When Stencils Meet Collage

Stencils and collage?  So glad you asked!

Ivy Frame 6, a 6" x 6" stencil, struck me as a good way to embellish the collage below.  Its bottom layer is a Gelli Plate print.  Over that, I developed a collage using red-orange paper, blue-green-yellow mottled paper and foreign script from an old book. Next came the big blue oval, painted with matte medium-diluted acrylic paint.  (Some artists dilute acrylics with water; I use a colorless liquid medium instead, usually opting for matte rather than glossy.)

Last, I added a crown of ivy using dark green acrylic paint.     

Ivy Frame 6 itself looks like this--

Below is a simple collage that incorporates a background paper that I made with acrylic paint and a scraper.  Using a stencil in this way is shown this video of mine.  The stencil used here was my 6" x 6" Kalied.  

Kalied itself looks like this --

Still a different approach to the marriage of stencils and collage is a quick and easy one:  Make a lot of stencil-prints using assorted colors and papers.  Then cut up the papers and combine them.  Each of the collage pieces below was cut from a print made with Garden Montage, a 9" x 11" mask.

Garden Montage in its entirety looks like this:

Once in a while, I alter a paint-stained stencil with scissors, then use it as an element in a mixed-media collage --

The collage above began with diluted paints on Yupo.  After those paints dried, I added the stained stencil, 6" x 6" Sassy Spray.  (Heavy matte medium gel was the adhesive I chose.)  The last step was to add a couple of small bits of paper in the upper left.

Sassy Spray, before it meets paint stain and scissors, looks like this--

With the art sample below, I'm circling back to an artwork like the one at the top of this post.  This is another collage that started with prepared background paper -- in this case, prepared with acrylic paints, texture-making tools and a squeeze bottle of fabric paint.  Over that, I added an old print of mine, created back when I was carving my own rubber stamps.  (Seeing this collage makes me want to dig out that eye rubber stamp to use it again!)  Over that base, I added four pieces of paper.  The fourth piece, printed in bright red-orange-purple on blue, is actually a silhouette of a human figure.  This figure is more easily recognized when you click on the image below to enlarge it.  

The human figure above (red and blue, lower right) was cut from a print made with Small Tangled Pods, a 6" x 6" mask.

Small Tangled Pods looks like this --

Above:  Today's final collage, which includes black-and-white spattered papers printed with 9" x 12" Mimosa Stencil.

Mimosa Stencil itself looks like this --

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Grateful to So Many StencilGirl Designers!

Does anyone else do this?  I get ideas for art projects from flipping thru my collection of StencilGirl stencils.

StencilGirl designer Trish McKinney has created delicate tree-like branching masks that have inspired several paintings of mine on stretched canvas ....

Mary Beth Shaw delighted me, yet again, when she designed the 6" x 6" stencil Curves -- and Rae Missigman did too, with her stencils  Puddles and Modern Buds.  Together these 3 stencils led to the creation of my painting Tumbleweeds, shown below:

Mary Beth Shaw sent me to the moon when she designed the 6" x 6" stencil Shape Shifter, which inspired another painting of mine --

Tangled Beach Grass and Windblown Beach Grass, another two 9" x 12" stencils by Trish McKinney, sparked the idea for the painting below --

Where would I be without inspiration from these great StencilGirl designers?!  

Thistles -- The Noble "Weed" and Stencils

Thistle is a 9" x 12" stencil that evolved from my love of flowers, be they wild or garden-variety.  

Above:  A painting of mine.  I used the 9" x 12" Thistle stencil.

It looks like this--

Above:  9" x 12" Thistle stencil

Also available at StencilGirl is its "little sister" stencil --

Above:  6" x 6" stencil Small Thistles

Above:  A print made with the 6" x 6" stencil Small Thistles

Many thanks for visiting here today!  To scroll thru the pages of my StencilGirl stencils, please start here.

 

"Cleaning Prints" of Stencils

Every once in a while, after using a stencil, I take the trouble to clean it, always on old newspapers or other scrap papers.  (To clean them, I use Windex and/or rubbing alcohol with a soft rag.)  And a few times, those cleaning-prints please my eye as much as the original prints ...

Above:  This print was made with the 6" x 6" stencil Pressed Leaves.

Above:  This is the cleaning print created with the 6" x 6" stencil Pressed Leaves.

Below is a multi-layered print developed with my 9" x 12" stencil Queen Anne's Lace....

And -- altho the original artwork was a different one from what's shown above, below is a similar cleaning-print made with the same stencil  --

When the cleaning prints turn out this well, I wish I'd used better background paper!

The 9" x 12" stencil Queen Anne's Lace looks like this in its entirety --

Below is a cleaning print made with part of my 9" x 12" stencil/mask Garden Montage ....

This stencil/mask looks like this in its entirety --

Below is a cleaning print that happened with my 9" x 12" stencil It's a Jungle Out There ....

It's a Jungle Out There itself looks like this --

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"Cool Colors" vs "Warm Colors" and Stencils

Today's topmost pair of images show, first, a canvas with an all-hot-colors scheme.  The second is another canvas, this one with an all-cold-colors scheme.  Both paintings were developed with my 6" x 6" stencil  Sassy Spray (scissor-altered.)

