A Map of Us

February is the month that we celebrate love. Everything in the store is hearts, red and pink. When my husband and I were married, we decided that we weren't going to get pulled into the commercialism of Valentine's Day. What kind of a relationship does one have if they only show each other love on February 14th, once a year? Not to mention the overpriced candy and flowers. But when it comes down to it, I am a female and I want to be romanced. I love it when my husband comes home with flowers or a special gift. I love it when he does the unexpected to surprise me. Over the last few years, we have done a little something for the other not because we mutually agreed to start celebrating Valentine's Day, but because we have found it to be just one more opportunity to tell the other what we love about them.

This year, I decided to map out "Our Story," We have gone through some hard things in the past year and it seemed like the perfect time to commemorate all the battles fought and won in our marriage.

To start this project, I created a sketch.

Using stencils and other reference material, I came up with a final sketch.

One of my favorite reference materials was How To Make Hand-Drawn Maps by Helen Cann.

My sketch was transferred to watercolor paper using a pencil and graphite transfer paper.

I found a color palette that went with my theme and mixed up the colors before beginning.

I applied my first layer of color. 

I kept building up layers and here is the result. As you can see there are some wrinkles in the paper, so I pressed it for several days under heavy books.

Once flat, I used fine liner pens to add the text.

The last detail was adding the title in the bottom corner. I used this stencil to help me create a box.

S274

L978

L332

Thank you for joining me. I hope that you have found inspiration for creating a unique and personal way to show your love to someone.

Kate

 

Slippery When Wet: Exploring Stenciled Watercolor

Slippery When Wet:

Exploring Stenciled Watercolor

The pandemic hit and I took that “in captivity” studio time to return to a medium that I love and, at times, hate—watercolor. I returned with a vengeance determined to bring my bag of tricks from the other fluid mediums I split my time between.  Truth be told, when everyone was at the grocery as everything was shutting down, I was at Dick Blick making sure I had ample supplies for new adventures.  My watercolor work uses good brushes, high quality mainstream and artisan paint, and mid-range watercolor paper that works well for exploring.  I made an exception and wanted to try out a new-to-me dimensional ground so this first project is done on deep cradle canvas.  I gessoed one coat and put two coats of dimensional ground (QoR Watercolor) and was pleased with the absorbency and movement of the paint. I mixed colors and soon the first layers were finished after a little fussing.  You’ll see what I mean in the video.  The real fun begins when I begin to variegate the final layer with StencilGirl® stencils, fingers, credit cards, and sometimes even scratch tools or something near my hand.

Could I do this with a brush?  Yes, I could, but I find the randomness of the stencils keep my final product more organic.  I work fast without too much thought except to build up shadow and interest areas.  With a brush I am more apt to overthink.  I put together a video to show you what I mean.  I videoed this fun final layer, but included still pictures showing the first steps. Detail shots give you a close up of all the visual texture and showcase the mark making possibilities. The pièce de résistance is the final beauty shot that shows you how all the madness came together. Watercolor is some knowledge and a lot of hope mixed with happenstance, and I feel that these random marks go hand in hand with that aesthetic. You can view this 3 ½ minute video here. The following stencils were used: 

Floral Dots Mini  Crocodile Repeating Pattern  Circles Circles Botanical Wildflowers  Stencil Club 10/18 Curry Interesting Dots Repeating

I had so much fun with the painting that I left my pile of curated stencils out and spent some time painting small pieces with stencils. My process has been to tape the sides of a piece of watercolor paper down and spray with water before placing the stencil.  Then I take one or more colors and push them through the stencil with a brush in what’s called a wet in wet application.  The paper is wet and the watercolors are a bit diluted so the paint moves around the paper under the stencil yet leaves the pattern or partial pattern.  I leave it a few minutes to let the paint soak in and then use a heat tool to speed drying. I actually recommend air drying, but I don’t always do what I recommend. This will leave a mid-toned background.  I place the stencil back in to bring out more detail.  For this layer, I use a cosmetic sponge or go in with a just barely wet brush and spot color areas using one color or a limited palette.  This is less of a commitment than doing a full on painting, yet you really get a painterly effect with the layering of loose to defined.  In this piece I used white gouache as a final layer to bring out the pattern.  The pictures below show the single color process. The stencil used in this piece is from the 6/2019 Stencil Club (a great monthly subscription value) set by June Pfaff Daley.

