9"X12" stencil TANGLED PODS

 
 I often fall back on old favorite stenciling techniques, including the use of a Sofft Sponge to apply heavy-body acrylic paint thru the openings.  I usually do this as a second step, having first created a background.  Over the background already established on the canvas below, I've used my 9"X12" stencil  Tangled Pods to apply acrylic paint thru it, with this sponge. 

After using the stencil a first time , I often add spray paint.  The spray reinforces the layered look that's already begun -- and it's useful for hiding areas where paint may have bled under the stencil.  I often use Adirondack color wash spray from AmazonSmile.  Other times, I use my own acrylic paint in a mister bottle, thinned with water and a few drops of airbrush medium.

On the current painting, I decided to add some opaque paint to part of the canvas, creating a base for the spray technique.  This is not always necessary but it was what I wanted to do this time.  See below:

Below is a close-up of the stencil taped to the canvas, ready for me to apply the spray paint.  (Notice I have cut the outside border off the stencil, which is stained from having been used earlier with burgundy paint.) 

Detail close-up

After spraying paint thru the stencil, I lifted the stencil, leaving what you see in the close-up below. 

Detail close-up

Another old favorite technique that I often fall back on is to use the reductive (also called subtractive) approach:  First, I paint a layer of new color in a limited area.

While this layer is still wet, I place a stencil over it.  Holding the stencil in place with one hand, I use the other with a paper towel or soft cloth to rub off still-wet paint in the areas that are exposed in the openings of the stencil.  The results are shown below -- where I have used the reductive technique on both the left (purple) and right (aqua) lower sections.

Below is a close-up of the left lower corner where the reductive method was used:

 Next, I painted the upper right area of this painting, again applying acrylic paint thru the stencil.  See below.

Below is a close-up of this upper right area:

After the burgundy paint had dried on the upper right area, I secured the stencil to the canvas with green masking tape, shown below.  Notice again that I've cut off the stencil's outer border.

Once more, I used water-thinned green acrylic paint in a mister to spray thru the stencil.  After I lifted off the stencil, the central right area appeared as shown below.

Below is a full view of this painting, further developed -- what I've done:  (1) I painted out the left-middle section with opaque green paint; (2) over the green layer, I applied full-strength pink paint thru the Tangled Pods stencil; (3) I weakened the lower part of this imprint by lightly covering that area with green spray paint.  At this point, this painting is nearly finished.

Below is the painting, finished.  The final touch was to add part of the cut-up stencil (now painted purple) along the left side.  This meant cutting the stencil almost completely apart and reassembling it as I collaged it onto the canvas.  This artwork is entitled The Beans because my friend Vicky Culver gave that joking title to the dangling pods that inspired me to create this stencil.  At our local art guild, Vicky parks her car near these pods, which hang from a tree that goes by three names --  take your choice -- Sophora japonica; Japanese Pagoda Tree; Chinese Scholar Tree.  The pods resemble strands of pearls.

 These are only a few ways I've found to use my 9"X12" stencil Tangled Pods. 

Below is another painting on canvas, in which I've used the same combination of techniques with the same stencil:

In the lower left corner, I've added a strip of burgundy paint and collaged over it the remaining stencil, stained green and burgundy -- with its outer border removed.

"Boxed Vines" -- a 9"X12" Stencil in Action

Altho there are countless ways to use stencils, as shown in all my older posts, I often fall back on old favorite stenciling methods, including the use of a Sofft Sponge to apply heavy-body acrylic paint thru the openings.  I usually do this as a second step, after having created a background. 

Below are two artworks, each with a background already established.  Over the these backgrounds, I've used the same stencil -- Boxed Vines (9"X12") -- and applied acrylic paint thru it, using the sponge.  

The first photo below is a close-up detail of an old collage on canvas that I've decorated with a new element with the stencil and acrylic paint.

This second photo, below, shows the stencil in full-size, secured with masking tape to an old green painting on paper that will now serve as background.  Here, orange paint has been applied to the buds in the top section of the stencil.  

After that paint dried, I added a pale green paint, still using the sponge.  Below, the whole painting is shown, after the stencil has been lifted.

