AGNES THE RED ART and CRAFT TUTORIALS

UK artist AJLee

Gesso Magazine Images

I came across this technique in an ATC workshop book by Bernie Berlin and it reminded me of a similar project I did many years ago in school art class. We incorporated images cut out from magazines into artwork and drew around/over them, recoloured them etc to make them our own. This is a great if you are uncomfortable with drawing your own faces, or even a starter to help you understand the contours of a face, where detailing should be placed and so on. The more you use this technique, they more you begin to understand faces and eventually you'll start creating your own from scratch......but saying that it's still fun to use images no matter how good you are at drawing and painting them!

What images can you use? - quite frankly any! Search and collect from magazines, catalogues, even books and newspapers. You can even use your own photos - but I'd advise scanning original 35mm images onto your pc to reprint out. I  have a file of my own digital face images (mostly curtesy of my young niece and nephew who are always happy to pose and pull numerous faces for me to snap!).

COPYRIGHT - remember that the images you are using will be coprighted by someone (photographer, magazine, newspaper company etc) and depite the fact that you may be altering the image beyond recognition, unless you have permission from the copyright owner, DO NOT use images for items you intend on selling or sending to a magazine etc for publication.

The first example/tutorial is using a straightforward magazine image to create an ATC, the second tutorial shows you how you can expand on from ATCs and use this technique to create a larger piece of artwork, incorporating collage/mixed medium.

MATERIALS USED - The ATC piece uses acrylics and perm pen. For the canvaswork I decided to work mainly with pastels for recolouring this piece as I wanted a soft subtle effect but once the image is gessoed over, you can work in any medium you feel comfortable using.

ATC - magazine image, card, glue, white gesso, various acrylic paints, black pen, gold paint. CANVAS - Thin primed canvas board, matt gel medium, paper scraps (assorted colours), magazine face image, assorted brushes and sponges (for paint and ink application), inks in brown and black, stamp images, charcoal pen andsoft leaded pencil, medium sandpaper, pastels (assorted colours).

 

ATC 'Sun Godess' (following Bernie Berlins technique)

             

   

  

            

      1. Adhere your image to card with gel medium             2. Once dry apply white gesso sparingly with a             3. Draw in lines of the image with perm pen

   if you have creases/wrinkles, you can try to flatten          dry brush, in a cross hatch fashion to soften the           and then start filling in and repainting the image.

   them out with a brayer but they tend to flatten out         image and create a base for you to paint over.                You can redesign things such as hair and

   naturally as it dries (in my case here, as I rushed the       This helps 'bleach out unwanted areas of the image.                             background.

   piece the creases stayed put GRRRRR!!! - my fault!)

         

                         

   4. Build up the paint gradually, adding extra detail            5. Once happy with the effect, redraw in your              6. The complete ATC which I've also edged

            but take care not to overwork it.                            pen lines with a fine tip permanent marker.                               with gold metallic paint.

Outcome

 I like this technique but am not happy with the my final ATC. Why not? well, my fault entirely as I rushed the piece. This tutorial was for an online art group project and time was not on my side to get the tutorial completed and out to them on time. I think I used too much gel medium to secure a thin piece of paper to card so it stretched and whereas creases and wrinkles will generally smooth out naturally, if allowed to dry slowly and naturally, I speedied up the drying process and the wrinkles set! It really pays to allow all the glues, gesso and paints to dry at their own pace with this technique.

I intend to do another tutorial to replace this one - when time allows!

K R Roberts inspired collage - example of how to expand on Bernies technique.

                 

                

           

           

      

      

 

 

1. Select various assorted size/colour papers and arrange with your magazine image over the board. Once you're happy with the layout, adhere using matt gel medium and apply a further layer over the complete board. I wanted a distressed look and to retain brushstrokes so I applied the medium using a coarse bristled brush. Once dried I tore up any papers overhanging the board edges and further roughed up/distressed the edges with sandpaper.

 

 

 

 

 

2. When the gel medium has dried, 'dirty up' the raw torn edges with a dark brown ink or paint and allow to dry befor applying white gesso over the board taking care not to cover up too much of the patterning in the paper. The face image requires more gesso if you wish to 'bleach out' certain details. A tissue can be used to wipe away excess gesso while still wet. When dry, roughly pencil in the body and details.

 

 

 

 

 

 

3. Start applying colour. The hair in this piece is blocked in with brown acrlic paint to cover up the original image hair line but from here on pastels will be used. Select colours and start building up areas that you wish to emphisis/cover up. The pastels are applied both directly (then smudged/blended with fingers and sponges), and indirectly (worked onto a piece of scarp paper then the dust picked up with a finger tip for a more subtle coverage). Redefine the pencil outlines with darker charcoal.

 

 

 

 

 

 

4. Close up of the face showing how much detail of the original magazine image has been covered up to enable new hairline, lips and eyes to be drawn in.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

5. Build up the pastels to highlight/darken/redefine the face etc. Soften the charcoal outline edges by smudging with your fingertip to create shadowing. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

6. Once happy with the colour application, redefine the outline with a permanent black fibretip pen or black acrylic paint and use assorted stamp images in colour of your choice to add words/script,scrolls etc. Then finish off by running a black ink pad around the board edges, and very carefull drag over various sections of the collaged board to pick up and emphasis the brush marks from the gell medium and gesso.