Inktense Blocks Painting Tutorial – and Giveaway!

So! Are you ready for a picture-heavy post? In which I hope I don’t completely befuddle you rather than inspire you to “have a go”! I did this demonstration using the Inktense Blocks mentioned in the last post. Initially, I thought I might use acrylic or gouache as well, but as I had absolutely no plan when starting, the process of the painting worked perfectly with just the blocks.

And, a note on the giveaway before I start: I had planned on doing a giveaway ever since my Facebook page gained more “likes” that I could have ever dreamed of, and my blog views have steadily increased month by month… so this is a giveaway to say a BIG thank you, to you, Lovely Readers, for your kindness and support *heart*

The giveaway is for this very painting, signed and dated, and signed and dated on the reverse. I’m happy to post to anywhere in the world.

To enter, please “like” my Facebook page and comment below this post… Any Facebook (or other) shares would be gladly appreciated 🙂 This giveaway ends on Wednesday 20th August 2014.

Derwent Inktense Blocks Painting Tutorial

Firstly, let me talk about these blocks. Made by Derwent, they feel quite like chalk pastels, break rather easily too. More chalky than the waxy Caran D’ache Watersoluable crayons, but similar results. I used watercolour paper, approximately A4 size.Okay, to start: I just coloured randomly over the paper, with no idea where I was going, and with no visual plan in mind:
With a clean brush and clean water, I started to wet the colour. For each new colour, I made sure the brush was clean as I wanted the colours to stay bright and vibrant and not get muddied at this stage: While it was wet in places, I held the paper up to get some interesting effects from the water dribbling! When it was dry (a few minutes), I turned it around to see which perspective “inspired” something in me, and decided on this , basically what I had painted, upside down (yes, it has been pointed out to me that this could be construed as rude looking, but let me assure you, that’s more to do with YOU than my painting 😀 😀 ): Onto this, I started drawing. Now, I know that I can sit down and fire off something like this, and perhaps you feel you can’t, so my advice here would be to start gathering and practicing motifs or images: for example, leaves, flowers, houses, figures; whatever interests you. Once you start thinking about images you would like to use and doodling ideas, you will have a huge bank of possibilities to use. And ideas begat more ideas and so on!:Once I had my image drawn out and I was happy with where all the shapes were going, I started to over-colour in white. Using either pale or dark colours over a colourful base will make the other colours “pop” and once finished, and bring it all together: Added some blues, and worked on the sky until I was fairly happy; wetting it to blend, colouring more, blending again. The final coat I blended with my finger to give a softer effect: Then, I started on the grasses and leaves. I outlined these in a dark brown: …then, with a small round brush (size 1 I think), dipped it in water, and began to blend around the leaves and grasses:With a damp, not wet brush, I blended the dark brown further: Next, I “painted” the house, and coloured in the roof. I drew in rounded mounds either side of the house to denote trees: …And coloured these tree forms in greens. I darkened the base of them to “sit them down” in the landscape:  I added my initials and the date (can you spot it? 😉 )And there you go!And now, I am off to upload the rest of my cards to my Etsy shop… Hope you enjoyed the tutorial and good luck with the giveaway!

• demonstration,
• Derwent Inktense Blocks,
• giveaway,
• landscape,
• Painting,
• Painting Tutorial,
• watercolour paper