Brand-new Kelp Masks Meet the Scissors

 For a long time I've used paint-stained stencils and masks as elements in collage, and almost every time, those have been scissor-customized.  Today's post starts with an example from the past, then moves forward to show examples of it with my newly released set of three kelp-inspired masks. 

In the example above (a close-up of one area of a larger artwork), the background has been created using 6" x 6" Kaleid s085 (with watercolor and colored pencil.)  In the foreground I've glued two pieces cut from that mask; these pieces were stained with acrylic paints in earlier art projects.  (This photo shows them as darker than they actually are.)

My newly released designs are 9" x 12" Kelp Forest L963...

6" x 6" Bulbs and Banners s955 ...

and 4" x 4" Seabed Greens M339.

My new masks had already become stained with acrylic paints when I took scissors to them.  In the smaller two, my only change has been to remove their outer frames.

However, my 9" x 12" kelp mask, Kelp Forest L963, contains within its design three smaller designs, each with its own unique visual identity. These 3 smaller designs begged for individual freedom from the bigger whole.

These three appear below, where I'm auditioning them on  watercolor paper printed with my Abstract Composition Backbones Masks.

Below:  Joyce Chen scissors and the remaining pieces from 9" x 12" Kelp Forest L963.

Below:  Part of 9" x 12" Kelp Forest L963, stained with acrylic paints in the blue and green families, has become a collage element on a background painted in orange, white and hints of blue.

Above:  Another two parts of Kelp Forest L963, stained with acrylic paints in the blue and green families, are now collage elements on a background painted in similar colors.  The original substrate was a thick paper printed with one of my old designs.  This older design is what provides the background rectangle, which I think adds interest to the overall piece.

Above:  Another two parts of Kelp Forest L963, along with  Seabed Greens M339 (upper right) -- all stained with acrylic paints mostly of the blue and green families -- have become  collage elements on a monoprinted background.

Above:  Two parts of Kelp Forest L963, stained with acrylic paints mostly of the blue and green families -- are now collage elements on a different monoprinted background.

Above:  Cut from its original 6" x 6" frame, Bulbs  and Banners s955, now stained with acrylic blue and green paints, has been used as a collage element on yet another monoprinted background.

Above:  4" x 4"  Seabed Greens M339, stained with acrylic blue and green paints, has been cut from its outer frame to become a collage element on a background that had been drizzled with purple paint.

Note One:  In today's projects, I have used more than one set of these new kelp masks, so you may've noticed a few of the stained, customized masks appearing more than once.

Note Two:  These are art examples still in progress.  The stained mask pieces are glued to their substrates as the first step in further developing each piece.

I hope these collage-starts will spark ideas of your own! Thanks for visiting my blog today.

Combining Designs

For me, a big part of the fun with stencils and masks comes from the surprise-results of using one design atop another.  

Many artists using more than one stencil or mask tend to blend each printed design with the others, as they go.

Those results are lovely; I'm a big fan of that approach.  

However, I myself don't usually work that way.  I like to start a project by printing with one design while striving to make that print closely match the design on the stencil or mask that I'm using.  Then, after the bottom layer has dried, I like to add new layers using new prints.

Both approaches reach the ultimate goal -- which is to create richly complex images.

Another thing about layering prints is that you can continue adding more and more layers, as long as you're using thin art-making media, such as pencils or watercolor or liquid acrylic paint.

When I have what I consider a finished print, today, may tomorrow strike me as a piece that needs another layer -- often with new colors and a new stencil or mask design.

My newly released masks inspired by Bulb Kelp include pods that have prompted me to combine new prints using 9" x 12" L963 Kelp Forest, with earlier prints I'd made using either 9" x 12" Dangled Pods L490 or 9" x 12" Tangled Pods L344.  I like the visual complexity of one and shape size of bulb or pod with another.

The paper below was first printed with both Dangled Pods L490 and Tangled Pods L344, in warm reds, yellows and oranges.  The topmost layer was made with green acrylic paint, a cool color that sits across the color wheel from those warm colors of the earlier layers.  For this print I used translucent acrylic paint (so the bottom layers would remain somewhat visible) and I used 9" x 12" L963 Kelp Forest....

Above:  In this multi-layer print, the original layers continue to dominate, despite having been covered with a blue kelp print.  The blue print is most visible in the upper left. Elsewhere across this piece, it timidly hides.

Above: A large sheet of watercolor paper, initially printed with my 6" x 6" Abstract Composition Backbones Masks, has now been covered with translucent yellow acrylic paint applied thru L963 Kelp Forest.

Below:  A sturdy sheet of silver foil had been printed using my 9" x 12" Boxed Vines L247 in dark green acrylic paint.  (The paper shown here has been cropped so that only part of the Boxed Vines L247 print shows.) Atop that I used L963 Kelp Forest.  This time, as before, I paired a layer of a cool color (green) across the color wheel from the warm color orange. I did this to create high contrast, with the goal of visual drama.

