The No-Gelli Style: Experiments in Monoprint

Or, "How to Make Several Messes in a Fairly Short Time."

In which we discover (through accidental means) that printing onto clear tape using a glass plate rather than a Gelli Plate is trickier than expected....read on for more.
:)

OK. So I knew that I had a large-ish nice piece of glass, salvaged from an old table. Also available to me were a number of items useful when making prints of all sorts. 

I'd just viewed a very interesting video over at YouTube on how to print onto clear packing tape. Here is that fun video:

I just thought that this was such a cool idea.

So I had nearly everything for trying something similar. Everything except a Gelli Plate, that is. Glass does not flex, but Gelli Plates will, so I knew that my trial and error processes might yield very different results. I was right.

I tried something very basic and simple using a few colors. the video suggests allowing paint to dry on the Gelli Plate, and so I tried that with my glass sheet. Here's how that went:

I was going to take several tape pulls, but quickly learned how that wouldn't work at all. OK. So it then occurred to me to try the same process with glass using newly applied, wet paint. I set the 4 strips aside, painted and sticky sides up, to dry. After the paint that I'd transferred onto the tape had dried most of the way, I dusted on some copper colored micah powder by Perfect Pearls. This filled in the gaps, as per the above video.

Here is a slightly better view 

(+ 2 little old book page pulls just beyond):

I'd used the Talbot Arts Release paper sheets during class time when I was teaching a form of fused collage. I'd also used it in my own home, and found it to be very versatile and also easy to use. I knew that I did not want the newly printed strips of tape to stick where they did not belong, and so I grabbed one sheet of release paper and then tried sticking the tape strips onto its surface.

Yes, I did try. You see, the very nature of release paper is to not allow sticky things to remain stuck to its surface, which is how come stickers come packed with their own release paper backing.

Yeah. Not one of my brighter ideas, but at least for now the tape strips aren't sticking to anything wrong.

The rest of the monoprint experience that day was just as much of a learning process for me. From the mistakes I made, I managed to save some of the pigment. This left me with a weird looking 2 page spread in what I call my "giant" journal.

My first try at doing the tape transfer included some torn strips of blue painter's tape by 3M (as a mask, in place of the torn deli paper used in the Gelli video above). I chose to remove that tape before the paint could dry, and then used that as a means by which to transfer the colors on it to the journal. This was too patchy, so I later used the side edges of the same 2 pages as a wiping off surface for my 2 brayers.

I had nothing to lose, so I tried a few more things using a fairly simple look in the paint as it lay on the glass. Below are a few examples. Though the light for these photos was very difficult to work with, I did somehow manage to capture a little bit of the look of things, I hope.

I thought that the black card stock sheets 

would be fun to use in a future collage.

I try not to waste pigment. 

It's always interesting when I try.

My brayer plate had some nice colors on it.

Suitable for collage play, do you think?

The Release Paper I Use

For anyone interested, Talbot Arts carries some very unique and interesting supplies. I've ordered from that small, unique product line a few times already, and was always pleased with the customer service and the products there. The release paper that they sell is fairly long lasting stuff, and I should know, as I was pretty rough with it, as were some of the students I once had. It is good quality, nicely crisp, sturdy stuff, unlike the average backing for most stickers. A link to the Talbot's small but fascinating store's page is HERE.

That, by the way, is my Neglected Supply for this week's link party. 

Anyway, that's been my most recent adventure in trying a nicely messy new idea.

:)

Don't Think...

...and make a great big mess.

That's what I tried for this afternoon's chance at creating a new journal page. Well, 2 pages, that is.

My messy recipe?
1 empty shampoo bottle
shelf liner remnant
paint (acrylic and watercolor)
white gesso
Mod Podge (as an adhesive and as a medium)
Neglected (for years!) foam alphabet stamps
2" flat gesso brush
various homemade stamps from found objects
Canson journal notebook

If you're anything like me, you probably generally try and overthink everything instead of just being relaxed. I am the thinking sort, even during creative time. I am trying to not think so hard about outcomes or finished looks in order to hopefully flex some creative muscles. This was hard because I started off by thinking too much about not thinking too much. If that makes any sense.

So today I decided that I would not allow myself to think too much and that I was going to not care either way how the pages might turn out. Which was a good strategy, because this is very unlike anything I've ever done before. A genuine, gloppy and smeary mess.

I'd already glued the shelf liner piece to the old shampoo bottle last weekend, so it had already dried and was ready for use. After that, I'd tried an experiment using some little pots of soft toned paint which I'd found at a thrift store a few years ago. This worked fairly well, although I had to hurry an awful lot before the paint would dry in order to apply colors to the makeshift shampoo roller. 

