Hi, I’m Barbara Kemp Cowlin! And I’m happy to be here to show you a great way to use stencils on
Dura-Lar clear film. Layering and working on both the front and back sides
gives lots of opportunity for creative and spontaneous fun. While the collage/painting
can be planned out, I like to wing it. Every time you flip to the opposite side
and do some work, it changes the way the front side looks, too. I love the
element of chance and the challenge it presents.
Stencil Girl Stencils
Used:
Mediums (I use Golden):
• Soft Gel Gloss—for gluing
• Heavy Gel Gloss—for
stenciling and painting directly on the film
• Light Molding
Paste—for stenciling
Paints (Golden is my
choice)
High Flow: Titanium White, Teal,
Quinacridone Magenta, Phthalo Blue (green shade), Hansa Yellow Medium (but any
paints & colors you have on hand will work)
Dura-Lar (can be
purchased in pads of varying sizes, single sheets and in rolls)
• Clear (as a base on
which to glue collage pieces)
• Wet media—for
stenciling and painting (gets cut apart and glued down on the Clear film)
Pic3
Miscellaneous supplies:
• Scissors
• Brayer (small is fine,
1 1/2-2”)
• Various brushes
• Palette knives
• Fine Line Applicators
(fill with High Flow paints and use to make lines)
• Freezer paper
• Squeegees or credit
cards or scraps of cardboard
Step 1: Prepare paint
and medium mixtures
Prepare by mixing High
Flow acrylics into Light Molding Paste and into Heavy Gel Gloss. I use 2 oz
containers with lids from restaurant supply stores for mixing a variety of
colors into the Paste and into the Heavy Gel Gloss.
Step 2: Create a
“library” of the following for use in your project. Keep scraps, they’re great
to incorporate into collages.
A. Stencils: Cover
sheets of Wet Media Dura-Lar with various combinations of stencils and with
colors mixed with either the paste or HB gloss. I use a palette knife to scrape
the medium over the stencil. Because it’s a thick mixture there isn’t a problem
with leaking under the stencil.
B. Transparent sheets:
Dribble High Flow paint
across a sheet of Wet Media Dura-Lar. Use the brayer to spread across the
sheet. I don’t worry about getting the paint perfectly smooth, in fact I like
the irregularities. Create sheets of each color. You can also make sheets with
multiple colors on the single sheet.
C. Lines:
Use a Fine Line
Applicator filled with High Flow paint to make sheets of lines. They could be
scribbles, words, or series of shapes (sheets of lines of circles, squares
etc.) Or use a brush and the High Flow paints to make various lines and strokes
on the Dura-Lar.
Let the sheets dry
overnight.
Step 3: Cutting
Cut sheets apart. Could
be in particular shapes, long strips, or completely random. I like to start
with a half dozen or so pieces to start with and just move them around on the
Dura-Lar until they make a pleasing design. If you don’t like what you did you
can always shove these pieces aside, cut some more and try again. Remember to
keep the scraps—they’ll come in handy at some point.
Step 4: Gluing the first
shapes down
Take the pieces you’ve
placed on the Clear Dura-Lar off. One of my ingenious students suggested taking
an iPhone photo before removing the pieces to refer to when gluing. A great
idea!
Tear off a sheet of
freezer paper. Lay your piece of cut Dura-Lar face down on the freezer paper.
Using a palette knife spread a thin layer (about the thickness of a dime) of
Soft Gel Gloss over the piece. Be sure to go over the edges.
Lay glue side down on
your Clear Dura-Lar sheet in predetermined place. Put a piece of freezer or wax
paper on top (to protect painting underneath and help squeeze glide) and use
squeegee or credit card to squeeze the excess medium out. Remove freezer paper
and discard (or wipe off, let dry and reuse). Wipe excess off edges around the
glued down piece. Continue until you have all cut pieces glued down.
Step 5: Flip project
over
Now you’re ready to add
some additional pieces to the reverse side. Feel free to flip back and
forth—what you add on the back will effect what the front looks like.
Once you’ve worked back
and forth from front to back you might consider doing some painting &
stenciling directly onto the collage/painting to add finishing touches.
*** Please note: The
Soft Gel Gloss starts out milky. It will dry transparent. When you flip your
work over, if you see globs of the soft gel gloss under glued down pieces,
you’ll want to squeegee more out. It make take a few days or up to a week for
it to completely dry.
Step 6: The finished
painting
If you love both sides
of the painting you can free float it from clear fishing line, apply to a
window or use your imagination for clever ways to display both sides of the
artwork (what about a shoji screen?). The sky’s the limit.
If you think one side
looks a lot better than the other, you can glue it down to a panel with your
favorite side up and frame it. Be sure to use a good quality panel (heavy
cardboard panels will warp). I like using Ampersand panels.
I hope you’ll find combining
stencils with Dura-Lar as fun and exciting as I do. When I’m stuck on a
painting I like to take a break and make some Dura-Lar pieces to get my
creativity going!
Th is is so beautiful!! Thanks for the inspiration!
ReplyDeleteWhat a great tutorial-love it!!!
ReplyDeleteThat was sooo cool ❤️❤️❤️
ReplyDeleteLove this concept.
ReplyDeleteSo inspiring! Thank you!
ReplyDeleteWhat a great idea!
ReplyDeleteSally
Wondered what else to do with this product, this is great, thank you.
ReplyDeleteDura-Lar is what I used for my Voices mobile with alcohol inks. Great to know another way to use it! Thank you!
ReplyDelete