Hiya Oddballs!!!!
I'm back again with another "Technique A Week" Video Art Tutorial!
This week I experimented with Gold Foil Leaf and it was soooooo much fun!
Since this was my first ever attempt with Gold Foil Leaf there was a bit of a learning curve but overall I was extremely pleased with the results, and the good news for you is.....
I made the mistakes .....so YOU don't have to!
Check out my new video see how I did it and then continue reading down below for my TIPS on how to get the best results using Gold Foil Leaf & Watercolor!
My best tips for applying Gold Foil Leaf to your watercolor painting are:
- Be sure to use an old crappy brush to apply the adhesive and wash the brush out immediately after using it with warm soapy water, this way you can continue to use the same old crappy brush for this adhesive in the future. [DO NOT LET THE ADHESIVE DRY ON YOUR BRUSH!]
- Find the softest cleanest good quality brush to apply the gold foil leaf - the gold foil leaf is so soft and it doesn't take much to tear it away from the glued areas. You also don't want bristles to fall out and stick to the glue, a good quality brush can solve this.
- Use bigger pieces of the gold foil leaf then necessary to obtain a smooth gold finish, the over hang will tear away easily. Smaller pieces of the gold foil leaf to fill an area will give you a textured gold look.
- The jar says to wait half an hour before applying the gold foil leaf however I found it only necessary to wait 15 mins as any longer and the adhesive was too dry and no longer tacky. You want the adhesive to be tacky but not wet, and not dry either. If its too wet still you will have problems, the gold foil leaf will not go on nice, not sticking where its suppose to and "gumming up". If you run into this problem its likely you didn't wait long enough, so just wait a little longer. If the adhesive is too dry the gold foil leaf wont stick at all and it will not feel tacky to the touch, if you run into this problem simply brush on more adhesive and wait 15 mins. for it to become tacky.
- Paint or Outline in paint the areas you want to gold foil...... If you wanted to go back and add some gold foil leaf to a watercolor painting that you already finished some time ago that would work great. You can apply the adhesive right over top of dry watercolor paint or ink. It may or may not change the color of the adhesive but its ok if it does, the gold foil leaf will cover it up anyhow.
- Apply a thin even layer of adhesive, DO NOT leave puddles of adhesive anywhere! Apply it liberally in the areas you want the gold foil leaf to be.
- Finally this is probably my most important tip.....you saw that I used a very tiny brush to apply the adhesive as I wanted to be as accurate as possible with that adhesive....... as the detail that you are able to achieve with the gold foil leaf is directly related to your accuracy of detail when applying the adhesive......if you go out of the lines with the adhesive the gold foil leaf will stick to it and you will lose detail this way, you can't remove the adhesive once applied and you can try to scrape the gold foil leaf off after the fact but you risk tearing your paper and making a mess, small mistakes like this are probably best left alone untouched if you do make them.
SUPPLY LIST:
- watercolor paper
- watercolor paints
- watercolor brushes
- masking fluid (optional)
- digital stamps (optional)
- gold foil leaf
- soft clean brush
- adhesive for Gold Foil Leaf
- old brush to apply adhesive
The images used in this tutorial were just newly released same day as the video and can be found in my Etsy Shop, they are.....
&
You could use any digital stamp image for this project by simply printing the image out onto your watercolor paper before you paint.
I hope you will give this technique a try, and I would LOVE to see it if you do! Join us in the Oddball Art Stamps Facebook Group and share your creations using Oddball Stamps. Enter your creations in our Monthly Challenge to win free stamps and use one of the prior months "Techniques" and win an extra stamp if you are chosen as our winner!
Thanks for stopping by,
Lizzy xo
ps..... have you seen DT Tina on the Oddball Stamps Blog today with her stunning take on the new Baby Elephant Kisses stamp!
