One of Many Resist Technique Approaches -- with Stencils

What is a "resist"?  The word describes an area, or areas, on a substrate (paper, canvas, etc.) that will resist coverage by acrylic paint, ink, watercolor or any other liquid medium.  

The degree of resistance varies -- with a twofold outcome.

First:  Resist-treated areas stand out from their background.

Second:  Because the degree of resistance varies, results are usually faintly tinted, with a mottled appearance; this makes for attractive details that coax a viewer's gaze to linger.

Many resist media exist -- white gesso and wax crayons, to name only two.  

But for today's post, I decided to try it with two liquid-resistant pencils.  

The first photo below shows a white Caran d'ache pencil, which I used to fill in leaf-shaped openings on my 9" x 12" stencil Ivy Frame.  My substrate was a sturdy sheet of white paper.  (You can click on each of today's images for enlargement, to better see details.)

Below:  With the same stencil, on a new sheet of sturdy paper, I used a white grease pencil.  These are also called China markers and the brand I happened to buy was Phano.  If you click on the photo below, to enlarge it, you can easily see that the pigment stick broke.  I was bearing down too hard!

After filling in a number of the ivy leaves, I poured some black gesso into a disposable foam plate and got out an old credit card.  I dipped the card into the pool of gesso, then scraped the card across my substrate, as shown below.

Close-ups are below --

Above:  grease pencil as a resist.

Above:  grease pencil as a resist.

Above:  grease pencil as a resist.

Above:  Caran d'ache as a resist.

Above:  Caran d'ache as a resist

Ivy Frame comes in two sizes, the size used today (9" x 12") --

-- and the 6" x 6" Ivy Frame 6 Stencil, which looks like this --

To scroll thru the pages of my StencilGirl stencils and masks, please start here.

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