Inspired by the Elements - Class 11: 100 Days of Collage (Day 71-77)

1. Introduction: Welcome to the studio I Froyle here, and I'm so excited that you're joining me for this fabulous class on our creative adventure of 100 Days of Collage. Now, we're up to class 11, and today we are inspired by the elements. As a mixed media artist with over three decades of experience, I'm passionate about two things. Number one, I'm passionate about creating rich layered artworks, my own creative expression and number two, I'm passionate about encouraging you to create your very own unique artworks, because when we create from the core of who we are and put it out there, as our creative expression, we can really express our own individuality and appreciate our sense of self worth. It's not just about creating art, it's really about discovering who you are and developing your unique, creative voice. In this class 11 of our fabulous journey, turning into the natural world for our inspiration and exploring the four elements of earth, air, fire, and water. Each element carries its own energy, its own rhythm, and its own emotional language. And in this class, we're going to translate that into collage and mixed media. We're going to be exploring and experimenting with a lot of creative play. We're going to be making heaps of uniquely textured papers that you'll be able to put together in your own beautiful collage. Over the next seven lessons, you'll be guided through seven creative prompts. Each one focused on a different elemental energy will be working with jelly printing, sencils, watery techniques, texture and metallic highlights, not to create literal images, but to explore how each element feels through color, movement, and layered marks. This class is very much about process over perfection. I'm leading you into a journey to unlock your creativity. Now, who is this class for? Whether you're just beginning your creative journey or you've been making art for years, you'll find plenty here to inspire and challenge you. I'll be guiding you every step of the way, sharing the exact materials, techniques, and creative prompts that I'm using to help you create stunning personal pieces. And if you're a more advanced artist, this class will help stretch your imagination and to encourage you to deepen your artistic voice. By the end of the class, you'll have one or more collages inspired by the elements and hopefully a deeper connection to your own creative rhythm, as well. Right. So now we need to gather our materials. I'll show you exactly what we're using. I can't wait to get started. So let's make art. 2. Material List: Right. So class 11. How absolutely exciting now you really should have all or most of the items on the material list and just remember this is very, very important. Remember, This is just a guide, not a checklist. You don't have to use all of the paints and mediums that I'm using. You don't even have to use the same colors, all the brands, and you definitely don't have to rush out and buy a heap of things. Use what you've got already in your cupboard and the particular colors and mediums that you prefer best. Now, I don't think I've too many new items in my list for this class, and you will find that list in the class notes. Don't forget to have a look there if you want to know exactly what it is I'm using. Of course, we have our fabulous art journal if you're using an art journal. Now, you don't have to. You could be working on paper. You could bind all the pieces of paper together at the end and create an art journal, or you might have made your own art journal, or you might be working on cards. Even on canvas, there's no hard or fast rules. I'm using an art journal because I absolutely love having all of the lessons and the classes in one place where I can go back and look through them, which I love doing and remember different techniques or different tips or different color schemes or different textures that I might want to reproduce again another day. It's like a treasure trove of fabulous ideas. Now, of course, we're going to use acrylic paints. Remember, you can use the colors that you want to. Although we are using some fabulous elemental inspiration, so that's going to lead the colors that we choose for the class. I've got some beautiful acrylic inks. I've also used the fabulous moppa paska paint pens. Oh, man. That is just so much fun. I can't wait to show you that one. And, of course, we're doing a heap of jelly printing. I absolutely love creating the papers on the gel plate. Now we're using some different mediums. I'm also pulling out the beautiful gelatos. But we have used those before. So stencil panna some of the e zinc, my absolutely favorite spray inks. We're also using the liquitex a spray paint, and I'm pulling out lots of stencils. I've got my scrap bag and the coso paper, and we're using the deco foil. Now, I've definitely used all of these fabulous art supplies and