Two mixed media works on paper highlighting 7 wonderful stencils from Stencil1. This piece came together from a vintage postcard that I picked up at a flea market. The writing was obviously childlike and I thought it so funny that this child was sending a postcard to his Aunt asking if “she” was having a good time!
What you will need:
Radial 1 Stencil
Radial 2 Stencil
Hexagons Stencil
2” Industrial Alphabet Stencil
Small Chevron Stencil
Small Houndstooth Pattern Stencil
Thatched Texture Stencil
12”x 12” Mixed Media Paper
Straight Edge and Artist Tape
Lyra Graphite Water Soluble Pencil
Sandstone and Eroded Bronze Inks
Small Paint Brush
Diane Townsend Pastels
Painted Collage Papers and Ephemera
Spray Paint
Acrylic Paints, White and Clear Gesso
Glue Stick and Matte Medium
Gel Plate
Palette Knife
Archival Ink Pad
Liquitex Paint Marker
Place several horizontal and vertical lines with a T Square and Lyra Graphite Pencil to start establishing a pattern and breaking your white page. Run a damp paintbrush over the lines to soften. Using a water soluble peach pastel, scribble some shapes onto your pages. Dampen with water or clear gesso. Add some sweeping marks with a paintbrush and sandstone ink. Using a pencil, add some random messy script.
Add some overlapping painted collage papers and ephemera in random spots. Next, use some white gesso and off white acrylic paint with a brush and brayer to obscure some things, and blend some of the collage elements.
Using the Radial 2 Stencil, spray paint some colors through the stencil over the collage and backgrounds to marry the elements. (cover around the stencil with paper towel or scrap papers to avoid overspray)…
After adding a few more marks and a vintage postcard as my focal point, I used two stencils in these next layers: 2” Industrial font, sponging through white gesso and Radial 1 Stencil, spreading molding paste through the circles.
Next, add some contrast with black permanent ink pounced through the houndstooth stencil on one of the papers and use the same ink through the Small Chevron Stencil on the other paper.
Almost there! The next layer consists of a fuchsia soft pastel being placed onto the Thatched Texture Stencil and scribbled through with some help from your finger ;), again connecting some of the collage and overlapping elements.
The final touches consisted of adding some eroded bronze ink with a paint brush through the radial pattern and modeling paste, spritzing with water until you like the coloring. I added some cut hexagons using the Hexagons Stencil, Ink and a Gelli Plate and glued the hex’s in several spots on both papers.
Attach some vertical texture and pattern with some vintage calligraphy and handmade open weave black fiber paper.
Finish with some hole punched yellow circles underlined with a fluorescent pink paint marker and voila you are ready to frame!
I loved using these stencils with that vintage postcard, “Dear Aunt Esther, Are you having a good time?” Hope you are inspired to make some mixed media works on paper yourself!
-Tracy
@anonymous.palette