Painting with Gel and Paint Markers

I love to try out new materials. I just discovered Liquitex’s Paint Markers and I am so excited to try them out. They  contain high quality acrylic paint in a fluid form AND the containers are refillable. After trying out this yellow marker, I’ve ordered a variety of colours in the two different sizes they come in.

I wanted to create a painting of my gorgeous Turk’s Cap lilies using a limited colour range and with a softness that fits with a breezy summer’s day. These beauties grow on stalks that reach 6 feet high and they sway beautifully in the breeze.
Using the paint marker, I sketched the flowers onto my canvas which is 16″ x 16″. P1360326
I drew with the markers as loosely as I could to create movement. I was mindful of the swaying nature of the stalks and avoided painting them in straight lines or painting them parallel to the edge of the painting. This makes the painting less static.

After the marker dried, I applied a coating of gel and matt mediums. This makes the paint slide and prolongs the drying period. I worked flat on a table. I added a touch of turquoise blue to my medium and gently filled in the background for the sky. Here I was mindful of laying down intentional brushstrokes that emphasized the negative spaces and created a light and dark pattern in the blue which also added movement.
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The use of medium also creates a transparency of colour and allows me to scrape into the painting with a rubber tipped colour shaper. I also dip my shaper into my paint and use it to draw into the painting as you can see in this next photo and in the final painting.
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I am thrilled with the outcome of this painting for these reasons:

  • It has the softness and the movement that I hoped for
  • it has the essence of the tiger lily that is a Turk’s Cap
  • the addition of the Joe Pye Weed in the background helps to pick up the patterning in the grasses and in the petals
  • using the paint markers created a lovely yellow tone in the scraping
  • it makes me smile
Dance of the Lilies acrylic painting by Flora Doehler 16" x 16"
Dance of the Lilies
acrylic painting by Flora Doehler
16″ x 16″, $375

 

 

5 thoughts on “Painting with Gel and Paint Markers

  1. I like seeing how people create things. Thanks Flora. This has a fresh calligraphy feel to it. I would like to play with different products and be in an art community where there are more workshops and have the time to attend them!

  2. Thank you all for commenting and enjoying the post. I was so excited by working on this that I HAD to share what I had learned. I don’t believe in painting ‘secrets’. I think much is to be gained by sharing information with each other. Each of us will add our own ‘signature’ or spin to the information so there is no need to worry about anyone ‘stealing’ an idea.

    Joan, try googling liquitex tutorials or golden acrylic tutorials and you’ll find lots of instructional videos about using the products that they carry. In fact any of the brands of art materials have websites and information about their materials. They all have facebook pages too.

    Annie, I live in a little village that does have a lot of artists in it. Unusually, most are not painters so I feel on my own here a great deal of the time. However, the online world of other painters (or knitters or printmakers or you-name-it) is so extensive that it is the art community that I often turn to for inspiration. If you can ‘gift’ yourself even ½ hour every day to sketch or to play with paint, you’ll find that it is habit forming and you WILL develop your style and knowledge and skill just by doing. You could start with those tree-climbing squash of yours! 😉

    Thanks again for your interesting comments!

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