Today's experiment went less well as far as messiness was concerned. I went with it anyway, and now have a new 2 pager. It's smeared in spots as well as spotty, but I am learning not to care too much about such things. After all, it's not for an art show or anything that important. It's Playtime!

Mess Photo 1

(definitely not my normal style)

Mess Photo 2

Mess Photo 3

Mess photo 4

"Don't think!"

Though I know that I could do better, I am willing to let it all be about the moment. It just is what it turned out to be. If I were to choose to add anything else to it later on, it might spoil that spontaneous, childlike look.

:)

Next month's shopping list will no doubt include a new paint set. (It's amazing just how much of my old sets spoiled while I was on "hiatus.") And maybe some inks. And perhaps 2 new brushes. Or maybe a new bottle of Gloss medium.

And...and...and...

Finger Painting the New Art Journal

My favorite!

Make mine a Canson All Media spiral notebook anytime, and I am generally pleased. This treat to myself arrived this past week. Despite changes in heft and quality, I have to say that I am genuinely pleased by the results of a first messy go at my very first journal page in it.

I've abused this page, but that's my habit. When books can take a variety of media and still keep their shape for the most part, this works best for me. I like using lots of wet media and experimenting in my pages. I'm not shy about it: I like to make messes using journal pages. (Actually, arty messes in general)

Step One: Bubble printing using acrylics, a recycled drinking straw, a little bit of dish soap, and a recycled salad greens box, remembering to photograph the first part of this very badly.
:)

Next, I waited for the bubbles to disperse from the printed page enough to know how much more color needed to be added. This time, I went with finger painting using acrylics and watercolors + RichArt Pearl colored Glossy Tempera Paint. I also used some Mod Podge this time, mixing it with the watercolors and the tempera and mooshing these all over the already printed page using my fingers.

Messiness is my modus operandi. I had to use a fair number of paper towels in the process.

:)

Here's a close-up of the page's surface.

I think it may be possible to spot the bubble pattern left by the acrylics, etc. While the paint was still tacky, I added 2 torn remnants of gridded rice paper.

Next, after things were done drying, I used items from my ephemera files for the alphabet letters for the words, "New Art Book."

The final step led to this.

I knew I needed to loosen up. I was so uptight during my first projects for the Let's Play weekly link parties! Being given "permission" to play and use childish creative means has to be my new favorite way to lighten up and become more playful during creative time.

Materials and Tools List:

Canson Montval Field All Media pad (from Dick Blick online); watercolors by Daniel Smith and Windsor & Newton; acrylics by Jacquard and Liquitex; my old reliable Mod Podge; RichArt pearl colored Glossy Tempera paint; gridded rice paper; various ephemera; a drinking straw; a repurposed salad greens box; dish soap; a chopstick from the local Asian food place; scissors (2 sizes); chip board alphabet letters (traced around but not used directly on the page).

Best ingredient of all? The FUN factor!

:)

My Big Messy Oops

What a fun experience!

Yes, it was messier than I'd planned (a portion of that oops part). I'd promised myself to get messy, only not quite as much as I ultimately did!  No, I couldn't get the orange to work. Yes, I'd do this 2 pager all over again if I had enough time.

My neglected items: Ranger sprayers; 2 kinds of watercolor.

Some sprayer nozzles do not like thick goopy stuff, but I knew that before I went into this very messy procedure. You see, I am missing a large number of some of my favorite supplies. A number of things got ruined or very nearly so during my creative hiatus. I've been finding ruined stuff hidden among the stuff that still works. 

Never the less, I am determined to use whatever colors I can easily salvage, so today I did just that. Two of my sprayers kind of worked. Well, really only the one wanted to. Sprayer number 3 must have something clogging it somewhere, don't ask me where. You'd have to ask it.
:)

I wanted this 2 page journal spread of backgrounds to be messy, so I got my way on that part LOL.


Tools used: Canson Montval Field All Media pad; Daniel Smith and Windsor & Newton watercolors; a few drops of Mod Podge for Paper; Perfect Pearl Powder; found objects (metal washers and other parts, scattered); small alphabet stencil for technical drawing.

I ended up choosing to spatter rather than to spray for the second color (Ultramarine Blue). I liked the messier, runnier look in certain areas. The final step was a dab of Perfect Pearl Powder for a slightly metallic gleam. I might have to go in later with some other pigments, possibly some more metallic here or there. Once it's done being overly sticky, I'll add words followed by some MicroGlaze by Judikins to keep the pages from sticking together.

Any-whosits, here's that big, as-yet-unfinished (?) mess.
:)

Big Messy Oops 2/16