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Saturday 25 August 2012

A little Gesso with a Smidge of Inspiration

Thank you for your kind comments yesterday and for persevering with the word verification. I really do appreciate how awful it is and will eventually switch back. Thank you also for your equally sweet remarks regards the drawing/sketch of the zombie fella. To answer your question Kory, and anyone else who is interested, I draw a rough outline in pencil first, then ink in with a fine black Uniball or Pitt Pen. It's all analog and no iPads.

Okay, onto today's tag. Yup, I seem to have my mojo in full swing, thanks to tags. As I've written before, I find them perfect for discovering all manner of techniques and creative experimentation and, for a change, I'm not fighting it, I'm going with the flow.

In a change to my usual format of just showing the end result, knowing the idea I wanted to put into practice, I took a couple of "before" pictures as well.




I mentioned in my previous post that I fancied doing something more along the mixed media direction. So I grabbed a tag and then, with very little conscious thought, just reached out for an assortment of textural elements which I hoped could be married together in an interesting assemblage.  Above is the result.




I removed the flowers and glued everything else down with either PVA or glue gun. When dry, I coated the whole tag in white gesso, adding thicker clumps here and there to create more texture.

Once the gesso dried, the fun began. I merrily squirted a couple of ink sprays about and randomly dabbed on acrylic paints, dry brushing to highlight the textures. I did the same to the flowers and leaves, which were set to one side. Everything was then left to dry before being attached with a glue gun, resulting in this...




Which I have to say I'm quite pleased with. Okay, the colours aren't quite there yet. I still need to play around with more combos. But it's a good start.

Pxx

10 comments:

Julia S-W said...

Er, I really, really love the tag just as it is! The texture is amazing and I love how all the elements come together. Whatever else you choose to do, make sure you keep the basic look you have here!
Julia

Dotpat said...

I love both of these Paul the before and after. One of these days will get time to have a go at this kind of tag as love the results you get

alexa said...

Well, that's been an intriguing read - I went "Ahhh!" at the fist photo, "Oh!" at the sencond, and "Wow" at the third. You know how to do visual surprises really well! xx

Michele said...

I loved seeing the step by step process for the tag. The finished result is fab! x

olive said...

the colours are amazing Paul.. really enjoying this style.......xxx

Margaret Ann Moffat said...

wow thanks for the inspiration, tentatively trying mixed media and loving it.

Jodie Lee Studio said...

So gorgeous Paul!!!! Love your new blog background as well! Hope you've been well. Jodie xoxo

- Jodie Lee - said...

The colors are stunning Paul. Can you tell us what colors and sprays you used? I love those grays mixed in with the hint of brass.

Paul B said...

Eek you're asking me to stretch my memory Jodie lol. It's poor at the best of times. but I think I used Dylusions black marble along with Mister huey's Clay & Pinstripe (which are the greys). Hope this helps. Pxx

Cath Wilson said...

Love, love, LOVE this, Paul - gorgeoous. Love the photos of Speke Hall, too, which I actually loved but I visited with my brother, who's a big History and Geology buff, so he has a way of bringing things vividly to life and making them so interesting. I was going to comment on some of your sketches from August, but have run out of time and need to close this window... some brilliant work in the last few weeks, while I've been in our pays préféré... great to see you really playing again x