Sunday 3 February 2013

A bit of a play day

As you know, I was a very lucky girl and received a fabulous package of stencils recently which I had ordered from the very talented Michelle Ward over at Green Pepper Press . These goodies have been sat on my work bench calling me since they arrived and I was determined to find time to play with them today. It's been a very relaxed play day, it's not a class project and no deadlines or anything which makes playing for playings sake much more fun.

I have not touched my altered book since I taught that class last year so I thought I would use that to mess around in.

 
And mess around I did....I can't tell you how may layers of paint there are on these pages, I kinda lost count!!! Anyways, I'll talk you through a bit of the process.


I started by painting over the pages with Snowflake Fresco Finish, this acts just like a gesso, covering the surface of the slick pages, giving them a bit more tooth for more layers of paint to stick to but also gives a nice white, blank canvas so that you can see the true colour of the paint.



Paint the page with Very Berry and Butternut, smudging colours together in a random fashion.


Next I tore up some book pages to create a landscape, these were painted with Hey Pesto and the edges were darkened by sponging a bit of watered down Hyde Park using a small piece of cut'n'dry so that I could blend and soften the colours together. I love using the translucent paints, you can still see all the lovely text on my book pages showing through the paint. I allowed these to dry naturally before sticking them to my book with Claudine Hellmuth's Matt Multi Medium. I find that if you use your heat gun to hurry up the drying process with lightweight paper, it just wrinkles and buckles far too much.


Next step, start stencilling. I love this hexagon stencil by Crafters Workshop....this could well be my new favourite!! After mixing a dab of Little Black Dress into a puddle of Chocolate Pudding to make it more opaque, I sponged some random areas of my book using all the different size hexagons on this stencil. After drying this layer, I nudged the stencil a fraction over the original design to create a shadow (this is a technique that the uber talented Lynne Perrella taught at one of our Artsycrafts events, both Leandra and I use this technique all the time now) and sponged a layer of Vintage Lace over the top. This is such a beautiful and delicate colour but because it is opaque, it has great coverage, it even covered my Chocolate Pudding!


As you can see, I decided not to create a shadow on all the hexagons, I thought this would make it a lot more interesting. The next stencil I used is called Chunky Chevron and I used the Vintage Lace again for this stencil, taking the design down over part of the green hills to try and blend everything together for a more balanced look.

 
Now I got to use one of my new stencils from Green Pepper Press. Having sponged Vintage lace through it for the first layer, when it was dry, I used a small stencil brush and stippled a small amount of Hey Pesto around the edges to give the leaves a bit more definition.
 
 
I then inked up a small text stamp with Jet Black Archival ink and stamped it through the stencil to add a bit more interest.
 
 
I also did this through a few of the larger hexagons too.
 
 
Now the real fun begins, adding more translucent layers of paint, making sure that each layer is dry before adding the next layer. I added a bit more stencilling in different colours followed by more layers of paint until I felt I was achieving the look that I had in my head!
 
 
 
 
If you find that your background has become to vibrant and is in danger of becoming the foreground, you can always knock it back with a watered down pale colour of paint. That's what I decided to do here and I'm much happier with the background now.
 
 
By the time I got to this point, it was dark outside and it's not always easy to make final colour choices in artificial light, so at this point I decided to call it a day and go back to it again tomorrow when I will probably add a few more layers of translucent colours.  I love Claret, Pumpkin Soup and Hey Pesto and I am pretty sure that I will add a few shadows around the main images to bring them back to the foreground again.
 
 
 
If I decide to change it, I'll be sure to let you know.

17 comments:

Carol said...

Brill as usual Lin. Amreally getting into the fresco paints now. Did buy 6 from your craft shop, but never used them in the right way!!! Have been checking back on how you did it and Leandra on You tube......so asked for them for Xmas!!!! Santa got the request right! LOL. Hope all is well with you and the family. My face book is getting better and found you there this time and it took me right here!!!! Oh the wonders of modern Science!!
Love Carol xx

Helen said...

Well it looks pretty fabulous already, but if you decide to tinker with it, I guess it will only improve it. I do love those new stencils!

finnella03 said...

So love it is truly an inspiration. So love your Green Pepper Press stencils.

Rachel

Diane Kelsey said...

Just wonderful!

Anonymous said...

That is gorgeous. I love the colours & the stenciling looks great.

Kathyk said...

REMARKABLE - a fabulous page and thanks for sharing

Kathyk

Trish said...

Just wonderful. I am starting to learn how my Fresco paints work now, and can appreciate just how much fun it is to layer and play. Love those stencils!

Shelly Schmidt said...

I love the step by step pictures- I am so visual! Wonderful page- love the colors and the hexagons and the rest of the stencils : )

Brenda Brown said...

Wonderful painty layers and images Lin, your new stencils are fabulous and you have used the to perfection.
Hugs Brenda xox

Astrid Maclean said...

Have been drooling over these GPP stencils for ages and I totally adore what you did with them. Fantastic pages altogether, all the different layers add so much depth to it all. Love how the little text stamps through the stencil worked, that was the bit that struck me first, but so many other details to admire too!

Joanie said...

Hi Lynn, this is lovely, i love all the layers of paint and stencilling. Fresco paints are fab though.

Take care

Joan x

Alexandra said...

Gorgeous pages. I love the colour combo and all those textures. Beautiful!

Linda M. Cain said...

Loving the colors and you've really done the shadow technique beautifully.

~Linda~

Artmadnana said...

So inspiring! Love the way the layers give real depth to the piece. Have sent off for some stencils and stamps - just have to accept the high postage -thanks for such a great, step-by-step demo.

Anonymous said...

'ow duz ze doo eet?
This lady is a wizard!!!!
Wish I had in my whole being what Lin has in just one little artistic finger!
Beautiful . . . .
xo Sally in France

Yvonne said...

WOW! Beautiful pages, love the colours and the journaling, thanks for sharing the process, very nice to see and read about that.
I also tried the stencil bump technique last week, but I have to practise a little bit more, ha ha!
Greetings, Yvon

Unknown said...

Another beautiful piece of art Lin, the colours are so vibrant and great composition. Thanks for sharing the process, you're such an inspiration. With Brenda's help I've just got the confidence to start blogging myself. Thanks for helping me on my journey. Hope you're keeping well and managing to do the things you retired for. Chris xxx