The same process can be done in multicolor with amazing results.  In this piece I used Mary Beth Shaw and Seth Apter’s Club stencil from January 2019.  (You must be part of Stencil Club to buy this stencil I used, but that’s easy to take care of on their site.) This piece was made during the horrible rioting and this collage that spoke to the idea of inclusion literally fell out of me. When chaos is surrounding me, I often use art as my voice.  I used a limited palette of Quinacridone Gold Deep, Cobalt Green Dark and Payne’s Gray. Places that needed more contrast were spot colored a second time with a sponge.  All the pieces were cut into house shapes to resemble a street where the homes were all different, yet unified since they all shared the same three colors.  I arranged and then mounted them on a piece of black watercolor paper for even more drama and wrote the quote by hand.  The foreground was just a piece of watercolor paper colored in the same palette. It was a big release for me once it was finished.  Art does heal. 

This process also lends itself to abstracts.  Below are samples of pieces I did with single stencils.  The first piece is one that I wanted the colors to move the eye around so it stayed soothing and analogous.  I used one of Mary Beth Shaw’s awesome abstract pattern stencils that she did for January 2016 Stencil Club.  That particular piece just had one layer.  I loved the ethereal mood that layer created and didn’t want to mess with it. 

The next three pieces use stencils all by Traci Bautista.  I never get tired of them because there are so many places of interest.  With the first one I paired her Soulful Scribbles Let Go stencil with some of my favorite pearlescent colors by FineTec.  They certainly pack a punch.  I plan to cut that piece up and use it in a symmetrical multi-tiered square collage. The last two are done with a dry surface and very wet brush.  If you want to retain a white background as I did in the third piece, then paint the watercolor onto the stencil and do not spray the paper with water.  You will get a bolder print that stays fairly sedentary on the paper.  I sometimes use a brayer and roll it over the stencil, but often use just a brush. The stencil is divine and is called Tropical Floral. If I am doing a larger piece, I pick the stencil corner up along the way and if I am careful I can add extra paint without moving the stencil if my coverage was off.  I’m a word person and Traci’s playful font spoke to me when I did this one.  On the last piece, I used her Circles Circles stencil again to make this tiny, but mighty, sunset colored piece of art. No water was used on the paper, but there was a good solid pigment load on the brush that really helped with the saturation.  I used Jacquard’s Piñata Real Gold Ink on the dry watercolor and then cut my original sheet into three smaller pieces for framing.

As you can see, your choices are only limited by your imagination.  You can soften the effects of the stencils by keeping to a wet process or go for a more saturated and usually sharper final product by using less water.  You don’t need expensive materials, but I will say that you will have better outcomes leaving the cheaper student paint behind.  WN’s Cotman paints are readily available and the best student grade paints I’ve heard of and Strathmore 300 is a good starter watercolor paper.  I use it for my swatching.  Experiment and see what look is pleasing to you.  As always, I appreciate my time on the blog and love to share what I’m doing.  To see more of my pursuits, follow me on Instagram and Facebook at Nancy Curry Art.  For my class schedule, blog, and full galleries, hop over to Nancy Curry Art.

Interactive painting: Imagination vs Knowledge by Cheetarah Cheda

Hi StencilGirl® enthusiasts, it's Cheetarah here and I'm very thrilled to have a guest post on StencilGirl® Talk today. For a while now I have been experimenting with watercolors and creating patterns with stencils. And I would like to share a project which was a result of an experimentation which is an interactive painting. 

The base is a large piece of watercolor paper by Viking 1914. I used the landscape pad which is 15x42 cm, 310gms in weight & 50% cotton mix paper. The paper was glued on to the pad on all sides so the paper doesn't warp with use of a lot of water. Great quality paper and having it taped down is very important for a successful watercolor painting. The paints I used are from Sennelier, a french professional watercolor brand which I have filled the wells of my Koi travel pocket box with. The brush I am using is a large quill brush and I made sure to have 2 water cups, one for cleaning and one for mixing. I traced the face silhouette from Seth Apter's Borderlines Large stencil (a StencilGirl® StencilClub stencil) on the right hand side and then went to work to create a galaxy color composition over the entire page.

When working with watercolors, timing is key, so I do not have many mid process pictures. I've worked on these layers for about 30-45 minutes, adding color and letting them blend out in a process you have to practice with patience and appropriate speed. I have watched many tutorials on YouTube on how to create galaxy watercolor paintings and this is a very simple & effective tutorial: https://youtu.be/ZFVLLjS912E and I have applied the same technique in my painting.  

After the piece was thoroughly dry I took a medium damp cloth and created texture by removing some color through the dotted pattern in the large stencil. I only did this on the aria's opposite the silhouette. 

I made sure the silhouette was standing out by using contrasting colors and keeping the edge of the line as sharp as possible. Darkened the face up more and used an opaque white ink for the starker contrast. Now to add more patterns in the piece. 

