Water Colour Painting with Gum Arabic

Hello All….
Nupur here and this time I will be showing you how to use Gum Arabic.
People who do frequent water-coloring must be knowing, how important gum Arabic is to create a master piece in watercolor.
So lets get started…..
Gum Arabic comes in chunks, so what you need to do is take a airtight container and add 5-6 big chunks of Gum Arabic in it and add water, then wait for 3-4 hours for it to completely dissolve in water. It will look like a thick gum that you use for general purposes. And even this small amount can be easily used in 5-6, A-3 size paintings.

So, let’s get started….
First, I will be showing you 3 very important use of Gum Arabic in watercolor:
  1. When you mix this product with watercolor and apply it on paper, upon drying it really helps in lifting up the color. Below is a sample of painting, with Gum Arabic and without Gum Arabic. The picture clearly shows how easily colors can be lifted when mixed with this product.
  2. Watercolor mixed with Gum Arabic give an extra shine to the painting.
3  When Gum Arabic is applied on paper and if watercolor is added over it, it gives a really nice wet look (as if the surface is wet)
So now lets do some coloring with this fun product….
We will be painting this beautiful sea and the only hero is GUM ARABIC
Initially I put all my colors in my color palette and added my liquefied Gum Arabic to it.
Colors I used are:
Turquoise blue, Prussian blue, Lemon yellow, Burnt Umber, Titanium white and Black.
Note:  when using  Gum Arabic in you project, you really need a thick paper (I have used an artistic paper from Little Birdie of 440 gsm).
To begin, I wet my paper and added different shades of blues and greens (made by mixing turquoise blue and lemon yellow).
Now in the lower half, at some places I used Gum Arabic first and then add a mixture of Burnt sienna and White to the whole of the bottom portion. Thereafter, I  added a layer of blues again on the top half, to give it some extra depth.
Now I started lifting up the colors to give it a wave like look( from the sand area and from the water area as well).
You can see how beautifully colors are lifted (it made it so easy to give a wave kind of look).
Otherwise traditionally I have to leave a blank white space to give this effect .


Now I added shadows to my waves with little bit of black and lots and lots of water mix.
In the image below, if you observe the portion depicting sand, it looks so very wet. Appears as if the water is still there. (This is the coolest thing about Gum Arabic)

Now I added some splatters of brown to give it a sand like look.
Next, I added some white to give it some depth and to add veins of waves and also to make the waves look more realistic. I have given some finishing touch by adding some more prominent shadows.
And yes we are done……
So now you know the secret behind all the complex shiny and wet looking effect of watercolor.
Hope this blogs helps you people to try out this amazing product and inspires you to paint.
I tried to keep this as simple as possible, but still if you have any queries, do drop me a message… would be happy to help!
Till then,  Happy Painting…..
Nupur

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Artistic ScrapBook Cover with a Twist

Image
Hello Arty -crafty folks….. Nupur here with another project  that’s a little out of the ordinary! Spring for me is colors, flowers and memories. So I decided to make the combination of all these things. I will show you today, how I made my own Scrapbook cover/Album. The twist here is, I used Resin on my own painting and that too on paper!! Below is the final image of what I will be making. I have used all supplies from Itsy Bitsy. So, if you are interested in creating something similar, you can shop for everything under one roof. Now, let’s get started. I first took an Artist Paper (which is 400 GSM) . I very much needed this thick paper, because I will be using resin on the paper. I  cut it in the desired size Using Wet on Wet technique, I first pre-wet my paper and splashed water colors on it. Then,  just add some random shades and shapes with watercolor. Remember I used Mont Marte tube water colors here, because I wanted my colors to be bright. Mont Marte t
Read more

Decoupage Indoor Planter

Image
Hi All, Nupur here. This time I have brought you a fun project using Little Birdie decoupage papers. I am sure you all like displaying your plants in smart planters. Today I will show you how to make an attractive decoupage planter from an ordinary one. So here is the look of my final project. I started with adding a layer of gesso on my plastic planter and plate. Then I applied layers of Little Birdie Butternut Squash chalk paint and Fortune Cookie. I selected a paper from Little Birdie’s A4 decoupage paper ‘Precious Poppy’ and tore it into pieces . Below is the image of paper I used………. Using Little Birdie’s matte finish Decoupage Glue, I attached the pieces to my planter. Then, on the portion left blank in the planter, I painted Wild Wasbai chalk paint. Will tell you later why I used chalk paint twice. Now I did some stamping…. To give it a distressed look, I used sand paper and rubbed on the edges of my gorgeous paper. It suddenly added a drama
Read more

Dancing Jellyfish in Watercolor

Image
Hi All, Nupur here today, Hope you all are doing good and crafting is making your life more fun and colorful. I am here again to share with you all another page of my journal. This page is inspired by my recent scuba diving where I spotted and discovered many underwater creatures and was completely mesmerized by the beauty of Jellyfish. Have a look at this Journal page of mine. I used Little Birdie’s Art Journal 440 gsm and Mont Marte half pan set. Before going further I want to share my experience with Mont Marte Half Pan set. It has 24 different colors, all according to the color wheel. It has three different palettes, a pen brush, sponge and a ceramic bowl …in short, it is a complete travel kit. The colors are good enough to be used for hot or cold pressed papers. And the best part the color palette is, when arranged,  they are straight, so no fuzz while mixing the color or no tension of dripping of colors (which otherwise you will not find in many other pan sets
Read more