Gelli plate exercise - painting negative space

[Terri]

I used another page of a semi-cast off paper that was serving as my roller wipe-off sheet, during a session with the gel plate. It had some interesting colors but, the paper only being there as a kind of catch-all, I gave no thought to how it would look when I was done with my gel plate session. Often, I toss these sheets as they go quite muddy brown or gray.

I followed a tutorial on so-called "negative space." Basically you lay some kind of cutout - in this instance, it was of a couple of birds on this branch - then trace around the cutout on top of your painted sheet. Once you pick up the cutout, you paint around it, covering all the space that remains outside the cutout, so the end result is what shows of the sheet's underlying paint.

Mine turned out like this:

It's kind of a hot mess, and the paper buckled, but I do like the technique. Seems a fun way to salvage an otherwise random bunch of roller marks! All acrylic paint, btw. I painted darker blue at the top around the traced lines, and lighter blue on the bottom. I found I did have to focus, since the instinct was to paint inside the lines!

I found some old Speedball Gold calligraphy ink (why do I have this stuff? No idea) and used it to dot around for wings, eyes, beaks, and various little drips and dabs along the way.

I think the paper is Canson XL Mixed media, because it seems like the kind of paper I'd use to catch a lot of roller marks and not rip. It didn't like everything I put it through, so if I try this again, I'll think ahead and use a heavier paper during a gel plate session.

Thanks for looking!

 

[Donna T]

The Gelli plate is out again! This is really cool, Terri, and I think you got a great result! I've seen some of these kinds of prints on Pinterest and love how some very busy elements come together into a coherent image once the background is applied. The gold ink was a nice addition and I like how you didn't just do one color for the background but added some interest with the different blues. Will you be doing another one and have you found a paper you really like yet? I've tried keeping several wipe-off sheets available, one for cool colors and one for warm, but that's just one more thing to think about and I contaminate them before long anyway.

 

[Enyaw]

Interesting way to make some great wall hangs.

 

[Terri]

Donna, thank you! I think I'll try to do another one, now that I've gotten through this one.

You're smart to at least have separated your cool/warm colors with the wipe-off sheets. I've binned most of mine but took to stacking up anything that looked kinda nice (randomly, as you well know!). This seems like a way to squeeze a little something out of nothing.

I recently picked up some printmaking paper, the weight escapes me at the moment. Definitely not watercolor weight! I hope to experiment with it for this kind of thing.

 

[Terri]

Interesting way to make some great wall hangs.

Thank you, Wayne! It was fun.

 

[snoball]

Wow! Your cast off paper just made this. No way you would have gotten such an interesting effect on purpose. Love it.

 

[Artyczar]

Your experiments always turn out so fantastic. I would say what luck you have, but it can't be luck. You're controlling this with your talented hand, and it's really wonderful to see. This one is very special. I love it! I can see this, not only in a gallery, but copies of it in that Anthropologie store for an enormous markup.

 

[Terri]

Thank you, Sno! You're right about that paper - the randomness is what makes it so fun to try.

Ayin, I'm tickled that you like it.