Create a Terrarium Artwork with a Gel Press

1. Gelpress intro: to my new school share class in this class, I'm gonna be taking you through how to use a Joe Press to create stylized tour area mitt paintings. So if you're not familiar with a gel press, there are lots of other tutorials online showing you what a joke breast is. I'm gonna show you through a few basics and describe what it is. But if you want more information on how to use Joel presses in different ways, then have a look around other tutorials. This is just the way that I tend to use it and we're gonna be focusing more on creating finished artworks rather than just patterned and textured pieces of paper. So I'm gonna take you through the process of how I do these, and I hope you enjoy it. There is a material least written in the comments. So this is the kind of artwork that we're gonna be creating without Joe Press. So you can see this is love, an abstract, stylized, terrarium kind of design. Now that this has been the used a combination of gel press and also hand painting, and so I will be showing the sticks to create something very similar to this. But you can use this concept and this idea of silhouette ing to create any shape you like He could do, bird, you could do building that you could see trees, but for tonight we're gonna do this sort of vessel. Terreri, Um, top of painting today. We're gonna be playing read a Jill Press. Now, you've never heard the joke press before. These things have been around for quite some time now. It's basically just a lump of silicon material. It's sometimes called a jelly press Joe Press Joe plight. But generally it's a soft, non porous surface that you can use to create mono prints. So what you need is obviously a job press. You can buy these quite a lot of different craft stores around the place, and they come in lots of different sizes. This is actually probably the biggest size that you can get. It's about 14 by 11 inches, but you can get them in before you get my teeny tiny ones. They sort of found Maurin multimedia mixed media design type of shops. So you mean one of these? You also need a Braila. Okay, this is a printmaking tool that's basically used to spread the paint out onto the job breast. You'll need some scuff bits of paper. Just clean your your brain off and just generic acrylic paint. So the brand paint really doesn't matter that much. I have some regular my taste point here. I've got some open acrylic paint. I find that these work quite well, but you can also use no liquid liquid acrylics, cheaper brands. Acrylics actually worked quite well, too. So whatever you happen to have in your art stash at home already, as long as it's acrylic or water based, you continually use it. So I'm just gonna give a really quick dimmer on the basics of how agile press works. Sorry, What we're going to be doing is okay. Start straight into it. I was gonna add some pint onto this gel Priss so you can that use the Jumper says, hates the hips, and it takes a tutorials online about how to use the gel pressed. So I'm not gonna go into too much detail about how to actually know the details of what to do because there's other people that explain it better than May. But what I am going to do is to show you the basics. And then I'm gonna show you a fun little project that you can do with your job press to create a finished artwork. Sorry. Just realised they have a scrap of paper with me so you can see I have the weather job. Chris generally works is you roll out the paint onto press. Uh, you lay down your piece of paper, actually to be here late on your paper. Leave it there for a few seconds to soak into the piper. We then it off and you're left with the print. Sorry. You can lie up more, more things on top of this. So if I add like another layer of some yellow paint rare at a bit of a pattern, it, er I can also get a paintbrush. I can paint directly onto this Joe Presas. Well, create marks textures. I can used the end of a paintbrush. She adding passions. Lay it down. First down your paper painting on the top of paint and half think you've applaud it. You can usually just let it sit for a few seconds and then bring it up and you can see that now What I have put on today has been transferrable to punch. So that's a basic example of how Joe Purcell work. So you basically put anything down into here, Pull it up and you get these beautiful selection of of random designs and patterns on your paper. Now, the way that most people tend to use these Joe presses is to create these mixed media style papers. They cut the papers up, put them into collages, put them into our journals, you commit cards out of them. You could make also different things out of these beautiful textured papers. But what I don't see a lot off if people creating finished artworks and I sometimes find a little people question Well, how do you then go from this process, which is very sort of craft orientated? How do you take this craft orientated process and turn it into a finished completed artwork that you could then go on and sell or hang on the wall are, you know, put up in a gallery? So that's what I'm gonna be showing you hatched today is how to use this gel press technique to push it a little bit further and created finished artwork 2. Gelpress stage 2: because I was only working on building up some textures and things on these Joe Chris creates, and you can you can honestly just keep going and going and going. So but what I'm gonna start to do now is show you how you can use negative spice to sort of create finished artworks with this. So I think I might actually work with this one here because I think this one stone, little bit more development to get enough light into it responds. Not too bad at this stage that it is now. Okay, so what I'm gonna do is start to add in a few day tiles. We didn't think like pains, some paint pains and some brush strokes and things. So I've got I got here some pasta pins. I've got some liquid text Marcus as well. And there's just one mole number to grab. Uh, this one here, which is a fight, but Castell ph oddest pin almost to come around and adding some sort of little details and things at a little bit more interesting to this background do that. I got some like a warm pink here. I had some more pink touches into this thing here it's really is just about experimenting with pattern and playing around with different things to create a bit more of an interesting