Collage Paper/Prep

Has it been an entire week since I last posted an update? I guess so! I've been busy trolling the 'net looking at video demos, browsing paper sources, all while waiting for a couple orders of paper I knew I couldn't produce myself (like bark paper) to arrive. In the meantime, I sketched out a possible idea for another collage. Starting yesterday work began on producing the decorative papers needed to realize my vision. I used Liquitex acrylic paint and lumiere metallic light body acrylics on tracing paper, let dry and using a metal ruler, I tore them into the intended shapes. These same shapes were then mounted on a golden yellow handmade(not by me!) paper I've had for several years. Looking at my sketch I'll need about 24 of these triangles to complete the task. I may use some decorative papers I purchased online to help the process along. I stacked the chosen papers and scanned them so I could see how they look together on screen. Maybe I should glue what I've posted all together as is and call it good...huh?

Note: I kept my Quiller color wheel by my side as I selected my color palette. It makes decisions so much easier for me.

Fancy Goldfish ~paper sculpt complete

I just put the finishing touches on this. I chose the warm palette because the coffee filters took on a yellowish appearance when the gloss medium was completely dry. I added two wooden beads I found for the eyes. The beads were red so I gave them a coat of Adirondack Pitch Black alcohol ink and glued them in place with Mod Podge. The entire piece is mostly Adirondack alcohol ink. I did add some DS Duochrome Hibiscus watercolor to the scales and DS Pearlescent Shimmer watercolor to the smaller fins. Painting on gel gloss medium is a unique experience. The watercolor pigments became permanent as soon as applied, which surprised me. I did have more control over the alcohol ink, though.

Fancy Goldfish ~ paper sculpt WIP 2

I've just completed the sculpting process. Yes! The head was formed using another coffee filter and the scales near the tail portion were created from printer paper with a hole punch. The scales on the forward area of the body were fashioned from 90# card stock using the same hole punch. I added another fin that drapes below the chin area using more printer paper. Now it's time to let things dry. The gel medium is still tacky and probably will be for a day or two. If we get the rain they're predicting it may take longer. In the meantime, I'm going to create a few sample sculpts so I can try out various palettes and mediums. 

Fancy Gold Fish ~ paper sculpt WIP 1

I fell in love with a gorgeous fantail goldfish I saw online so I decided to use it has inspiration for my next attempt at paper sculpting. I had the brilliant (?) idea to use coffee filters for the long, flowing fins. I think it worked out fairly well but now I'm not sure how to tackle the body of the fish. This will take some more thought. I'm working on Yupo again, using gloss gel medium as my glue and sculpting medium. I did use facial tissue for the small side fins. I wanted them to appear more delicate.

I drew a simple sketch directly on the Yupo with pencil to guide me. I can still see the sketch through the layer of tracing paper I put down for my background (because I didn't want the background to be naked Yupo). That was a huge relief. Otherwise I would be flying blind.  

Alcohol Ink on Sculpted Paper

I've planned on trying this for months and finally got to it the last few days. This is sculpted paper on Yupo Col Mitchell style (link) using tracing paper and gel gloss medium. The little bird was cut from Yupo and glued in place with Mod Podge. I wish now I had taken a photo before I applied the ink so you could see the sculpt work. This is only about 4 1/2" x 5 1/2" and is really too small a format to get terribly creative. I just wanted to see if I could do it at all. I've said many times how I love to add texture to my work and this is certainly one exciting way to do just that.

Experiment ~ acrylic gesso and gloss gel medium on matboard

...and finished with Ranger alcohol ink. I've wanted to give this a try to see if it would work and I'd say it was successful. I used a dried bloom of a large ornamental grass and embedded it with Liquitex acrylic gesso onto 3/16" white matboard. I've done this before with dried oak leaves (link) . I then gave it a coat of Liquitex Gloss Gel medium diluted with a little water. When that was dry I rubbed walnut ink over the entire surface and wiped away the excess. The walnut ink ran into all the nooks and crannies and gave the piece an antiqued look. I could've stopped there but I wanted to see how Ranger ink behaved on the gloss medium so when that was dry I gave this another light coat of gloss medium. It served to preserve the effects of the walnut ink and gave me a slick surface to apply the alcohol ink. Then I added the ink and found it moved well on the gloss surface. I had a bit more control than on Yupo but the effects were basically the same. I used Ranger's Caramel, Clover and Copper mixative.