We shall not cease from exploration
And the end of all our exploring
Will be to arrive where we started
And know the place for the first time.
"Little Gidding"
T S Eliot

Friday 12 July 2013

Yupo, colour & me!

As you know, I'm just a little bit of a Pinterest fan, and I kept seeing references to Yupo paper.  Intrigued, I tracked it down and bought some.  Over the past week or so, I've been experimenting with it.  It is really strange stuff, described as a synthetic paper, it is very thin but durable, and completely non-absorbent, so any liquid applied has to evaporate.  Here are the results so far!

I'm a bit rubbish at using watercolours, and really must find some classes, but anyway I got my neglected watercolours out and had a go.



First I brushed on some water, leaving 3 areas dry where the flower heads would be, then dropped some colour in and tilted the paper every which way.  Waited for it to dry, then attempted the poppies - not a very good effort, but, the paint stays where there is water, so you can move it around but restrict where it goes.  Used kitchen roll to dab some paint off.  You can actually remove all the colour when it is still wet just by wiping it away with kitchen roll.





Second attempt - a little better.  There are several layers of watercolour here, plus a little salt.


As I'm not a very patient person, thought I would try drying between layers with a heat gun.  Nooooo!  This was developing into a nice watercolour background - but it acts a little like shrink plastic, only doesn't flatten out!!!  Could be useful at some point .....







Another attempt with watercolour.  My best effort I think; perhaps I should stay away from flowers!






This is using acrylic paint.  Slides around slowly so more controllable; and thicker - can get nice texture dabbing with a piece of kitchen roll.  Spritzing it with water gets it running around quickly!

When dry the paint can be scratched off, giving little highlights.












Alcohol inks - remain fluid on this paper for a little longer than normal, so I could move it around.

Spritzed the background with blending solution.

I didn't use any brushes here, just slide it around and dropped colour into colour.  Used the felt applicator, and a cotton bud.










Artists acrylic inks - same strong colours as alcohol inks, but much longer open time.

Again, no brushing here.  Dropped straight from the bottle and used cotton buds, a skewer stick, and kitchen roll.









I like this paper, and I'm sure there is so much more that can be done with it.

Happy Yupo!

1 comment: