Technique Sundays-Layering

I did mine in my technique journal so I would be able to save it and remember what I did a year or two from now. I do the art on the right side and do the writing on the left side. It also makes it easier for me because I don't have paint on both sides and it won't stick together as much. I did some doodling and some stamping with some permanent ink pens and stamp pads. I took some watered down acrylic fluid acrylics as the base coat. I want to go from light colors to dark colors as my top coat. I don't want to go from dark to light or I won't see the light colors on top of the dark colors. It does not matter here if I use fluid acrylics or heay acrylics. You can use watercolors here, too. You cannot use gouache because they are opaque. You can use paintbrush or brayer.

Remember the days when you use to fold a piece of paper in different directions, cut it out into different shapes and then unfold? That is what I did here to get this design. I then just brayered over it. Be careful to use enough paint of it will stick to the brayer. You can also just use a paintbrush and go around the edges of the paper template. Lift before it dries or it will stick to the paper.

Keep adding layers with different colors and templates/masks. You can alternate light and dark colors as long as you don't dominate with dark color. You can go with lots of smaller images in your template/mask as long as it does not drown out everything else. I used some iridescent gold as part of one mask.

Here are some of the masks I used. They are used for scrapbooking. I got it from Archivers. They are from KI Memories, I think. That is what it said on the packaging. They come in 12x12 sheets. Just heavy cardstock or paper. I also have some Tim Holtz and other masks that have a kind of sticky back to them.

This is how it looks when I am done. I like the contrasting look. I ended up stamping some text on top with some paint. Go a pict down and you will see the final pict with the lizard. If this is too busy for you, I did one which is more tonal, more color family in the pict below.

This one is more in the same color family. I started out with stamping some text with StazON. I used some bright yellow fluid acrylic and transparent yellow oxide. Sorry, my instructions say just transparent yellow. I then used a mask with some nickel azo gold. I took a flower mask and outlined it with some burnt umber. I have a wooden flower and outlined it with some Payne's Grey. I then filled it in. To soften the brown lines, I used some Tsukineko all purpose inks with the Fantastix with orange ink and went over the burnt umber lines. I went over the wood flower with red ink.

You can click on the picts to get a larger view and to read my directions.

I am doing the first technique for Technique Sundays for my Mixed Media Art Friends Yahoo Group. Posting to my blog just because it is easier. If you want to play, you will need to join the group. There will be a different member teacher each week. Link to join in my right column. Look later on today or tomorow and I will do a quickie, simple technique on an art quiltie just because someone in our group commented on it.

The idea is to just layer colors on top of each other once each layer is dried so you can see a little of what is underneath. You can use masks, stencils, and other objects to hide what is underneath so it comes through later on. It is quite a fun challenge. You do not need more than a few layers. Sometimes two layers can be enough. Have fun and don't forget to share in the Yahoo group what you think. Comment here or email me if you have any questions. See you in the Mixed Media Yahoo Group!