Be Comfortable with Uncomfortable

Lesson 6

"this lesson is getting comfortable with being uncomfortable." Jane Davies

There is a bit of blindness when working with Gelli printing. How the layers of colors react. Where to mask or stencil.  In this lesson, we take a substrate and print one part, then another and so forth using one composition format. Sometimes with a stencil and sometimes a mask and then just color in one area. I was not comfortable with this uncomfortable situation. Did one series of six.  What am I going to do with a mud pile os start?  Not knowing what will come out. With painting, at least with oils, you put down a mark, not what you want, wipe it off. This printing is a whole new ball game.

Tried again the next day after doing some homework painting colors over one another. Did another 12 starts. Don't worry I will be sharing slowly as I bring a few to the next painting stage. 

Don’t try to finish each piece in the
process. Let each thing you do just be
the next step. Stay with it, and don’t
get ahead of yourself. 

Feel free to cover up beautiful printed
patterns and textures. 

Let some of the pieces be open-ended,
or not finished.

Have fun.  Jane Davies

Wip 01-pt

8" x 13"

Gelli-print + Paint

Acrylic

Gelli-print 01

3 layers

Wip 05 pt

8" x 10"

Gelli-print + Paint

Acrylic

Gelli-print 05

4 layers

After printing the last layer it covered too much so rubbed it off quickly with a wet rag! This one will be a real challenge.

Wip 14 Pt

8" x 8"

Gelli-print + Paint

Acrylic

Gelli-print 05

3 layers

Gelli-print Masking II

Lesson IV

Masking several similar shapes with various colors and textures
Cleaning up the edges and modifying the colors and shapes.
Painting in a background.
Adding collage optional

Walking Through the Planets

8" x 8"

240-gram white paper 

Found this torn scrape on the floor. Glad I picked it up!

8" x 8"

240-gram white paper 

Off the press  A Mess

Cleaned and modified

8" x 8"

240-gram white paper 

This is an important part of the process, 

 "Paint into your shapes using a brush: clean up edges, alter color or nuance. This is an important part of the process, and it takes time, a lot more time than the original printing of shapes. " Jane Davies

Gelli-print Masking I

Lesson IV

Masking several similar shapes with various colors and textures
Cleaning up the edges and modifying the colors and shapes.
Painting in a background.
Adding collage optional

Masking various shapes to an image can be very tricky, Sometimes they come Not in the place you imagined. Sometimes you forget to cover parts of the plate that was exposed by the mask. Big mess.
Made lots of starts with this lesson and started with the ones that didn't come out so good.

Off the Press

8" x 8"

240-gram white paper 

Cleaning up

7" x 7"

240-gram white paper 

Painted background

Added Collage

7" x 7"

240-gram white paper 

Exercise II Tweaks

Exercise II Tweaks

Did a few tweaks on Start 10. These will definitely be cut up. Not a very happy camper!

Hopes 

9" x 5.4"

Top Cut

Basically cleaned up some edges and made the blue stronger

Hopes 2

9" x 5.4"

Bottom Cut

Here I added more collage and crayons work,

Collage & Gelli-printing Exercise III

Collage & Gelli-printing  Exercise III

Start 11

I am feeling quite overwhelmed by the amount of starts and pieces that I yet posted about. So I am starting the day editing photos and trying to catch up.  Start 11 was done with start 10. The process was first collage and then  Gelli-print and then more crayon work and maybe more collage. Working on the photos and seeing the work on the big screen on I could see that I could do more tweaks here and there. Maybe cut them for cards!

Start 11

23 x 33 cm 240grm

Layer Collage

Layer Gelli-print

Above the Mountains

9" x 5.4"

Top Cut

And Suddenly a Peacock Emerged

9" x 5.4"

Bottom Cut

Collage & Mono-printing Exercise II

Mono-printing & Collage Exercise II

Start 10

There are many ways to incorporate collage and Gelli-printing. In lesson 4 Jane describes first printing some layers and then adding collage and the other way around collage pieces than Gelli printing. With both, there are steps where you can modify the prints and add other elements. These exercises were first collage and then Gelli printing, then more collage.

