Using all of the media in my Art Snacks box was very much a challenge this month. There were two gelatos in colours labelled cherry and pistachio. I don’t have much success with red and green colour palettes and I have even less success with using gelatos. I know people who absolutely love gelatos and achieve a great deal of success with them. I meanwhile only seem able to achieve scribbly, scratchy, puddly messes. The box also contained an acrylic spray and sprays are again something I have no aptitude with. I tend to make an absolute mess with those. I was feeling very daunted about embarking on an illustration using these materials.
I received a peach hued marker in the box so I knew I would draw a human figure. I was using the three narrow paper samples provided so that format suggested the composition to me. I was actually surprised with how successfully I managed to create flesh tones using the beige base of the paper and the peach marker as I usually make a streaky mess with markers. And then it all went wrong.
I smooshed some gelato onto the paper and activated it water and moved the pigment around. However, no matter what I did, my initial scribbles remained visible and the pigment settled unevenly so it all ended up looking rather patchy. Evidently I need much more practice with using gelatos. And then I added the spray and made even more mess and really stuffed up the illustration. I drew on some branches dipped in the ink actually using the spray pump tube as my mark-making tool. When I tried to use it as a spray, however, I didn’t achieve fine mist but instead got large puddles and ugly drips. Such a mess. Time to step away and call this piece done. You can’t win them all.