What to do with all these gelli prints?

Today I decided it was time to do something with the great painted papers I created with the Gelli Plate. I have a bunch of different kind papers (deli paper, regular copy paper, rice paper, etc.), in all colors, with all kind of motives. It is really addictive this Gelli Plate. I was thinking about creating some birthday cards, but started with a collage instead.

I took two similar colored papers for the background and braided them. I put some gel medium on the back to stick them together. The collage is actually created in a Visual Journal 9" x 11". I am going to dedicate this journal only for Gelli Plate prints, collages and journal pages with Gelli prints.
Looking for a table I found this lovely purple Gelli print on delipaper. The vase is delipaper as well, and you still can see thru it.
I cut the petals from the tulips from 2 different kind of red prints.

I love it, and it does feel good to create something with all these lovely prints!

Learning a new technique - Steven Reddy's Craftsy class

I took Steven Reddy's class on Craftsy and I love the new technique I learned. It starts with a sketch with pen and an underpainting with Indian ink. Love the technique! The class is great, Steven is very patient, explains well and he is very comforting, you are allowed to make mistakes. Great class for everyone who wants to learn new sketching techniques.


All in my Stillman and Birn Zeta sketchbook, 7" x 7".

Flower pots with ink washes

And the flower pots with watercolors

And a selfie ;-)

And it also works for portraits

The flower pots and Jim (the old man), the references are from pmp-art.com. PaintMyPhoto. The selfie of me on a Greek terrace drinking coffee is my own.

Playing with alcohol inks

I saw an image on Pinterest of an abstract painting which inspired me to go and look for my alcohol inks again. The 2 abstracts I created have absolutely no resemblance with the image I saw, but I love how they turned out. Both are on A3 size (30x 40cms/ 11 3/4" x 16 1/2") Yupo paper, with alcohol inks and I have added some details with Promarkers. I do love the bright and intense colors of the alcohol inks (the second painting is brighter IRL, but alcohol inks do not photograph well..).

The old barn door - reworked

I showed you this print of the old barn door in my last post.

I had a total of 3 prints, the above one being the best of the 3. I took one of the 'lesser' prints and worked on it with pen (black and brown ink) and soft pastels. And I love how it turned out!!

I am wondering if I could use some watercolors on the other print. The print is printed on Mulberry paper, not sure if it will handle washes... And I am even not sure the printing ink is waterproof. Maybe I need to check that first!

Printmaking for the WetCanvas WDE

I have been watching lots of printmaking video's on YouTube lately. Looking for new techniques of printmaking. I love Belinda del Pesco's video's. She explains and shows different printmaking techniques in a short video. I was looking for a image to use as a first experiment for a matboard collograph (Link to Belinda's video). And I found one in the WetCanvas Drawing event for this weekend.

This is the image and my first cut in matboard (coated with gloss medium) with an X-Acto knive.

After another coat of medium, I rubbed the ink into the cuts.

And with a cloth, a tissue and a q-tip I rubbed some of the ink of for the high lights

I cut 3 pieces of Mulberry paper into 8" x 10" size pieces and soaked them in water. The print plate is 4" x 6". I placed the paper on the printing plate and started rubbing with the back of a spoon, and rubbing, and rubbing....

After the first print I made some more cuts in the plate. This is the second print and is the best of the three. And drying on the washing line as you see ;-). Great new technique!! Thanks Belinda!

When they are all dry I will see if I will work on them a bit more, maybe with watercolors, or ink, maybe colored pencils. Lots of opportunities, will certainly try this again.

Sketches from Greece

I enjoyed a great holiday in Greece the last weeks, and returned home yesterday. I will show you some of the sketches I made in my Stillman and Birn Alpha journal. I have been working with pen, watersoluble pens (Tombow and Speedball) and watercolors.

This is a sketch I made sitting on the Golden Beach in Gialova, with a great view of the rocks in the clearblue water and the island opposite the beach. With pen and watercolors.

And some more sketches (in chronological order)

 

Methoni castle

Monoprinting and linocuts

I am still enjoying playing with my new Gelli plate! I am trying different ways of using the plate and am creating lovely papers.

I have an idea that I need to work on, combining gelli plate printing with linocuts, collage, and more. I carved a pelican in lino and printed it onto BKF Rives printing paper. The example below is handcolored with watercolors. I am still figuring out how to best print the background on the Gelli Plate and I will keep you updated when I found the right process. For the meantime... enjoy

And as Albert Einstein said: "Creativity is contagious, pass it on"