materials in previous classes. Maybe except the Medan gleaming paints. I use some of this in this class, but you don't have to. It's totally optional. They are a lot of fun. They look a little bit like glitter in suspension. So you might actually have something else that you prefer. This is a great class. We're making a whole heap of different textured papers. We're having so much fun. Very experimental. A lot of play. Allow yourself to really create to express your creativity, pull out all of your art supplies from the cupboard. Just remember, it doesn't last forever. Your mails will pull it out. I do love the liquid spray paint, but you don't have to use it if you don't want to. Also have a heap of different papers. So for jelly printing, some for the collage. Of course, we've got the do paper, and don't forget the discount code. I really hope you enjoy the exploration of this class. I know I had a whole lot of fun putting these lessons together for you. Right. So gather all your bits and pieces, your art supplies, your craft supplies, dig them all out, get them all together because we're going to have an absolutely fabulous time. 3. Day 71: Earth's Embrace: Welcome to class 11 for 100 Days of Collage. And in this class, we're inspired by the elements, air, fire, water, and of course, the Earth will be starting with our beautiful textured elements of the Earth today in day 71. A 71 Erst Embrace. Create a collage that captures the grounding and nurturing energy of the Earth. Work with earthy tones, textured papers, and even natural materials like leaves and twigs. Alternatively, you could use various texture paste to add grit to your earthy composition. We're going to be creating quite a few fabulous textured papers throughout the whole class. I'm so excited for this very mixed media in our application, and it's going to be so much fun. So first of all, I've pulled out this really large pad of mixed media paper. Now I will put all of the information in your class notes, so don't forget to check. There, I'm loving the size of this paper and it's nice and thick, and I've pulled out my scribble sticks. And of course, they're scribble sticks. You have to scribble with them. That's the whole intention. They really are water soluble crowns, technically. They're absolutely beautiful, and they're a very nice set of earthy colored pigments. So starting with some scribbles on the paper, I did add a little bit of water spray to get the movement of the pigments. The more water you add, the more they dissolve and become paint like. If you don't add so much water, then you just get those fabulous scribbly marks. Now, they may or may not still be on the paper in the end. By the time I pile all my other elements and paints on there. What I like about the scribble sticks or really any crayon or pencil or mark making that you want to start with is that it loosens you up. It gets you going. You put the colour on the paper, especially if you've got a beautiful big sheet you can stretch out, get some real movement happening and just get going so that you're not scared of what you're going to put on that paper. It's a really good way to start. Now, next, I added some heavy gel gloss, and this is a great idea if you're going to let your paper dry, which I didn't. So my hemi gel gloss really became quite mixed up with the next paint layer that I put on. But if you let the gel gloss dry, you'll get those textured areas onto your paper that your paint will then sit into instead of just getting smushed together. But not to worry. I'm in a creative frenzy. I'm so excited about working with these beautiful paints and materials and starting fresh on my paper that I didn't want to wait for it to dry. Then I'm putting in a few drops of raw umber and burnt sienna. And just wiping it across the paper with a sponge brush. I'm really liking this because it's making some absolutely fabulous marks on the paper. And I'm just wanting to spread those beautiful colors around. And then I picked up one of Linda's gang spray inks and sprayed that onto the paper, spreading it around, having an absolutely fabulous time. Oh, I also put on some Amsterdam in the graphite color. Absolutely loving, picking up these earthy tones, putting them on the paper, making marks, adding some paint, a few scratches here and there. What's not to love? It's all about getting our hands dirty, playing in the mud. Allow your inner child to come out and play, have some fun. Make sure you got a good solid piece of paper, pull out the paints and the colors from your cupboard and just go for it. Now, next, I put on some meadn paints in the gleaming paint brand, which is really funny that it's called gleaming paint. I don't know about gleaming. I think it kind of looks more like glitter in suspension, some kind of acrylic suspension, but I put that on because I like it. It's like it's gritty and kind of got little textured pigments in it. I've put some on in the