Quick play: tar gel and Brusho

When the Pinterest new ideas email drops in my inbox, there’s often something that catches my eye and I’ll just make a note of it. I try to remember to use Raindrop.io to keep track of things I might want to revisit — you can see some of my bookmarks here. Every now and then I actually try out some of those things, even if it’s just to have a quick play.

I picked up some Golden clear tar gel ages ago out of curiosity and then, like a lot of things, it sat on a shelf unused. Until I came across this tutorial. I didn’t do the full art journal page, just made the background to see how it would turn out.

I used tar gel instead of glossy accents to create the squiggles and it was definitely a learning experience. Whereas glossy accents is very controllable and gives a pretty even line out of the bottle, the tar gel has a mind of its own, creating everything from blobs to extremely fine lines. It has literally just occurred to me to try putting some in a fine-tip bottle and seeing how that works — though just getting some in a bottle could be tricky…

As well as Brusho powders, I also used a bit of Paper Artsy Infusions — those have walnut crystals in with the pigment which gives the brown colouring.

It was fun to do, though it does require a lot of patience as both the tar gel and the Brusho work best if left to dry naturally. I have no idea what I’ll use it for, probably cut it up into smaller panels and maybe even try die-cutting some of the bits where the tar gel is thinner.

Supplies:

Watercolour paper, Brusho powders, PaperArtsy Infusions, Art Alchemy Metallique wax