Art...

Friday, May 5, 2017

Today's Feature: ORNAMENTAL IRON CURLS 6" X 6" Stencil

Note: the StencilGirl links below will take you to the right stencils on the StencilGirl website, altho the stencil titles may differ from here to there.

Yesterday's post introduced my four new stencils. The demo in yesterday's post didn't include any art made with one of the stencils, Ornamental Iron Curls , so today I'm featuring seven prints made with this stencil:

Above: you can click on this double image to enlarge it and better see the details. The print on the right was done on an old blueprint. The print on the left was done on paper pre-printed with diagrams; this paper had been included in a book of blueprints.

Above: Ornamental Iron Curls was used twice to make this print, each time with a different color of acrylic paint.

Above: this print was done with grey-buff acrylic paint loaded onto a sponge brayer and rolled across the stencil when it was placed over an old computer print-out of mine.

Note: the above print was done on paper pre-printed with diagrams; it came in a book of blueprints.

To see all of my stencils -- new and old -- just go here.

More special ways of using stencils will be posted here -- and a very special post will appear May 23. To follow this blog, just sign up for emails on the upper right.

I'm unsure as to whether the "subscribe" feature, on the upper left, is working. To be safe, I suggest depending on the "emails" box on the upper right.

Thursday, May 4, 2017

Four Brand-New Stencils Released Today!

I'm happy to introduce 4 new 6" x 6" stencils:

s462 Ornamental Iron Curls

s463 Ski-Lift Works

s464 Pavilion Shadows 6x6

s465 Sassy Spray

I'll be posting daily about these four new stencils, sometimes showing all four of them used together in artworks, sometimes showing them used in pairs, and sometimes showing them used individually.

Today I'm focusing on using them in pairs -- combining them with a masking trick that I first learned way back when I was designing rubber stamps and using those stamps.

For this technique I used heavy-body acrylic paints, a 4-inch-wide sponge brayer, a disposable foam plate, cardstock (both scraps and full-size sheets), scissors, masking tape and a few other general art tools that all of us keep near our work-tables.

My first step: With green masking tape, I secured the four corners of a sheet of cardstock to my work surface. Plain cardstock is fine, but I chose a piece with random Gelli plate prints --

Over this cardstock, I used masking tape to add a rectangular scrap of paper, a sturdy paper similar to cardstock --

To keep this project quick and easy for myself, I used this white paper that's rectangular in shape. However, more complicated shapes could work, too. The main difference would be that the more complicated the mask, the more careful registration would need to be. In this write-up, I'm using a rectangular shape because it eliminates the need for careful registration!

The next step was to add a stencil over the white paper, which would be working as a mask --

I chose Sassy Spray for this step, and secured it on both sides with masking tape.

Now I prepared the heavy-body acrylic paint --

I used a disposable foam plate for loading the brayer with paint, but any similar surface would work -- a dollar-store disposable cutting board; a sheet of taped-down freezer paper, shiny side up; etc.

After loading the sponge brayer evenly with a coat of this thick paint, I rolled it across the stencil-and-papers "sandwich" --

Now, it was time to lift the stencil --

My next step was to remove the mask (the white rectangular strip of paper) --

The photo above shows the mask being pulled off (right side.)

The photo below shows that, next, I added another stencil, lining its edges up with the imprint-edges left by the previous stencil --

Pavilion Shadows is the stencil that I added, as shown above.

At this point, I could have switched to paint of a different color -- there are many potential variables to this technique.

I chose to keep the same paint color, adding it with the brayer -- applying it in only the narrow area that once had been covered by the mask --

I worked this step by eyeballing it -- but I could have taken the extra precaution of masking off the top third and the bottom third of the print. I didn't take that precaution because I could easily tell where the center strip (maks) had been placed. It would have been harder to do this if I had chosen a complicated shape for my mask. But the rectangular shape made this an easy step.

After lifting off the second stencil, I was left with my final print -- as shown above, it's a composite of the two stencils that I'd used.

This technique has endless variations.

Here are more finished samples:

Above: the two stencils used here: Pavilion Shadows; SassySpray .

Above: the two stencils used here: Pavilion Shadows; Sassy Spray .

Above: the two stencils used here were Sassy Spray and Ski-Lift Works .

Above: the two stencils used here were Sassy Spray and Ski-Lift Works.

Have fun combining your stencils to make new, unique images!

Many -- but not all -- of my stencils are shown on this blog's right sidebar, as the reader scrolls down.

To see all of my stencils, just go here.

More special ways of combining stencils will be posted here. To follow this blog, just sign up for emails on the upper right.

I'm unsure as to whether the "subscribe" feature, on the upper left, is working. To be safe, I suggest depending on the "emails" box on the upper right.

Tuesday, May 2, 2017

LOOPY LADDERS

For today's post ... I'd had some background paper already prepared; it had been printed a pale orange-yellow on a Gelli Plate.

Previously, I'd also "liberated" my 9" x 12" stencil Loopy Ladders from its outer border. After that, I had cut the liberated stencil roughly into halves.

I had designed the stencil so that it would be possible to do both these alterations and still keep all the individual "ladders" intact.

After placing the halved, frameless stencil onto my orange-yellow paper, I sprayed it with cranberry-mauve watercolor.

I hope this shows the beauty of a liberated stencil -- I like the way the edges now have an irregular shape. To my eye, it's more interesting this way...

Above is the painting. You can click on this image to enlarge it and better see details.

Above is what the Loopy Ladders stencil looks like, before being surgically altered.

I use Joyce Chen scissors to cut my stencils; being very sharp, with short blades, they're perfect for this delicate job.

To see all my stencils, please visit here.

Thanks for taking the time to visit my blog ... and please come back on May 4 for for a special announcement!

I will be disabling the "subscription" option appearing in the left sidebar of this blog. To follow my blog, please use the "follow by email" option; that box is on the upper right.

Sunday, April 30, 2017

More of the Vintage-themed Art Journal of Mary Ann Russo

Above: close-up number 1.

Above: close-up number 2.

To better see detail in the above photo, which shows the full-length edge of a journal page, click on the above image to enlarge it.

All of these artworks of Mary Ann's were made on heavy watercolor paper with light modeling paste and acrylic paint, with the help of one border on my 9" x 12" stencil Swatton Borders #1.

The stencil in its entirety looks like this:

Swatton Borders # 1

In the artworks posted today, Mary Ann used the border on the far right above.

Thanks, Mary Ann, for allowing me to post these here!

Many-- but not all -- of my stencils are shown on this blog's right sidebar, as the reader scrolls down.

To see all of my stencils just go here.

Thanks for visiting my blog!

To follow this blog, just sign up for emails on the upper right.

I'm unsure as to whether the "subscribe" feature, on the upper left, is working. To be safe, I suggest depending on the "emails" box on the upper right.