black, and also I add some of the green. And when it dries, the acrylic binder goes clear, and you just see the little textured colour. Papers looking absolutely fabulous. But to finish off, I grabbed some of the i zinc, which is my favorite springs in the coffee colour. What a glorious color that is. Now, when the paper was fully dried, yes, I did wait this time, I pulled out the glass beads. And what I like about the glass beads is it's got that fabulous, gritty, beautiful texture of the little beads, which they're not beads. Suspended in the acrylic binder. When you put it on, it's really thick and white looking, but when it dries, it goes completely clear and you just have all of the fabulous texture. Now, the paper is fully dry with the glass beads, and see how you can just see a clear kind of gritty textured marks across the surface of the paper. It does look fabulous. And there you can see the medent in the gleaming paint. You can just see all of those fabulous colours. I also put some of the gold on. I can see it now shine Oh, it looks absolutely fabulous. The paper turned out really beautiful. I like the earthy tones. I like how textural it is. It feels absolutely fabulous. It is very gritty with all of those texture paste on there. But you want to do that. We're jumping into our very first lesson. Of our elements. And the Earth is a great place to start. It's very grounding, the nurturing energy of the Earth. So have some fun. Really, go for it with your mark making and creating your papers and see where your creativity leads you. Pull out of your cupboard all the different paints and textures and paste that you've got, especially if you've got ones you haven't used for a while. Now, of course, I couldn't just stick with one piece of paper. I did go on and create another one. Now for my second piece of paper, I started with the same approach, started with the scribble sticks. I just love them. Right across the paper, any kind of shape or mark or scribbly element that I felt like I just let it loose. This time, I didn't add the water to move around the pigment. I just went straight for the spray inks, and I put on some of the izincs in a color that's called morning mist. I don't know, man. It doesn't really look like morning mist to me. It's kind of a greeny color. I think it's working well for my beautiful earthy tones. Then I put on my favorite iridescent bronze fine. Of course, you knew that was going to have to come out soon. I was still using the sponge brush just to move around the paint to create those marks on the paper. Then I decided to pull out one of my stencils. It's a PMR a stencil. It's in like a leaf design, and I'm putting that on the paper with, I think, some of the Amsterdam in the graphite, running it straight over the stencil with the sponge brush. And then I'm putting some of the beautiful idscent copper onto the paper. Now, I'm using similar paint for this sheet, as well, a little bit different. Beautiful earthy tones. I'm spraying on some more of the Lindisgang spray paint to fill in some areas, and, of course, the beautiful coffee colour in the izinc. I also added a spritzer of the izinc in the bronze shimmer because we have to have a little bit of bling, baby. It's looking absolutely fabulous. Now, when it was dry, I added another layer of the leaf estencil in the copper. I just wanted to add more of that beautiful richness to the paper. And I also added some of the zinc in the coffee and the bronze, just repeating some of the beautiful spray inks because I wanted to get that beautiful shimmer onto the surface of the paper and look how beautiful it's come up all perfectly dry. Now, you can see the leaf shaped sedencil across here. I like it in the copper, and then this in the graphite color as well. And with the beautiful bronze in the background, all the colors are looking very earthy and warm and rich. I'm absolutely loving this. I think the mixed media paper is holding up okay. It does kind of wrinkle or buckle a little when you saturate it with the water, but it's not too bad. And because we're just going to be cutting sections of it up, anyway, I think it's going to work out okay. Now, I had an idea. I'm really liking the paper, but it is quite thick. So what I like to do with my art journals is to use a lot more thin textured papers that aren't going to make my journal bust so quickly. So I pulled out another piece of the mixed media paper, but then I put two pieces rice paper sitting on top. And what I wanted to do was put all the paints and inks on the rice paper and have that colour bleed through to the bottom sheet of mixed media paper so that my beautiful rice paper gets all saturated and covered in the glorious colors. I'm using the same colors the ese ink in the morning mist which is like a deep, kind of earthy green color and the coffee and the Lindisgang one, and probably some of the bronze Schumer as well. Then my fabulous idscent bronze