Rubbings, Ink, Dye and Bleach

I've been experimenting with making rubbings in oil pastel and then washing them with ink or dye. The dyes give fantastic bright colours, much better than standard watercolours. I've then bleached out areas using household bleach.

I've tried the technique on fabric. Hand dyed pieces seem to give good results. Bleach has been applied through stencils and using a shell-shaped sponge.

Fabric and Tissue Papers

In my Embroiders Guild group we have been making fabric papers by layering sheer fabrics, tissue papers, threads and leaves. These are all joined together with watered down PVA. They look best hanging up with the light behind them so you can see all the layers. I took there pictures against a window. They'll be sewn into next.

Rubbings and Water Soluble

I've cut some shell shapes from cereal packets and used them as rubbing plates in my sketchbook. The blue and green examples were rubbed with Inktense and then some of the colour activated with water to make a paint. I like to combine painted and rubbed areas in the one motif. I then cut out the shapes so those on pages behind can be seen.

Above was water-soluble graphite, Inktense and marker pen

The page above is on tracing paper. The page lying below it was washed and covered with cling-wrap whilst wet to give it a nice texture. The shells were rubbed with Inktense on the tracing paper and then parts were activated with water to give more intense colour.

This ammonite was worked in water-soluble graphite.

Shells Screen and Mono Print Overlay

This week DMTV have been combining screen prints and mono prints. I had a go with some shell motifs in my sketchbook. First I printed out some of my photographs and cut them out to make stencils. These were combined with commercial stencils and mono printing like in the previous post. 

Watercolours were then added to selected areas.

Screen Print and Mono Print Overlay

The latest lesson on Design Matters TV is overlaying screen prints with mono prints. I love the graphic style of these pieces.

Ammonites Sketchbook Page

I've been working on this sketchbook page on ammonites. The graphite drawing is a sketch from one in my collection. The stamps on the right are made from a commercial stamp and those on the left from magic foam imprinted with another shell from my collection.

There's also Inktense, Copic markers, tracing paper and a tiny shell stamp.

The page on the left is a tracing paper overlay

Urchins Sketchbook Page

I'm going through some lessons from Creative Sketchbooks and changing up the theme. I love urchins and sea shells.

This page features graphite drawing, tracing, photographs (some with PhotoShop filters applied), ink and bleach.

Mixed Media Sculptural Painting

I've been taking an online course in "Marvellous Mixed Media 3D Techniques". I've finally finished my first try at the technique. The piece is about 12 by 12 inches. Here are some close-ups.