I was in Karen Bonaker’s Paint with Me class recently and was working in watercolor. Frequently, I will mix watercolor and digital watercolor variants to get the look I want. I guess I never noticed this before, or never tried it with watercolor, but the Pickup Underlying Colors option was active in the layers panel. And when I began to paint with a digital watercolor variant over the watercolor layer, it picked up the colors and began to blend them. I know what most of you are thinking. He never tried Pickup Underlying Colors before, right? Well, I have; I use it all the time with other media, but for some reason I had not used it with watercolor.

“And you think I am going to believe you?”

“Kevin, leave me in peace. May I write one blog post without your interruptions.”

“I’m just trying to keep it real.”

“But, you are not rea….”

“I am to real! We established that with Uncle Tim. I am a good virus like Glenda the good witch in the Wizard of Oz,” he screeched.

“Whatever.”

I turned back to my computer and began typing, but I guess you know that. Sometimes I get confused and wonder who I am talking with, the imaginary virus or the imaginary folks who may be reading the blog. But I digress.

So I was in Karen’s class, and I started applying paint using my Splashing Water > Digital Sq Pool Blender and was shocked to see very rich colors and some cool blending happening. As you would expect, color from the previous layers added to the richness of the current layer colors. To demonstrate, I didn’t know which would be better, a painting or a video. I decided a video, but in the video, I mentioned that I hadn’t used the technique in a painting, which is only partially true. There was the painting in Karen’s class, but I haven’t actually finished the painting. That means I haven’t actually used it in a painting, right?

“Exactly, now do you see why I cannot believe you. Your thoughts are so frigging convoluted.”

“Oh good grief.”

To continue: I then decided it would be fun to use the Kaleidoscope Painting tool and make a finished example, which I did. However, even though I used the blending technique, it doesn’t show very well. I lost myself in the pretty colors. That Kaleidoscope Painting tool is addictive. It is hypnotic. I know it can be used to make beautiful paintings; one of my students used it to make an umbrella being held by a bathing beauty. It was terrific and very creative. I was just playing for the sake of playing. Hey, I’m retired, I can do that.

Next is the image I made and following that will be the video tip. I hope you enjoy them. Don’t be afraid to leave comments.

Next is the quick tip video.

That’s it for this post. I am getting a fair number of hits these days and I really appreciate the visitors. Stop by often.

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