bottle of fluid paint was getting really low to the bottom. So I filled it up with water, gave it a good shake and splashed that onto the rice paper because all that beautiful goodness of that bronze pigment, we've got to use it all up. We can't let it go to waste. And when you put the water with it, it looks fabulous because it releases the patina color, and I know it's going to work well with the rice paper because it's so absorbent. Then gave it a bit of a scrunch up to see what kind of textural marks I could create with that paper. It was a bit of fun, a little bit of an experiment. I know these papers are going to turn out really beautiful. And then, of course, when I moved them off my bottom sheet of the mixed media paper, I had all of that leftover ink and watery mix that's on the paper, so we can't waste that. We have to smoosh that around, and we'll add some more colors to that piece as well. Now, this is how beautiful the rice paper came up. I absolutely love it. It looks great. The inks soak through to the back side because it is so porous being this beautiful fibrous textured rice paper. Look at that. I really love it. And if you scrunch it up, you can make it. It just makes more. Texture. I think I'm really loving this rice paper today. I mean, that's today. Who knows what I might like tomorrow. But look at that. Look how good that looks just by scrunching up the rice paper. Now, the colors are beautiful. I'm still using all the same colors. That's working really well. And then this is the piece that started with the leftover ink and watery mix that was on the base paper. And I think it turned out rather beautiful added the same, the fabulous meadn gleaming paint. Look how gleaming they are. They are quite gleaming. There's the gold, and there's some m, some of the green in there as well. What other color did I use from my set? Let me have a look. Oh, I can see more of the gold there. And then I splashed on that really watery mix of the bronze, and that's how I got all of these beautiful patterns and textures. I really love this piece of paper, and I'm not a green person. So it's quite surprising how much I'm really loving this green colour. I used this one, which was gleaming green. I definitely used the gleaming gold. That's all it says. And gleaming black. I thought it might have said something else, but no, it's just gleaming. I think it kind of looks really glittery. But if they want to call it gleaming, I'm fine with that. The paper looks fabulous. I'm thinking I really want to use a section of this one, and I'm thinking at the moment that I'm really loving the beautiful rice paper, as well. But of course, we couldn't stop there now, could we? No, we had to pull out the gel plate. I've pulled out my 16 by 20 inch gel elf plate, and I'm using the same stencil, and I'm putting it on with idscent bronze in the liquitex brand, which all of these fabulous colours are a little bit different depending on which brand you're using. So I've got the stencil shape of the leaf right across my gel plate. And once that layer was dry, then I put on a little bit of a pale blue color. It's kind of a little turquoise, and I pour it out of my medin 100 color pack. Thinking it's going to work well with this fabulous green. So I mixed up this particular green color. I think I had, like, the muted green. I add a bit of pains gray. Now, I put all of these pieces of paper on because I love experimenting with different papers. This one here, which is only going to print that section there, but I am going to use it again and take another print. This one is a new paper that I bought from Amazon, and it's said teabag paper. There's my print. Look at that. But it's it feels more like wet string tissue. It's thicker than wet string tissue, but it's not as porous as tea bag paper. So I'm going to put another print on and use the rest of that piece. But I just wanted to put a few different types of papers on because it's so much fun to see how they respond. Now, this is a rice paper, and it might tear coming up because rice paper is very soft and fibrous and not really what you would use for jelly printing, but I did because I love the softness and the flavors of the beautiful softer papers. The rice papers, even if they do tear coming up, it's okay because we're only going to collage with them anyway. Well, that's not too bad. There it is. That's a rice paper. You can see all the soft fibers in it, and it hasn't pulled up too bad. This is the liquitex bronze with a what was that particular blue from Medan, and then a green that I mixed up. I mixed that color green up because I was really excited with this one, and I'm not a green person. So it's quite surprising, but it's kind of a smoky Green, I mixed, a muted green, some pins gray and some white, which got that color there if you want to know what color that was. But it's going to go well with the other pieces of paper that are drying nicely on