Little Brusho Fishes by Rebecca Yoxall

Hi everyone :-)
I'm happy to be writing my first blog for Colourcraft today and in my usual style I've created something bright, lively and a little bit crazy. Most importantly its great fun and easy to achieve with Brusho and Aztec Lustre paints.

I taped down a piece of watercolour paper onto a board then using a water spray bottle gave the surface a light spritz. I picked Black, Yellow and Rose Brusho and I recommend using a limited selection of colours so that they stay fresh and don't over power each other. I gently sprinkled the Brusho onto the paper paying particular attention to a couple of areas. If you have never used Brusho before then keep in mind that it is very potent, as many of you will know a little goes a long way, so don't over sprinkle. You can add more later if needed. The sprinkled Brusho then got a spray with water to diffuse it even more into the paper.

Black Brusho was sprinkled and sprayed across the bottom and the paper tilted so it ran for me to create coral.
Leave to dry letting all the wonderful Brusho magic happen.
Once dry I drew the outlines for my fish with a 2B pencil. I tried to keep the most interesting Brusho areas for inside the fish shapes. (You could trace the fish or any other sea creature for more accuracy)

When you are happy with your outline it's time to paint in the background. I chose Turquoise and Purple as well as the Yellow and Black from the first layer and mixed up each colour with water separately in a palette. Using a Brush I painted around the fish and coral mainly focusing on the turquoise as my predominant tone dropping the purple here and there. Also adding the yellow which mixed with the turquoise on the paper to create the wonderful green shades and the black made some spaces slightly darker to depict depth. Whilst areas were wet I also sprinkled very small amounts of all the colours for extra interest and texture.

Trying to keep the nice tidy edges around the fish can be tricky but take your time as Brusho is so versatile you can go back after is has dried with more colour on your brush and smudge the colours together. Adding more water around the tail and fins will give a softer look.

Now it's time to add some details. I grabbed a small brush and painted in the eyes using the black. Some scales and shading around the gills with the diluted colours. as well as frills in the fins and tail. I chose an opaque white, something like an acrylic or gouache would be perfect just to add the white in the eyes and a little highlighting on the tail.

The final shimmer which sets everything off is created by painting with Aztec lustres and metalics. Choosing colours that enhance the shades already within the painting will have maximum effect. I hope you can see in the image how wonderful they look when they catch the light. Absolutely perfect for describing the irridesensce of a fish scales.

Give it a go yourself, be as crazy and inventive as you like and we would love to hear how you got on.


                                     

palette

Golden haired nylon brusesh

Aztec eco metallic paint starter paint

Aztec eco metallic paint Lustre colours

15g brusho