Art Journal & my two brayers

Today, I'll be sharing days 9 & 10 of Traci Bautista's Printmaking challenge with you! If you're just joining me here - WELCOME! Jump right in if you wanna play :)

All you need to do is upload your photo from any or all of the creative prompts, to your social media platform.

Oh! Don't forget to use hashtag #printmaking unleashed (without the space in between the two words) so everyone who is playing along can see it too!

Here's the chart of creative prompts

Day 9: Art Journal

This particular art journal keeps a collection of my various collages, textures, handwritten letters & notes and gelli printing papers.

 Day 10: Brayer
 Such a simple looking tool but extremely versatile in terms of application techniques. I use two kinds of brayers: a 3.5 inch, hard rubber brayer (pictured below) and a 4 inch, soft rubber Speedball brayer.

I like to use the hard rubber brayer to get uneven textures in my paint, like this:

This is my first experiment with foam stamping...I loved this technique! Simple process: draw onto the foam (with firm pressure), ink the "plate", then stamp.

 The second brayer is used for stamping, applying paint to journals, printing plates, etc. It is very important not to scratch the surface of this brayer. Any impressions will affect your final print.

This brayer is called a "Pop-in"; the soft rubber part can be popped out and cleaned.

Here, I used my Speedball brayer to ink a hand-carved chevron stamp on a phone book page.

Monoprinting Madness!

I had so much fun with this creative prompt that I forgot to take pictures, yesterday! I bet you know how that is...I don't like having to stop in the middle of my flow to document my progress.

Sometimes, I wish I could *blink* my eyes to take a photo...if only it was that easy!

These monoprints were created using pages from a phone book and acrylic paints on a homemade gelli plate and file folder. 

Do you recognize any of the tools I used here? ( HINT: I showed them off in yesterday's prompt... )

I LOVE grungy textures!! I like the repetition of circles and the positive and negative shapes from my punchinella stencil.

In the next monoprint, I used a technique called "sgraffito"...it's one of my favorite ways to bring focus to my handwriting.

The first layer of acrylic paint is Pthalo blue. The second layer is Primary Yellow and the final layer is white tempera paint. (Each layer was nearly dry before adding the next. I like when the colors blend! That's how that fresh green color was created.)

I used an angled end of a paintbrush to scratch into the wet paint. The Pthalo blue paint is revealed through the white paint. This technique is called "sgraffito".

"Seal Your Destiny with FAITH"

detail of "Seal Your Destiny with FAITH". Look at those subtle shifts in color!

My next monoprint happened COMPLETELY by accident! I discovered a new way to use the sgraffito technique as a stamping technique as well. Serendipitous!! Here's what happened: 

I was doing the sgraffito technique that I just explained, above, and I set my print down by a fan. The wind blew the page across the floor and it landed (painted side down) on top of another sheet of paper. 

At first, I was irritated because I thought my sgraffito had been ruined. BUT, when I pulled the two sheets of paper apart, I could see that my handwriting created a "negative image" (or outline)!!!! I WAS IN LOVE!!   

my "happy accident"; I created a new way to use sgraffito as a stamping technique!

Aww man, monoprinting madness has set in!! You know I had to make a few more, right?  :)

For the next monoprint, I used brown kraft paper, some vintage lace, and Krylon spray paints. ( the blue one is another example of the sgraffito technique )

I used the lace as a stencil for the monoprint on the left. The monoprint on the right reads "Yes, Your Story Matters"

(Side note: this post has been added to the Mixed Media Monthly Challenge #2: Around the House)


Thanks for looking! Day 3: Hot Glue Stencil is up next...