With a black paint pen I have traced the large bubbles which were in the same large stencil as the face, then colored them in with the opaque white acrylic paint. I also splattered some of the white paint over the painting. The added in the quote "Imagination is more important than Knowledge" with the black paint liner. The quote by Einstein is found on the Pen & Ink Large stencil by Lesley Riley. 

After I was done with the painting I took it off the watercolor block I folded the painting because I planned to make an interactive piece out of it. 

I took a semi transparent acrylic dark blue and a semi opaque lighter blue paint and sponged it through the large numbers of the Borderlines stencils. Then traced the numbers in with a black paint liner. I cut out the silhouette face so it folded over the quote. I traced the quote lines with a white paint liner for some contrast. 

This is what it looks like when you open up the side of the face. With an exacto knife I cut open a portion of the silhouette line, folded in half to glue it in place like this. Added the same numbers border with a mix of the paint and traced it with a white paint liner. With this last detail added I called the interactive painting done. Here are some close up pictures. 

I hope you enjoyed seeing how this interactive painting came together and that you might try making something like this yourself. Have a lovely day. 

_____ 

Blog: https://missthundercat.blogspot.com/

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/MissThundercat.mixedmediaartist/ 

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/missthundercat/

Twitter: https://twitter.com/MissThundercat 

Shibori, Stencils and Frisket, Yes Please!

Hi everyone! Happy to be joining you on the StencilGirl Talk blog today.  I’m Debi Adams and I thought I would share one of my favorite art forms, Shibori, albeit a slightly different technique/application and, use of stencils, of course.  My approach to both stencils and Shibori is to go modern and trendy. Although stencils are used for lots of layering and are very beautiful, they can also be used in their basic form without much application and be very clean. Since I am redoing the spare room in my house to reflect shibori and a bit of boho, I thought I would make some art to go on the walls.   

I love watercolors a lot and decided to create the shibori-look using watercolors on watercolor paper, and the non-dyed portion, using frisket.  Frisket is a liquid that when applied, blocks out watercolor from seeping through paper and retains the underlying color of paper, in this case, white. It is a lot of fun. (For a layered look, you can add a color to the base or ephemera paper to the substrate before applying the frisket).  For my substrate, I chose Arches Watercolor paper.  It’s my favorite and by far the most successful look when watercoloring but you can use other watercolor papers as well.  

I laid my stencil down on top of the watercolor paper. You can tape it down if you like, or not.  (The stencils and all supplies are at the bottom of this post.) I picked these (mostly) repeating, patterned stencils because I felt that they closely resembled the shibori-tied or folded-look, however, you can use almost any stencil.  Use a foam brush and apply the frisket.  Frisket dries quickly so it’s important to get a good coat on the first time around and move quickly to cover the entire stencil. When done, remove stencil and wash off the frisket from the stencil immediately.  I toss the brushes because they are harder to clean and for the most part, are inexpensive. 

When completely dry, 5 minutes or so, it is safe to watercolor.  I like Winsor Newton brand and since Shibori is generally a blue dye, I used a deep blue color.  I misted my substrate first then began applying paint. I added more blue coverage here and there so it gave the appearance of inconsistent dying.   Once my substrate was covered, I let it dry. It can take a while if you used a lot of water, which I generally do.  

After the paper is dry, use a frisket eraser to remove all the frisket and reveal the white paper that has been left behind. 

That’s it!  Easy.  And what did I make with all the patterns? Take a peek… 

I love the simplicity of these wood frames. It's organic and draws attention to the art.  Perfect for my room!

And consider making it even more modern and classy just by using gold frames. 

And then you can always mesh all of these ATC pieces together...

And a trio always looks nice and impactful, I mean, once you're on a roll, why not? 

Maybe even a foursome?

Don't forget about other possibilities of using your art in your home. Think of  greeting cards, place cards, invitations, etc.  Oh you so got this! Thanks for popping in. 

XO,

Debi Adams

Website: www.debi-adams.com

Insta:debi_adams

FB: Debi Adams

Pinterest: Debi Adams

If card making interests you, check out my StencilGirl® online course here!  It's available to play whenever/where ever you are!

Supplies:

StencilGirl® Stencils:

L655 ATC Mix Up by Andrew Borloz

SC-02-2018-Grandmother's Kitchen by Kristie Taylor

S431-Barbed Wire by Mary Beth Shaw

M190 3-Ring-Seth Apter

Other:

Arches 140 lb. Cold Press Watercolor Paper

Windsor & Newton  Watercolour, Indanthrene Blue-Series 3 A

Foam Brush

Frisket & Frisket Eraser

Watercolor Brush of your Choice

Water Mister