Peaceful Winter Moments
Some stampers shy away from working on stretched canvas feeling the canvas has "too much give" to get good images with their stamps. But there are many ways to use stamps. Here are some details on how I use stamps to create the focal image and other images on this canvas.
I started by applying a generous coat of gesso to the top surface of the canvas using a credit card sized piece of packaging plastic. To create the surface dimensional texture I pressed an inkless swirl foam stamp into the gesso and in other areas laid the plastic card on the gesso (see center of right edge) and pulled up on it. I immediately washed the stamps and other tools. I let the gesso dry to a very solid surface.
I painted the background and ran gold acrylic dabber paint over some of the raised edges to add interest. I stamped several images around the edges with ink and/or acrylic paint.
The Stampendous snow bird is stamped
on thin white tissue paper with permanent ink. The image is colored with permanent ink pens and acrylic paints. When dry I tore the tissue around the image and then I smooshed the tissue into a wad and open flat. Gel
medium is added to the canvas and then the image is place on top. Another layer of gel medium on is brushed on
top of the tissue with strokes to continue to flatten the image to the canvas. The edges disappear like magic. I cannot
detect the tissue paper even when I take a close look...so cool.
Once the gel medium is dry additional layers of acrylic paint are added onto the
image as desired.
I added glossy accents to the berries and snow glitter to their tops and branches. Dry stardust glitter was sprinkled across a canvas prior to finishing with a layer of gel medium.
I strongly encourage you to try creating a stamped canvas. Experimenting with making textures in the gesso base is a ton of fun. There are a lot of magically moments in how easy this seemed to come together for me--Totally FUN!
Wishing you lots of wonderful creative moments now and into the New Year!...Jan
