Deli Paper Fodder & Pastel Pencils

 

 

 "Absence makes the heart grow fonder!"

I waste little.  I use every drop of paint that is left over.  I bought some deli paper at Smart and Final (a wholesale type place) and I use it as my palette, as paper for making embellishments, etc.  I got a thousand sheets for under ten dollars.

 

HINT:  The way I print on them is:

1.      Cut the deli paper to print paper size, exactly.

2.     Use a glue stick to glue the deli paper to the print paper by simply gluing the top and bottom of the pages together.

3.     Load your papers into your printer, making sure you have the right placement so that you are actually printing on the deli paper not printer paper – learned by mistake

4.     Open a word document

5.     Go to google and copy and paste an image or images on to your document.  (when you borrow someone else’s drawings, etc., you must be aware that you have to change up what you use so that it is different than the original or you run into copywrite problems.  Also, there are royalty free images.  You can print personal photos this way as well, to use as ephemera.  I use my own past paintings and it makes original ephemera. 

6.     Print and you have your own ephemera. 

 

HINT:  I do not like fussy-cutting but, occasionally it has to be done.  When I was doing soulcircles, I had to cut the circles that were a bit smaller than 2”.  The best way to cut is to remember to turn the paper you are cutting, not the scissors.  When cutting circles, this is the best way if you do not have a die cut machine or dies. (Why don’t I have a circle die cutter?  Because You Know Who was in a hurry and grabbed what she THOUGHT was a 2” circle and was actually a 2” oval.  Go figure!)

 

I often glue down bits and pieces of my deli/palette paper on to the background and it cures the blank-page syndrome where you freeze because …well, because it is blank.

After gluing on to my page, I started using stamps.  I really suck at stamping, btw.

 

Now to tone down the background a bit so I can use my pastel pencils.  First I use some white gesso, then I am covering the whole page with clear gesso so I have some tooth for the pastels.

 

 

 

 

 

 

HINT:  chalk pastels do not need you to buy certain kinds of paper.  You can, but, you do not have too.  Clear gesso is awesome, for instance, to work on.  Chalk pastels are not expensive to obtain.  There are some tools you can get to work with pastels, as well, but qtips work, make-up foamies work, tissue paper works.  I make do because some of the spongy-tipped tools you buy are not work using, seriously.  Cotton balls work.  Heck, fingers work great.  

 

 

You can paint a background black for really neon look to final work, or use whatever you choose, with black charcoal enhancing things.  You can blend, beautifully, with pastels.  As well, experimentation is a great thing to do.  

 

 

With block pastels, you can lay the chalk down sideways and use strokes that way.  You can layer colors. 

HINT:  Be aware you are going to have chalk dust all around.  Carry your work outside to shake the dust off your work.

HINT.  Keep a clean sheet of printer’s paper to lay your arm and hand down on so you do not transfer the chalk onto the rest of your work.

Spray between layers of chalk. 

HINT:  Jenny Manno has awesome chalk pastel free classes on Youtube.  Look her up and you will never be sorry for viewing on chalks but anything she seems to put her hand to, she aces. 

Oh this page, I have sketched a whimsy girl with elongated arm to hold the raven.  I put in eyes, noise and mouth placement.  I, then, used Mod Podge to set the charcoal by patting it one the lines I have drawn.  I let it dry well. 

I laid down some base color to get started with the pastels.  I used a foam ended stick to lay down the largest base color (red) and then used my pan pastel and make up sponge to lighten the face. 

HINT:  I use the pan pastel skin color are any face that I am doing, to blend and make a softer look.

 

Once I get the base colors down, I spray it with fixative to set it.  At times, I will go over with some more clear gesso, where I may have lost some tooth.  This time I used Mod Podge matte spray fixative.  I let it dry well again.

 

I did another layer of pastels and am getting closer to defining her.  A quick spray of Mod Podge Matte fixative and letting it dry, then another layer of clear gesso so I can do finer details.

 

As I finish this page, for now, I am not really satisfied with her and will return at some point to fix her.  I have sprayed the page with fixative to set the chalk, and do some journaling beneath her arm.  I am still grieving so I am not delving too deep into the things I am working through with pages such as this.  Be careful when you spray that you do not over spray.  Once the page is fixed, it won’t smear, smudge, fade, and/or flake, or be sticky , if you use a matte finishing fixative.

I am not happy with this.. it just did not turn out the way my head thought it was going to.  But you have to remember, sometimes things will fall flat, and you can go back later and touch things up until they satisfy you.  It is sort of "Absence makes the heart grow fonder!"

Be sure and share what you do as a page for today’s blog pique.

©Carol Desjarlais 4.18.21