Textured Transparency – It’s Happening!

Yay!  I was finally able to get the textured transparency I was looking for by using a small amount of ink mixed into some gel medium and a plastic doily as a stencil.

To create these paintings I spread a layer of gesso onto two 6 x 12 gallery wrapped canvases using a palet knife.   I took then took some dry wall tape and randomly pressed it into the gesso to create texture and also sticking some to the top and bottom of each canvas.  Because I’m impatient, I used my heat gun to speed up the drying of the gesso.  When I held the heat close, the gesso bubbled up and made a snap, crackle, and pop sound like Rice Krispies in milk.  So much fun to watch that happening and seeing the great texture it created.

Next I randomly rubbed on some pink acrylic paint and, before it dried, took some off and smeared it around with a baby wipe.  I then sprayed on some Dylusions inks and then some water, lifting and tilting the canvas so the inks could run and picking up excess with a paper towel.  Once that dried, I took 3 different colors of Tim Holtz Distress Ink stamp pads and randomly stamped them onto the canvas creating inky square outlines.

Next I sprayed the canvas’s with a matt medium acrylic spray to keep the inks from running when I added the gel medium.  Once the acrylic medium dried, I mixed a small amount of ink into the gel medium (you really don’t need much at all).  I lay the two canvas’s side by side, put the stencil in place and added the tinted gel medium.  I cleaned and dried the stencil in between each placement on the canvas.

I love that I can see the other ink colors beneath the pattern and how the inks underneath somewhat change the color of the stenciled pattern in places.