Lost In Her Thoughts - A Typography Painting by Jennifer Gallagher

Hello! 

It's Jennifer Gallagher here with you again, this time with a canvas pad painting for our theme of Typography. I love alphabetic and numeric stencils. So, this month I'm using some of my favorites to put together a super easy but visually impactful painting. You could use this same technique in your art journal or other mixed-media projects. It's super easy, so let's get started.

I am starting with a sheet of canvas pad that measures 12 by 16 inches.

I have picked a few colors of acrylic paint to build my background. I am using Naples Yellow, Light Portrait Pink and Fluorescent Pink and blended them in a random way through my stencil. The stencil is StencilClub January 2019 release. Once the numbered section of the stencil is filled in with paint, I remove the stencil and blur the edges of the paint with a baby wipe to soften the look a bit.

I am starting in the right-hand bottom corner and working my way straight up to the top right corner following the same steps.

Once the right-hand side is covered, I placed a focal point stencil into the center of the canvas pad. I'm using Pam Carriker's create face stencil. I'm using Naples Yellow and Portrait Pink to fill in the face.

I placed the 9x12 stencil back down at the edge of where the face stencil meets the background and applied some of the fluorescent pink onto the background. Then I used the same color to add some depth to the face stencil.

Next, I continued to fill in the background around the rest of the canvas.

To extend the focal image, and to add a bit more of a focal typography element, I placed the 9x12 stencil from the December 2017 StencilClub Set "Borderlines" under the face and painted it with Bright Aqua Green. Then I sporadically added portions of the stencil around the canvas. Using the same stencil, I added the smaller numerals from the stencil in Light Blue Violet.

I wanted to give the canvas a bit more of a vintage vibe so I dropped a dime-size drop of India Ink in Sepia in the four corners of the canvas and rubbed it around. I let the ink set for just a few seconds and then wiped it around with a baby wipe. You can remove as much as you want until you get a finish you like.

I have a lot of numbers here and now it's time to add some letters. So I'm going with the "Are We There Yet" stencil by Carolyn Dube. I'm not filling in the whole words just bits of words trying to take advantage of the various font types in this stencil. I"m using grey acrylic paint. 

Then using the leftover grey paint, I used a paintbrush to add some shadowing around the face stencil.

The final step is to add a little white Posca paint pen inside the numeral focal point and then outline it and the face with a black gelly roll pen.

I hope you have enjoyed this typography tutorial. Remember, if you aren't interested in creating a painted canvas you could transition this idea straight into your art journal. If you would like to see more of my work visit me on my blog, FaceBook, or on Instagram.

Happy creating,

Jennifer Gallagher

Mixed Media and Stencil Painting with StencilClub Voices for March Mashness!

Rich colors and a wealth of emotions make Martha Christopher, Robin Krieger, and Lea Vollmer's art as part of StencilClub Voices awesome.

They used March Mashness by Mary Beth Shaw and Carolyn Dube.

Without further ado, in their own words, here is their art!:

Martha Christopher's Mixed Media

For my first project, I attached a gel print to an old record album.

The gel print was done on an architectural/engineering drawing. (My husband is an engineer and he was throwing those papers away and I rescued them from the garbage can!) 

I darkened the edge with a black Marabu Art Crayon, put Mod Podge over the piece, sanded it a bit when dry and added a touch of Black Soot Distress Ink here and there to grunge it up a little more.

To make the butterfly I put some gold crackle paste through the stencil onto a piece of paper with black paint on it. Once that was dry, I embossed it with Seth Apter’s Vintage Beeswax Baked Texture embossing powder. The next day parts of it turned a bit cloudy, but I actually like the effect. I also wrapped some wire around a pen nib and attached that to my butterfly.

Putting it all together: I attached some black string, some sisal under the butterfly and my sentiment. 

For my second project, I made a small junk journal.

The day I received the March set a friend of mine gave me a scrap of brown grocery bag covered in paint.

