InkWashOverGouacheOrAcrylic

[MaryAnne Long]

Linley,

Here is my second try.  This time the paper was white watercolor paper.  I painted the paper in gouache, then covered everything with India Ink.  I must have used too much ink because it did not wash off the flower - left it black!!  So, I went over the faint shape of the flower with white gouache, then tried to paint it with a coral gouache mix with purple shadows.  Except for the gel pen that I used for my name (too big), I like this one much better than the first one. Nicer shape.

Details

Still don't think I am doing this the way it is supposed to be done, though.

aloha

mea

[Bill76434]

Looks good. Love the purple and the way the stamen stands out against the black.

[linley.plester]

Mea, there is no need to paint the whole piece of paper with gouache, although this is a nice effect anyway. The gouache is supposed to act as a resist so that the ink sinks into the white paper but doesn't sink into the areas where the gouache is. However I found that the very black Chinese Calligraphy ink I used managed to seep into the paper under the gouache or acrylic to some degree, which is why you usually have to repaint some of the image. I'm tempted to try the method with ordinary masking fluid as the resist.Using paint as a resist produces a kind of depth in the image that may not happen with the masking fluid.

[MaryAnne Long]

Linley. 
I just read what I wrote.  Yikes, I only painted the flower with gouache not the whole paper.  DUH, what is wrong with me.

My gouache did not RESIST the ink.  It hugged it and held on for dear life.  If resist is the technique used here, then I'll go back to the irridescent.  That worked better.

I Will try again.  I love the look I am getting. 

Yes, Bill, the stamen really stands out.  Thanks for your comment.

aloha

mea

[Val]

I wondered about painting the whole paper with gouache.... I thought it must have been the flower you meant. Still...an interesting process.

[Gita]

Thankyou for sharing this technique, Linley. The conversation in this thread has answered already my questions.
Will try this someday.