Wanderlust 2022 - Weeks nine to fourteen - Image transfer and Texture paste

I am really enjoying this year's mixed media art journaling course.  Each block of seven weeks focuses on different media.  This block was about image transfer and texture paste/modelling paste.  The page above has image transfer using gel medium, image transfer using acetone and texture paste through a stencil.  The image transfer using gel medium was a new technique and one which worked well.  The big photo is of my granny's family, the small one is my Dad when he was little and the rather ghostly bride and groom are my Mum and Dad (that transfer was using acetone).

Week ten was all about texture paste.  We made marks in it and then added a tag and images around it.

I loved making this page, which was based around a gel plate transfer using a magazine image and words from a magazine.  Using the monotone colour scheme was not something I would normally choose but I loved it! I also added some mark making tissue paper pieces and stencilled letters in gold, and printed back to front to the collage.

Week eleven involved making our own flower and leaf stamps and using watercolour to stamp into the texture paste - something I had never done before.  The image has ended up with lots of texture, which isn't obvious from the picture.  We also stamped the leaf and flower shapes onto separate papers and used these to create the vase.

Week twelve was all about layers around an image transfer.  I didn't have a family photo big enough for this and as you need a laserprint image for this to work, I ended up choosing a magazine image to transfer using the gel medium technique.  I based the page on some of my Granny's interests which were nature and the countryside.  She knew all about wild flowers and trees and so I have incorporated these into the page.  I also used the leaf and flower stamps I had made from the previous week.

Week thirteen was based about texture paste through stencils onto tissue paper.  I also incorporated collage papers I had made on my gel plate.  this stencil is one of my favourites - It is Klimt Spiral pattern by Stamperia.  I have used it quite a lot since I bought it!  I hadn't intended using my Mum's two favourite colours, turquoise and orange (well, cadmium red acrylic paint actually with a bit of Spiced Marmalade Distress crayon for good measure).

Last week was based around a napkin which was applied around the edge of a page.  The texture paste was used to hold a pressed flower on the central cluster element.  However, my flower is still being pressed!  (I will add it in when it is dried and pressed and if it looks OK).  It's a very happy page.

The next material we'll be exploring is artists' acrylic paints.
 

Wanderlust 2022 - weeks one to seven - Gesso and Gel medium

I have been thoroughly enjoying Wanderlust 2022 - the mixed media art journaling course.  This is my second year and the format is a little different this time.  The course is split into seven-week blocks and each block explores different media. The first block was about gesso and gel medium.

Week one began with an overview of the media and then a project using clear gesso and a photograph.  

Week Two was using gesso and seedheads, stems etc. as brushes.  It is supposed to be a view of poplar trees out of the window, but Chris thought it looked like a battlefield.

Week three was using gel medium through a stencil as a resist and then colouring around it with water soluble crayons to reveal the word. I had more success using water based Distress ink.

Week four was using gesso through a stencil, applying it thickly and marking into it, using it to cover materials such as lace and cardboard, stamping into it and mixing it with small amounts of colour.  There was a lot of layering involved!

For the fifth week, we used white and black gesso in thin layers. I cut the eyes out of magazines and decided to give only one figure a mouth.  This piece has a meaning to me as it represents how women have not had much of a voice throughout history.

The sixth week was about using coloured gesso in light layers.  I didn't have any coloured gesso, so made my own using a tiny bit of acrylic paint mixed in.  There was also stencilling and mark making in the gesso.

The final week of this first block was about using charcoal and gesso. Charcoal is not something I use very much, so it was good to be pushed out of my comfort zone.   It involved sketching flowerheads with charcoal and using gesso to blend areas, as well as scraping charcoal onto a page and blending with water.

I really enjoyed finding out what gesso and gel medium could do, learning new-to-me techniques along the way.  Roll on the next block - image transfer and modelling paste/texture paste.