Rubbing Alcohol Makes It All Good

Here is a quickie project for you!

*** Protect your work surface! ***

I used three colors of liquid watercolor 

(mine came from Dick Blick,)

mixed media paper and some rubbing alcohol.

First I got the surface of the paper really wet with a mop brush,

then I used a pipette to drop watercolor into the water.

The color started moving around

and I added more drops here and there,

until I got a look I was happy with.

Next I used a paintbrush to flick drops

of rubbing alcohol onto various bodies of color.

The rubbing alcohol pushes the color away -

much like it does when you use blending solution

on alcohol inks.

Then I let the whole mess dry as it was.

And this is how it turned out! I love it! You can see where the rubbing alcohol pushed the color out of the way, leaving behind those white splotchy spaces.
The hope is to eventually draw on this. My eyes are not progressing at the pace I had hoped for. Still praying it happens, but I am not really able to do any detail drawing at this point. At least playing with color is a lot of fun!

Chameleon Alcohol Markers and SpectraFix

I recently saw someone ask on Facebook if anyone had any knowledge of these alcohol markers. Of course that meant I had to go to Amazon and check them out. Here is what Amazon had to say about them:
Chameleon Color Tones are much more than a normal marker they give you the power to change color! Chameleon Color Tones brings color control and simplicity to your art. Create stunning effects such as 3D, smooth transitions, highlighting, shading, graduations and blending, all with one pen. Each pen goes from as light as hint of a tint to rich tones, eliminating tonal gaps in your collection. One pen multiple tones! And then I found an awesome video on the chameleonpens.com website to show them in use.  They purported to be able to color and shade - all with the same pen. That left me wondering if they really did. So. I ordered them. Yes, I am a sucker for new product. I can't help myself.

While I waited I drew this tile. Simple, but it had the detail I needed to try the Chameleon Alcohol Color Tone Markers.

I had also been wanting to try out this new fixative.
Supposedly it is:
non-toxic, fully archival, all natural, and odor-free.
That 'odor-free' is what drew me in. No more having to take artwork outside to fix/seal so you can breathe at the same time. That was enough to sell me on the product right there. The fact that it is quick-drying to an invisible, non-yellow, matte finish and can handle multiple layers of media was a plus.  So of course I bought one of these from Dick Blick, the maker of all things good. 
I sprayed the above tile right here in my studio. A bunch. Several layers of spritzy spray fun and . . . I couldn't smell a thing! No fumes, no breathing issues, no head-ache. Yes!!!

Fast forward to the arrival of my Chameleon alcohol markers.  The directions were a bit lacking, but I was able to soon figure out what to do. The pen is a double nibbed wonder. Bullet point on one end, brush on the other.   Each pen has a section that pops off one end. Inside it is a blender stump with fluid. You simply touch either the bullet point or the brush to the blender stump. It picks up some blender fluid which allows you to start coloring with very light color and as you continue on, the color darkens until you are using straight color. Pretty awesome.
I'm not very good at it yet, but you can see my very first results in the tile above. All the coloring, shading, and highlighting was done with just one marker.  Whole tile was colored and done in less than two minutes. I think I'm really going to love these markers. Now. Time to go play some more! I hope this little product review post was helpful to you.