The Original Documented Life Project-Week 2 Prompt: Gesso

Our prompt for this week was to use gesso. And the quote provided was "The beginning is always today." -Mary Shelley

I love the way it turned out, but it is so much more vibrant in person, the pic just didn't capture it! (Bulb out in my light box...headed to Lowe's now.)

The day I started this my order arrived from StencilGirlProducts which included one of Pam Carriker's face stencils which helped me with the face.  Perfect Timing!!

I normally just use gesso as a primer to keep the ink and paint from soaking into the page as much and to ease in removal of same when I wipe through a stencil. It never occurred to me to use it as a resist...duh...don't know why.  

So, I used it as a resist by sponging through stencils and also used it as my only white paint mixing it with the inks and Golden acrylic paint.  My stencil is a TCW stencil of vintage clock faces.  So, here are some highlights of my process. 

This is the TCW vintage clock stencil I used with the sponged gesso. 

Dylusions spray ink in wild plum and Radiant Rain in teal were sprayed randomly over the page.  You can't see the Radiant Rain shimmer, but it is a really nice combination.

I wanted a face to be superimposed over the clock "faces" so I sketched her in in white pencil with the aid of Pam's stencil.

Gesso was used as my highlights and also to mute the background a little.  It pleasantly reactivated the inks a little bit. 

I was struggling with a way to duplicate the clock face image look on the top layers until Pam Carriker posted her journal page so I have her to thank for the circle and triangle image at the bottom of the finished page above.

A little additional tweaking with Prismacolor pencils and Inktense sticks and voila!

 Now for happy accidents....I started with a trial run on some tags with another stencil and used a variety of medium from distress stains and paints to inks from Dylusions, Radiant Rain and Adirondack (see below).

Here is the stencil I used for these. I think it is a Plaid stencil.

LOVE, LOVE, LOVE the red/orange combo so I did that on a page in my every day journal...and what a WOW!! Adirondack Color Wash in red pepper and sunset orange.

The photo just doesn't capture the brightness, but it looks like that flocked wallpaper from the 70's.  Not sure what's next, but I love it the way it is!

Thanks so much for stopping by. And I always enjoy seeing your comments below.  

Jan