Osprey Wings

Coming to www.StencilGirlProducts.com:  One of my newly designed stencils, measuring 6"X6", features a pair of soaring osprey (fish hawks) and goes by the title of Osprey Wings.

This particular design happens to be one I developed a long time ago, after taking photos at Sandy Hook National Park, NJ, a long peninsula jutting up between a wide double-bay and the Atlantic, with the NYC skyline as background.

The above image, which features one of the two osprey silhouettes on this new 6"6" stencil, was created long ago in Photoshop.  But I could have created the exact same results using this new stencil -- I simply would have placed the Osprey Wings stencil atop yellow-to-purple paper, traced the outline, cut out the silhouette, and adhered it to a piece of background paper. 

This particular background paper started life as a sheet of black glossy cardstock.  I then pressed it, glossy black side down, to a sheet of Plexiglas randomly spread with aqua and blue acrylic paints.  I twisted the sheet of cardstock a few times before lifting it off the Plexiglas and setting it aside to dry.  This method of monoprinting often yields results that remind me of seawater.  This particular piece of paper made me think of soaring over ocean waves, looking down ... so it was natural to add the osprey gliding along below the artist's hypothetical viewpoint, watching for a fish.

Below --

 

-- is another image created the same way:  The background is a monoprint.  After the monoprint paint has dried, the next step is to place the 6"X6" soon-to-be-released stencil Osprey Wings atop the background, and use a dark contrasting color (via spray paint or paint dauber) to add the osprey.  In the above example, the stencil would be used twice, in two chosen locations, to space the pair of birds farther apart than they appear on the stencil itself.

The 6"X6" stencil Osprey Wings:

 

To watch a video of monoprinting using a sheet of glass or Plexiglas, go to:  http://www.goldenpaints.com/technicaldata/monoprnt.php

Note that the speaker on this video says you have the option of using "open acrylic" paints to prolong the printing time and to facilitate easier lifting of the finished monoprint.  I agree this is a good idea for beginners.  My samples shown here, however, were created with normal acrylic paints.  After these projects were completed, I bought a Gelli Plate and began using it for my monoprints; this technique is shown in action by Mary Beth Shaw in one of her two new DVDs:
 http://www.northlightshop.com/stencil-girl-mixed-media-wall-hanging-group