Layers Take 2 AND 3

I LOVE LAYERS!! Who knew? This mixed media technique is just one of the creative things I have learned recently to ad to my bag of overflowing art tricks.  Many of the pieces glued down to this first piece are random doodles, tag copies, stamped images and under paper I have had from the very beginning.  I've been creating art my whole life, at least 20 years if not more, but in the last two I really was inspired by mixed media and journaling.  So all of these little pieces of torn art and paper make a really great piece of art in itself. I feel like I'm ruining something the moment I start adding gesso. All these layers become so much more and the texture is just yummy! 

...And here is what I'm talking about with the gesso. This was my 3rd layering attempt in 2 days so I only used one layer of gesso to allow all of the colors and textures to show through into the whole project layout.

I added bright colors and tried to mix them all in random places because I had a great plan...

I added all of these colors and let them dry. I stamped some black images over all of the color.  I love the stamp (TH) "Live the life you've imagined."

So, here's my plan in action.  I wanted to try a masking technique over all of the vibrant colors. I used some of my circuit vinyl because it wouldn't stick permanently to the pages.  They stayed in place just fine.

I really liked the look of the black vinyl and could have left it at that ..BUT I had a plan so I kept going.  Enter Black Gesso. This is a giant tub of black gesso from Dick Blick and it is hard to open and shut. First because my hand barely reaches over the top of the lid, and second because it screws on crooked, and gets dried on..GIANT gloopy big of mess of gesso. I love it, I can stick the side of a gift card right into it to scrape on a page, but that's about it.

Blackout. I'm nervous here because the gesso is thick. I used a brayer to roll it over the vinyl. I did use a heat tool to dry the gesso. I used an x-acto knife to lightly cut around the edges of the stars before pulling them up.

Wah-la! All of the bright colors underneath pop out from the black layer. I purposefully placed a star mask over the stamp, so the image would show through.  The letters were hand cut for the page as well. All of the stars are hand cut and vary in shape and size because I didn't want perfectly matching stars.

Finishing touches are made with a white gel pen, and it's done. I loved all of the original layers of papers and colors but they really get lost under the paint and art design. It's a love hate thing.

Layers take 3.  TONS of colors, papers, tissue, on a large mixed media tablet.

Add gesso..just lightly.  I like how the gesso accentuates all the wrinkled layers and washi tape.

Random confession time. I have a mountain eruption of gesso on my container because when it's poured out it drips down and doesn't pour cleanly. I've cleaned it off many times, but it still closes enough to not dry out and it will just come back. I think I'm almost ready for my 2nd bottle of gesso ..it's been a year+ and I still have about 1/4 of this bottle left. With all this layering it's sure to be gone soon.

Gessoed layers plus paint scraped with a putty knife. I used some chipboard to create interest and all of the colors blended into each other because of the ridges and lines. These are my favorite layers to date. I think I'm really getting somewhere.