Faber-Castell Gelatos - Easy Blending

I've gotten several e-mails in the last couple months asking about Faber-Castell's Gelatos.  Mostly people have bought them at a convention or a store after seeing them demoed but after bringing them home they go unused.

Well, today I want you to pull 'em out and start using them!

First things first ~ One thing that I hear most often is that people are upset with themselves about is how much money they spent on them.  These babies are well worth the money, trust me on that...I'm cheap so I don't shell out money on a whim.  I like to know I'm getting my money's worth before I go ahead and buy something.   Gelatos are a very creamy stick of pigment color in a chap-stick like tube with a twist up action.  I have used mine many times and I have yet had to twist any more up than what is already exposed when I bought them.  A little goes a very long way, especially if you're watercolor  with them which is my favorite technique.

How do you use them?

Well I though we'd start off by simple coloring an image and a bit of blending.  Now you can use all sorts of fancy gadgets to blend with but my 2 favorite blenders are - my Niji Watercolor brush for a watercolor effect or my finger for a more smudgy dry look.  Blending stumps work well, I've heard some people use cotton swabs but I think the cotton draws in quite a bit of the color myself, make up sponges, etc.

 

To start off I just scribbled a bit of orange on my cardstock ~ you can see how intense the color is.  I've seen some people color their entire image/die cut with the stick before they begin blending ~ personally I think it's a waste of the medium.  You really don't need complete coverage ~ the gelatos are very easy to manipulate and can fill in a large space with a small amount of product.

 

So next I just went about smudging it up with my finger....

 

 

I love the aura it creates ... 

 

NOTE: Now I have to tell you it works better if you're fingers are warm.  It's again very cold here and my hands are freezing today.  Normally I get a much smoother color by blending with my finger.

 

 

 

You can also use water to blend.... 

 

 

the large area is where the original scribbles were and the lighter area is the excess color that was still on my waterbrush.

 

 

Here I started off with the same orange and a bit of yellow.  I then used a blending stump to bring the two together. 

 

 

 

Now to use them on an actual stamped image....  This is all the medium I applied to this large lily (Just For Fun Rubber Stamps). 

 

 

 

Next, I blended the larger areas with my finger then used the blending stump to get at the very tips of the petals. 

 

 

For this image I again just applied a small amount of color...

 

 

Then blended with the waterbrush.   

 

 

Next week (probably Thursday & Friday) we'll do a bit of blending in a more free-style way by creating a mixed media collage!

 

Hope to see you then!