Paper Preparation

First Layer

For the Ladies in Minnesota, by request, here will follow a series of how-to's for some mixed media techniques, to prepare easy-to-do art works that look impressive.

To start, these are some methods to apply paint in interesting ways to paper. These are just the lower layer, and they will get further layers to build depth. After the background is sufficiently interesting, we will add surface treatments and then embellishments. For today, this is Step One in various forms.

Because we are all different and like different things, you have multiple options to mix and match as you wish. Thus -

Method one: On a paper put some liquid or heavy body paint. I use acrylic here.  Any water based paint will do, but if it is watercolour it will always be re-wettable and may get muddy if many layers are applied.

Fold the paper in half and press.

If some paint comes out the edges, as it did on mine, scrape it up and put it on a wipe-off sheet. This can be plain copy paper or scrap paper. Always have one or more of these on hand. You will use them a lot.

Open sheet and apply another clean sheet over it.

Repeat until paint is not thick.

Begin to manipulate the paint on each sheet. One method is to tap with a balled up piece of plastic.

You can move and transfer paint however you wish.

Continue to use your wipe-off sheet. Set the painted papers aside and let them dry.

You should have a stack of newspapers under your work surface so you can remove the  wet ones and  have fresh paper underneath ready to go.

Method two: write all over a paper with waterproof marker. You can write in lines or around or criss-cross.

Add a layer of diluted color over the writing. Set aside to dry.

Method three: put some related colors on a paper.

Using an old credit card or stiff thin cardboard, scrape the paint very thin all over the paper. Here, fortuitously, the pattern of the table protector underneath was embossed in the paint design. Look for these happy accidents.

Scrape the excess on your wipe-up sheet over what you had before.

It won't hurt to scrape some on small areas of a previous sheet, even if it is still wet.

If you put some scraping over your lettering, wet it a bit so it is very thin and the words still show.

Method four: Using a candle stub - or wax crayons, or any wax-based medium - draw or write on a fresh  sheet of paper. You will see the marks a little in good light.

Put a couple of tones of one color on the wax-drawn  paper.

Paint with brush or scrape paint over all the paper. Set aside to dry.

Method five: Crumple a fresh sheet of paper and spread flat.

Scrape paint all over paper. set aside to dry.

To be continued, with next layers of new ways to apply colors and surface treatments -