Onward

Large tag for the 4th of July

The start of a 6x9 inch collage

Start of a 8x10 collage

We are now in the last lesson of the Jane Davies class online. And I am still struggling. My problem is using the gel plate in a different manner than what I have done before. Old habits die hard. I am so used to printing an entire sheet of paper, then overlaying the entire sheet. In this lesson, Jane tells us to consider partial printing. It is effective and can be quite stunning in your work. So for the first time last night, I used other sheets of paper to mask off what I didn't want to print. Two collages immediately went into the waste basket after 3 pulls off the plate. I know, I know. Maybe they could have been salvaged. Or maybe they were just hot messes that needed to go bye-bye.

After the initial printing, we are to paint, add collage, add line work, whatever. But this is our starting point for every piece. Yeah, boy.

The tag: this is a heavier large tag, approximately 4 by 8 inches. I painted the red, white and blue stripes, then adhered some vintage looking Tim Holtz paper on the bottom. Used a Holtz number stamp for the "4" on the sideways smaller tag, cut the girl's photo down to size and matted with black card stock. Buttons, to me, represent old fashioned or a vintage look in crafts. So added a button to the ribbon at the top, and 3 across the bottom. The stars were punched from card stock. My plan is to make a few more this weekend and get them in the Etsy shop. This is my relief from working on the collages. Just saying....
Linda

Advancing in the Lessons

Gel plate, then collage, then gel plate and touch up

Same order as above

Gel plate printing 3 times, then collage, then gel plate and touch up, pen work

Collage, gel plate, and a ton of touch up

Hot mess. Collage, then gel plate, then gave up

collage, then gel plate, then repairing a lot

The six papers above are what I submitted for review to Jane Davies for Lesson 5 in her Gel Plate collage class. I have to tell you, this class has made me stretch myself, go beyond my comfort zone and want to keep trying. It is not easy. I only like one of the above a lot, and that is number 3 down from the top. Oddly enough, that was one of the pieces I considered trashing before the final gel plate application. Once I started to play with it, I fell in love with the design and colors.

The process that Ms. Davies is teaching us is long. This is not a quick "do a journal page" type of work. You have to think about placement on the plate, what you want to mask or save from paint, how many layers of paint, etc. Once you get to the end of printing, there is touch up and a lot of it. For example, in number 3, I did NOT have a clear white ground behind the 3 masked shapes. So out came the Golden Fluid Acrylic white paint, and I kept laying that down until satisfied. I knew I wanted to retain the ladder image to the left from a Stencil Girl stencil. That had to stay muted, but visible. The 3 shapes still were not popping out. Jane told us to stick with the same palette throughout our pieces, so it appeared to be a collection. One of my colors was Quinacridona/Nickel Azo Gold. It is transparent and a gorgeous shade of gold brown. What I discovered is that paint can intensify the colors underneath. In number 3, the lines were a medium blue cut from a previous gel print. The paint turned those broad lines into a subtle blue/green that just pops.

I will be doing more of these. Bought some of the Strathmore Mixed Media paper pads on sale. This is 140lb. paper, and holds up to repeated printing well.

One note. In the last piece above, the darker papers are from a Hungarian book that Klara sent me last year for use in my work. It is very old, and I put down a good layer of Matte Medium from Golden to adhere the paper. On top and on the bottom, and let it dry overnight. The antique paper came up, 3 times, on the edges. So. If you have collage papers you want to use that are extremely dry and fragile like this was, one coat of Matte Medium is not going to hold it. I now know to layer the medium on, and let it dry between applications. Learn from my mistakes. (Hi Klara!)

Thanks for stopping by.
Linda

Second attempts

New masks, more paint

Didn't touch up the bottom print yet

Not touched up

Touched up, but with a much lighter hand then the first attempts

Top collage has been touched up, not happy with it

The right hand side is one I posted above, touched up the biggest circle

Sooner or later all of the information we gather from artist and online classes, or classes in person, will sink into the brain cells. And stay there. One statement that resonated with me yesterday was from Dina Wakley: use colors you like, because if you don't you are not going to like the finished piece. Yeah, boy, is she right. I now have 2 colors that I absolutely should give away. These are Golden paints, and I just plain hate them.

I had already decided after yesterday's blog post that I was not going to continue with the group of 9 gel print collages I had started on Wednesday. I hated them. Instead, I took a day to clean out the garage, do laundry, housework, and then late yesterday return to the studio with a new outlook. That helped a bunch. What was different? I realized I wasn't using enough paint. I wasn't using the glazing medium like I should on the plate, and my shapes were crap. So. Cut four new masks, going for rounded off squares in 3 descending sizes, a kidney shape with hard edges, and a long wonky rectangle.

I also spent more money (was there ever any doubt?) on paper. Bought a pad of Canson Mixed Media in 140 pound weight, and a pad of Strathmore Mixed Media in 98 pound weight. I like them both, but right now the Canson is leading. Both are doing an excellent job of pulling the paint off the gel plate, and that is important. I did very little touch up work on the above pieces. The goal was to get nice, clean edges on each shape.

Today is yard work at some point. But I will start my grounds. Stopped at Michael's and picked up some neutral colors for that. Something else I am going to try with this project is mixing my own color, using Golden's neutral greys as a base. Should be interesting.
Linda

Frustrated

I forgot to take pics of the first step. This is the 2nd, with paint added

The ground of neutral grey and yellow has been added

Ground of Bleached Sand, Burnt Sienna, and Titian Buff

The ground was a transparent gold and I think Yellow Ochre

Then put Payne's Grey over this hot mess

This ground is Celadon Blue, I think

So. Feeling like a novice, like the biggest inexperienced painter to ever exist. I want to create paint and paper collages in the style of Jane Davies. And the first attempts are crap.

After a flurry of photos and text messages with Klara (Hi Klara!), I calmed down to realize that I am not alone, and that there are probably quite a few in this class feeling what I am feeling. It ain't easy. No it is not. But having the blog to post our work to, and feedback from Jane is a learning experience that can't be duplicated. At this point I think a goal should be to take an in person class with this artist. It would be expensive, but damn, so worth it.

I am not using the paper that Jane recommended. It's not available locally, but I need to venture out to see if I can get it in the greater metro area. Which is funny to me. In Chicago the greater metro area can take you hours upon hours to travel. Down here in Indy, it's maybe 90 minutes. What is my problem in traveling? That will be my first step. In the interim, I am switching to 10x10 or 8x8 pieces of water color paper, and I will prime them with gesso.  The heavy card stock I am using for some of these is sucking up the paint, and I don't care for the way it looks.

This is what we are doing: making our own masks to use on the gel plate to make wonky shape prints. You then clean up those prints with additional paint, then start a ground, or background, color. It should not be flat, but varied. In some of them she wants us to leave a white space around the shapes to again separate them from the ground. I forgot until I had added the blue on one side, then thought okay, do it anyway.

Next step is to add collage pieces from previous gel prints. I have 5 other pieces started, so will decide which I want to work with. Jane stated on the blog that if we do a bunch, and end up with 1 or 2 we like or at least can tolerate, we are doing exactly what she wants. Work it out, go through the process, and surprise yourself.

More to come.
Linda