3 Ways to Use Brusho Crystal Colours

As part of building Creative Foundations in our artistic practice, I will be demonstrating 3 ways to use Brusho Crystal Colours. These powders are a versatile medium that can be used in multiple applications including cards, journal projects and watercolor projects.

What are Brusho Crystal Colours?

Brusho Crystal Colours are highly pigmented watercolor crystals. These crystals can be used in a variety of ways including mixing with water to make a watercolor paint and sprinkled onto surfaces and misted to create interesting patterns.

What makes them such an interesting product is that there are multiple colors of crystals within each color. This means that a green color will not just have green crystals in it, but blue, yellow, and even black. These varied colors lead to a unique result when added to your project.

Alternatives to Brusho Crystal Colours

There are several alternatives to the Brusho Crystal Colours out on the market. When I was looking into investing into some of the Brusho powders I did quite a bit of research. I decided on the Brushos because of the balance between cost of the powders, quality of the pigments and number of colors available.

There are many products available made with different binders and a variety of pigment loads. If you are going to invest in these products, make sure that you are getting an artist’s grade product with as much pigment load as you can afford. Not only will these work better for you, you will need to use less product and will get better results. When it comes to my art supplies, I want to be paying for pigment, not for binder.

How to Use Brusho Crystal Colours

I have included a video below of 3 ways to use Brusho Crystal Colours, but I will also provide written instructions and photos below.

Using the Powder

When you first get your brush pigment powders, DO NOT take the lids off the powders! This is a very concentrated pigment that is hard to control once you take the lid off. The granules are small so after creating with Brushos sometimes I find pigment in my studio space weeks later.

To use the powder, take a push pin and push it into the center of your Brusho powders. This will create a small hole where you can then pour out a bit of the pigment powder onto your project. A little of this pigment goes a very long way! To get the powder out, remove the pin and gently tap the container. This will allow you to control the amount of powder that you disperse from the container and makes using brushos much more enjoyable.  

Making Brusho Backgrounds

Making Brusho backgrounds is a very relaxing and fun exercise. When making Brusho backgrounds I start with watercolor paper. I usually use a 90lb watercolor paper as I’m usually cutting up this paper to use in books and other projects. A heavier weight watercolor paper generally works the best as it will hold more water without buckling. You can also use a variety of mixed media papers, the key is to choose something that will hold a lot of water and give you working time. I would not suggest using cardstock or copy paper with Brusho powders.

Adding Brusho Powder

Gently spritz the paper with water and tap on Brusho pigment powder. You only need a little, so add a few taps of powder in one area and then move onto other areas of the surface adding pigment power across the entire page. You can add variation by adding different colors of Brusho powders instead of sticking to just one color.

Adding Water  

Spritz the surface with water. The pigment powders will start to activate and start flowing with the water. This is where things get really interesting. Brusho pigment powder is not made up of one color of crystals but several. You will end up with some unexpected variations in color and as you add more pigment and water, you can get great variation in the color for your background.

Troubleshooting

You may notice that the background is not completely covered in color the first time that you spritz your surface with water. Instead of just adding more water to blend the colors, continue to add Brusho pigment powder and spritz with water. You may find that there still are white spaces on your page, but it can be a nice effect to leave white space on your background.

If you do not like the look of white spaces, you can use a water brush to pull the pigment out to the edges. As you work you might also find that there is too much water on the page. By gently blotting with a paper towel, you can pick up some of the water that pools on the page.

Using Brusho Pigment Powders Through a Stencil

If you are looking for a very loose design for stencilling, try using Brusho pigment powders through a stencil. To complete this technique, spritz the paper with a bit of water and set your stencil on top. By doing this, it will help hold your stencil in place and prevent it from shifting. If you would like a less watercolor result and stronger lines, try laying down the stencil without spritzing with water first.

Lightly sprinkle the pigment powder onto the surface of the stencil and then spritz with water. Continue to do so until you reach the desired effect. Be careful not to use too much water as it will seep under the stencil. I would suggest adding more pigment powder at the beginning to ensure that you don’t have to add too much water.

If you have too much water on your surface, leave your stencil in place to let the background dry a bit and absorb the water. Once you are ready to remove the stencil, pick up the stencil and flip it over onto a clean piece of paper. This will give you a great negative image that can be used on another work of art.

Using Brusho Crystal Colours to Watercolor

Brusho Crystal Colours are watercolor crystals, so it is very easy to watercolor with them. From my reading, I can’t find the specific binder that is being used for these crystals, but it does act similarly to watercolor paint. To create watercolor paint, add Brusho crystals to a palette and add water. Mix with a brush and start adding to your background or project. It is easy to get beautiful washes this way and you can use this for coloring and creating beautiful art pieces.

What Do You Think?

What do you think of these 3 ways to use Brusho Crystal Colours? Have you tried Brushos in your work before? I would love to see your work or answer any questions that you may have. Feel free to comment below or contact me directly. Also, if you would like to share your work, tag your picture in Instagram with #hopalongstudio and I’ll be able to view your work. I hope that you take some time this week for some creative self-care and try out this fun and easy technique!