the floor. And then this one is a wet streng tissue, which usually comes up fine. It's just catching on the edge because I ran the papers together. That's okay. That'll come up and then stuffed in the other paper. Not so worry. Not to worry about that. Waxrenth tissue, fabulous. See how it's kind of thinner and more crinkly than this one. Just one's thicker. So I'm going to do a full print with this one. Just one more. Just one more piece of paper for the options for the collage. That bronze is really nice. I might do the next one in copper. I'm liking these tones. They're going to work well with the other papers. And then this one is a tea bag paper. And I just like the softness of these papers, especially when I'm putting them in collage in my art journal because then they're not so thick. Tara. Absolutely beautiful. I'm just going to do one more print. Look at that. That's got that fabulous leaf design. I like that sensilla. I think I'll do it again and I'll do a pop of the copper. This one was the bronze. I think I might use the same green and the blue. And I'm going to just use up this piece of paper. Probably have to add something else on the end bit of wet strength tissue. Or I might go and find another piece of the fabulous soft and luxurious tea bag paper. And all the papers turned out absolutely beautiful. This is the rice paper. The print turned out quite nice. On it, you can see the bronze of the liquitex and my green in the background. This is the new paper that I'm testing that said tea bag paper, but it really is more like a wet strength tissue. This one is actual tea bag paper. It's very, very soft, and that's how you can tell that it's actual the tea bag paper and very porous. But the stencils looking nice on the bronze with the little light bluy green behind it. This one is actually wet drench tissue. Hear how crinkly that is. You can tell all of the different papers. And I was really enjoying exploring all of these different papers and seeing how well they printed. Now, of course, I couldn't stop at just one. C I? No. I did have to do another print on the plate using the fabulous leaf design again and all of the same colors some copper, some bronze and the beautiful green. So these are the print from the second gel print, and I put the fabulous t bag paper on one side and the new paper that I'm testing on the other side. I'm loving this. I think today I do like the copper. More than the bronze, I think, maybe it's just a little bit warm, and I really enjoyed putting the golden iridescent bronze on there, as well. That was beautiful and my green. What can I say? I'm really loving these prints. So now that I have an absolute, hugely abundant supply of papers, I'm going to pull out my brand new art journal for this class, which is very exciting and put some of these into it. I might just take little snippets of the ones I've really liked the most. Now, if you do get on a bit of a creative frenzy like I did and making the papers and the prints, make sure you keep everything because we might use some more of these prints and papers in another lesson to do with our fabulous elements in this class. This class is going to have a lot of experimental mark making and making papers because basically, baby, that's just what I feel like doing. So that's what we're going to be doing. And then we'll be picking out some of our favorite pieces or the different ones that you want to highlight which papers you used and putting them in our art journal. I really enjoyed making these papers. Look at all my earthy groundedness, especially this beautiful green colour. Now, this is the glass beads. What I love about it is it has these fabulous, little textured pieces in it, and you can feel it. It's quite gritty. And it's suspended in the acrylic. Binder so that when it dries, you just get that fabulous texture of the beads. I call them beads. They're not beads, of course, but they're an acrylic, I think, texture. Anyway, you don't have to use exactly what I'm using. Remember that? You might have something else at home. Maybe you've got some pums gel or some texture paste or don't have to rush out and buy anything. Use what you have first. This is just an idea to create some texture on your paper. Now, the isincs I totally love, and I'm having a bit of a cry because they're actually being discontinued. So if you've got some of these, baby, they are literally gold. I don't know what I'll do once they run out, but today I've got some. So yippy. I loved the scribble sticks. The colors in this particular pack are really beautiful. But again, you don't have to use this product. Don't rush out and buy them. Whatever you've got just to start by drawing and scribbling on the paper, I find it gets you moving. It gets your creativity flowing. It takes away all the fear of the blank page. I mean, because look at it now. You can't even tell that I started with scribbling on 'cause it's so totally covered with