Category Archives: paint

Apr15

Journal Card

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Here is my first journaling card background from Kate Crane’s Journal Soup class at 21 Secrets.

Copyright 2013 Marci Glenn

Lots of media on this card: spray ink, acrylic paint, oil pastels, dye ink.  This card measures about 4.5″ x 6.5″ and was a piece of left over watercolor paper.

I’ll be using a dip pen and calligraphy ink to journal on this since there is oil pastel in some areas.

Keep it simple!

Apr5

A Journal Canvas

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Tonight I was playing with an idea.  I wanted to journal my last week, but I wanted to hide the journaling after I had written it.  I could have done this in one of my art journals, but I saw this unopened 11″ x 14″ canvas and thought “Why not?”.  The canvas was already primed so I pulled out my black india ink and my dip pen and wrote in a circular motion all around the canvas.  (I have blurred out the writing, but you can still get the idea).

Journaled Canvas

I let the canvas dry for a bit and then covered it with a light coat of gesso.  As it turned out, the india ink had not completely dried yet and was bleeding into the gesso.   Hmm, now what?  I finished coating it with gesso and then grabbed a paper towel and started rubbing the paper towel in a circular motion, top to bottom, in strips.  This is what was created.

Journaled Canvas second step

Shades of grey in wave forms.  You would not know that there was ever any journaling underneath, but I know that the writing I did tonight was soothing and put an exclamation point at the end of a very difficult week.  I’m going to let this dry overnight and see where I want to go with it tomorrow.

Keep it simple!

Mar15

One Word Tree – Studio Class with Paulette Insall

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This coming Monday, March 18, Paulette Insall will be teaching a class in acrylic painting at her studio in Portland, Oregon.  If you are not familiar with Paulette, take a look at her blog, Poetic Splashes of Joyful Light.  Her class, One Word Tree has two spots left.  Come join us for a few hours of fun, food and inspiration.  Hope to see you there!

Oct31

Gelli Arts Printing Plate – Part 2

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I spent a few hours over the past few days playing with the Gelli Arts Printing Plate and now I know why it is indeed one of the most valuable art tools on the market today.  I was completely and totally absorbed by the possibilities.

Some of the things that I learned during this experiment:

  1. The color combinations are endless!
  2. The stencil combinations are endless!  It’s hard to imagine putting two or more distinct looking stencils layered until you try it and say WOW!
  3. Different types of paper absorb the paint better than others.  I removed the pages from a 9″x12″ mixed media paper wire bound journal and used all of those and then looked for more paper and found a ream of Wausau Exact Bristol paper, a much better choice for this technique.  It picked up the paint better, didn’t require as much rubbing and the paint colors seemed brighter, denser and picked up any imperfections from my brayering the paint.
  4. Don’t use a scrapbooking paper stencil – ARG!  It completely stuck to the plate and I had to peel it off in pieces.
  5. Liquitex soft body acrylics worked perfectly.  I wanted bold, clear colors and the craft acrylics did not deliver that for me.
  6. Keep your brayer clean!
  7. I used a large (18″x24″) pad of newsprint to roll the brayer on as soon as I was done laying the paint on the Gelli plate (see pics below).  I also wiped down the brayer with a soft cloth to make sure there were no paper tidbits or fuzz (unless that is the look you want).
  8. Use a hard, nonporous, non-slip surface to place the Gelli plate on.  I taped a sheet of freezer paper on my table which worked fine except while I was cleaning the plate and the whole thing moved tearing the paper.  I have a 2″ coated shelf from my kitchen cabinet remodel that I tried and it worked perfectly, no slipping at all.
  9. I was concerned about leaving paint on my stencils, so after I printed with it I pressed it on a piece of newsprint to remove any excess.  Yes, there is still some on the stencil, but this won’t ruin it.
  10. Anything can be a stencil or mask.  The best print that I made was using a piece of corrugated cardboard.  I loved the lines it created on the paper, perfect for journaling.  I also tried a plastic square holed sink protector that I picked up at the dollar store.  The square holes reminded me of a high-rise apartment building with the lights on in all the windows.  I used Orange Azo and it printed exactly as I imagined it.

Here are some of the prints that I created.

And here are the “scrap” papers that were serendipitously created after cleaning the brayer and the stencils.  These will be torn up and used as add on collage elements.

Lots of colors to keep my imagination and muse going!

I hope you will try out the Gelli Arts Printing Plate.  You can learn more about this plate and watch their videos on their website.  (I am not affiliated with the company).

Keep it simple!