Class Description
Hi everyone!
This class combines three of my favorite things: Animals, Printmaking, and Artist Books!
With imaginary animals as our theme, we’ll start with some cutting exercises to create our own stencils from found shapes and contour drawings. From there we’ll be working with a variety of techniques including ghost prints, masking, and transparent layers. We will be working with fluid acrylic paints which gives us some unique results and textures, different from the traditional heavy-bodied paints normally used with the Gelli® Plate… it makes for lots of happy accidents!
One of the great things about Gelli® Plate printing is that you can create a lot of artwork in a short period of time, and this class is about making lots of stuff!
Once we have a pile of prints to work with, we’ll be going in with mixed-media to complete your animals. Some of our pieces we will stand alone as finished art pieces, and others will be bound into our Artist Book.
This class is about experimenting and following where it leads… and having fun at the intersection of accident and intent! Please join me!
Carla
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Class Itinerary
Lesson 1 – Cutting Stencils and First Layers
Lesson 2 – Transparent and Offset Layers; More Printmaking
Lesson 3 – Adding Mixed Media!
Lesson 4 – Animal Faces: Quadrants, Partials, and Stacked
Lesson 5 – Preparing Book Pages
Lesson 6 – Bind Book and More Mixed-Media Techniques
And here is a video paging through the handmade book!
Supplies
Note: These are the supplies that will be demoed in the class videos, and I’ve provided links for your convenience! But you are welcome to substitute any supplies with those you already have on hand.
Supply list:
– One 8″x10″ Gelli® Plate
– About 20 sheets of hot press (smooth) watercolor paper, about 11″x14″ (suggested: Fabriano, Hot Press Pad, Watercolor paper, 50 sheets (#10145-3150 at Blick.com)
– Two brayers
– a small selection of fluid acrylic paints (I use Golden Fluid Acrylics). Any red, blue, yellow, black… optional green and orange).
– one or two favorite colors of High-Flow Acrylic paints (or similar) (I use Golden brand.)
– WHITE gesso (I use Liquitex)
– matte medium
– 2-3 acrylic paint pens (like POSCA or Molotow) I like the bullet-shaped, 1.8-2.5mm size.
– pencil
– waxed thread or string
– needle
– 2-5 types of tape. Can be colored masking tape, Washi tape, etc. At least one big roll.
– 1 package adhesive poster strips (or you can substitute a glue stick)
– scissors
Carla Sonheim
Carla Sonheim is a painter, illustrator, and creativity workshop instructor known for her fun and innovative projects and techniques designed to help adult students recover a more spontaneous, playful approach to creating.
Carla is the author of three instructional art books, including Drawing Lab for Mixed Media Artists: 52 Creative Exercises to Make Drawing Fun; Drawing and Painting Imaginary Animals: A Mixed-Media Workshop and The Art of Silliness: A Creativity Book for Everyone. In 2012 she co-authored Creative Photography Lab with her husband, Steve Sonheim. They live in Seattle, WA.
