Last year I started experimenting with materials from Pebeo’s mixed media line. In January I had the good fortune of taking several workshops sponsored by the manufacturer at the Winter 2016 CHA trade show to incorporate their resin products as well. I’ve done liquid panel artwork before, but these experiences made me desire to take the materials in a different direction than I’d gone. I wanted to see how I could possibly incorporate these mediums into a sketchbook. Dipping my toes in the water – I chose to first start out easy with a 9″ x 12″ canvas board.

I started by stamping collage images from my Palettini collection of rubber stamps from Technique Junkies. I used Travel Documents, Vintage Dictionary Page and Advertisement with Memento Luxe inks in Toffee Crunch, Espresso Truffle and a touch of Teal Zeal.  Then I created color block dividers using the Pebeo Cerne Relief liner in Pearl.

Once that was dry, I painted the color blocked areas with Pebeo High Viscosity acrylic paint in Titan Buff, Yellow Ochre and Primary Cyan. I glazed the colors in the blocks and put a heavier application along the edges. A baby wipe was used to remove excess in the centers to give it a nice aged feel.

I stamped Vintage Botanicals in black ink from my Palettini collection of rubber stamps from Technique Junkies, ‘kissing’ the stamp to get borders, butterfly and other parts of the image in each block. Then I dribbled resin over the painting, swirling it to create enclosed areas. I didn’t have any sort of plan, except that I wanted some areas to be encircled by resin so I could use them to pool other mediums later.  I set this aside to dry.

Once it was dry, I applied Pebeo’s Fantasy Prisme paints in Pearl Green and Antique Gold to different parts of the canvas. This paint should be applied liberally, because it self-manipulates to create those wonderful effects! While it was still wet, I dropped Pebeo’s Vitrail paint in Sky Blue and Gold into the mix. I used a toothpick to manipulate the paint, feathering it into the Prisme and back into itself again. The resin swirls began to take the shape of wings in my mind…

I felt like the clear resin areas were getting a little lost, so to give them contrast, I sprayed Art Anthology Warm Colorations over the entire project to both unify and create contrast. I used a baby wipe to remove it from the resin areas, but allowed it to pool and dry around them.

Then my inspiration started going in another direction. Instead of wings of butterflies and dragonflies, I felt like fairy folk needed to occupy these spaces. I sketched out a few girls in places where ‘wings’ seemed to organically appear within the resin and painted pods.

I treated the backdrop like a toned paper, and painted a wash of Titan Buff for the skintone and Dyna Green for their clothing.  I smudged the graphite around the edges and created ground and shading where it felt needed.

As a last step, I applied a light spray of Montana Marble spray paint in white.

I love how this project turned out. The magic of how the Fantasy Prisme paints self-manipulate and mix with the Vitrail really lend themselves to nature / organic images. How else could I have ever achieved such wonderful wings? The resin preserved and highlighted the stamped detail underneath, and was further contrasted by the spray ink. The Dyna acrylic paint was able to hold its own against all the other magic going on to give equal weight to the fairy images with that subtle shimmer.

I encourage you to try these products. Take the leap! You will have so much fun.