One of the projects that captivated me at CHA was a canvas apron that had been colored using the Faber-Castell product line. The Faber-Castell design team has been doing a fabulous job of educating on their blog using their new product line and I have been taking it all in. I would very much like to encourage you to visit their blog if you are intrigued; there is SO much to learn and gorgeous samples to whet your appetitie.
I read through the directions that Rita Barakat put together for her apron project. Then with my basic little set of tools in hand I began to explore creating on canvas. I felt that starting small was definitely the way to go, so selected one of the smaller canvas products we carry. Trust me when I say that we have a LOT of canvas options for you to try - LOL!
As an aside I just wanted to share how easy it is to search our store for the products we use right here in the CLASSroom blog.
By typing a single word, such as canvas, in the search mechanism (note the red arrow above) and clicking on go, all the products in our store, Ellen Hutson LLC, that have the word canvas in them will show up for you to see. SO easy --- at least we hope - LOL!
One of the products that Faber-Castell has in the line that intrigues me is the PITT Artist Pens. I felt that this product needed some exploration. Following are some of the key pieces of information I felt you should know about these pens included in the Faber Castell Design Match program:
- made from pigmented India Ink - which means they are permanent, waterproof when dry, smudge proof AND extremely fade-resistant (or lightfast),
- acid-free and archival,
- won't bleed through paper,
- two sizes of nibs - the Big Brush Pen (perfect for stamper's who want to ink larger stamp surfaces using a pen) and the Artist Pens (with reversible Brush Nib for long use),
- can be applied directly to Clear Stamps and red rubber alike for interesting impressions!,
- works on all types of paper, and even canvas,
- odorless and non-toxic,
- perfect companion to watercolor pencils and gelatos due to their waterproof quality,
- the black Artist Pens are lightfast for 100 years (I doubt anyone will want to hang on to my projects that long - LOL!) and are available in additional nib sizes - extra superfine (.1mm), superfine (0.4mm), medium (0.8mm) and brush.
I began with one of the gorgeous Prima masks, outlining it with the fine brush tip pen. As you can see I simply placed a glue dot on the bottom side of the mask to hold it in place on the canvas.
This photo is for comparison purposes - the top pen is the Big Brush Pen and the lower one is the Artist Pen. As you can see their is a lot more ink in the large pen, as well, the larger tip makes quick work of larger surfaces and coloring directly on your stamp. (That lesson is going to be coming soon :-D)
I then used the Big Brush pen to add additional color to my background and define this area more. The tones on these two markers complement one another perfectly.
Next I worked with a tube of the Gelato and brushed the surface of this chapstick like tube directly to my canvas.
The final step was to add some additional orangey-red with my Aquarelle watercolor pencil.
Using my fine-tip waterbrush I then began to work the color into the surface of the canvas. As you can see I stayed within the lines because I wanted a fairly crisp image defined. The wonderful thing about the PITT markers is that they are waterproof once dry. I found that even though I was working on canvas and thought that my color might really bleed into my image the bleed was minimal. If I had wanted I could have controlled this even further by heating my project to quickly dry it, but I loved the way it looked!
As you can see the color really intensifies after it has had water added to it. Make certain to leave some "white space" when adding your colors so that you get a varied background!
To create the sentiment tag I simply colored directly on my clear stamp with the Big Brush marker and then stamped it on the mini ticket.
To complete the look I stamped a sentiment using Studio Paint to "ink" my stamp surface. I can hardly wait for the pens to arrive - I really want to try the Big Brush pen in black to see how it will work on canvas. There are many inks that do work on fabric, but I have found that with the bumpy texture of canvas paint is definitely the best medium for getting a clean stamped image.
Exploring and learning about a new product is so much fun! Being one who absolutely loves to color these products definitely intrigue me - so tell me, what do you think so far? Have you seen other's working with them?
Faber-Castell Design Match products are arriving Wednesday, February 23 and will be found in the New Category :-D
stamps: Studio 490, Be Happy Make Art, Inkadinkado Inchie Greetings
accessories: Prima Mask II and Bird Trinket, Red Twill, Hero Arts Cream Self-Adhesive Lace and Art Flower, Maya Road Mini Ticket, Tim Holtz Memo Pin, E-Line Bermuda Breeze Flower, Studio Line Charcoal Black Paint and Ink Blending Tool