In start 10 there are already 3 layers: collage, Gelli print, collage + crayon.

Start 10

23 x 33 cm 240grm

Layer Collage

Layer Gelli-print

Hopes WIP

9" x 5.4"

Top Cut

Added more collage + crayons

Hopes 2 WIP

9" x 5.4"

Bottom Cut

Added more collage + crayons

 Although I an NOT completely happy with the results I am posting. Still not feeling totally in control!

Mono-printing & Collage Exercise I

Mono-printing & Collage  Exercise I


Well, I welcome getting back to the shigra, routine. With September challenge over now, I can give full attention to my online course of Gelli printing and collage by Jane Davies. I have skipped around some so I have to go back a few lessons. However, I did 4 starts of collage then gel prints so I will post them first. These are definitely learning experiences. I need to control the amount of paint on the plate, I need more transparent paints, and I need a larger Gelli plate, which I have ordered! YAY!

23 x 33 cm 240grm

Layer Collage

Layer Gelli-print

I really could kick myself for not taking images before printing process. It would have been a great learning tool for me that I lost.

End of Summer

9" x 5.4"

Top Cut

Layer collage + crayons

Although I still have lots to learn with the combination of these techniques I rather like this piece.Thc contrasts of the lights and darks, The muted colors and the brights, The small collage piece work together.

WIP

9" x 5.4"

Bottom Cut

Layer collage + crayons

This piece seems to be at war. Each side fighting for my attention. I may remove that white piece that divides the image or maybe just separate the two!

In Between Gelli Printing + Collage Lesson III

 Gelli Printing + Collage

When I was in the states I bought a small Gelli Plate 5 x 7". I have signed up for an online course with Jane Davies. The first two lessons were learning how to print and several techniques with stencils, masks, mixing colors etc. The third lesson we cut stencils of rectangular shapes and made prints and then used some of the papers for collage pieces. The exercises were for ONLY  rectangles and white spaces.

These are my first 2 exercises, nothing to write home about. I will be doing this again. In between the 30 x 30 challenge. Lots to learn with Gelli printing, how much paint, mixing etc. I will slowly be buying better paints.

21x21 cm

Bristel

Acrylic Paints

Stencils

Collage

21x21 cm

Bristel

Acrylic Paints

Stencils

Collage

It is difficult to see where to print. Another part of the process is painting over parts of prints that you may want to change, so these are open to that possibility. Fun but frustrating at the same time.

Extreme Compositions Shape Arrangements 3

Lesson 2

Part 3

In this exercise we are to make compositions using 2 or more shapes plus a line. These can be on a colored background and differ from one another.

Since I am still having difficulties with acrylics I used a simple limited pallete trying various techniques, brayer, credit card, wetting paper. For my shapes and lines used dry media, Caran d'Ache neocolor I wax/oil crayons. All done on 5 x 7 " bristle paper

 

Background was brayed left over paint that made interesting shapes

Added shapes with crayons

Line think white.. gel pen

Colored background 

Crayon shapes

White gel pen

Gray background with white shape and ochre line acrylic

Square shape crayon

Fine permanent pen 

Acrylic yellow background

Gray circles printed from cap shape

Crayon square

Lines ball point pen

Background acrylic using stencil and print

Circle crayons 

Lines ball point pen

Observations: Feel I still need more practice with these small compositions. Found adding the lines sometimes difficult. have to stop thinking too much. 

Have a few more starts to play with 

Playing with Shapes Extreme Composition

Lesson II 

Part 1

Fall is at last in the air!!! A very short season here. We even had 10 minutes or less of rain. IT still warms up during the day but cooler evenings and we are now off Daylight Savings,, so will get dark earlier. 

