Creating Impressionistic ATC's - My September Mixed Media Tutorial For STAMPlorations

Hello Blogland Peeps, and Welcome to my monthly mixed media tutorial for STAMPlorations - this is my time to teach and to inspire!

This month I am sharing some simple techniques for creating ATC's (Artists Trading Cards) using stencils, masks and stamps that will make your ATC's look like tiny pieces of impressionist art.

Impressionism: a movement in the late 19th century in French painting, characterized by the goal of reproducing an impression of a subject by use of reflected light and color and the blurring of outlines. —

And these same mixed media techniques can be applied to a canvas or an art journal page.  So sit back, relax and enjoy this photo-tutorial and I do hope inspiration finds you as you scroll through my lesson today.

For my background I used my Dylusion Inks sprayed onto a piece of 140lbs watercolor paper, and then after it had dried I used my brayer to roll a very small bit of white gesso overtop - this faded my background colors back and added some texture. Then I cut my paper into the standard business card sized bits of 2.5"x3.5".

Now, using my masks, white gesso and a makeup sponge, I dabbed the gesso overtop the mask to create a base image.... like these below:

I only dab on enough white gesso to cover the mask so that the background color peeks through.

Then, after that has dried, using my stencils and Studio 490 Crackle Texture Paste I added some 3-D images overtop of the background images, so  now my cards looked like this:

Now at this point you can leave the cards as they are; all subtle and crackled and faded back, OR you can pump up one of your images using pencil crayons (yup, plain old colored pencils)

Choose a main image and add a faint outline in either the same color a few shades darker or a complimentary color.  See the difference?

And finally... add a stamped saying using the tissue paper method and any other ephemera to embellish and enhance.  The above image is the ATC before I added my stamped saying:

And here is the completed card... 

Before

And completed - You may notice that I have inked the edges of my ATC, I think this gives it a finished look.

Before:

Completed - you may also notice that I like to enhance my crackles by dabbing some spray ink onto the image and wiping off so the ink goes into the cracks.

Here is the Before:

Here is the After

So as always, thank you for popping in today to see what I am up to and to share in my creativity and please do leave me a comment if you like what you are seeing!

Lynne Mizera
 
STAMPlorations products used on this project:

STAMPlorations Stamp Bold Sentiments: Create

ARTplorations Stencil & Mask: Some Birds