Wednesday 17 September 2014

Relief Chalk Art Poster


Creating my own art for my home is something that gives me the perfect excuse to experiment with different techniques and today I am sharing my masking glue experiment, which also gave me an excuse to get out the art materials from the days of GCSE project work!

What I Used:
Art Paper
Masking Fluid
Chalk Pastels
Sharpie/Pencil/Fine Paintbrush

I started with the phrase/wording that I wanted to be predominant on the paper - I'd overheard this on TV the other day and thought it would be perfect, so sketched a handwriting style, traced with Sharpie to use as my template, but you can easily use a print-out or photocopy of text, patterns or drawings that you would like to use:
Next, straight on to creating the relief on your print paper.  
I picked up this bottle of masking fluid in HobbyCraft:
Before heading straight into using the glue to trace the handwriting, I wanted to get a quick feel
 for how easily the glue was to use with a paintbrush and what to expect in terms of coats and 
drying time, so made a quick star pattern on paper:
A healthy coating was required - if your text/pattern is fine, I'd recommend layering,
rather than loading your paintbrush - it took only 5 minutes to dry, into a sheen:
I then added a stripe of blue paint to the top and then used water to graduate in an ombre effect
 to the bottom:
The masking glue stops the paint transferring:
....and once the paint is dry, the masking glue can be removed.
It peels away easily and leaves a relief effect:
Time to start the print.  Using the pen template underneath, I traced the text:
I went one word at a time, layering the masking glue as I went and left to dry completely:
...and the Sun made an appearance to help!
Next, on to the background colour.  Or colours.  I couldn't decide, so went all out for a rainbow effect, using artists pastels as they are easy to blend, but highly pigmented to create a high impact of colour:
As using pastels is different to the fluidity of paint, when hitting areas of the masking glue, 
I was careful not to use the pastel directly over the top [this could remove it], instead using 
my finger to smudge the colour around the glue:
...or enlisting the help of cotton buds to help create an even distribution of colour:
Once complete, the masking glue can be removed:
For this, I used tweezers to help, slowly peeling from one end of text to the other:
....until completely removed, revealing a relief text print:
Ready to hang:
[with my favourite, washi tape]:
 
I'm going to be using this technique to create some more subtle and larger prints - I'm thinking graduated pastel backgrounds with flocks of birds made from the masking fluid - I'll let you know how it goes.  If you've ever fancied having an experiment with this technique, do try it - I used such a small amount of the masking fluid, it's going to last for many a DIY!

P.S - Dont forget to enter the TTSM giveaway if you haven't already!


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3 comments

  1. Oh, this is awesome. I've seen masking fluid used in portraits before, but not like this - and it looks great for bigger, blockier areas. Your handwriting is enviable, too, haha. :)

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  2. Hi, i'm from brazil , your idea is cute <3 :3

    ReplyDelete
  3. Wow, such an amazing and meaningful art it is! Here you can also check out some of the best art kits for your kids and yourself too.

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