Above:  This print appears here and in another post, to help illustrate two points that I see as important.

My go-to method of print-making is to use a sponge brayer loaded with heavy-body acrylic paint, as detailed in earlier posts over the past several days, starting April 27. Somewhat similar results can happen with Gelli Plate prints.  

Featured in today's post--

Abstract Composition Backbones Mask 1 s864 (6" x 6")

Abstract Composition Backbones Mask 2 s865 (6" x 6")

Abstract Composition Backbones Mask 3 s866 (6" x 6")

Abstract Composition Backbones Mask 4 s867

Dangled Pods L490 (9" x 12")

Tangled Pods L344 (9" x 12")

9" x 12" Boxed Vines L247

Thank you for coming to see my blog today! To scroll thru the pages of my stencils and masks at StencilGirlProducts.com, please start here. 

Back to Brusho!

Brusho watercolor crystals lend themselves to many painting styles. My way of using them is to go for a "loose, painterly" look.  And I like to pair them with Golden High Flow Acrylics.

You can sprinkle these crystals on wet paper and watch them "bloom" with color(s) as you go.  Or you can sprinkle crystals on dry paper, then spritz them with water using a mister bottle.  If starting with dry paper, sprinkle Brusho very sparingly -- so sparingly that at first the surface may appear blank.  But when hit with water, it comes to life with color.

Because of these "hidden" colors, you may want to use your dry applicator brush to stir the crystals while they are still in the little containers that they arrive in. This way, your applicator brush is already loaded with dry crystals, ready to be strewn across paper.

Above:  Under the Brusho box lies my dry applicator brush.  I use a size that fits into the small Brusho bottles, to stir crystals, as well as to load with crystals for scattering.

Above:  This is a mixed-media piece on watercolor paper. It combines collage papers with a central print that I created using 4" x 4" m339 Seabed Greens after it had been cut from its original outer frame; this print was made with Brusho and Golden High Flow Acrylics.

Above: For this "painterly" print, I used m339 Seabed Greens when it was still attached to its original outer frame.  The background was some handmade paper imported from Asia.  I used Titanium White Golden High Flow Acrylic and white Brusho.

Above: This is one of two detail close-ups from a painting that's coming up below.  This area of the painting was made with 4" x 4" m339 Seabed Greens after it had been cut from its square frame.  Golden High Flow was the medium used in this area of the artwork.

Above: Once again, to make a painterly" print, I used Titanium White Golden High Flow Acrylic and white Brusho, on a background paper imported from Asia.  The patterns were created with two pieces of 9" x 12" L963 Kelp Forest, after I had scissor-customized that mask.

Above: This is the full-sized artwork mentioned above, which was created with all three of my new kelp-inspired masks.  I used Brusho and Golden High Flow acrylics.  I also added collage pieces, then painted over them.

 

Above: This is another detail from the full-size painting.  There is a collaged area running across the central area. Above and below that area, I've used Brusho and High Flow Acrylics with 9" x 12" L963 Kelp Forest.

The new masks featured in today's post look like this when they arrive:

9" x 12" L963 Kelp Forest

6" x 6" Bulbs and Banners s955

4" x 4" Seabed Greens m339

Thanks for checking out my blog today.  I hope something here might have given you a brain tickle to try something new in your own art-making time!

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

Brain Tickle?

Flipping through magazines or scrolling along on the Internet, you can easily come upon someone's silhouetted profile; and the one that demanded a second look, for me, was the photographed silhouette of a beautiful woman with gorgeously piled hair -- just her head in profile, and the top of her shoulders.  To respect copyright, I won't show that photo.  But I can show what I did after cutting out that profile and placing it onto the back of one of the prints that I showed in yesterday's blog post.  Quick review ...

Above: Yesterday I posted this print, made using 4" x 4" Seabed Greens m339, after I had taped together two of these masks to make a series of double prints with heavy-body acrylic green paint.

Below:  Having first flipped that green-and-white multi-print over onto its face, I then taped onto its back side a cut-out I'd made using that photo of a woman's silhouetted profile.   Next, I used a black Sharpie to trace the outline....

Above, the silhouette's outline, now traced onto the back of the green-and-white print, is ready to be cut out with fine-detail scissors. 

Below, you can see this cut-out on its flip side, along with the printed paper that's left behind --

Now came time to audition backgrounds for my cut-out.  I started with this:

Above:  I liked the background of warm colors against the cut-out's dominant cool color of green, but one problem remained.  The dark value across the middle of the green print was way too close to the dark values in this background.  These visually merged dark areas diminished the impact of the overall image.

Below:  Having inserted a paper band of light color behind the trouble area, I'm happy with the contrast that results....

The paper now printed green had originally been covered with block letters; those letters remain somewhat visible.  Likewise, the band of pale color that I've added to this collage had originally been printed with letters that now retain a little visibility.  These hinted-at letters, to my eye, add depth, interest and "history" to the finished artwork.

Has this post tickled your brain with new artistic possibilities?  I hope so! 

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

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.