Stencils

This is an explanation of how I used the stencils to make this art journal page for Life Book.

 
First I sketched the tree with pencil. Actually I got lazy and did half with pencil then switched to pen and finished it off. Notice how most of the leaves and fruit point down. I think it looks more natural that way. Look outside and you can see in nature that although branches point up the leaves on most trees actually point out or down. I drew the hills in next with only one line.

Then I stamped the sky using a stencil. I covered the stencil (I don't remember where I got this one from) with the stamp ink. It won't completely cover the stencil, but that's ok.

 Next I sprayed the stencil with glimmer mist. It mixes with the ink and forms little puddles all over the stencil.

  I used paper towel to mask off the hills and tree so they stayed white. Then I pick up the stencil and quickly turn it over onto the paper. I put a paper towel on top and press down all over the stencil. The paper towel absorbs the dye that runs out into the swirls so they stay white. Lift up the stencil and admire your art. You can see this time the stencil is well defined at the bottom where I had more spray. At the top of this example it is a little blotchy. When I did the sky for the painting I sprayed the watercolour paper with a light mist of water before pressing the ink on so it would be a softer look. I had to do this several times slightly overlapping the previous blue area to fill the sky.

Next I used watercolours to fill in all the hills in different colours of green.  Again I used paper towel to mask off each area then used stencils to add the patterns with acrylic paint. When I used paper towel for the masking some of the paint went into the area next to the one I wanted. I removed most of it but it still looked a little messy so that is why I drew in the second line and made little borders along each of the hills. It covers up where I didn't stay within the lines, lol. If you want a sharp line when masking, use post it notes to mask off the area and you won't make a mess like I did.

 This photo shows more stenciling that I did with a paint brush and a little acrylic paint. Wipe most of the paint off your brush before you apply it to the stenciled area.

 Next I drew the glass and jug on a separate piece of watercolour paper, coloured them with watercolour pencil and cut them out to stick them to the page.  I forgot to draw them in at the beginning so that is why I had to add them later. I drew the table. The lettering was added with stamps and is explained in the previous post. Finally I used the tumbled glass ink that I had used for the sky to ink the edges of the painting.