It had a lovely feel to it and I immediately thought it would make a great junk journal cover.

I also had a large piece of under-paper that had some lovely paints and textures on it. I stenciled that paper with buff paint and then outlined the design with a black Posca pen to help the flowers stand out from the background.

I glued these two pieces of paper together then sewed around that to create the cover.

The focal point on the cover was made using the small stencil, some black card stock and gold paint. I attached it to some vintage music paper and cheesecloth and sewed around that as well.

I also added some more cheesecloth and some black Sari ribbon to the spine of my journal to add more interest and make it a bit sturdier. For the closure, I sewed on two pieces of black Sari ribbon.

Finally, I gathered some papers and sewed them into my cover using black waxed linen thread.

I really enjoyed making these projects!

hope by Robin Kreiger 

I work mostly with watercolors and I use acrylics with the stencils to make them stand out. This painting means hope and I put wings in almost every painting I do. 

I put faces in most of them too; it gives me a place to deal with what I call my inner sadness.

Lea Vollmer's 3D Butterfly

I used acrylic paint, black and white markers on this one plus made the butterfly three dimensional.

For this one, I used acrylic paints, markers, gold metallic paint, and a magazine photo.

Check out Mary Beth and Carolyn revealing the set on StencilGirl Talk or simply sign up here to get the set and play!

StencilClub Voices are creating art with the Ceramic Tiles Collection!

The hand-drawn repeating patterns and fleur-di-lis within the Ceramic Tiles Collection inspired Marge Weaver, Natalie Lewis, Beth Broadway, and I, to break out our paints, pens, printing plates and get busy!

Natalie Lewis's Black and Tan Canvas

Natalie writes, "My project was done on a 11x14 canvas, painted with black gesso. I made various sizes and alternated between black and white gesso on brown craft paper, then I went over each stenciled design with a black micron pen and a white signo pen, adding detail in contrasting colors. Using all 3 sizes of the tile design, I created a collage overlapping each tile. I added 3 dimensional fleur-de-lis pieces to repeat the tile theme.

Beth Broadway's Rusty Textured Painting

Beth writes, "As soon as I opened the July StencilClub by Gwen Lafleur, they reminded me of the old tin ceiling tiles."

Beth used a rust effect paste on the 6x6 stencil as the focal point and the 9x12 and mini stencil for the border.

Margie Weaver's M is for Mermaid

Margie writes, "I’ve had this wooden M in my stash for years. I sponge painted the background in seascape colors, then used the large July stencil and copper acrylic pant to transfer the stencil pattern as a 2nd layer. The mermaid was made using the Mermaidia Stencil and the gelliplate, imprinting on heavy card stock. It was then fussy-cut out and I used foam to mount it, cattywompus, to the bottom right of the M." {We love how the mermaid looks cut out of metal!}

Margie also made a simple greeting card using the medium stencil - the medallion. Again, she imprinted with the gelliplate then fussy-cut out the central element. She used the small stencil to add the arcs at the top and bottom of the medallion once it was adhered with glue dots. Finally, the wording was stamped in the bottom right corner. 

Carol Baxter's Card and Card Box

I love curating StencilClub Voices! Each one of our wonderful members brings so much thought and talent to their projects.  

I used Gwen's lovely Ceramic Tiles large and small stencils to paint and doodle on the sides of a little 6.5x8.5x9.5 inch box while I waited for a StencilClub video to upload.

I had envelopes and cards scattered about my office by now they are somewhat tidy! Of course, I had to make a card too! It looked too empty so I scribbled the words to a song that was playing in the white space.

I think these stencils will easily adorn gift bags and cards because it's only a matter of changing colors to match the season. I especially      like the large leafy pattern in the large stencil.

Thanks to our talented StencilClub Voices for the inspiration and ideas!

You can watch Gwen's reveal HERE. If you need to play and layer and doodle with Ceramic Tiles, you can find out about StencilClub and join via this link.

We all wish you happy stenciling!

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