Day 12 - Find Your Voice

A few days behind, but better late than never, I say..

So my voice came back last week, finally. It's all about listening to your body and doing what it is asking, isn't it. All week I have been mediating daily, and concentrating on relaxing my throat, speaking my true voice and being present. When you lose your voice in a literal sense, and then get it back again, you also work out what you really need to say and what is just unnecessary gap-filling chatter. Better to try to be present in all that you say.

On Saturday I taught my art journal class and we were playing with gel medium transfers, and using gel medium as a resist. For the resist layer, I doodled on a background layer with the gel medium in a little squeeze bottle that has a tip on it to write with. The transferred image was the second or third to last layer.

I have the original sample page and the two pages I taught in each class, hence the 3 variations here of the same class. Here is the original sample page.

 I must say that I've had mixed results with this in the past so I was prepared for unpredictable and varying results. I don't have a laser printer at hand so have really wanted to find a way to use ink jet prints in this technique and I think I've found a way that works for me. This is not a new technique, it has been all over the internet for a while now, but it takes a bit of practice.  Of course, everyone still has different outcomes depending on the brand medium you use, the amount of medium you use, how much water you use and the amount of pressure you use when rubbing off the paper. 

This is the result from the morning class..

I'm happy to say that it worked really well and particularly for first timers, my students came away with really lovely results. I found that the balance between the amount of water you use when soaking the dried image, preparing for the removal of the paper; and the amount of pressure you use when rubbing the paper, was the key. Too much water and you end up rubbing off the whole image, too little and it doesn't rub off the white layer of paper. Too much pressure and you rub holes in the image, too little and it will take ages. 

 This is the page from the afternoon class.

Supplies used-

Atelier Regular Gel medium Gloss

Jo Sonja paints in Brown Madder, Permanent Alizarin, Yellow Oxide, Titanium White

Various Kaisercraft background stamps - Dictionary meaning, Flourish, Distress

It's all in the touch. 

I use my fingers a lot in my art journal pages. I like the feel of what the paint is doing and I really get a true idea of the readiness of the page for more layers or ability to keep blending and working the paint. It connects me with the page. It is me being present and fully in the process. It doesn't have to be a lot of finger painting, so try it. While it gives wonderfully different textural results, see how much more connected you feel with your page.

Namaste

Lee