Galaxy or nebula with Distress re-inkers and spray stains

I made this tutorial for the Facebook group called Distress ink techniques. Go check them out, it’s a really nice bunch of people, sharing ideas and work.

I work on Schut Hotpressed and smooth 140lbs (300grams) watercolour paper.

I pulled out an array of space like colors: chipped sapphire, faded jeans, twisted citron, black soot, wilted violet picked raspberry. I had also pulled out hickory smoke and blueprint sketch, but I didn’t use them.

From the stains I used twisted citron, wilted
violet, brushed pewter and picket fence (Dylusions).

I taped my panel on a small cutting mat, in case I need to move it around.

The technique is quite simple: you wet a piece of the panel and drop in dots of color, let the water carry it out and blend it. I start in the middle with the picked raspberry.

I used a palette with wells and then swatched the re inkers onto some watercolour paper, as a blob of re-inker looks much the same as the one next to it.

Just to indentify and remember wich is in wich well. You don’t have to do this. The spray stains I put in little bowls, I don’t have many of the stains, but they work well as watercolours if undiluted, they’re at their best undiluted, so you get the true color, you could put them into water brushes and use them from the water brush.

For the outside I like to mix chipped sapphire and black soot, a true black space it too stark in my opinion, also looks flat.

I bring the black up to the edges of the pink and let the water wick it out.

If the colours blend on their own they will look better, then when you  try to mix with the brush, you also get mud/brown quicker.

The wilted violet and the faded jeans mix into a nice deep purple.

Dry layers in between I used the heat gun and add more layers and details. Once happy (ish) heat set it.

I sprinkled with water, in some areas it didn’t lift any color, or barely, but where it did, it adds dimension and depth, same with the brushed pewter and picket fence splatter, the white is translucent and adds another layer and depth. The splatters in front of the nebula and the “blobs” reaching into the nebula contribute to a see through look, like it’s a proper gas cloud, see the close ups , it really looks transparent, which of course can’t be, because it’s on paper ;-)

Heat set it again and  then use fixative spray...

Decorate with space like vessels and or alien die cuts if you like