passions in the background with their with the pick. Posca, you consort of you can come in and and draw details and things as well. Natural some little because keeping in mind that I want this to sort of have, like, a bit of a terrarium feel to it, we're gonna do a little bit of some sprigs of something coming through. You can also come in with your paintbrushes and see if I can make up a little bit of a lot yellow color here. Maybe bringing some large areas as well cast that science look foolish. So now what the mixed up is going to bay is what we want to do is we want to block out some of this background area to create the negative spice and by using a gel press. The easiest way to do that is to actually draw up a stencil for yourself. Sorry. Let yourself a bit of a scrap piece of pipe, huh? That's you know, about the size of the vessel that you want to create much is made. He sat the way for apartment and again, we want this to be sort of loosened and free flowing. So I'm just gonna create a bit of there a vessel shape. You could make that as as whatever shaky one, he could have more of a funnel on the top of random begins. That's what's gonna I'm gonna be happy with that for now. So I'm gonna take this. I'm gonna grab senses is just loosely copies out. Now I'm left with my silhouette. So there's two ways that I can do this. I could sit this imposition. I think this is dry and then roll up on top of it. Peel it off and I'll be left. Weeds, a silhouette. This or another way that I can do it is to actually roll up the entire background fist. So I'm going to take this ghost gum. That's a bit of a neutral gray. Make sure this planning of it down here, and it's going to create a nice even layer of this color. So using the braille, I'm just gonna keep going back and forth and back and forth over the plight until its coverage in a north even layer point rights. Now I'm going to place my stencil. The wet paint will keep this in place nicely. I'm then going to get the image, start working on line it up, and plus, I'm gonna make sure this stays on the long enough for a love that paint to stick. Damn, because I won't best this background to be nice on a fixed of our Paige layer so that you get a nice contrast between what's inside the bars and what's outside the bars. So is gonna do it. Planning a tarp to stick, I think Trump winning even pressure old way over the paper. Let's have a little bit of a test for a minute along the edges. A nicely pressed down. That's a nice print. So you can see how this this negative space that has been eliminated has now created ah vessel. So this could be a trillium. It could be a part. It could be a vase with plants inside of it, but it's created nice negative space. So now that I have these with this pace here, I could just peel that off and all that excess point will have stuck to this piper, you can use these pipers for, you know, collage ing elements is Valek ago watched, coming. But this up here that create interesting arrangements. We've the excess silhouette, some things you can. But now that I have, like this Knauss clean negative shape, I could start coming in and adding a little bit more detail into the actual actual vessel so that the good thing about Joe presses that it does actually draw quite quickly because the paper is absorbing a lot of moisture. So the first thing I'm gonna journey it's a little trysts around this vessel. Quietly see with this Posca pin, because this is gonna be a glass vessel. So you can say that that's created the illusion. Now that there's a bit of a lip and the plants and things that doing here, it's quite transparent, so I can add another. Nowhere. This boundary is Arkan, adding some more day tiles with the pens at some plants, right up to the edge. Here I could also grabbing detail brushes, and I might get a bit more of a public coloring that's quite unusual, and at this surprise surprise, the ends blocked up. Come to the ends of everything in my studio was blocked. I did just That's not what, um a little puddle of this. This is I'm in the car, Magenta. I've got just a phone line. A brush to pick up a Norse amount of these and start painting in some detail. Talk with Lammens coming a few different leaves of this plant. Whatever this plant IDs. No, it's imaginary. Terreri, um, so can have a bit of creative license with colors that are cheese. Maybe even have some coming in up. We were on the side. Yeah. Okay. Get some. What paints? He had some pebbles and stones that would be at the bottom of the chill. Arian holding everything in place. Have a bit more of a Russia car. Lights this beautiful? Yes. Since I have the other painting, the other one that I did here are older. Where I'll do another example. Same. So the technique, that same different colors, mostly that he for image. As I was saying, I think this one he needs a little bit more development. So maybe add a few more lives on to this, and then we'll created into a terrarium 3. Gelpress stage 3: so this I can just keep I can keep Joe pristine, so maybe we will see, I feel like it needs a bit more brightness to it. So maybe maybe if we add in a bit of get out the way and in some peak lions, just a patch of it. You know, every time when you do your your your pretty you don't have toe, you cover the whole page in just one color. You can kind of do this, you know, mismatch. Um, I'm gonna actually think I might actually bring more of this onto this corner as well, because this corner of the page actually is missing a bit of pints. I'm not throughout that area. We'll bring some more color into this one and make this one a little bit more Barbara compared to the other one. I apologize again for the traffic noise, my studio, Easy and, um, an area where the body is quite close to the studio and it can sometimes get a bit noisy with traffic. So I apologize. Batch, that's nicer. It'll be more of a punch of color. That's what needed. So what else can I add? Okay, maybe, maybe It's a little. This is a really good technique that I like to use is just dotting directly onto the gel price and just running lightly over the dots. See how it's created this really interesting mottled pattern. That's because the dots haven't fully blended. They've just been this sort of smear. Damn. So here is Well, it's gonna add another layer of of color on. This is well soaked in nicely. It's still a little bit of a second. I can use that again. I don't wanna