paints and mediums and fabulous gleaming colors. So don't be scared to really go for it, just to get yourself into that mood and into that energy of putting those marks on the paper. Now, I've got a fabulous brand, a new art journal. This is exactly the same brand and size and shape as the other two. Two already with this 100 Days of Collage. You know, 100 is a bunch, right? And we're up to class 11. So I have found that I can get five classes in each of these art journals. So we're down to the last one. How exciting? I really like the little square size of it. So I'm going to decide which of these pieces I want to put in here. I think I'll just tear up a few sections of some of them. I have to have some of the copper and the bronze with the green because I'm just loving it. But then I also want to have some of this one, as well, and maybe a little sneaky peek of my favorite rice paper. So well, have a little tear of the papers, find some pieces that I want, and then I'll put them in today's day 71 Earth Embrace for our beginning of our fabulous class. So I've added my papers, and I scumbled on a little bit of peacock blue. This is one of the Medan 100 color pack paints. They're so tiny, but there's so many diverse colors, which I absolutely love because I just opened it up and pull one out. Peacock blue, this one is, scumbled it over some areas, and then I put a little bit of the gleaming black on there as well. Because I just absolutely love the texture of these colours and these paints. I think they all sit beautifully together. It was very hard to keep going and cover the whole thing, but I am going to stop now. I'm going to let it dry, and then I'll give you a close up once it dries. All of these areas go a little bit more transparent once they're dry. Oh, look, you can see a little bit of the gold on that section there of the paper. These were my favourite sections of the papers, but I have so many to choose from. So don't forget, keep them in a pile for a lesson later on. And next we're on to Whispering Breeze the beautiful expression of air. So I can't wait for that. Yes, we're going to be making some more papers to start with and then putting our collages together, and it's going to be so much fun. 4. Day 72: Whispering Breeze: Day 72, and we're moving on to the element of air. So today, we're going to design a collage that feels light and full of movement, like air itself using soft colors, delicate papers or transparent layers to capture a sense of breath flow and freedom. You could bring in some feathers or some other symbolic elements. So I'm starting with my large plate, my beautiful gell 16 by 20 inch plate, and I'm using beautiful iridescent white, starting with a luminous pearlescent shine with the pap. And then I'm adding pastalrctic blue. I'm rolling it onto the big plate with a really small brayer because I want to get kind wispy lines across the gel plate, and then I'm splashing on some golden manganese blue hue. What a glorious color this is rolling that along, and then I've got some FW pearlescent ink in sky blue. Then I'm splashing on some glorious white ink and some silver ink because I want it to be light and airy and beautiful and delicate and soft pastel colors. I'm giving it a light rollover on the gel plate, and then I'm putting on a piece of this. It did say tea bag paper on the Amazon listing when I bought it, but it does feel more like a wet strength tissue. I do want to experiment with a few different papers today and see how they respond with my fabulous layers of these paints and these watery inks. Now, it pulled up absolutely beautiful. And, of course, there's all this goodness left on the plate. So I'm going to continue adding the same colours, the pastel Arctic blue, the Manganese blue, and the glorious inks. This time, I'm using actual tea bag paper to soak up all the fabulous colours. And I want to see how this paper is going to compare it to the first paper that I tried. I want to try and get it kind of thin and textural but wispy in the beautiful bluey, white to pearlesc pastely colors. I ran similar colors over for a third time, and I used a different paper that did say, again, it was tea bag paper and feels more like a wet streak tissue. So now I've got three different papers to compare to see which one I actually like the best. And of course, I have to keep making a few extra pieces because the colors are so beautiful and the papers look so great. But then I pulled out this feather stencil. Now I've got this one from Timo I don't have a link, but if you want to go to that website and put in feather stencil, you'll get a whole heap of options. That's where I got this one from. It's pretty nice. It's got a few varieties of sizes and shapes. So I put that on the gel plate, and I roll through those fabulous feather shapes with the pastel arctic blue and a little bit of the manganese blue, absolutely glorious colors. Pull the stencil up, and it's