the whole entire rainbow (in convenient blogpost form)

or, if you prefer, a roundup of mostly unrelated ColorBurst experiments from my watercolor sketchbook, as well as some random combinations i made with the set of alcohol inks i scored at the paper anthology garage sale last weekend! ;) 

i've said this a million times, so i'm sorry to be dull, but whenever i don't know what to paint i just fill a page with a shape or a pattern. that's why you see so many watercolors of circles, or plaid, or rainbow-hued lines. they are relaxing and fun to paint, plus you get to use LOTS of colors! in this case, peony, marigold, gamboge and alizarin crimson colorburst! ♥

a pretty basic mandala, but i kept adding the next layer of colorburst before the last was entirely dry, to get that weird tie-dye blendy effect. which sometimes gets VERY messy, but in this case i really like it. i also tried a trick i saw in a ken oliver video: flick some drops of clear water onto your page when the piece is almost dry... let it sit for a minute, then blot it off and watch it "lift" some of the color away. i will definitely be re-visiting this idea!

this started out as colorburst flourishes, but ended up more like tentacles, lol. so i shifted gears and added loads of pen doodles. inspired by one of my all-time journal/collage artist heroines, @jenndalyn who often adds black and white doodles to colorful painted or collaged pieces in ways that make me swoon...

last weekend i lucked into an AMAZING bargain on a big set of ranger alcohol inks, blending solution and even a case to keep them in. which is hilarious, because, unlike everyone else who fell in love with these when they first came out, i kind of missed that phase and was just getting interested in the format based on a few artists i've seen on pinterest and IG recently. talk about perfect timing!!!

experimenting with the different color combos and ways to apply the ink: adding droplets straight down vs using the applicator like a pen and sliding one color around another. i can see some really loose florals happening this way.

finding out what happens when you add drops of blending solution before the ink, or to wet ink, or to almost dry ink. also kind of crushing on this combination of neutrals plus eggplant and butterscotch...

(not a sentence i can imagine typing in any other context!)

for some reason i am fascinated by geodes recently. when stephanie and i were playing with marble paints i kept trying to make geode-like creations, and now i've been trying it out with the AI's. i don't even try to fight it any more when i hit a "phase" like this, i just roll with it. something cool i discovered is that the metallic additives are rather thicker in consistency and can be used to sort of "fence off" a portion of partially dry color.

this is my favorite geode so far, and one of my favorite color combinations: 

slate + stonewashed + copper + silver

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i'd love to stay and talk more, but the ♥COLORS♥... they call to me!!!

hope you are having the best saturday of the whole week! :)