M339 Seabed Greens (4" x 4") -- Doubles and Singles

Here's hoping today's post will be a launchpad for your own ideas and explorations using masks and stencils -- which I define as quick and easy Mylar tools for having fun with art!  (Having fun should always be the goal!)

One of my favorite ways to make prints with stencils and masks is to use a sponge (aka "foam") brayer loaded with heavy-body acrylic paint.  (Similar results can happen if you're using a Gelli Plate.)

The sequence above shows, first, how I load the brayer on a tablet of white palette paper; and second, how I roll the loaded brayer down across a stencil that's held to paper either with my hand or with masking tape.

On the second roll, I often flip the brayer over so that the light color strip widens; this places the dark color strip on the far left side.

I don't always work with two colors or two shades within one color family, but today's post starts with this approach.

Before opening 2 tubes of acrylic paint, I unrolled narrow tape to

connect a pair of my kelp-inspired 4" x 4" mask M339 Seabed Greens --

Above:  Here I've unrolled the tape across adjoining borders of the two masks.  Next, I'll trim off the tape at both ends, leaving a rectangular shape to work with.

Having placed my mask combos onto paper and loaded my sponge brayer, I made several prints, shown below:

Above:  Tomorrow's post will show what I did next with this print -- I've tried something new and I like it!  You may want to try this, too!

To wrap up this first section of today's post, I encourage you to try this duplicate-matching idea with other masks of other sizes.  (I think it would work better with masks than with stencils but that's really up to the individual.  What's the difference?  Stencils' designs have broken lines.  Masks' designs have solid lines.)  Back-to-back duplicates can bring drama into artwork!

My next project with M339 Seabed Greens took off in another direction, when I used a single mask that I'd cut free from its original square border.

Above:  With my first border-free print, I used the mask only once, placing it over a green and blue print that I'd made with 6" x 6" s955 Bulbs and Banners, another mask inspired by the formations of Bulb Kelp.

For my next approach, I used the 4" x 4" borderless mask multiple times to leave a trail of prints --

Above: To make this print, I combined my border-free 4" x 4" mask with  9" x 12" L963 Kelp Forest, which for the most part shows up only in the upper right top.

Thanks for coming to my blog today! Tomorrow's post will be, I hope, a brain-tickler!  Fresh ideas, as long as they aren't offensive, are forever welcome in the art-making world.

To scroll thru the pages of my masks and stencils at StencilGirlProducts.com, please start here.