Over Stenciling: quick trick to up your colouring game!

Hi All,

Hope you had a restful holiday season. The sun has been shining (mostly) in Tassie and I am enjoying my long school holidays!!! So much so, that I have actually been able to head into the studio and create instead of marking books!

This journal page was created by stencilling the focal image twice. It is something I do often when I find it difficult to paint or colour a stencilled or stamped image (though stencilling is so much easier!!!). The two stencils I chose to use in this journal page were: 

Words to live by L209 and Sweet girl Large L838

Firstly I created my background by painting the page with paines grey and letting it dry completely. I then painted the page with a mix of blue acrylic paints and while the paint was still damp, removed the paint from the overlayed word stencil with a wet wipe. This gives you a subtle background with a positive version of the stencilled image. 

Next I stencilled the large focal image, the portrait on top of my background in black. While I love this image, the whole page was quite dark, so I wanted to add some metallic highlights. I painted the hair and dress with metallic pastes and let them dry. I also added white over the eyes. You can see with the image I have here - I have completely painted over all the detail in the stencilled image - this is the beauty of this technique. You don't have to stay within the lines, or work out what colour goes where - just paint. A second layer of the original stencil over the top will fix everything, sharpen up the lines and add in any missing details you painted over!!! Simple. 

Finally, add in any extra details you fancy to finish your page. I added foam word stamps and some leaves, plus some paint pen highlights on the clothing and eyes. Make it as simple or as complex as you want. Hope you give this technique a go. Till next time - happy creating.

Niamh

@niamhbaly (YouTube/Instagram)

@niamh'sartjournal (Facebook)