"The Crinkle Technique" - Watercolor Lesson with Guest Artist Mary Beth Downs

Materials List:
Masa Paper
Yasutomo Black Sumi Ink
Hake Brush
Arches 140# press
SureGrip All-Purpose Adhesive And Wall size
Colors Used:
Cobalt Blue
Quinacridone Burnt Orange
French Ultramarine Blue
See more Mary Beth Downs:
Visit Mary Beth at www.artcellard...

[@Katerina-vm2ok]

This was a wonderful lesson…so interesting and a new technique for me. Truly fascinating! Thank-you for posting this and my deep condolences for Katlyn.😢

[@gaylecewpie5012]

I really like this technique, I can't wait to try this.,it's beautiful.😊

[@bethanyszymanski5002]

Mary Beth - oh my! You have so inspired me to try crinkle painting! May I ask a question - you mentioned in the beginning of the demo about flattening the wet paper with a board, and even then the paper may curl and lift the board. Question - does the board need to have a towel between it and the paper? Many thanks. Bethany

[@sharonalkenbrack2871]

This is very cool.

[@elaineg60]

I keep seeing “masa” paper. The thinnest paper I have are my sized xuan papers (I started 12 yrs ago doing Chinese calligraphy and Chinese traditional painting), but I also have semi-sized and raw-which is a bit thicker, but still obviously much thinner than western. When you hold up the pieces, it looks more like my sized glass and cicada xuan..but, would the sizing interfere with putting it into paintings like this?

[@elaineg60]

Ok, it appears she uses semi-sized in this piece-which I have TONS of. (Semi xuan is my “practice paper). However, in pieces you did, tearing small pieces, it looked much thinner than any of my semi-sized. As I said, I think my main concern is the amount of sizing. When I messed up a xieyi (freehand) painting on raw paper quite a few years ago; it was my first attempt at a larger wash on raw xuan. I put a small hole in my “night sky”. After laughing for 5 minutes, my tutor said “no problem, we’ll just patch it up. She had me wet a small torn piece, attatch it over the hole, on the back, wet both pieces around the hole with warm water with just a touch of mingjiao (fish bone glue) in the warm water (you can get it in packets or in a glue stick like I have it), and I put it between sheets of parchment paper and some books. A few days later the paper had basically merged to the point you couldn’t tell from the front, barely on the back. 🤷🏼‍♀️. Fiona says it’s just the nature of the handmade paper.