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Tissue Color-Bleed Background Technique

Boy....life, huh? The coronavirus is quite shocking, isn't it? What thing or event can you think of that has affected the entire world so quickly and radically like this? At least we all have one more common thread between us, which in a way brings us closer together despite the social distancing. There's a lot to think about these days. There's a lot of emotions that I know that I am feeling, and so most of the world must be feeling a lot too. Now is an excellent time to start a journaling practice, whether it be writing, poetry, maybe a time capsule, or through art. With mixed media, art is how I journal, and I imagine if you're reading this, it's an activity of sorts with you too.


So today, I am bringing you another background technique that you can use with your art journals.



How to make a bleeding tissue background


This one is fun but takes some drying time.



Here are the materials you need:



Step 1:

Pick out your tissue paper colors.

I used two different colors to make it more fun, but it's hard to tell with my first blue one.


Tissue paper for background technique


Step 2:

Rip up the tissue paper till you have enough to cover and overlap on your watercolor paper.

I underestimated how much I needed and had to rip more while I was placing them.


Ripped tissue for background technique



Step 3:

Use a squirt bottle with water in it to dampen both sides of your watercolor paper.


Dampen paper for tissue background technique



Step 4:

Start placing the tissue in a slightly messy way onto your paper until it's covered.


add tissue paper to wet paper for background technique
cover your paper with ripped tissue paper



Step 6:

Squirt more water onto the tissue till it's all pretty wet.

When I did this, some of the tissue started blowing away from the burst of air the squirt bottle put out while spraying. So, be ready for that.


spray water on colored tissue paper for background technique
wet tissue on watercolor paper



Step 7:

Place a piece of heavy-ish glass on top of everything. Then, let it dry.

Here, I used a piece of glass from a picture frame. But in the past, I've used a glass casserole dish.


lay glass on wet tissue paper



Step 8:

Once it's dry, remove the glass.


let tissue dry under piece of glass
background technique




Step 9:

Remove the tissue paper.


remove tissue paper to reveal background


If all worked well, you'll have something like this:


colorbleeding background technique


I made more:

examples of color bleeding background technique
background technique with color bleeding tissue


In the comments, it gives you an option to upload an image. If you try this, please upload how it turned out.

And feel free to upload any other tissue paper-related backgrounds. In this post, I share a technique using crumpled tissue paper.