Adventures with Brusho - Part Fourteen - "Fade to Black"

Here's all the fun I had playing with Brusho Black --

Look at all the colors! Sprinkled with the shaker and spritzed with water.

Trying to do a wash -- I thought the left side, which was done with dipping a wet brush into loose crystals on dry paper, shaded nicely and kept more of the pigment.  I wet the paper first on the right side and then used the wet brush/crystals, turning it into shades of gray.

So I thought...maybe this would make a nice background for a night sky? Only make it darker.   I would add some masking fluid for stars.

Umm.

Not quite the look I anticipated!  Pretty however.  I did not wet the paper this time and was careful not to overmix on the paper to avoid graying.

I do love Brusho and Saran Wrap, and I am still favoring using this technique with the Bristol paper over the watercolor paper for my defined edges and color.

Saran Wrap on Aquabee watercolor paper

Saran Wrap on Bristol paper

And now what is turning into my favorite Brusho effects - making prints!

I still use the watercolor paper as the base, really going overboard with sprinkle and spritz.
This is what's left

watercolor paper at the end of printing

The Bristol paper makes great prints - this is the artist tile size

As a point of comparison, here is my workout with Brusho in Gray/Grey.

Adventures with Brusho - Part Thirteen - "In a lather"

You can mix Brusho with shaving cream for a dimensional effect and to use in making prints.  I found using watercolor paper as the base and using Bristol Vellum to make "prints" worked well.
The shaving cream fragrance will dissipate after awhile.  I used Gillette Foamy.

 Center upper is the base watercolor paper

 The purple series. . .

And what you are left with (the watercolor paper) is pretty, too!

Adventures with Brusho - Part Twelve - "Sanitized and Germ-Free"

Brusho on Yupo with alcohol spray - love this effect!

 First I sprinkled Brusho and then sprayed a little bit of water.  I went to my garden and picked geranium (on the left) and plumbago (the right) blossoms and placed on the paper.  A few spritzes from the alcohol sprayer made for a pretty floral effect.

Brusho on Yupo paper, spray with rubbing alcohol and then when it is almost dry, add a few light spritzes of alcohol.

Our local grocery store, Kroger, has their store brand of alcohol already in a sprayer.  Convenient and refillable and ready to play and spray.

Watercolor Wednesday - Adventures with Brusho - Part Eleven - "Playing with Fire"

A friend in one of the Brusho Facebook groups suggested using Brusho and Saran Wrap to make "fire"

I am still experimenting with different papers - but this time I am favoring the watercolor paper and the Brusho/Saran Wrap combo slightly over the Bristol.

Aquabee Watercolor paper
Brusho
Saran Wrap

Strathmore Bristol paper
Brusho
Saran Wrap

I used Lemon, Yellow, Scarlet and Brilliant Red.  With a few dashes of Orange for good measure.

Adventures With Brusho - Part Ten - "Pass (on) the salt"

Brusho on watercolor paper with Kosher and Himalayan salt - Fail

It just became darkened spots.  Not pretty at all

Adventures with Brusho - Part Nine - "More paper work"

Experimenting with other papers -- This is Daiso Japan Calligraphy paper and Saran Wrap over Brusho and water. . .

I like how it scrunched up!

This would look really cool framed or using bits of it in mixed media or collage.

Boxing Day

Normally I am a scratch baker, but with the holidays and schedules I am also a keep it easy and simple person, too.

While I was shopping at HEB, I found two boxed mixes to try -- Central Market (HEB's sister "foodie" grocery store) Peppermint Bark Brownies and King Arthur Flour's Essential Goodness Sour Cream Coffeecake Mix.

Both priced at $4.98 each, though they had a $1 off coupon for the King Arthur Essential Goodness mixes.

If you like peppermint, you will like the Peppermint Bark Brownies.  There is mint flavor in the brownie mix and of course in the crushed candies.  The vanilla bark is a packet of chips, which melted easily and had a nice, not artificial flavor.  I can't say the same for the candies - try a nibble before dumping the entire packet atop.  I ended up only using half.

Also be forewarned, the brownies are very rich -- you add 3 eggs and a stick of butter.   The directions veered away from traditional layout and you had to pay attention and actually read to follow along.  When you are pressed for time this can add a little to the frustration level.

I would rate this mix a C  - It's pretty and a gourmet brownie take up, but I don't think I will make it again.  Half of the brownies were still left after two days with three people.  And they asked for a "small piece"  You might be better off adding half a teaspoon of peppermint flavor to a brownie mix and placing some of those striped red and white chocolate Hershey Kisses on top while still warm and spreading like frosting.   Done and done.

