October Theme
Translucent Papers
Week 41: October 10
Art Challenge: Tissue Paper
Journal Prompt: The Disappearing Trick
I could think of a million ways to use tissue paper in my artwork, but I always go back to my favorite method – and that is to print directly onto tissue for a sheer print. For a “how to” go to my blog post HERE.
I decided to create a soft little page using birds (I seem to be on a bird kick lately). A great resource for finding graphic images to download is The Graphics Fairy. This is a tremendous site with thousands of FREE vintage images you can download that are royalty free. It’s also a great site for inspiration. Hop on over to their blog and support them!
I selected a vintage photo of these birds . . . representing my empty nest and the “disappearing trick” of my kids leaving home!
Using the printing technique, I printed this image at a high quality on a monotone striped tissue paper I had in my stash. I used my regular inkjet printer and let the image dry several hours. I sprayed the image with a fixative to cut down on bleeding ink and then cut the border off of the image.
My page was looking too stark, so I used Chalk Paint to tone it down a bit, matching the colors in the graphic. I love to use chalk paint because it has a matte finish and blends beautifully!
I carefully adhered it to my journal page with gel medium. The gel medium seeps right through the tissue paper so you get a bit of a blurred and dreamy quality to the image – a little bit of ink bleed is okay for this project.
Once the image was completely dry, I began to try to “match” the image with acrylic paint to “finish” the painting but adding leaves and flowers. I wanted to continue the painting down and up one side of the page.
To make the painted leaves and flowers appear more cohesive with the printed image, I used a finetip liner screwed onto the top of a Golden hi flow acrylic paint bottle in black and loosely outlined shapes in the painting.
Next I grabbed my Sumi ink and bamboo paintbrush and did a little lettering in the open space.
And here’s my finished journal page. Simple, sweet and fun!
How lucky are we to have the amazingly talented DINA WAKLEY as our Featured Artist this week! See her take on the challenge HERE
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Lovely!
Thank you Sabrina!
oh Lorraine this is so "dreamy" and beautiful. You have a true gift for turning something so one dimensional into something amazing! I absolutely love this page and the story behind it! Can’t wait to try printing on tissue paper! Thanks for the tutorial! xo
I love this Lorraine! So pretty!
What a great idea – I have an old picture that my Mom hung in my bedroom as a baby then I did the same for my daughter. She has in turn, used it for my granddaughter so you know it’s OLD. In fact, Sadie once said, was this picture yours back when you were alive? LOL. Anyway, I bet a color copy from the printer would work as well if I can convince them to put it on tissue paper. Thanks for such a pretty idea and instructions!
I would love to see a copy if you decide to do it! In fact I would love to see any of your beautiful artwork!
GORGEOUS!!
Fabulous! What a beautiful way to use the tissue print and make the piece so vibrant!
Thank you Fran, I’m so happy you liked it!