RESISTING is NOT Futile!

Did I grab your attention?  I hope so.  This week at Artful Journeys, our prompt for you is to create a watercolor based journal page using a resist of your choice.

Being the resourceful person I am, and not having any masking fluid on hand, I experimented with several different types of masking techniques to show you.  And there are several others which I just didn't have time to play with, but will in future late-night art attacks.

The first thing I played with was a white OIL PASTEL stick.  All of these efforts are on 90# Strathmore 9x12" watercolor paper.  Here's the first attempt:

Watercolor Resist - Oil Pastel #1

I did NOT pre-wet the watercolor paper for this effort after applying the oil pastel, but had misted my pan watercolors and used a sopping wet stenciling stippling brush to apply the paint.  My choice in color did not seem quite dark enough against the white oil pastel.  Adding the letters with a white stick on white paper was tricky, but if you angle the paper in the light "just so" you can see it fairly well.  Not too happy with this test.

I moved on, still with the oil pastel.  This time, I made strong, firm, circular marks on the paper, with a more firm and consistent pressure, making quite a mark on the paper.  I pre-wet the paper with a wide flat brush, and again applied a heavy wash of watercolor from a light green to the deep teal and did go back and add additional color with a #6 pointed round, increasing the intensity of color in places.  I liked this one much better.  This will be a great background page to incorporate into my journal.

Watercolor Resist with Oil Pastel

My third effort with the oil pastel stick was the following result.  More fluid play here. But I did make very firm marks on the paper and used several colors from my pan watercolors, with a very wet, flat brush. My pans were pre-misted and already soft, and I added more water to the pans as I went along, knowing I wanted a fluid, flowy kind of look.  Still on 90# Strathmore watercolor paper.

                  

Watercolor Resist with Oil Pastel

I liked how this one turned out.  I still may go back to it and add some additional color in places to intensify it in various places which will make the resist show up even more.

Next, I wanted to play with CRAYONS. Yes, the great smelling, wonderous coloring utensils of our childhood.  Anyone else have a smell fetish about Crayons?  There is something magical to me about the smell of a brand new box.  I have to open and smell them.  I love me some crayons.  LOL

I had never played with crayons as a resist, but had already heard one of our team having trouble with them...so taking some advance warning into consideration, I went with some colored crayons and a little bit of white.  What I found out with the watercolor wash was that the colors, applied quite firmly, did very well, but the white -- well, the result was less than ideal.  As you see, I even made a very feeble attempt at drawing a woman's face, but she fared very well with the watercolor, with streaks of color poking through here and there where I left the white space.  Overall, a good learning experience.  I probably won't use white crayon for future resist projects.  Just didn't like the result after SEVERAL attempts (this WAS the best one).  The quote I used was "She is a worthy woman". Might have to work on that 'worthy' part now that "show and tell" is over.  Try and salvage it at least.

Watercolor resist with Crayon

Next, I had a brand spanking new bottle of Elmer's Rubber Cement.  I already knew that rubber cement will ball up when it is dry so I figured it would rub off easily.  And it did.  In fact, I had a lot of fun playing with it, but as in my typical fashion of impatience, I applied paint a little too soon on the first attempt.  I made random drips, twirls and marks with the applicator brush of the rubber cement all over the page and set it aside to dry.  I thought I had waited long enough, but there was one spot that was still a little wet, so when I applied the really wet watercolor, it acted really funky.  So then I waited again, this time until it was all really dry, and began rubbing up the rubber cement.  It was fun.  It was hard on my fingers.  It was kind of messy.  But it was kind of like using invisible ink and the result was a really bright pop of white!  Wow. I liked this a LOT.  FUN!

Watercolor Resist - Rubber Cement

Turn the page over. Do it again.  This time with a little more deliberate action with the applicator brush.  More really wet paint slathered on in section.  Wait.  Tick tock.  Why did I make it so wet? Oh yes, for the color!  Okay.  Finally all dry.  Rub, rub, rub.  Peel up the little balls of glue stuff. Ewww, it stuck to my finger -- reminiscent of -- well, not going there.  Bright white pops of color where the resist was painted on. Love it.  More fun background fodder for my journal.

Watercolor Resist - rubber cement

So, what did I learn?  I don't like the white crayon as a resist.  Perhaps I need more practice with that particular medium.  I am kind of on the fence with the oil pastel, although it worked great.  Both of these media get a really dry, non-waxy feel after they have been painted over and are quite smooth. But my favorite for leaving lots of good white space was the Rubber Cement.  I think, though, I will have to dedicate a smaller brush where I can have a little more control of the media when applying to the page.  The applicator brush attached to the lid is, well, industrial at best and the fibers of the brush do tend to come out but will rub off when the cement is dry.

I have used regular masking fluid with great success, in addition to masking tape.  You can really create a lot of fun designs using masking tape and the masking fluid.  I hear you can also use hot glue, PVA glue and other substances as a resist.  There is always something different to try and experiment with, so we will never run out of something to play with.

What kind of resist will you use or experiment with?  I can't wait to see!

Be sure and hop on over to Artful Chicks to see what Melody, Tamie, Lynn & Shana are up to this week, and don't forget to leave some blog love! We like to know you stopped by!

I'm doing my best to keep it artful!

~~Betty