Weiss the paint, so I'll bring it up. Put this corner down today and pick up the rest of that. Cool. Okay, Sorry. Now, um, can I still feel like it needs a little bit more largeness? Well, so I'm gonna bringing his Nikolai's. Our gallery, actually. Just gonna mix it up with watch. I always get into a huge mess because I constantly putting paint on my table. So I'm just gonna using this special are point directly onto the gel press and create a bit of a random plant shape. It's gonna get picked up inside this chill area, and you can you can use the end of the special to sort of ad Deen details as well. If you wanted to, I might be some stems and things in there Trendline enough nicely in the middle. It's gonna be a bit of death, A bit of a heart lot. So okay, but in the middle again, press down so you can sort of say how this process is. I'm very much just building up layers as you go and seeing what feels right and what looks good. There's no right. Why over on my of doing it? There's also a lot of chance and experimentation involved because you can kind of plan what's gonna happen to a certain degree with the gel press. But at the same time, it also has a bit of a mind of its armed. Sorry, it's quite unpredictable, which makes the whole process really, really interesting. All right, cool. So again, I'm gonna get my pins out, and I'm just gonna randomly adding some patterns and things into here just to make this background a little bit more interesting. So, like from my person, larger leaf shapes with this pin, these funds running out a little bit. So it's not working as well as it should. At the moment. It's OK. Just a little little dots and things on the market. That spatula but leads Dr Tell us that went out the way. Let's get especially color. Maybe just SWAT swaps here and there. There's a lot of we made it down The bullshit. Very noisy trying the going past, right. Sorry. What I can say is I can use this same template to create the same shape again. Or I can cut out a whole new template totally up to you. I'm not cut out of new template for this one. I'll make it more of a Let's see, with my it's a little tingle. So maybe I can use This is a bit of a guard range. Maybe I'll do something that's a bit more it wada and they'll fix up, fix up a little bit. Let's keep it out. Okay. This one Ach have to the other one. Okay, so you think that's gonna lead us? Okay, so now it's this background. I think I'm gonna go for something in the water. So cut like a quite a pale blue paint here. I'm just gonna spirit around in a few different places, and then I'm going to roll it. I just want to make sure this plaintive it so that it's not so I paid. It's a little bit with the yellow on the Joe Chris's, but I don't like cleaning off the job for us perfectly every single time. I actually prefer to have that almost grungy, rustic sort of look to the point. So that baby about this come back without preach one. Line up most of that yellow and again seconds before. Make sure this layer is pressed down really, really well. We'll get away to the edges with it. Make sure that full of this area is wow contacted with the place. So you get the North's clean silhouettes small. Let that sit for a good minute metrics all soaked up nicely, taking Teoh to pull it up a little soon make sure that it's a lie down. Yeah, that's cool. See? Look at that and see how it picked out some of the yellow and the pink that was already on the Plage. It's critical it's gonna let that drop of Justin me an inch again. I can peel this one off now, so he used a nice talk with Piper. This is just scrap, you know, scrap sketchbook paper. But if you used a nice type of paper, you could create really nice little collage pieces out of this paper and use it for something else. I tend to just scrap. It depends on what you want to do with it. So And another If you do want to clean off your your job pressing all you do is get like a sponge and west it down and watch it a lot. So you can come to be quiet, quite vigorous with ish and work it back so that its title brand new again. But you said in water do you have a Knauss? Nice, clean. So bring this back up again. That just like a do for the 1st 1 Now that I've got this, um, now I know everything is within this composition I can come in and adding a few day tiles se Now I'm not coming in at in some more delicate watch flowers. These leaves keep it all contained within the boundaries of the vessel. Big Bruscia. Maybe I could come in with this. It's more vibrant color again. And coming with a bit more of a bulge, a bold color plant. I like these some because there is such a little bit transparent. Still okay, can use the possible to draw more details. Maybe this time I'll draw the stones and pebbles down at the bottom. And again, I am going Teoh droll the edge of the gods again. I feel like it's cracked. Really sort of stylized. Modern Look, today's Joe preys because I'm not going for realism. Yeah, I'm going for something that's a little bit more fantasy and whimsical. Illustrative. It's going to find that age a little bit more. Look, I think it's OK and having some more little dots and details. So the EU car so you can see the other one. Now you change up the colors, you get a totally different feel. And once you pop these into frame mounts and you framed them, that can look really beautiful. And I create really nice sort of women's called textural. See how I can have the texture, the texture of the pint could be saying, and all the different layers and day tiles. Sorry, they really pretty. So they guard heard that you enjoyed watching that my little demonstration of mind, her protection of Joel Press printing. There are lots of lots of different territories. But how to use these materials in other places, thistles Just the way that I like to use it. I like to use it to create a detailed background for these sorts of negative space vessel paintings, but yet feel free to take this idea on and push it as far as you like. Like I said, you could definitely do similar technique. But we'd like shapes of animals or trees or just like circular shapes. The opportunities are endless. So be really interesting. If you do decide to take these ideas a little bit further to show me some examples of the comments of what you've done with these ideas and how far you pushed it, even just if you've had a guard, what doing these vessels? I'd love to have a look at them and