Hey friends, it’s Sarah from @essjay_florals and I thought it was time to share something really exciting with you all, something that I can’t believe I wasn’t aware of until recently. Many of you may have known you can paint with your Calliographs (if you aren’t, check out over here how to do so). And we all know Acrylographs are super versatile and can be used on many different surfaces (If you don’t, check the list of surfaces I’ve tested them on over here). But did you know you can use Acrylographs as watercolour? Whaaaaaaat?!? I know, mind blown! Just when you thought Acrylographs couldn’t get any better! So today I thought I ought to create a tutorial for you all and the fun thing is you can use these steps with all of your Acrylographs to paint anything you like.

Here are the materials you’ll need to paint using the various methods:

• Jewel Acrylographs
• Moss Green
• Olive
•  Indigo
• Dusty Rose
• Maroon
• A&O A5 notepad
• Pencil
• Paintbrushes – I am using Round brushes in sizes 8 & 2
• Palette
• Glass of water
• Fineliners – I am using Sakura of America Pigma Micron Sizes 05 & 01

Remember you can use my affiliate code SARAH10 to get a discount on your Acrylographs, Notebooks or any other Archer and Olive products!

1. Pencil in your design

First pencil your design in, you can use the printable I’ve included or draw up something yourself.

2. Get your palette prepped

Pump/draw onto your palette with your Acrylograph, it may take a few pumps to get the paint flowing out, you don’t need a lot, just a small dab about a pea size. I straight away add a drop of water into the paint and give it a little mix (I do this as the paint dries quite quickly and you want to get water in before it starts to dry or you will end up with little dried bits of paint that can’t be reactivated). I then add some more water and begin mixing the paints together as you would watercolour.

3. Begin Painting

Now for the fun part, start painting! The paint can be treated very similar to watercolour, except of course be sure to keep it wet as once it starts to dry it cannot be reactivated. If you watch the tutorial, you can see I go back in and add layers to some leaves and whilst some of the leaves are wet I drop in more pigment which works in a very similar way to watercolour. Even with using quite a bit of water and layering the paper didn’t bleed!

4. Add Outlines

Once the paint is dry it’s time to outline. Use the 05 micron to outline the leafy branch and flowers. Then go back in with the 01 micron to add details to the leaves and flowers, I kept it super simple but feel free to add as much detail as you like.

Tips

• Be aware of how much water you use, particularly in a regular notebook, as too much water will cause bleeding (make sure to test how much water your paper can take before bleeding). I was able to use a fair amount of water here, but there is a limit.
• As I mentioned before make sure you keep the paint wet on your palette as once it dries it can’t be reactivated.
• If you want to outline your painting make sure the paint is completely dry as outlining when wet can cause bleeding.
• By now I’m sure you know that the important thing to do with any of these tutorials is to make sure you have a play and test. Test the amount of water, colour, paper etc that you need for it to work with the best success for you.

Paint along with me here!

If you’d like to use the design I created for this tutorial, download the free printable over here.

I’d love to see your recreations or take on this tutorial, and don’t forget to tag myself at @essjay_florals & @archerandolive if you’d like to share.