Mixing and Scraping Methods

Cheap Joe's Test Studio: Mixing and Scraping Methods

Here is a transcription for those that can't turn their speakers up:

Hi, I'm Joe from Cheap Joe's and I'd like to show you one way to mix color. Most people think of mixing color in mixing it on the palette and I'm constantly hearing "I'm making mud" or "I'm making a mess." This is a way to let your color mix without mixing it on the palette because we're going to let it mix on the paper. It's so much prettier that way.

I've already activated some color and they're already beginning to run together a little bit on the palette, but I'm going to take this one and a half inch. It's just a big nylon flat brush with a round handle and actually just pick up a couple of colors without stirring it in here. Then I'm going to go straight to my painting over here and just put it in. Wow, what beautiful colors I'm getting in this right here. I already have some color on this little painting from where we showed how to use the masking tape, so that's what those little areas are right in there. I'm just letting this color mix in here adding a little darker there because I had this transition there. Then I'm going to add just some pure water down here and let that mix. A little brighter color, it's getting kind of dull on me in here so we're going to add some color. I'm coming right around this little house in here very carefully letting it mix itself right on the paper. Look at that I love it. It's kind of muted here but it gives me a change from that one to this one. I'm just working right on around, picking up clean color on my brush, and letting it mix on the paper, flipping the brush back and forth. And I'm going to continue that all the way through here.

Now I'm just adding more color from the mixes that I had on my palette here. I'm trying to keep the value darker here so it will give me a contrast. I'm also making it fairly heavy doing it fairly quickly because we're going to do the little scraping deal and it won't work without it being fairly heavy in here. So that's why I'm hurrying along. I'm going to put that little evergreen....tree got kind of muddy on me. See I let too much color mix in at one time on my brush there, so you need to keep every now and then go back and clean the brush and it helps to keep the color pure rather than as we say "mud".

It's getting dry, I've got to hurry. Now pick up the little scraper and begin to scrape out some shapes and this is just about the right time to do that. It's still wet, but a little dull. So I come in here and just start pulling sideways. I hope you can see that as it forms this wonderful shape. We'll take our smaller sides now and just start scraping right up through there and it's going to give me this little tree shape. It was so wet that now it's running back in there and making that darker, this lighter. So I'm going to take the edge of it and pull out a couple of those little branches and limbs just like that. Isn't that fun? You have to be careful because it is so much fun.

You can also use a razor blade to do the same thing. Be very careful, hold it on its side and just pull it. I'd pull it in little short jerks and that's what gives you those little limbs in there like that and it's kind of fun to do. And that one tree is going to be standing over here all by itself, but that's ok. That's how you scrape. You can hold this and pull sideways and get some trees that look like they're way back there kind of like that. Let's do a couple more down here just to see what they look like. A small one and maybe we can pull another limb up here. And that's how we scrape. You just have to be careful; you'll get carried away because it's so much fun.

Remember now, hold your razor blade flat against the paper and push or pull. It's very easy; the paper needs to be damp. It can't be too wet or you'll get it dark and the color it will run back into the painting.