The King Arthur mix also called for 1 stick of butter, divided between the topping and the mix, and only two eggs.  The directions were easier to read and follow on the back of the box.

And if you love the smell of cinnamon, be prepared.  The box says they use premium cinnamon and they do.  Halfway through baking, the house was infused with cinnamon.

Their mixes do not have preservatives, artificial colors, flavors and no corn syrup.  Just the essentials of goodness.

The King Arthur people know their flour and I knew in advance it would be good, but this was way better than expected.  (I use their flour in my scratch baking.)  The sour cream in the mix kept the cake moist and flavorful.  Even the next day, what was left was still yummy.   No one said, let me only have a little bit.  Except what was left - that person was lucky!

I also like the fact that with each box sold (see the rest of their line up here), they will donate one meal to Feeding America.

I would give this an A.  Try it for an easy and delicious weekend coffeecake, if it lasts the weekend.

Adventures with Brusho - Part Eight - "O Christmas Tree"

More experimentation with direct painting using Brusho.  Again, two different types of paper - Aquabee watercolor paper and Strathmore Bristol.

On the left is dry paper, paint and then spritzing with water
On the right is working wet in wet - no additional water added.

I like both versions in the watercolor paper above.

I like the wet in wet on the Bristol.  I probably should have left well enough alone with the left one, but the edges were too hard.  Maybe more water, less Brusho.  I was getting down to the last bits in my palette and didn't want to add more of either as I am going to switch over to another palette.

The yellow and red accents -  nice serendipitous touch -- Just goes to show how airborne those Brusho crystals move about!  I didn't see them on the paper until I spritzed with water.

Adventures with Brusho - Part Seven - "What's in a name, that which we call a rose?"

"Winter Solstice Roses"
9" x 6"

Emerald Green, Leaf Green and Brilliant Red Crystal Colors. Can I be honest here? I was just shaking the Brusho -- trying to make a Christmas tree! I scrunched Saran Wrap on it and walked away from the table, met a friend for coffee and came back to find this. Looks more like roses than a tree. And in Texas, the winter can produce the prettiest roses. The colder temperatures turn the pink of our Pink Promise rose into more intense shades, matching the colors of this painting perfectly. "What's in a name, that which we call a rose?"

The promise of pink
Pink Promise rosebud
December 2016

Adventures with Brusho - Part Six "Poinsettia"

I used the wax crayon to outline a poinsettia

This goes to show how those tiny Brusho crystals go all over!
This piece of paper was just to the side of the working area

And then I mixed six Brusho colors in a palette - Leaf green, Emerald green, Yellow, Lemon, Scarlet, Brilliant red

I boo-boo'd here - later reading and viewing more
Brusho videos, they say add Brusho to the water, not water to Brusho
However, it worked just fine for me and I actually
liked the undissolved bits of pigment to pop on the paper further

With a brush, I applied the liquefied Brusho - 

Trying to see where the crayon lines were!

Adding greens

Yellows in the center

Shaking more Brusho on top

Spritzing with water

Whoops, lots of water!
I do like the neon effect and was kind of hoping it would stay this intense 

As it dried, I lifted out some of the colors -

I liked how it revealed a nice under layering of color

 Done!

I added some gesso in the center and Windsor & Newton New Gamboge to the center for the flowers.

Adventures with Brusho - Part Five "Almost Empty Can of Spray Starch"

I also heard you could use Brusho with spray starch, both spraying over the crystals and applying the crystals on top.  Alas, the can was almost empty so there wasn't a lot of foam...but this had a cool effect of blowing and wetting the crystals at the same time, giving an almost chenille-like, starburst look, especially as you moved the can and sprayed at the same time.

All dried!

Mardi Gras!

Adventures with Brusho - Part Four "First Painting"

First Brusho!

I had heard that Ultramarine was a favorite Brusho color and I was about to find out why.  Also that Lemon was a truer yellow than Yellow, which had bits of orange mixed with it.

One YouTube video I watched suggested using a small dry paintbrush to sprinkle the crystals from the canister.   I found and marked a cheap brush with "Brusho" in ink.  I need to break in the bristles (bend and separate) so they can pick up and disperse the crystals more evenly.

First spritz of water

And we're moving!

I added more water. . . 

It's fun to watch the crystals dissolve!

Finally dried --

The bottom was wetter than the top

It's a learning process - the amount of Brusho to apply via shaking and flicking, amount of water to use, how close to hold the sprayer nozzle.

Next post - using spray starch!