Thursday, March 17, 2016

Birds Nest for Easter Step by Step

"If we always do what we always did we always get what we always had!"


Perfect quote sent to me the other day by my lovely friend and fellow artist Joanne Boone Thomas

What a great saying! And its so true.  I am very much climbing out of my comfort zone and having such fun experimenting with new printing techniques.

I can't believe it was only last week that I received my delivery of all my new Gel Press plates and this is the first time or using a round one. 




So much has happened since then and all of it doing printing! Oh and planning, dreaming, sketching out ideas..............

Gel Press junky is now an understatement.  So whilst the paint is still wet I will fill you in with what I have done.

Here is a short step-by-step on how I achieved my nests of eggs.  A favourite subject at this time of year in all mediums and printing by no means gets left behind!
                                                                 SLIDESHOW BELOW

Materials
  • 8" Round Gel Press Plate
  • Acrylic paints
  • Brayer
  • Copy Paper
  • Bunch of grasses
  • Scrap Paper 
  • Egg cutouts (masks)
  • Embellishing materials and spare prints

 First I dabbed on nest colours of yellow ochre and burnt sienna
 I brayered this over the plate till the colours blended but in a patchy way
I then took my bunch of reed grass and moving around the plate pushed it into the paint thus picking up the paint on the way and leaving an impression
I then used the brayer to roll black paint on the grass
 and then pressed this onto the painted plate to leave black grass impressions
At this point I took a print with the centre a solid colour as one option
I then added three egg cutouts (masks) and pulled another print
I added cream and pink paint and rolled it out over the Gel Press plate
And got this, which I love!  Can you see the childs face in there?  Something to work on later.



Here is a short slideshow showing how some of them ended up.  A couple I would call finished and the others ....well i'll just have to play with those.

Click HERE view slideshow







Happy Easter and see you next time!

Bix x


6 comments:

  1. I love how you imprinted the grasses to make the nesting texture, will have to try that one day! Great prints!

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  2. Thanks Sandee....The great thing about the Gel Press plate is that it absorbs all the textures of the items that you push into it! Perfect!

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  3. Wow, Bixxy, what a treat to find your blog. I was on an artist friend's blog and hit "next blog" a couple of times. Best random connection ever! Thank you for sharing photos of this fascinating process. Your results are truly impressive already. I also love the serene photo backdrop for your web site.

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    1. Thank you so much Mary for your lovely comment. I hope you will be following my future posts. Bx

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