Create Your Own Watermark

Watermarks are a recognizable image or pattern on paper that is faintly visible in the background of artwork or on official documentation. But you probably already know what a watermark is, but did know you could make your own watermark? With the use of water color paints and oil pastels, you can easily fabricate and personalize your artwork or perhaps, just add another dimension of awesome to your painting

Without using a dandy roll (the traditional watermarking process), let's get started watermarking!

For this project, you will need:

Oil Pastel(s)

Water colors + water

Paint brushes

Paint Palette (optional- good or blending colors)

Watercolor paper (optional, but recommended)

I used a white color oil pastel on white water color paper to create my watermark. You could potentially use any color pastel on any color paper, but if they are not matching shades, the pastel color would be less a watermark, and more just an under-layer of medium.

Since I used white on white paper, I could only faintly make out what I was writing. The image above isn't nearly as visible as it was in person.

Once you've finished drawing out your image with the oil pastel, its time to paint!

Water colors are applied by adding water onto the dry color palettes. The more water you add, the more diluted and less saturated the color will be. If you play around with it, you'll find happy pigment concentrations.

Once you start painting over the oil pastel image, you'll notice that the paint does not administer over the pastel.

Why does the oil pastel show through over the water color paints? Well, water and oil are old enemies, and refuse to play nice with each other, and this is no exception. However, this time awesome watermarks are created!

Enjoy!