Craft Gossip

The largest independent craft review site since 2007

Technique: Color Blending with Mineral Spirits

by

image by Heather Hobrook

image by Heather Hobrook

One of my favorite coloring techniques is using colored pencils and blending them with odorless mineral spirits. It gives a really smooth, soft look and makes for wonderful shading, shadowing and blending.
I recommend the Gamsol brand of mineral spirit put out by Inky Antics, it comes in a bottle with a sponge applicator top so it’s very easy to use. But you can also buy other brands of odorless mineral spirits (Mona Lisa makes one) in art supply stores or the fine art section of your local craft store. Make sure you store it in an air tight container though as it can easily evaporate. You’ll also need some good quality art pencils, ones that have a high wax content, I prefer Prismacolor Pencils; some blending stumps; and some high quality smooth white cardstock. If this technique is not giving you the desired results try changing cardstocks, it can make a big difference with this technique.
First you want to stamp your image with a permanent or waterproof ink (like Staz-On) and then color your image with the pencils, I like to start with my darker colors around the edges and then add lighter tones going inward, then rub the tip of your stump onto the sponge applicator on the Gamsol bottle and then in small circular motions blend your colors together with the stump, careful not to over blend, you want to pull the colors together without muddying them into one color. You can also use one single color and use the mineral spirit to pull the color out and make it lighter. On the sample I made above on the bird you can see I blended orange, yellow and green together but in the hippo I only used one color of grey but used the mineral spirits to lightened it and  get different shades of that one color.
Inky Antics has a nice tutorial on their site also.
I hope you give this fun technique a try for yourself.
-Heather

Read These Next

Have you read?

Learn about China for Kids

China is such a big country with such a long history we can’t possibly cover it all in one blog post, but let’s get to the basics of the People’s Republic of China for kids.

China Basics

  • China is a country in East Asia and is the second-most populous nation in the world, with a population of more than 1.4 billion people. That’s 17.4 percent of the world’s population.
  • Its area is 3.7 million square miles, or almost 9.6 million square kilometers, which makes it the third largest nation by land area. It borders 14 countries: North Korea, Russia, Mongolia, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, Afghanistan, India, Pakistan, Nepal, Bhutan, Myanmar, Laos and Vietnam. It also borders Hong Kong and Macao, which are considered special administrative regions. Its land border is the longest of any country at 13,954 miles, or 22,457 km. It also has a 9,000 mile/14,500 km border on the Pacific Ocean. 
  • China has been inhabited by humans since the Paleolithic Era and is considered one of the cradles of civilization.
  • Gunpowder and paper, among many other things, were invented in China.
  • The country has been the People’s Republic of China since 1949 when Communists took control of the country. It is a one party socialist republic, where the leader of the Communist Party is the president.
  • Beijing is the capital but Shanghai is the largest city by population (and Chongqing is the largest by physical size).
  • The nation is 91 percent ethnically Han Chinese, and about 33 percent of the people are Buddhist.
  • Because it is so large it has many different climates, including deserts, subtropical forests, mountains, coastal and river environments, grasslands and plateaus.

Chinese National Symbols

The Chinese flag is red with a large gold star and four smaller gold stars in the upper left corner. The flag was adopted in 1949. Red represents the revolution, and the large star stands for the Chinese Communist Party. The smaller starts are for the unity of different classes of Chinese people.

The national anthem, “March of the Volunteers,” became the official national anthem in 1978. The lyrics were part of a poem written in 1934 about armies that opposed the Japanese invasion of Manchuria.

There are many symbols of Chinese heritage including the Great Wall of China, Tiananmen Square and the terracotta warriors.

Chinese dragons and pandas are also considered symbols of the country, and the panda is the national animal. Plum blossoms and chrysanthemums are popular flowers. Unofficially, the red-crowned crane or Manchurian crane is the national bird.

Chinese Learning Activities for Kids

There are so many options for activities related to China, but here are a few things to get you started.

Pack More into Life has a great China unit study broken down into three days that includes crafts, food, music, folktales and more.

Mr. Donn has a great set of informative pages about ancient China, including an introduction to Confucius, Taoism, Buddhism, the major dynasties, oracle bones, cultural achievenemts and more.

Learn more about the Great Wall of China, the terracotta soldiers, and the giant panda. You can even throw a panda party with help from Red Ted Art. Or have kids build their own Great Wall of China with this activity from How Wee Learn.

Play Mahjong online or learn the basic rules of mahjong (not very basic!).

Learn about the lunar new year, make dragon crafts and snake crafts for the year of the snake (2025).

Check out more activities at Activity Village and Teachers Pay Teachers.

It’s hard to say what the national dish of China might be because it’s so large and diverse, but one you can make at home is Hot Pot. Check out the recipe from The Woks of Life. Listen to some traditional Chinese music while you eat!