I've been busy making paste papers these days. Not only does black Artagain work but Stonehenge kraft paper as well. I coated a piece of kraft paper with Liquitex gloss medium, let dry, then applied alcohol ink and blending solution. The inks moved very well on the surface, similar to Yupo. A particular piece of inked kraft paper inspired a landscape collage. The first collage I've been fairly happy with after many disasters. I'm not sure why I struggle with this art form so much. I believe I over think it. Whatever the problem, I'm determined to overcome. In this case I brought all my problems to bear and sorted them out on a single piece of 5" x 7" paper...ie. landscapes, collage and my latest focus, color theory. It's a conglomeration of paste papers, yellowed newspaper, a catalog image, colored pencil and acrylic paint. I threw a mat on it and scanned it. Sorry for the dirty looking mat. That's alcohol ink that has become a permanent part of my scanner bed. :(
I'd like to share another technique I tried today...impression lifting aka photo transfer. I printed out an image on glossy paper, then applied a thick coat of acrylic gel gloss medium over the image. I allowed it to dry thoroughly, then soaked it in warm water for a few minutes. Once the paper looked completely saturated I turned the image face down and used a damp paper towel to gently rub away the backing paper from the actual image which had now become 'one' with the acrylic medium. It's a bit of a mess but it went fairly fast. The result is a semi-transparent image that can be adhered to another surface, in this case, kraft paper.
Note: If you give this a go be sure to take care in handling the image after the backing paper has been removed. The image will be a little stretchy and delicate.