These two artworks are waiting to be completed.  On my other blog --

http://ceciliaswatton.blogspot.com

-- I will be showing another two artworks, started in the same way, using a different stencil.  But on those artworks, I've used other techniques to bring both works to completion.

THINK SPRING!

We had another dose of freezing rain overnight, and tomorrow's forecast promises more of the same, so it's time to think positive!  Think spring!

Here are two 6"X6" greeting cards that I think express this sentiment --

Both were made by spreading light molding paste thru my 6"X6" stencil Budding Branches.

But with the top card, I allowed the paste to dry, then spread the whole surface with Pan Pastel.

Making the lower card, I used the stencil as a mask -- right after spreading the paste, while it was still moist, I sprayed green paint across the surface, before lifting off the stencil.  This way, the green spray didn't hit the white cardstock; it just colored the paste.  After the green spray dried, I used acrylic to paint the buds pink.

If you try this technique, be sure to soak your stencil in water as soon as it's lifted from the paste -- then blot it with a paper towel, to keep the paste from drying on the stencil.

Budding Branches is available at StencilGirlProducts.com.

Rubbing Plates used as Printing Plates

In yesterday's post, below, I described start-to-finish the process used by my friend Mary Ann Russo to create rubbing plates using stencils.  Mary Ann makes rubbing plates to use with Shiva sticks and hand-dyed fabrics.  I on the other hand use them to make rubbings on paper (see yesterday's post) or to make prints on "catch-all" papers.  (These are the foreign newspapers that I spread under artwork-in-progress to catch leftover acrylic paints; I clean my brushes on these papers before putting the brushes into water to be washed.  After a "catch-all" sheet has been used enough to have become a colorful background, it's then used for Gelli Arts prints or prints of other kinds.)

In today's post, I'll show 10 papers, all but one printed with acrylic paints and Mary Ann's rubbing plate created with my 9"X12" stencil Vases.  The first (purple) print below was made this way, on paper previously painted with the use of my 9"X12" stencil Twinship, which is visible as blue patterns of the background.  The second print (far left) was made with crayon -- after placing paper over the rubbing plate, I rubbed crayon across the top of the paper, picking up outlines of the raised shapes below the paper.

Crayon

 
For detailed information on creating these rubbing plates, just scroll down to yesterday's post, below this one.  Nine of the prints above were made by brushing acrylic paints over the rubbing plate, then pressing papers down onto the plate.  The rubbing plate was washed before paint could dry on its surface.

Bold Red Flowers on Readymade Dark Backgrounds

5.75"X5.75" blank greeting cards from JAM* are a perfect fit for use with my 6"X6" stencils -- but this time, I've used part of my 9"X12" Nosegay stencil with one of JAM's dark bronze metallic fold-over blank cards.  With a Sofft Art Sponge I applied bright red, heavy-body acrylic paint thru my stencil, having first secured both the card and the stencil with masking tape, to hold them in place while I applied paint.

JAM makes bifold (also called "foldover") blank greeting cards in a wide range of sizes; one other size is 5"X7", in another dark color; these are on non-metallic cardstock.  I like card blanks that are already filled with color, ready to go -- having them on hand certainly saves time!

Since the above card measures 5"X7", I used only a portion of my 9"X12" stencil Buds with the same paint and applicator as on the earlier card.  The only difference is that I added daubs of red-gold glitter as a finishing touch.

Below are these two stencils shown in their full 9"X 12" sizes:

 

Buds

Nosegay

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To see my full line of StencilGirl masks and stencils, please visit here.

*I recommend JAM's foldover cards because they are made with cardstock sturdy enough to stand up to mixed-media use.  

3 BRAND-NEW STENCILS

My latest 3 stencils were released Feb. 6 --

6"X6" PRESSED LEAVES

6"X6" SWAYING GRASSES

9"x12" TANGLED PODS

This post focuses on Swaying Grasses --

SWAYING GRASSES ON A DARK METALLIC BRASS GREETING CARD COVER

SWAYING GRASSES used with my 9"X12" stencil QUEEN ANNE'S LACE

SWAYING GRASSES

SWAYING GRASSES USED WITH A GELLI PLATE PRINT

SWAYING GRASSES ON A DARK METALLIC BRASS GREETING CARD COVER

 SWAYING GRASSES USED WITH PRESSED LEAVES AND MY 9"x12" stencil BOXED VINES

SWAYING GRASSES

The 2 artworks with dark brown backgrounds were created with light modeling paste and paints that I sprayed on immediately after spreading the paste across the stencil. This technique is demonstrated here--

http://heartworkbycecilia.blogspot.com/2014/11/modeling-paste-and-other-dimensional.html

One of these two dark-background greeting cards has a moon created with a  circle stencil, thick acrylic paint and a Sofft Art Sponge. 

