I care deeply about how you are doing and want you to heal along with me. If you want. It takes a bit of energy to get your materials but remember you can order almost anything through art stores on line. Don't let lack of energy or motivation keep you from getting started. Order online, let it all come to you and then just start.
Believe me I understand lack of energy and motivation. I deal with it every day right now. That's why I'm painting again. I MUST paint and play and create or I will stay stuck where I am.
But before I get into how to mix your own liquid watercolor paint I want to tell you something about me and my depression. Confessions of a depressed person ~
Besides painting and creating, here are the only things I got done today. I changed the sheets on our bed; I emptied the garbage, I fed the pets, and I watered the plant that was drooping to the floor in sadness. I did get a couple of phone calls in too, but those are forced upon me when someone calls so I don't really count those. For me, to get even that little done when I'm struggling this much is practically a miracle!
How did I accomplish these few things? I painted then changed the sheets; it was the hardest in my mind so I did it first. I painted some more and then I emptied the garbage. And so on and so on.
For those who don't battle depression this will sound crazy. They may think to themselves, "Those things aren't hard, what is wrong with this woman?" Well, for me, when I'm depressed, these things are hard.
Maybe they are hard for you too. I support you. I know what it is like. I'm in it with you. And I want to offer you a way out of the black hole. Its not the only way out I'm sure....but it has worked for me and I believe it will work again. I hope you will give it a try. I think you'll be pleasantly surprised and inspired. I'm in your corner. You are not alone.
Onward,
Just in case you didn't follow the link yesterday to see how to mix your own liquid watercolor paint, I thought I'd go ahead and add it here. Let's get it all in one place I guess.
So here's what you do:
To experiment with spraying liquid watercolor, you put a bit of tube watercolor paint in a spray bottle, add distilled water (this is evidently important), shake well and spray! Just experiment by adding more or less paint until you get the color you like.
Maybe this is obvious but just to be clear ~ for example; you put a small dollop of yellow in its own bottle and add water; green in a separate bottle with water, etc. I have 7 or 8 bottles of different colors when I am playing. The colors will mix on the paper as you spray them. And if you spray and get mud ~ don't despair. That's how we learn. You are experimenting and playing!!!!!
It also really helps to add half a cap of Wagner brand "Paint Easy" if you get the paint too thick or have a store bought paint that is too thick and you need to thin it out in order to spray it. The "Paint Easy" thins paint without diluting it and helps the liquid paint from clogging up the bottle. If you find the paint is still clogging up, add more Paint Easy. It is available at Wal-Mart.
And sometimes the bottles clog up beyond repair and you just have to toss them and start with new ones. I don't know any other way around it.
Oh...I almost forgot a very important step! Before you start spraying paint on the paper, spray a lot of distilled water onto the paper first. This makes the paint nice and runny and fun to work with as you spray the paint and move the paper around and let the paint do what it wants.
Spray Bottles
The best bottles I have found for spraying paint (and believe me I have tried every spray bottle I could get my hands on) are from Hobby Lobby. They are tall and see through so you can view the color inside. The little short ones they sell at Dick Blick (holbein brand) always get clogged and it is very frustrating to have to keep switching paint from bottle to bottle. I lost a lot of paint that way.
And an even better bottle believe it or not are the ones that Victoria Secret sells with their body sprays in them. When I was frustrated with bottles I emptied a V.S. bottle of a scent I didn't like (it was a gift). I thought, "Why not, I'll try it." And it is actually the best bottle I've found that doesn't clog. Who knew? But not many people are willing to dump out precious V.S. product so do the best you can : )
Mixing your own liquid watercolor paint is a great way to find out if you like the spraying technique before investing in more expensive watercolor paints that come premixed already in liquid form. And you can certainly try spray bottles you have laying around the house so you don't have to invest in anything there either. Try any bottle, you just never know.
Here's another sprayed watercolor painting or two just to inspire you! Oh and remember, this is the Robert Doak paint I talked about. Not what I mixed myself. After using the Robert Doak I couldn't go back to my own so I have very few examples of those. I just want you to see another result from spraying watercolor paint.
This is sprayed on Yupo paper with lots of color and then I also sprayed distilled water from its own spray bottle to keep the paint moving on the paper. So I sprayed distilled water first onto the paper, next sprayed the green and yellow paint, turned the paper around and let the paint run in different directions, then kept spraying the paper with distilled water to keep the paint nice and runny. Hope that makes sense. Don't panic, just experiment.
I did this until I was satisfied with the result, then set it aside to let it dry. Once it dried I looked at it from different angles, curious what I might see. I truly believe in seeing with your heart, mind, soul and spirit.
I titled this painting Adam because what I saw was Adam in the garden of Eden. All the green of the painting and the hints of yellow seemed very creationist to me. On the bottom third of the painting and about a third of the way from the left side; I saw what looked like Adam in the midst of being created by God.
Now to you that may seem like a stretch, but to me I saw.and felt creation. We all see and interpret paintings differently and ascribe different meaning. That is the wonderful thing about painting and art. You get to see, feel and experience what is uniquely you and it is ALL okay.
Gator Board
*A quick tip ~ I purchased a couple pieces of what is called Gator board and placed the Yupo paper on that before I painted. That way the painting had a surface on which to dry and I could actually spray a couple paintings at a time and set them both aside to dry.
You can get Gator board or something similar at art stores. You just need a surface that is water resistant and it needs to be big enough that your paper will sit on top. Maybe you even have something at home; try anything you think might work.
Here is another one...look at that color!
I'm going to keep saying this ~ is this going to be in a museum somewhere? NO! The goal is to play with paint and enjoy it! To experience movement, flow, fluidity, water, paint and materials. Not to make great art. If you make great art then whoopee! But if you don't, who cares?
My mom asked me once, "What are you going to do with all these?" And I said, "I don't know." I didn't care. I was having fun and I was healing one painting at a time. A lot of these paintings are still in my create or play room.
Okay...so if you're depressed today...apply wet paint! I'll close today with showing you one of my absolute favorites. This little mushroom guy showed up all by himself. Its just the way the paint ran and dried. Isn't he amazing? I love him. Hope you do too. Have fun painting!
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