Moikka! Today it's the third and final part of the August Trio. In a way it's the grand finale! I started this series on Wednesday with a post on white gesso, continued on Thursday with clear gesso and today it's time for black gesso.
Trios are posts that I started while I was a member of the Seth Apter Creative Team. I enjoyed making the series of three posts so much, that I decided to continue them at least for a while. The Trio posts usually had a topic, or a product, to which I concentrated, or used one source of inspiration for the three pieces. In a way they are extended versions of the "Inspired By" posts we used to make together with Marsha Valk. You can explore those posts under this label (link). If you want to see the older Seth Trios, you can find them under this label (link).
I call this third post the finale partly because the dramatic air black gesso has. It's probably my favorite of all as it really makes the colors sing and gives the perfect background to work upon. You can turn it into rusty, glossy, patinated, mystical, shadowy or just add contrast.
Where as with white gesso you might need a couple of coats to cover hard contrast or really vibrant colors, black gesso covers everything in one go. In this third video I'm sharing four techniques with gesso - using it as a primer, a fabric hardener, in unifying the color and as a texture medium.
Priming is the use gesso was invented for. So, while I've been talking about it and writing about it in the other two parts of the series, this is the first video I'm actually using the gesso just as a primer, adding a coat of it before starting the project. My tip would be that especially when working with black gesso, add the first layer as the first step. Nothing is more time-consuming and annoying than trying to add black gesso through the little holes of a lace or through little gaps of a dimensional composition. Because of the high contrast, those little areas usually show quite well and you'll end up using a massive amount of time trying to do something that's so easy to do when you don't have any layers on your background yet.
I also use gesso to bring texture to this piece in two ways. First I'm applying it through a stencil - much like I did in the first video, but I'm then boiling the layer using a heat tool. This is possible because of the acrylic binder. The medium starts boiling and causes this crocodile skin look. The other way I'm adding texture is to use the gesso as a fabric hardener. The gesso also acts as an adhesive here, but also makes the airy and fluffy gauze sturdier so you can manipulate it to conjure dimensional shapes.
The two other techniques you couls see were a bit of repetition of the white gesso video. First unifying color. In the white gesso I used it to tone down the patterns and colors, here I totally change the mixed colors into one solid coat. And then the splashes - you can use any gesso with pigment for it. Or if you want to add matte dots or small resist places to a project, you can use clear gesso, too.
I hope you have liked this series! And even better if I managed to show you something new, or spark an idea! Underneath you can see all the three tags together. Which one was you favorite? Or do you have a favorite technique using gesso?
Thank you so much for visiting my blog! Wishing you a wonderful and creative weekend!
Materials: Prima Marketing, Aladine, Tim Holtz, Sizzix
No comments:
Post a Comment