Hello my rambunctious rabble! I’ve re-surfaced from a fortnight of travel and dangerous levels of socialising (for an extreme introvert) with a groovy tutorial for you today. I’ll be showing you a humble little technique I’ve developed using a couple of new art supplies I’ve picked up.

We’ll be combining acrylic gouache with Distress Ink to create a little house with a ceramic-like finish. This is a pretty cool combination of mediums because the acrylic gouache doesn’t re-wet like a traditional gouache does so we can build up several layers. However, Distress Inks do re-wet and we’ll be using this to our advantage with a sort of “dry blending” technique to create a painterly effect.

Materials

• finished background ready to paint on
• white acrylic gouache
• Walnut Stain Distress Ink or Stain (Ranger)
• paintbrush
• white pencil

Step 1 … Sketch Subject

Use a white pencil to sketch your subject on the painted background.

Step 2 … Add Distress Ink

Daub the Walnut Stain Distress Ink directly onto the sketch.

Step 3 … Paint House

Paint the house with acrylic gouache, moving the re-wetted distress ink around with your brush.

Step 4 … Layer Distress Ink and Acrylic Gouache

Continue to alternate layers of Distress Ink and acrylic gouache until you’ve created an effect you like.

In next week’s blog post I’ll share with you some lessons I’ve learned of the heart & soul variety.