looking fabulous. Now, when I turned the print over, I decided to add some more of the fabulous sky blue in the ink, and I pulled out one of the Isak sprays in antique pearl, soft, beautiful, pearlescent donees. On my papers. Then I decided to get a little bit more adventurous, and I pulled out some actual feathers. I've put beautiful muted turquoise on the plate, I put the feathers down, and I'm using just ordinary doll store tissue to push the feathers down into the paint and to remove all the paint from around the feathers. Because I don't want the silhouette print. I actually want the ghost print. And once I've pushed all around the feathers and pressed them into the plate, I pulled off the paper. Tara tra, pulled off the feathers and have a look at the beautiful print. Then I put some of idscent white on the plate to pull this print with wet strength tissue. Have a look at how beautiful these papers are. I absolutely love them. Now, this is a really interesting piece of paper. I've marked it so I can remember which ones they are because I am experimenting with a few different ones. It did say T bag paper, but it does feel more like a wet strength tissue, and especially in the way it's pulled up, which works really well for jelly printing. It also works well for multiple layers of paint, and it holds up well with all the splashy water of the inks. So that winning, this is the t bag paper, and it does feel a lot softer than this one that has more of a plastic in it. But the only problem with this tea bag paper is that look at the lines from where it's been folded and packaged. I don't like that. That actually annoys me because I would have to use this section within my artwork to not have that line down it. The colors are stunning and the softness of the paper really is a winner with the tea bag paper, but it has to remain within that size, and that annoys me about it, which is why I like these ones better they're bigger. So if I can find a tea bag paper in this size, that's what I'm looking for. I mean, it'll work right today because my art journal is really only that size. Anyway, but I am on the search for a tea bag paper that's bigger than this particular size. But these pieces look beautiful. Look how gorgeous those colors are. It's definitely got that wind airy, wispy, wafty feeling to it floating along with the beautiful pastel colors, and the iridescent white pearl has worked really well. Now, these feathers were quite fun. Have a look at the print. This has got the idscent white to pull the print so you can see a shimmer of the white pearl effect on the print. This is the wet strength tissue. That's why it's so large. The print turned out quite good, really, considering I was just playing with the idea. Here's the first print I took on ordinary tissue. Now, I can easily drop in some inks onto this and color these silhouette shapes of the feathers. I'm definitely going to do that. And then that'll be another print that I can use. It's pretty fun on the tissue. But this turned out alright. I think we could explore this a little bit more. With the feathers on the print, I think they're okay. I could possibly explore that a little bit more. I do like all the detail. You can see them quite well. But I think I'm going to press on and play with that sensil some more. So I put the stencil back down on the plate, and I've run over it with the idscent white, the pearlescent white, which is really very beautiful. Now, it's a very thin paint, so it's probably hard to see, but it looks pretty nice on the plate. And then I'm adding my arctic blue and a little bit of the fabulous sky blue. Acrylic ink and some of the silver, as well. All of these colors are looking beautiful for my airy, floating freedom type feeling that I'm wanting to create in my prints. I've used one of my wet strep tissue slash t bag paper that I'm experimenting with, and I think it's printed up. Rather beautiful. Of course, I couldn't stop there. Then I decided to pull out the prints that I've already made and add some of the stencils to them. I'm using the white pearl. And then after I pulled up the stencil, I decided to add a little bit of the ink, give it a bit of a splash, and just create a little bit more texture with some of the deeper blue colour. Then I put the stencil down on the gel plate, and I used some white paint on it because I wanted it a little bit more defined, a little bit more crispy, and I put the first print over one of the painted papers that had already made in all of those luscious blue colors. I printed up beautiful. But also, there was quite a lot left on the plate. So then I another idea. Have a look at how beautiful these papers have come up. This was the first one that I put a little bit of the Arctic blue and the manganese blue through the stencil and then put some extra paint around it. It's quite soft. It's got a lovely spray of this one, the pearl. Antique pearl in the eye zinc, it