Basil in Pebeo Paints

I made two paintings of the same subject. I wrote a previous post about my basil painting done in acrylics. (Read it here!)

This post will be about this piece:

Also, have a look here and see the listing on Etsy!

When you work with these kinds of paints, they are very flowy. The intent is actually to have them flow together and make beautiful abstract art. At least that’s what I think the intent is. There has not been much talk about these paints, I discovered them one day while perusing the aisles at Michael’s. I bought some and then looked up what to do with them. They just seemed so cool. They ARE so cool!

So, I’m not sure if I’m using them the same way as other people do, but does it really matter? In a way, I hope that I’m NOT using them the same, and that I’ve created my own way of painting with this medium!

Anyway, I started out by using Google images. I used the same photo that I found for the acrylic painting. I drew them both one right after the other.

(When I was in art school, and I had to find reference photos for a picture I was drawing, I used to go to the children’s section in the public library and pour over the picture books. They were the best way to find good reference pictures. Now, Google images, or Pixabay are great.)

Here’s my reference image:

So, pencil drawing on canvas panel. I like to use the canvas panels for these paints, I think they are sturdier. I don’t have a picture of my pencil drawing, but let’s say that I drew it with a 2H graphite pencil, and then lightened up my lines with a kneaded eraser.

After I had my line drawing ready to go, the next step is to outline in liquid leading. I used black, but I have silver, white and glitter also. I’ve not tried the other colors yet. Black was the right choice for this one anyway.

You can see my goof ups that I tried to clean up the best I could. At this point, I’m just hoping that the paints will go on thick enough to cover them up.

Next I start playing with the leaves. I first used the Apple Green ( or Green Apple?) Vitrail. This particular line is actually glass paints, so it goes on somewhat clear.

Excuse the mess from the other painting in the background. Once I get a leaf or two painted in the Vitrail, I go and add an Emerald Fantasy Moon paint. I just dot it on with a toothpick, and let the paint do the work for me. I don’t want it to be defined anyway, I want it to flow and do its thing. I also used a few dots of Eggshell White Fantasy Prisme paint.

I also painted the underside of the leaf on the left with a base layer of the green Vitrail, and then dotted in some Chocolate Fantasy Moon Paint. I like how it’s looking so far.

Next, for the background I had to very carefully go around the entire plant with the paint and a toothpick. This was by far the MOST tedious part of the entire painting! These paints though…have I  mentioned they flow? If you get some where you don’t want it to be, it FLOWS. Therefore, it pays to go S-L-O-W.

I did the inside (tedious) part surrounding the plant with Buttercup Fantasy Prisme paint. The entire rest of the painting is done with Apricot Fantasy Moon paint. I had to go to where the two colors met and kind of swirl them together to get them to blend. I’m not sure if it was because it took me so long to do the inner, lighter color, or if that was just how these two paints behaved next to each other.

Here are all the paints I used for this piece:

All in all, I’m very happy with how it turned out, and I had fun making it. Now, can someone please purchase it?