Are you a fan of The Hungry Caterpillar? As a child I was. I often read the book and one day I observed the illustrations, and I was like who is this, Eric Carle. In this post, we are going to paint textures. This is part 1 of 2 because I had way too much fun with textures. Plus, I don’t have glue. I thought I had glue. Oh well, I’ll be happy to go to the craft store and pick up glue and a Posca pen.

Let the texture good times roll!

Supplies

• Use random tools (read on and you’ll get some ideas)
• acrylic paint in pink, yellow and green
• a wide flat brush or filbert brush
• copy paper for painting your textures
• watercolor paper for gluing your design on
• glue stick

Use what you have. I am working with flowers, so my colors are pink, yellow and green. You may want to do letters, an aminal or whatever love means to you. My theme for creating art at this moment is self-love.

Here are some ideas:

I forgot how much I love paper collage. There is this artist who creates amazing collage work. Wit with the leftover paper I can create a word art poster for the word make. Yes!

Ok let’s move on to painting!

Real quick I add a little ivory to my magenta. This is titanum white with a touch of yellow. I may do a drop of turquoise for a more vibrant magneta. I put a drop of all three of my colors on my palette. Then I grab color with my filbert brush and paint.

Here are the textures that I used. You can literally do anything to make textures. I used what was around me at the time.

Scraper tool

You can purchase a scraper tool at a dollar store. This is actually a plastic cake scraper decorator tool. They are like $9 at the art store but I paid $1 for mine. You can scratch with the cap of a pen.

Stamping with the cap of my paint tube

It was like what do I stamp with. My tube of paint was right there. Oh, I could drag my tube of paint across the wet paint. If you try that, have a paper towel on hand to wipe your tube of paint.

Scratch with the back of your paint brush

Paint your first layer of paint. Then with the back of your brush scratch the paint. You can let the paint dry. Layer on another color of paint. While the paint is still wet. Then scratch with a tool and reveal the first layer. That is what I did with this texture.

The sides will be for my stems and leaves. To get a good green mix a little of the color your flowers will be to create a lovely harmony between your pinks and your greens.

What I love about paper collage is you can truly let loose and have fun. For inspiration watch Eric Carle. Here is another video. When you are taking yourself too seriously open up a journal page and paint textures. Oh, I forgot about this video. Take your time and paint lots of textures. Next, I will turn my beautiful textures into flowers.

Your turn. I’d love to see your work. I am excited to see what kind of flowers my textures will become too.

With Love, Mireya