The Blue Grosbeak - Acrylic on Panel, 8x8 inches

To hear the Blue Grosbeak's song, please visit: http://www.allaboutbirds.org/guide/Blue_Grosbeak/sounds

Left to Right: Monoprint, Collgraph, Monoprint

We worked with Golden' OPEN Acrylics which dry slow and are great for printmaking applications because you have time to work your color on your "plate". 

With our monoprints, we used freezer paper as a printing plate, which I wrapped around a hardboard panel so that we would have a sturdy surface to work on.  For a printing plate, you could also use glass, gelli plates, hardboard panels, sheet protectors, carved linoleum, and more.  We used tape to hinge stonehenge paper to our freezer paper so that we could do multiple passes of our print and keep the paper lined up with the panel.  You can be more precise with how you create registration marks and tape off a margin, but for this exercise we kept things really simple!  After hinging our paper, we brush applied Open colors to our printing plate, being careful not to make this too thick (otherwise our print would come out "squishy") then we laid the paper down over our color and burnished the backside so that the paper would pick up the color.  We repeated this process two or three times to create fun color layers, cleaning off the plate between each pass.

For our collograph prints, we used some textured surfaces that I made ahead of time.  Instead of being flat, collographs are made over a surface that has been built up with a relief...you can make a relief from acrylic gels and pastes - try embedding textiles or fibers for an added effect (my sample image above had lace and string embedded between layers of Coarse Molding Paste and Soft Gel Matte)!  You will get the crispest image capture over a surface that is sealed with a slick material (like one of the basic gels); over an absorbent or pebbly surface, less color will transfer.  For these prints, we dampened our stonehenge first before burnishing it over our textured plate - this will help promote more flexibility from the paper so that it will bend and form to the texture underneath, and the water will help lift more color out of the crevices.

In addition to Stonehenge paper, I also like using Rives or another 100% cotton printmaking paper. 

Here are a couple images from our make & take table:

Our next First Friday event is happening on June 7, I hope to see you there!

I had so much fun making these boards!  Each surface combined two or more layers of acrylic color, gels, and/or pastes, and were enhanced with Fluid Acrylics to bring the peaks and valleys to life. 

Follow the link to hear its song: http://www.allaboutbirds.org/guide/Philadelphia_Vireo/sounds

It occured to me that I've never shared what drawing tools I'm using, I get in the habit of talking about paint so talking about drawing supplies sometimes escapes me.  For all of my drawings I've been working on Strathmore 300 series smooth bristol... I had been working with the vellum bristol, but due to it's slight texture, it was harder to erase my lines.  For graphite pencils, I'm usually pretty loyal to Derwent but I'll use other brands too.  Since I'm keeping my images fairly light, I use a 3H to block in everything, and an H and B (occasionally a 2B) to darken and enhance the values.  For erasers I like to have two types on hand - a kneadable eraser and a black factis.... I use the kneadable eraser to soften and blur edges, and the black factis to obliterate areas.

White Throated Sparrow - Acrylic on Panel, 8x8 inches

Part of the process is understanding grittiness and absorbency of acrylic surfaces and what your stains will "cling to" the best (my favorite surface for stains is Acrylic Ground for Pastels), then there is the issue of how much water to use to thin your color - which is something you can easily go overboard on.  Blending can be tricky as well, even with Open paints that dry slow... the type of brush you are using plays a huge role here because you need the right softness and stiffness, etc.  I'm really looking forward to sharing more information about these color applications in the workshop on Sunday May 5 so each of my students will be able to make better Stains, Glazes, and Blends!

ps: here is a link to the song of the White Throated Sparrow - http://www.allaboutbirds.org/guide/white-throated_sparrow/sounds

Tufted Titmouse - Acrylic on Panel, 8x8 inches

I put the finishing touches on this birdie with Open acrylics, so in a few days when the painting is dry, it'll go up on my Etsy shop!

For another dimension to this painting, here is a link where you can hear the tufted titmouse bird call/song: http://www.allaboutbirds.org/guide/tufted_titmouse/sounds

These projects were all taught during full day layering workshops I taught this month, clockwise from the upper left: 1) Blockprinted stonehenge paper collaged onto a panel then sealed with a layer of gel and embellished with glaze layers,  2) A bird painted onto a "skin" made from Acrylic Ground for Pastels, then attached onto a stained Crackle Paste surface, 3) Blockprinted stonehenge paper coated with grounds to receive dry media, color and forms were enhanced with watercolor pencils and fluid acrylic color, 4) Layered image transfers married together with paint layers.

I have the next few days off from teaching, so I'm excited to finish up some paintings I've got going and share them here on my site! 

Reading from left to right, here are the projects we worked on:

Color blocking, stamping, and stenciling on cardstock... cardstock is readily available at an office supply store in large quantities, so you don't always have to go out and source specialty papers in order to create fun surfaces.  For our painted cardstock, we used Fluid Acrylics without water in our brushes.  When you get too much water on cardstock, it become quite fragile and will rip easily as the fibers become saturated... so when we use the Fluid Acrylics on their own, we can maintain the integrity of the paper AND our paints dry faster.

Blockprinting over dampened Stonehenge paper... stonehenge is a common paper used for printmaking and illustration that can be found at most art supply stores.  For this project, we used carved foam plates (a safe and inexpensive alternative to linoleum blocks) to create a pattern on our paper.  We started by dampening the stonehenge, then set it aside while we brushed Fluid Acrylics over our foam plates.  Remember to keep your brush pretty flat to the surface to prevent too much paint from filling in the valleys of your carving.  When the foam surface was covered, we stamped the plate onto our paper...the dampened surface helps lift more color off the plate.  Repeat the process a few times to cover your paper!

Separated Iridescent colors over rice paper... there's a funny trick that happens with Iridescent Bronze because in addition to the Iron Oxide coated Mica Particles that many of Golden's iridescent colors are made from, there is also Phthalo Green in the paint.  So if you flood Irid. Bronze with water and stain an absorbent surface, you will see a halo of green around your shimmery bronze.  This is the only one of Golden's iridescent colors that does this, but you can force the effect by mixing regular pigments with iridescent colors, flooding them with water and staining a surface.  The color recipes we made were:  Micaceous Iron Oxide + Permanent Violet Dark, Iridescent Stainless Steel (Coarse) + Sap Green Hue, and Irid. Copper Light (Fine) + Turquoise Phthalo.  We mixed them 50:50, then flooded the mixture with water.  In the photo above, you will see that the heavier iridescent colors will rest on the surface of your paper and the smaller particles of our regular pigments will sink below the surface of the paper!

Be sure to stay current with our MeetUp group for all of the information about these First Friday events... http://www.meetup.com/los-angeles-art-workshops  Our next creative social will be on May 3!

I'm having some ideas for developing a project with acrylic skins to simulate the translucency of those daffodil petals, perhaps it will be ready in time for my class on April 21! :)