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Description
This was totally 'for fun'. Though I knew I wanted to do a lighthouse today this did not come out like i planned but yet it went exactly as I planned.

I wanted to play with the fine-tec paint again. That stuff is awesome! I also wanted to work a little bigger than 'journal sized' and as it happened I did have some larger black [drawing] paper on hand. The fine-tec paints are actually very well behaved on most any surface, including 'crappy paper', and they need so little water to be used. That said, getting crazy with water on surfaces not made for it will cause buckling. And I did not worry too much about buckling/water today.

I had intended to use the fine-tec paints for the water and light because they would suit those elements well but wanted to use chalk pastels for the lighthouse and rocks/foundation because of the texture (and contrast) they would provide. See! I AM learning!

But I didn't know if the chalk pastels and paints would play nice with each other. But again, this was truly a 'for fun' piece so totally experimentation and possibly a trip to the trash were absolutely ok.

VERDICT:
They won't fight with each other but neither will they play with each other. The fine-tec resists the chalk pastels. The chalk pastels ironically played well with water.

I was smart enough(?) to lay down the paint first so it could dry before layering the chalk pastels on top. The fine-tec does dry pretty quick, especially for water color. It does take *some* time to dry but really, if you fold your laundry or whatever it will be very dry when you return.

I was also smart enough to have another piece of the same paper to test swatch with as I worked. It is always nice to know if your brush is too wet, too dry, not loaded enough, etc... I also haven't used the chalk pastels much so I wanted so see what they actually looked like on this paper.

The fine-tec resists the chalk pastels. Which surprised me some as it does have a fine tooth to it. You can get some colors of the chalk pastels over it but not very opaquely. So that was a bust though I did try every trick I could think of except-- I could have lifted the fine-tec off and let the area dry and then put chalk pastel on 'clean' paper where I wanted it but I didn't want to go through all that [this time]. The fine-tec paint will re-wet nicely so it isn't hard to lift or fix mistakes. It also does stay put reasonably well when re-wet so again, you have a lot of versatility with lifting and/or layering with this paint.

The chalk pastels played nice with water which also surprised me some. They maintained most of their opaque nature and I think experimenting with these and a water brush might be interesting especially since many aquarelle pencils become very transparent when wet. Might be good on white papers/surfaces but not on black...

So lessons learned, had fun, and still looks like a lighthouse!

Description
This was totally 'for fun'. Though I knew I wanted to do a lighthouse today this did not come out like i planned but yet it went exactly as I planned.

I wanted to play with the fine-tec paint again. That stuff is awesome! I also wanted to work a little bigger than 'journal sized' and as it happened I did have some larger black [drawing] paper on hand. The fine-tec paints are actually very well behaved on most any surface, including 'crappy paper', and they need so little water to be used. That said, getting crazy with water on surfaces not made for it will cause buckling. And I did not worry too much about buckling/water today.

I had intended to use the fine-tec paints for the water and light because they would suit those elements well but wanted to use chalk pastels for the lighthouse and rocks/foundation because of the texture (and contrast) they would provide. See! I AM learning!

But I didn't know if the chalk pastels and paints would play nice with each other. But again, this was truly a 'for fun' piece so totally experimentation and possibly a trip to the trash were absolutely ok.

VERDICT:
They won't fight with each other but neither will they play with each other. The fine-tec resists the chalk pastels. The chalk pastels ironically played well with water.

I was smart enough(?) to lay down the paint first so it could dry before layering the chalk pastels on top. The fine-tec does dry pretty quick, especially for water color. It does take *some* time to dry but really, if you fold your laundry or whatever it will be very dry when you return.

I was also smart enough to have another piece of the same paper to test swatch with as I worked. It is always nice to know if your brush is too wet, too dry, not loaded enough, etc... I also haven't used the chalk pastels much so I wanted so see what they actually looked like on this paper.

The fine-tec resists the chalk pastels. Which surprised me some as it does have a fine tooth to it. You can get some colors of the chalk pastels over it but not very opaquely. So that was a bust though I did try every trick I could think of except-- I could have lifted the fine-tec off and let the area dry and then put chalk pastel on 'clean' paper where I wanted it but I didn't want to go through all that [this time]. The fine-tec paint will re-wet nicely so it isn't hard to lift or fix mistakes. It also does stay put reasonably well when re-wet so again, you have a lot of versatility with lifting and/or layering with this paint.

The chalk pastels played nice with water which also surprised me some. They maintained most of their opaque nature and I think experimenting with these and a water brush might be interesting especially since many aquarelle pencils become very transparent when wet. Might be good on white papers/surfaces but not on black...

So lessons learned, had fun, and still looks like a lighthouse!