Brusho Ferns by Rebecca Yoxall

Hello!

 Thanks for stopping by.

I've put together a painting today using one of my favourite plants as inspiration. Ferns are so beautiful at this time of year too as they unfurl their tightly wrapped curls of tendrils in such glorious shades of green, browns and coppers.  I couldn't resist trying to capture them in a painting. And what better to use than Brusho and the new SprinkleIT copper powder.

I began by sprinkling Cobolt Blue, Lime and Olive Green Brusho onto dry heavy weight watercolour paper and activated the colours with a spray of water.

 I sprinkled more of the Brusho colours and continued to spray with water to achieve the depth of colour that I wanted.

Whilst still wet I dropped on some of the amazing SprinkleIT powder in Copper and sprayed even more water to dissolve.

Once the paper was dry I mixed up some of the olive green Brusho on a palette and began painting in my first Fern stem. I mapped it out with a painted line using a fine brush and working my way down from the top with small stipple or dotty like brushstrokes.

The Fern increases in size towards the bottom with each branch/stem becoming fuller and longer so I switched my brushstroke to dashes rather than dots in order to fill the space a bit quicker.

Adding in the second stem expands the composition.

Once these were dry I decided to add a little bit of highlighting using an opaque white paint (such as gouache or acrylic) This creates some more detail and helps to show form.

My final stage involved using diluted bleach in a spray bottle. I do take extra care when using bleach and make sure I'm in a well ventilated area, protecting my hands, clothes and work surfaces. I also clearly label anything containing bleach so as not to contaminate anything else accidentally.

I sprayed the bleach and water mixture tentatively and waited a few moments for it to develop before deciding to spray anymore. 

I love the turquoise colour that is achieved as the bleach strips out the pigment of the greens. This compliments the metallic copper shades of the SprinkleIT so well and completes my painting. 

I hope you like it.

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See you next time 

Bec