These are images of a before and after of a painting. The first rather plain image with the green splotches on it was done by applying purple craft paint mixed with gesso to 140lb watercolor paper. An old credit card was used to move around the paint. Pieces of ephemera were applied using gel medium to the painted background. Green paint was blotted over the ephemera which was put aside to dry. I then applied a light layer of gesso over the dried painting to mute the colors a little more. I applied glazes of Transparent Yellow Iron Oxide, Transparent Red Iron Oxide, cobalt blue, payne's gray, and quinacridone magenta to the dried painting.

We also did some transfers on our prepped background pages. We applied soft gel medium to the background and placed a double-sided image on top of the gel. On the page with the map, I let the image set for a very short time and then pulled the map off leaving remnants behind. For the other page I used a peeled paint technique with masking tape. The masking tape technique had some really interesting results. The image with the music notes peaking through is the one I used with the masking tape. I am not finished with this page as it was time to pack up bevause the class had ended. I think the colors are too bright but I am not sure what I am going to do as of yet. With one of my other pieces, the colors were a little bright so I covered the page with some gesso then recolored it. I am thinking of using some Titan Buff over this one since the colors run on the cool side.

The next background we created used gel medium applied through a stencil. The background had been prepped from the blotting off the excess from the covers so these next two backgrounds were the same as the cover before paints were applied. I didn't have a before/after picture for these next two images. I used a Dreamweaver stencil with regular gel medium (matte) for these next two images. If you look closely you can see the pattern created by using the stencil.

I took a 3 hour class on Friday with Karen O'Brien. It was really messy and so much fun. The time went by and before we knew it the time in class was over. I really must recommend a class with Karen. The workshop focused on backgrounds and a book to hold them in. These backgrounds could be used for anything but were intended as a reference for different techniques. The first thing we did was to create the covers for the book to hold our backgrounds in. The first thing she had us do was squirt some paint and gesso onto a piece of watercolor paper which we then spread around. If there was too much paint, we used another piece of watercolor paper to blot off the excess. We applied approximately 3 colors of acrylic paint before moving to the next step. Using soft gel (matte) medium, we applied images and words to our painted background. I always like an odd number of items since it is more pleasing to the eye. After the gel dried, we stamped on the background using stamp pads, paints, gesso, whatever was handy. The the real fun started and we began adding paints, glazes, reinkers, etc. to the pages. I have posted a before and after picture of the cover pages. What a difference, huh?