You caught me... I got that song stuck in my head and began rummaging through my purple paints. I found two different Lavender paints, a pastel purple, and a purple flash. If anything says haze, it's Folk Art's Color Shift Paints. They are my first love in paints. The two lavender colors came in a set made by Folk Art called Brights and the other came individually. I also used Apple Barrel's Black paint as a base color.
Paint List:
Apple Barrel Black
Folk Art Color Shift Purple Flash
Folk Art Color Shift Pastel Purple
Folk Art Multi-Surface Brights
Now that I have a nice arsenal of Lavenders and Purples I was off to choose the rock and work on coming up with a design that sang "Haze." I went to my rock stash and grabbed a 3 inch stone. This stone was made from Ultracal 30. I mixed the Ultracal with water and poured into the #3 Silicone mold made by Happy Dotting Company. I make m
any of these stones at a time and leave a stock pile of them to choose from. I grabbed my rock and headed to the art desk.
I looked up the work haze to see what it meant exactly. My search ended in pictures of misty fog and what appeared to be thick humidity. Haze, to me, always meant things were a bit blurry. I can see how I could think that. When I think of humidity or steam, I think of curvy lines atop a generic clip art picture of coffee telling the viewer it's hot! You know the curvy lines I'm talking about don't you? The S curves they put over every bowl or cup of anything hot. LOL, I can do this. So now I know my mandala needs some S curves and I think I can join 2 swooshes to do that. In fact, let's swoosh the whole thing! I grabbed my Sketch book, jotted down a few ideas, and I was quickly ready to grab my camera and get to videoing this Lavender Mandala!
I was feeling pretty good about this design and could only imagine it on that black background that I love so much. I put a coat of black paint on that stone, waited out the dry time, and I was totally ready to roll!
I found that using Liquitex Flow Aid Additive really made those swooshes and swipes flow so much better. I also noticed that despite the speed of the video... I drug that dotting tool over the rock as slow as a snail. The slower you go it seems the longer the trail. I was in dotting heaven making these light lavender swipes. It just seemed like I couldn't go wrong after I thinned down that paint. I was dragging that paint around as if it was second nature. In my mind, I was just feeling really lucky. I know it's the medium I was using and boy did it ever make it's case to stay in my supplies as a top tier staple! Also take note that while I was making those Light Lavender S swooshes that I was double dipping that dotting tool. I'd dab a dot then go dip again and begin the swipe. I figured more paint would go farther and I was right.
When I was finished with the mandala I was quite surprised that I didn't use that many dotting tools. I had only used three of the acrylic rods. Size 15mm, 11mm, and 6mm. I only used the pink dotting tool that has a 1mm side and a 1.5mm size. If you don't have these exact dotting tools that is just fine. Just use what you have and compare sizes. If you can swoosh fairly well then this whole project will only take you less than an hour. If you are new to swooshes it might take a bit longer but you'll get lots of practice. This one uses both of my swoosh techniques. The swipe: where I just use a dotting tool and swipe the swoosh. Also the kind where I dot and drag. That swoosh will take 2 different dotting tools but you get so much more control over what you are doing. I use that very same method for teardrops too. I recommend playing around with both of these methods and finding out what works best for you.
After the mandala is complete you should let it dry completely before removing the pencil marks. I use a Faber Castell Watercolor pencil to draw my guidelines on stones. I love this pencil so much. You might notice that the gray pencil in my compass is the same brand. They just work really well and are super easy to remove with nothing more than a damp cotton swab. I use those pointy swabs because I feel like they are versatile for fixing mistakes along the way too. Once your mandala is completely dry, spend a little time removing the marks. Go slow and gentle. It looks like I'm going so much faster than I actually am. It's sped up because, let's face it, you'd fast forward if I left it in real time.
Ok, the mandala is dry, the guidelines are gone, and I'm happy with
what I see. I will set the stone aside for no less that 24 hours. 48 hours would be best but I knew better than to try to lie to you all and pretend my patience is there for 48 hours! Ha! I really do wait until the next day to pull out the Art Resin and give the mandala the coat of shine it deserves! If you're curious how I do the resin part I do have a video on how I resin called "Resin Wow!" I give the stone at least 24 more hours before I try to touch it after that resin is added. I just get to look at it. I try really really hard to leave it alone so that I don't stir up dust or particles that might float right onto that resin and mess the whole glossy glassy look up. I promise there's nothing worse that dust or a hair finding it's way to center stage of your hard work. Once the wait is over I remove the stone and parade it around under various lights while I give you my final thoughts.
I'm super happy with this stone and I think I found a unique way to represent a haze within a mandala. I learned that lavender is a lot darker than I thought and I also learned that adding Flow Aid Additive and water to my paint sure did make these swooshes a breeze. I'm starting to really understand how these additives work. They make such a difference and I hope it shows. I would love to see you give this tutorial a try and show me what you come up with. I love showing off "Your Art." Let me show off yours!
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