What happens when you stop thinking of colour as the finished result and start treating it as the beginning of the creative process?
Colour has a way of changing once we start playing with it. A single shade can become something completely different when it is watered down, layered over another colour, softened with white, deepened with ink or interrupted with a stencil or mark.
And that's where the fun begins.
In mixed media, colour doesn't have to stay where you put it. It can be layered, altered, softened, intensified, interrupted and transformed — sometimes deliberately, and sometimes through those wonderful happy accidents that happen when we simply experiment and see what unfolds.
Layer it.
A wash of colour might be beautiful on its own, but add another layer and suddenly something new begins to emerge. Transparent paints, inks, sprays and washes allow the colours underneath to remain part of the story, creating depth and movement without completely covering what came before.
Sometimes the most interesting colour is the one you can only partly see.
Colours don't always need to meet in neat lines.
Allowing two shades to mingle, overlap or bleed into one another can create unexpected tones and subtle transitions. Try blending while colours are wet, or experiment with dry layers over the top of one another and see how differently they behave.
You don't always know what you'll get — and that's half the fun.
Spray it.
Sprays can turn colour into something much more unpredictable. A fine mist creates a soft veil, while a heavier spray can leave pools, splashes and interesting variations across the surface.
Try spraying through a stencil. Turn the stencil over and use the leftover colour. Let a little run. Add another colour. Don't worry about making it perfect.
Sometimes the marks you weren't planning become your favourite ones.
Stencil it.
A stencil doesn't have to create a perfect, complete pattern. Use just part of it. Allow the design to disappear beneath another layer. Add paint, ink or texture paste, then soften it with another colour.
A little pattern peeking through several layers can add far more interest than a perfectly defined image.
Stamp it.
Stamping doesn't always mean choosing an ink pad and making a perfect impression.
Try stamping into wet paint. Use second-generation impressions. Stamp over texture. Partially stamp an image so that it disappears into the background.
Marks don't have to be obvious to be effective.
Sometimes a tiny glimpse of a pattern is all a layered background needs.
Mix it all up.
This is where colour really starts to play.
Paint over spray. Stamp over paint. Stencil over ink. Add a wash. Cover part of it. Reveal something underneath. Add another layer.
There are no rules saying you have to stop after one technique.
The beauty of mixed media is that every layer changes what came before it — and every new layer becomes part of the story.
Let colour surprise you.
Some of our favourite creative discoveries happen when we stop trying to control every part of the process.
A colour that looked ordinary on its own might suddenly come alive against another shade. A stencil mark might disappear beautifully beneath a wash. A splash might land somewhere unexpected and become exactly what the page needed.
That's the beauty of playing with colour.
You don't have to know exactly where you're going before you begin.
So this month, we invite you to experiment. Pull out those paints, sprays, inks, markers and stencils. Make a mess. Try combinations you wouldn't normally choose. Layer colours you wouldn't normally put together.
Don't just use colour. Play with it.
Don't forget to share your creativeness with us over at Scrappingclearly Share & Inspire's Facebook page as we would love to see your beginning.
Because colour is only the beginning.
And once you start layering, blending, spraying, stencilling, stamping and experimenting, you never quite know where that beginning might take you.
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