Both of these dark backgrounds are a metallic dark brass, but the metallic sheen is not visible in the above photos. 

To see more art samples using my other 2 brand-new stencils, just scroll down to my Feb. 6 posts. 


You can find Swaying Grasses and the other 2 just-released stencils here --

http://www.stencilgirlproducts.com/category-s/1832.htm 

COLLAGE PAPER (or WASTE NOT, WANT NOT)

In a related post, I show a 3D artwork created with my newly released 9"X12" stencil Tangled Pods, shown here --

That related post contains detailed instructions (with corresponding photos) for creating this piece:

My substrate for the above artwork was a picture-page from an old calendar.  The 3D base was created with matte gel medium (gloss gel medium would have worked, too.) The next step was to use a palette knife (or an old credit card) to spread the gel thru the openings of the Tangled Pods stencil.

What I didn't show in that related post was what I did with the gel-coated stencil.  Letting leftover gel dry on the stencil would have spelled disaster!  So I immediately lifted the stencil from the artwork, quickly turned it over, and pressed it (wet side down) onto another old calendar page -- thus creating a 3D reverse-print image.  After that, I pulled off the stencil to wash it.

The original reverse-print looked like this while the gel was still wet -- 

After the gel had dried to near-invisibility, this reverse-print paper became "catch-all" paper, used for cleaning my brushes of various acrylic paints as they were being used in another project.

Here are the results so far:

CLICK THIS IMAGE TO ENLARGE IT, TO BETTER SEE THE 3D TEXTURE.

What I plan now is to cut the paper abov into pieces for use in collage.

My brand-new 9"X12" Tangled Pods stencil is one of the most versatile I've ever created -- quickly becoming a favorite! 

Here, I've traced a portion of this stencil onto the cut-out bottom of a disposable foam plate --

My next step will be to use a ballpoint-like stylus to indent the outlines.  Then, this will be used as a printing plate.
Inspiration for my 9"X12" Tangled Pods stencil came from my seeing this tree --

http://lh2treeid.blogspot.com/2010_05_01_archive.html

According to the above webpage, this tree goes by three names --

Sophora japonica;

Japanese Pagoda Tree;

Chinese Scholar Tree. 

As that webpage says, these seedpods resemble strands of pearls.  I agree! 

JUST RELEASED STENCILS!

Two of my 9"X12" stencils are now available at STENCILGIRL(TM)Products -- and this post shows artwork created on a square gallery-wrap canvas with one of those new stencils, Buds.  The main image on the left was a print (on paper) that I did using a Sofft Art Sponge to press heavy-body acrylic paint thru this stencil.  (Before making the stencil-print, I had applied the background colors with a brayer.) Once the stencil-print had dried, I cut out the paper print and adhered it (with matte gel medium) to a square gallery-wrap canvas.  (The canvas had likewise been painted previously, by applying acrylic paints with a brayer.)  My last step was to place the stencil directly onto the canvas, in the upper right corner, and apply zinc white acrylic paint thru the stencil with another Sofft Art Sponge.

 

BUDS, ABOVE, IS ONE OF TWO BRAND-NEW STENCILS OF MINE, NOW AVAILABLE AT STENCILGIRL(TM)Products

 

BRAND NEW AT STENCILGIRL(TM)Products!

 Just released at STENCILGIRL(TM)Products:  Two 9"X12" stencils continuing my botanical series!  This post focuses on one of them, Nosegay, shown below.

Here are some prints made with this stencil, all of them created with a Sofft Art Sponge pressing heavy-body acrylic paint thru this stencil.

The next 4 were created the same way, as a first step.  My second step was to add a clear acrylic print-out (from my PC) as an overlay.    

The last image, below, was created the same way as a first step, and my second step was to spray part of the surface with acrylic ink using an atomizer.