It’s time for paint again… and playing with “Brush Effects” is the challenge at Michelle’s Street Team Crusades #29 this month. The weather was so lovely today that I played hooky, got loads done and then went upstairs and got serious with paint.
Here’s what happened… I chose the blues, red and yellow for the left page and then blues and black for the right. I chose to use dry brushing because I like the texture the paint leaves on the page and there’s something about the feel of thick paint!
I think it’s fairly clear that the brush became ‘dirty’ quite quickly!, especially on the left. I used acetate and tried the monoprinting, as Michelle described, but I didn’t get the same effect at first, then I realised I was pressing too hard and treating it like a stamp! When I just used the back of my thumbnail gently, applying less pressure, I got cool streaks of paint. Aaahhh!
See, the dry brushing is thicker and more pronounced, but look at this:
See those cool faint streaks? Monoprinting… yep! You paint a line of paint onto acetate and then ‘print’ onto dry paint, placing the acetate face down onto the surface. Cool, huh? Here are my tools…
Oh yes, there were tools involved! A piece of acetate and a scrap of cardstock for the ‘control’… so I could see the difference between wet and dry brushing and stamping and monoprinting – very technical!!
I like the second page better – stronger colours, darker…
I love how this page turned out – the dry brushing and dirty-brushing (putting two colours on the same brush and painting) and then monoprinting. I really like the contrast I got when I used copper and white paint for the monoprinting:
Here’s my monoprint tool!! I crack myself up (as Michelle often says…):
Yes, that’s the slim piece of acetate I used for ALL the monoprinting on the second page – so maybe that was “dirty monoprint”??? I did try monoprinting with my foam stamps, but they smudge too much, so I just painted them and stamped in black and white. The circles were dry brushed on right at the end – simply to use up the apint I still had on my palette and the brush! You know me, I hate waste!!
Thanks for another cool challenge, Michelle – I always learn so much from the Crusades!
Altered Art & Stuff... 
Michelle Ward
/ March 14, 2009Ooooh baby! You are rocking the effects Rosie. Terrific samples, the pages and the details – thanks for sharing them with the team, and thanks for your enthusiasm too. Dirty monoprinting, gotta love THAT.
Nina
/ March 15, 2009Hi, Rosie! I’m so enjoying your new artwork. Just gorgeous. Loving all the vintage images and text pages in your artwork too. =)
Just wanted to let you know that Craft Journal is finally back online. Hope you can see the page and you can finally share it with your friends. =)
http://www.craftjournal.net/?p=676#content
*hugs*
Nina
Marlynn
/ March 15, 2009The second page really rocks. I love the strong blues and the contrast of the white swirls. Nice!
Kim Mailhot
/ March 15, 2009Nice job Rosie ! I am so loving your dirty brus/dry brush page ! Beautiful brush effects !
Cheers !
Cath Sheard
/ March 15, 2009I love those blues and purples and reds – FANtastic. Thanks so much for sharing your work with us.
Barbara Hagerty
/ March 15, 2009Yay and hooray for you!!! More paint….and dirty mono prints, at that!! How much fun! …and I’m seeing some Matisse in that pic of your tools….those vibrant primary colors/shapes with black….don’t you think? One of these days I’m going to have to hit the streets and join one of Michelle’s GPP crusades myself! You guys just have too much fun!! XOXO
Barbara Hagerty
/ March 15, 2009….oh, and so there’s no mistake…”too much fun” is a just a fairy tale. There’s no such thing as having too much fun. In real life, there’s never enough fun…no matter how much you have….just had to clarfiy….XOXO
Barb
/ March 15, 2009Your pages are gorgeous. Love the colors. Now for me to go play with my paints, huh?
Peace & Love,
~Barb~
Carolyn B
/ March 15, 2009Fun fun – love the brush effects – nothing like messing about with paint :o)
Judy
/ March 15, 2009Lots of cool stuff here – great colors and wonderful brush effects. Thanks for sharing.
debi (junkin' yaya)
/ March 16, 2009gotta love that “dirty monoprinting”! 🙂 Beautiful samples…thanks for sharing! xo…deb
Kimmie
/ March 16, 2009These are fabulous! It really looks like fun!
Lay Hoon
/ March 16, 2009Love the bright and cheerful of combi colours on your journal page.
Cool brush effect.
iHanna
/ March 17, 2009I think it’s rather funny that when we try to talk about these things we don’t have the words so we invent new words. Dirty monoprinting, that’s a new one!
Lovely experimenting going on!
Take care and have fun!
Iris
/ March 18, 2009Wonderfull pieces, I have enjoyed viewing your progress with this challenge.
Gabrielle Fabian
/ March 19, 2009Your pages are beautiful and brilliant!! I also love the monoprint with the copper and white paint 🙂 Such a simple but effective technique and Michelle explains so well
Your work is always interesting and inspiring
Cheers,
Gaye
JeriAnn
/ March 22, 2009So nice to see someone work in primary colors — and to such great effect!
Julie Prichard
/ March 28, 2009Ooohh…your pages look like a great graffiti-ed wall in New York City…love how bold they are!
Kim Tedrow
/ March 29, 2009Your pages have this wonderful graffiti art look to them, they are so cool!
Regina R
/ April 3, 2009Really vibrant. I like your 2nd page better, too. Maybe it’s because I love purple & blue together. You’ve got just the right amount of accent colors on it.