Stencilling and Stencil Craft by Margaret Peot

I thought I'd take our moose from Monday and do a stencil project.

It also goes nicely with this week's giveaway.

This is Margaret Peot's new book, Stencil Craft.
For those of you new to stencilling it covers everything you need to know....

and for those of you who have been stencilling for awhile it has some new ideas.

I especially like this amalgam composition idea.  Using multiple stencils to build a scene.  I will be using this in future projects.

I also appreciated all the info for stencilling on fabric, something I would like to incorporate more in my textile projects.

If you want a chance at winning this crafty book you need to enter by one of the following:

- leave a comment on this post
- email me directly at thatartistwoman@shaw.ca
- like or comment on this post on my Facebook page

I will make the draw on Sunday Aug 23rd/15.
Canadian or U.S. residents only please.



Back to our stencil project:

MATERIALS REQUIRED:

- moose template
- cereal box weight cardboard
- wc paper or heavyweight paper for painting
- disk tempera
- black acrylic or liquid tempera
- round brush
- chalk pastels, oil pastels, or crayons

PROCEDURE:

First we have to create our stencil.  I use a very low tech method.  I take a piece of cereal box weight cardboard and draw or trace out my image.

Here I took my moose template, traced around it and altered some of the areas to make a nicer silhouette.

You want to have lots of room around your image, more on that later.

At school I spend a bit of time explaining that we want to keep the negative space, we don't care about the moose itself.

It's hard to make that shift when kids are used to just cutting out the image.  To help I get them to put X's on the area we don't want.

A stencil doesn't have to be pretty, it's just a tool so why not make it easy on yourself........cut the image in half.


Now you can cut it out

and just tape it back together.

Paint your background.  I'm using disk tempera on a 90 lb wc paper.

A nice sunset.

For stencilling I want a nice round brush and a thick paint. I prefer acrylic but you can also use liquid tempera.  Acrylic tends to be more opaque so you get a better result.

You need to hold the stencil firmly in place.  You don't want it to shift.  At school I get the kids to work in pairs.  One holds the stencil and one pounces on the paint.   You can see now that it helps to have extra space around the stencil.

When applying the paint you want to pounce the brush straight up and down. You don't want to stroke side to side as the paint will get under the stencil.

Lift the stencil off in one lift straight up.  I tell the kids to use both hands, lift up and then put it to the side.

If you are re-using the stencil again wipe away the excess paint.  You want the side touching the background to be dry so you don't accidentally transfer any paint.

When the paint has dried we want to add some extra touches to take it further.

You can use chalk pastel, oil pastel, or even crayons.

Add some grass.  The yellow is the reflected light.  I also added yellow to the tips of the antlers and the back of the moose, areas I think would be reflecting that brilliant sunset.

I want a few clouds in the sky so I smudge in some reddish brown.

I also smudged some dark distant trees into the landscape.

That's it.  Gotta love a stencil project.


Be sure to enter the draw and give a stencils a try.

You never know what magic may occur.


(Fairy stencil on top of mixed media background)

See you Sunday

Gail

Blue Jay Portraits

I had a request from my last residency to do a similar project as my Stellar Jay portrait only in a winter setting.

After watching a pair of Blue Jays hanging out in my backyard I knew exactly what I was going to do.






MATERIALS REQUIRED:

- substrate, can be a primed canvas, primed cardboard, poster board, heavy paper
- photocopied pages from a bird book
- glue
- scissors
- template
- thin recycled cardboard or an old file folder
- tape
- white, black, blue, brown, and red acrylic paint
- pencil with eraser on the end
- black pony bead
- a few red sequins
- black sharpie, white gel pen
- Mod podge for sealing, optional

PROCEDURE:

To add an extra layer to our project I photocopied some pages from a bird book on Blue Jays.  I also made up some text on the computer.

Cut and glue onto your substrate or background.

Roughly mix a drop of black acrylic into some white, I say roughly because I want some variation in that grey.  Add a little water if needed.  Paint over your background.

You want to be able to read some of the text so water down the paint more (like a glaze) for those areas.


Let dry.

I'm using my Stellar jay stencil for this project.  To make a stencil cut out the template or a drawing you have made of the bird.

Place on a piece of cereal or cracker box cardboard. You can even use an old file folder.  Trace around.

I take the easy way out when cutting a stencil.

I cut it in half, cut out the shape and then tape it back together.

Place stencil into position on background.  I have the kids do this in partners.  One holds the stencil while the other pounces on the paint.

Start with the lightest colour and pounce on the paint.  Do not move or shift stencil.  Continue until bird is all stencilled, end with the black paint.

You need to pounce up and down to ensure the paint does not go under the stencil.

Lift stencil.

Paint in a branch for your bird to perch on.

Using the end of a pencil add some red berries to the branch.

With a small brush add some details to the wing, tail and head.

Glue on a black pony bead for the eye and a few red sequins on some of the berries for a little shimmer.

If you want you can add some black sharpie and white gel pen to add a little outlining and detail.

Finally you can add a coat of Mod podge to seal and add that shiny finish.

Here are some of Grade 4's work.

Experiments in Watercolor: Background Stencils

 Part of what I was looking forward to this summer was having time to go back to my daily painting practice.

After designing projects and teaching these to the kids all year I have little time for my own work, not to mention the housework, the daily walk I'd love to take, extra homework with my own kids, etc, etc.


....enough complaining already....


I have been wanting to try this for a while so today was the day.

I was at the Dollar Store and I picked all these letter and number stencils.  Some are hard plastic some are mylar (thin like a transparency).

I thought they would be great as paint stencils for doing mixed media collage (don't worry that post will show up soon).

For a buck I decided to pick up quite a few, some I left full size and others I cut down for doing small areas.

For background papers I would normally use acrylic but I wanted to do some watercolor practice today so I thought I would experiment.

Using different stencils I painted a background on watercolor paper.  The paint was just tube wc that I had left in my palette to dry.

I did this randomly.

Let dry.

I found it too overwhelming.  I wanted to minimize it a bit,  push it back into the background so using a plain water wash I painted over it and let it blur.




Let dry.

I then did my pencil sketch on top...

....and then did my painting adding a little ink and extra pencil where needed.

People who visit my house are always searching for new paintings of mine.....so I decided to have a frame on display where I would switch out those daily paintings.








Have a good weekend and check back Monday for a new book giveaway and project.

Polar Bears Revisited

Last year I did a post on my Polar Bears but did not have many pictures of it's adaptation for the classroom. 

I completed this year's Polar Bears with Grade 1 last week and presented it as part of this weekend's workshop with Calgary teachers so I thought I would update this post for all of you out there in blogland!