Last week went by so fast that aside from working at my weekly workshop, I didn't get to my online course  Extreme Composition . 

Explore different techniques for creating simple shapes. Try to find different techniques than those shown in the video.  This is just a page filled at random of various techniques, don't know if I found any really different on but as I go along I probably will.

Playing with Acrylics

Well I finally jumped in to investigate some rather cheap acrylics that I bought some time ago and never opened. First I opened them to see what colors I have compared to my oil paints

Wanted to see which were opaque and which more transparent.  Also played around with a bit of mixing, especially interested in mixing my grays, which surprisingly was quite pleased, without black. I am still not used how fast the paints dry, and how to make soft edges.

 Did one on brown paper, bottom, which didn't come out so great so I will quad it. I now know which colors I may want to add to my collection.

I can now do Part 3 of lesson 1 of  Extreme  Compositions.   and choose what colors, format, and which drawing mediums I will use for my lines. 

Click to Enlarge

Extreme Composition 2

Lesson 1 Part 2 Dancing Lines on Colored Backgrounds

We were to paint colored backgrounds with soft transitions and low contrast on which to draw lines.
I worked on heavy 23 x 30 cm, brown paper mainly with watercolor crayons and water medium, one was done with OP and turps. I know that with paints the backgrounds would be much different. I will have to take that jump and learn how to handle acrylic paints.

Click on Images to enlarge

Background Watercolor Crayons with Water

Lines

White Oil Pastel

Black Graphite Stick

Pink Crayon

Background Oil Pastels

Lines

Black Oil Pastel

Ball Point Pen

White Marker

The colors in the photo are way off

Orange should be light pink !!!!

Background Watercolor Crayons with Water

Lines

Medium Marker

Sepia Stick

Background Watercolor Crayons with Water

Lines

Fine Marker

White Marker

 I find it still difficult to free myself with all the concepts of painting and just really be free to explore. 

New Directions Extreme Composition 1

During the 30 x 30 challenge this past September I was impressed by the work of one artist, Dotty Seiter that caught my eye at first because she was working in  B&W. I also was working mainly in charcoal and gray and white pastels. I was impressed with the works she was doing following an online course by Jane Davies,  She was doing the 100 drawings on the bottom of the page.
Following Dotty each day and seeing how her work was developing I decided that I should try one of the courses. This is my new direction. October is a month of holidays and we will only have 2 workshops so I decided to JUMP in.

Lesson 1 Lines and Dancing Lines

These are all just experiments!!!! I am really mainly posting for myself to see my own development in this course.

Did a test sheet of various lines with pencils,markers, pens, charcoal, and crayons to see their marks.
Then we were to do exercises with what Jane calls the wandering line. Letting the line go where it wants, rather intuitively.  Then add another line to compliment or go along with the first, Jane calls this a dancing line.  I many but wasn't getting really what I wanted. Need much more practice
I have a large 11 x 14 " sketchbook with fairly good quality paper. 

click to enlarge

Black oil pastel and lt brown conte stick.  My observation is that it's much too busy. 

click to enlarge

This was done first with a watercolor graphite pencil and then the conte stick... photo came out too faint, but you can get the idea.  The stains are from a work on the next page. This page probably was wet when I closed the book. I like this one much better. 

click to enlarge

We were to make backgrounds with low contrast colors and do the dancing lines on them.

Background oil/wax crayons with some medium. The lines were charcoal stick and 2B graphite pencil.

 Jane works in acrylic paints. I mainly work in oils so I did experiments with my wax/oil crayons and watercolor crayons with medium and without. Not good on plain paper so did a few on heavy brown paper and pieces of cut canvas, 

click to enlarge

Top strip is watercolor crayons with water added on heavy brown paper.

Bottom strip  using my oil/wax neocolor I crayons by Caran D'Ache. with added medium of  linseed oil and turps. Like the watercolor crayons best. I have cut sheets and will do some more. 

The cut canvas trials did not work out too well. I hope to open my paints and do them again,