Description
Make mixed media art with Gelatos!
Despite their popularity, the question remains; what even are Gelatos? Though their appearance resembles that of a gel stick or crayon, Gelatos are a multipurpose art material unlike any other. Once you discover the different contents and techniques that make Gelatos unique, your art can be changed forever.
What do you get when you mix pigment, wax, and oil? You get a pigment stick of creamy soft texture also known as Gelatos. Gelatos are acid-free, odorless, and water-soluble. They can be used by themselves or combined with water through a series of techniques to create a watercolour medium.
Gelatos quality pigment is resistant to fading under normal lighting conditions and is compatible with most other acrylic mediums. The easy twist up design of Gelatos makes them easy to maintain and store and their solid opaque colour is perfect to cover large surfaces.
Gelatos can be used on paper, cloth, canvas, wood, and fabric. We recommend using a thicker paper such as watercolour paper and using a sealant when working with fabric. Gelatos are also great to use when journaling in your books, notebooks, or bibles, and their vibrant colours look great against dark coloured surfaces. With such versatility, it can be hard to know where to start with your Gelatos. Here you can find a handful of techniques to gain a better understanding of this medium.
Blending Gelatos is a great technique to add colour and dimension to your work. Combine colours together to create new colours and blend multiple colours together with your fingertips, a cotton swab, water, or a blending tool. Another technique to try on your Gelatos is edging. With the edging technique, create a distressed or grunge effect by drawing colour along the edge of your paper then blend to fade colour inward.
Transform your Gelatos into beautiful watercolors with different watercolour techniques. At a basic watercolour level, create your art with your Gelatos then create a watercolour effect with tools such as a water brush, cloth, or baby wipe over your fingertip to spread and blend the colour.
Add a spray bottle to your list of tools and try our spritzing and dripping techniques. Spritzing is when you spray your surface with water, then apply your Gelatos over the wet paper, or vice versa. Use a paintbrush to blend and move the colour around. The dripping technique is when you apply your Gelatos to one side of your page and use your misting bottles to wet the surface. Tilt your work and let the colour drop down the page.
Lastly, dissolve Gelatos into watercolours using warm to hot water and use the back of a spatula to smash pigment fragments and mix until smooth. Add more water to lighten the colour, extend the pigment further, and increase the blend ability.