I don't think this is always true, but generally speaking, greens and blues are considered cool and are sometimes used by landscape painters to help indicate a background in the distance, and are often used in shaping shadows.  

But, checking a color wheel, you can tell that some blues and greens lean slightly toward warmth.  For example, the yellow-green in the painting directly above is definitely a warm green.  

Golden has labeling that's helpful; for example, at least their Phalto Blue comes in a "red shade," which would be warmer than their Phalto Blue acrylic that comes in a "green shade."

These differences are subtle to the eye when we look at individual colors, separated from one another.

But the temperature differences matter at those times when a painter wants the colors in a painting to be harmonious.  Cool colors play nicely together; warm colors play nicely together.  

And when a painter's purpose is to create non-harmonious art, the same knowledge is valuable, because, for example, the cool reds and the hot reds can be used side-by-side.  

Below are two more art samples of mine, both done on canvas with acrylic paints and stained stencils used as collage.  The stencils come from the highly talented StencilGirl designer Trish McKinney.

Titled Cold on Hot.

Titled Hot on Cold.

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Opposites Attract!

Do opposites attract?  The color wheel says they do.  Below are two prints made with 6" x 6" Pavilion Shadows stencil.  As a color wheel shows, orange and blue are complements (opposites).  Used one atop the other, they make visual combinations that excite the viewer's eye....

Below is a painting on stretched canvas created with my 9" x 12" mask Winter Berries.  The painting employs several colors, but the orange-yellow and blue color areas are the stars of the show, each contrasting vividly with the other.

Below is a stencil print that shows another combination of several colors -- pink, blue, yellow and a touch of orange -- yet, again, what the eye notices most is the contrast of blue against a field of yellow, a near-complement (notice the position of yellow on the color wheel; it's next to orange.)  

The above print was made with (bottom layer) the 9" x 12" stencil Prayer Flags and (top layer) the 9" x 12" stencil Garden Montage.


Garden Montage also went to work in creating the print below.  The background was an old calendar page with an image that was roughly 2/3 orange and 1/3 yellow.  Once the stencil was in place, I went over it with a sponge brayer loaded with light blue paint.  This print demonstrates once again that complements used together create a "pop" that entertains the viewer.

Below is a painting on stretched canvas that features two other complements from color wheel -- red and green. 

Tiger Lily and Webbed Medallion were the two 6" x 6" stencils used in bringing this painting together.  Below is a close-up detail from this painting --

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

Light vs. Dark Value Domination

Does value have value?  Oh yes!

In the art world, "value" is a word used to indicate the darkness of any color, the lightness of every color, and 5 - 10 of the shades that fall between these two extremes.

One example of a value scale is here.

A typical value scale shows 5 - 10 squares in a vertical row or a horizontal row.  At one end of this scale is a hue that's nearly white.  Each succesive square shows a darker hue.  The row of squares ends with a square that's so dark it's nearly black.  

Some artists use a rule-of-thumb that each artwork looks best when it's 80 per cent dark and 20 per cent light, or 20 per cent dark and 80 per cent light.

Today's art samples fit into that 80/20 per cent rule-of-thumb.  

These are not finished artworks; they are simple stencil-prints.  But they show the value of value:  what a difference it makes in the viewer's eye when a piece is dark-dominant or light-dominant.

At times, I find it helpful to look at examples like this, to remind myself of the difference in an art piece that stands out when pieces with dominant light values are contrasted with pieces wherein dark values dominate.
 

Above:  Light values dominate this image, created on an old calendar page with acrylic paint and my 6" x 6" stencil Mikki's Flowers.

Below:  Dark values dominate this image, also created using acrylic paint and my 6" x 6" stencil Mikki's Flowers.

The same stencil ... but what a contrast!  To my eye, the difference between dark value dominance and light value dominance is more striking than color differences.

Above:  Light values dominate this image, made with acrylic paint and my 12" x 12" stencil Prayer Flags.

Below:  Dark values dominate this image, also created using acrylic paint and my 12" x 12" stencil Prayer Flags .

Above:  Light values dominate this image, made with acrylic paint and my 6" x 6" stencil Swatton Links.

Below:  Despite the light-value background, it's dark values that dominate this image, also created using acrylic paint and my 6" x 6" stencil Swatton Links.

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And the Winner is ...

Here's the list (in no particular order) of stencils and masks that I used in developing this artwork (a collage-in-progress) --

Random Circles by Mary Beth Shaw

Circle Style Stencil  by Mary Beth Shaw

Forked Bare Branch Background by Trish McKinney

Delicate Bare Branch and Twigs by Trish McKinney

Small Tangled Pods by myself

Fantasia by myself


CONGRATULATIONS go to the winner -- Cindy Powell! -- who will

soon receive one each of these 4 stencils/masks:

Left:  M and Y.  Right:  E and R.

Longwood Florals mask (9" x 12")

Longwood Florals stencil (9" x 12")

Many thanks to everyone stopping by here today!  To scroll thru the pages of all my StencilGirl stencils and masks, please start here.