounts of one or two of the colours at a time and blend through the stencil and dry.
See this technique also stepped out for a Spring card.

6. Use embossing powders and a text stamp for interest.

7. Spread some resist paste randomly over and paint over a layer of olive grove leave to dry.

8. Rub away with dry kitchen towel and a wetwipe to reveal most of what is underneath again - some of the original background seemed to fade - did I rub too hard?

9. Repeat step 7 using eternal chalk paint this time.

10. Repeat step 8.

11. Scrape some random patches of white crackle paste around the edges and leave to dry.

12. I found that some of the crackle dropped off when I went back to it and I'm sure it must have been because of the resist paste, so I gave it a coat of soft touch varnish and again left to dry. That sealed it in place.

I also made a technique bord using different colours
step 2 - phthalo turquoise and medium grey.
step 3 - add naphthal red
step 4 - prussian blue.
step 5 - create different mixes using naphthal red, diarylide yellow, cerulean blue, prussian blue, titanium white, titan buff - going back over the shapes with different blends of colours to create overlays and depth.

Love the Moroccan/Spanish feel to the design and to see what different effects can be achieved.

xxx