technique #13 Collage

I had some old patterns and I was going to either throw them out of give them to Goodwill but instead I decided to keep it for collage material. I used matte medium on the pattern paper.

On the next layer I decided to use Elmer's and water 50/50. It turned out to be easier to use and even more effective on these thin papers. The paper I used I made years ago as part of a DMTV program. They were all done on thin semi-transparent paper which were perfect for this spread.

These are a few of the many papers I have been holding on to for years. Finally a chance to use them.

Next was a feather stamp that I hand carved years ago (see tutorial on carving stamps)

I added this grid graphic

and a last bit of paper on the bottom right. The project is dried and done.

Technique #12 3D multimedia

I started out painting the blue sky after making a "sun" with an oil pastel. I took a second sheet of the same weight paper and cut a "mountain" shape. I added the lavender streaks in the sky with a really expensive oil pastel that looks and acts like chalk. It's basically pressed pigment. I also used Caron D'ache neocolors (oil pastels), some water soluble oil pastels and more (brown and umber) expensive oil pastels. One of the thing that happened when I wetted the water soluble pastels with a wet brush was that when it touched the chalky pigmented oil pastels they turned to highly pigmented "paint". 

The left side of the page opens revealing more forest

Here you can see the various textures of the differing media. as I applied one it dragged into another combining and spreading the colors

I love this and it is just oil pastel with watercolor over it. It looks like a small flock of birds flying and the lavender soft "clouds" really make the sky dreamlike. I ended up using a spray fixative because the powdery pastels were smearing. That fixative was hairspray.

Technique #11 inkjet transfers and stamping

This is one of the coolest techniques I know and I LOVE, love, love the images. This is similar to solvent transfers on fabric but this is easier and without smell.

I have added "Stamping" as a technique here even though I have been doing a lot of stamping along with each technique for the day. Stamping is a big technique both in paper as well as fabric.

This is a print of a magpie printed on the shiny side of a piece of freezer paper. The shiny side is the plastic coated side. This can only be done with an inkjet and not a lazer printer. You can see the wet ink sitting on the surface of the freezer paper.

I use a small finger pump sprayer to get the spread wet with water. You don't need it dripping but you want an overall wet surface.

I laid the print ink side down on the paper and used a bone folder to "press" the ink onto the damp paper.

I love the texture and soft visual quality of these prints.

I thought I needed a bit "more" and decided to add some lettering using stamps and printers ink.

Done and dried. Such a lovely image.

OK, so I couldn't stop. This was a beautiful sunrise over the ocean. Note to self: Use brightly colored pictures with minimal black

This is a picture my brother took at the shoreline. This is where I do my morning meditation.

Technique # 10- Making doors and a giveaway

I chose the right page because it had a circle right on the fold. Before I cut the circular "door" I put a cutting mat under the page. What I DIDN'T get was a picture of before I started of the left page. I used the aperture in the right page as a template to trace the same size circle as the aperture onto the left page (now a pink circle).  I later colored the background with yellow oil pastel. I painted the circle on the left page in pink paint and when dried made the spiral inside it with an oil pastel.

When the right page was opened and the "door" held back you can see the pink "beet" through the aperture. It even goes well with the opposing page with the pink scraped on paint.

I painted the yellow oil pastel with very dark paint to knock back the color. I love the way it beads up.

Both pages open on the fold

Door opened both ways

Don't forget I am giving away a new handmade sketchbook and a set of watercolors with a winner chosen from those who email me with some of their own work from this month. You can send your photos to beth dot from dot maine at gmail dot com.

Technique # 9 - acrylic paint resist.

This is one of those techniques that stay "hidden" until the last step. 

I chose this spread just because it was an uninterrupted spread (one continuous sheet as opposed to two separate pages).

I wrote one of my favorite lines from the Wizard of Oz spoken by Glinda the good witch.

Next I poured out some rather "weak" white acrylic paint and my new circle stencil and a sponge dauber and made circles on the pages

Whole spread

Close up of the paint. It became much more transparent when dried.

I flooded the spread with multiple colors of watercolor. This is the "wet" picture.

This is the dry picture. This spread and the woven page are my favorites so far.

more pages

I first started out with buildings only on the right

Then I added the left then added color

I iked the idea of overlapping circles

So I took the three from the page and added three more using the overlapping areas to add interest.

I covered the page with blots of color from my watercolor palate that I was wiping off. Added some interest to the white page. Then I added some stamps.

Another of my raven stamps with added color

I revisited this page, outlined the leaf stamp, added lines and circle then had the circles fall off the page.

This originally had some purple splotches from the end of an eraser. I added more color with watercolors and a brush tip.

My octopus got eyes and some contouring on his face and the underside of another octopus' leg.

More work but not all of them completed yet

These two need more work but this is a start

I may tinker a bit with this although I do like the octopus. In tomorrow post I have completed both the page above and below. 

These last 3 are finished

Someone commented about rubbings. This is an oil pastel rubbing with texture plates painted over with watercolors. 

I love working in my book so much that I am making two more books. One I will give away along with a set of watercolors at the end of the month. I will pick from those who send me photos of their work for a special "viewers" post at the end of February. I just sayin'......