has a little spray of that on it. It looks pretty good. This is the other paper that I said, It's a T bag slash wet strength tissue paper. I actually think it's softer than the first one I was using, and it held up really well with the water. So I'll put both of these papers in your class notes if you want to have a look. It's on Amazon. I'm just experimenting with quite a few to find a t bag paper in a bigger slide. So this one at the moment, I think I'm liking more than the other one. And then I put this one onto the background. I'd already painted. So that was super, super easy. I spaced them out. Singularly, in case I wanted to rip up just like one feather and put it on my page 'cause I'm not sure at this stage what I want to do with my collage. I definitely want to add one of these feathers in or a couple of them. Not sure. So I think if I spaced them out, then it would give me more options. And this is where I splashed some of the blue ink on it. That created a really nice effect. That worked really well. What's this one got? This is the other paper. This is the second one, as well. I like this paper. I think I like this one more. This has got the pearlescent. Stencil on it, and it's beautiful and soft. It's pretty nice. And this one is the first print that I took with the white on the gel plate. Put it on. It was already a painted background, pushed it down, pulled it off. A tra. So super easy. We've got an immediate print, and it looks pretty nice. I'm liking this paper. It prints up well. The colors are looking beautiful. So now what I've got is this print still on the plate. There was quite a bit left still on the plate, which was great. So I rolled over some silver. It's the beautiful golden fluid paint in the silver. And then the manganese blue. And I rolled that on. And I had this idea. I thought, What about if I put on some of the coso paper to create some of the texture in between the layers of the paint? Like a gel plate collage, I've been experimenting with this idea recently, and I thought maybe it was a good time to give it another try. So after I put on some of the coso paper, I gave it a little spray with water, so it softened down and adhered more to the plate. Then I brushed on some covalt blue and some Prussian blue. Now, I brushed it on because I didn't want to pick up the paper and pull it straight back off the plate. I'm not sure if this idea is going to work because the coso paper is fairly fine. It might not be strong enough to come through those paint lagger but we'll have to wait and see won't we now I have left it overnight. It was the last print of the day yesterday, and now here we are ready to pull the print to see how this idea worked. If this idea worked. I do like the idea of the collage paper on the gel plate. I just don't know if this particular layering is going to work because the Coso paper is so fine. But we'll give it a go. We've got nothing to lose. I've turned it over because sometimes it's just easier to pull the gel plate off the paper rather than the paper off the plate. And because it has been sitting all night, it should should come up fairly easy. Well, the metallic silver's rather nice. I think I lost most of the so in the paint layer, but I can add some on top now. That's not a problem. I've got it on the wet strength tissue, so it should hold together pretty well. It shouldn't tear. And I'm thinking it's going to come off the plate pretty easily. Don't we just love that. Tara, Tara. What do we think about this print? Well, it didn't quite turn out how I hoped I thought I might get more texture with the coso paper. You can see it in little pieces if you look here in the texture. But I think the silver paint, perhaps, was a little too opaque for the delicacy of this particular coso paper. Maybe if I had used a thicker one, it might have been better, but you don't know until you try. It's still another beautiful print and another option for my Whispering Breeze theme today. Can you feel the Whispering Breeze? A So let's have a look at all of the fabulous prints I now have. I hope I've inspired you with some ideas to try. You should try printing real feathers or pull out a stencil or just do it completely abstract, roll on your plate or even just the paper. You don't have to use a gel plate. If you don't want to, you can just make beautiful painted papers. Whatever it is that you've got at home to use, pull it out, have some fun, find some beautiful light and airy and delicate colors and papers and see what it is that you feel like creating. Which ones of these beautiful papers? Well, I used today in our fabulous collage. This one actually I used through the stencil with this Earl White stencil butter. I forgot to mention that. It's nice and thick and raised because it's the stencil butter. So that's why it looks so good when I drop the ink in and sprayed it because it already had a good edge to it from the thickness of the stencil butter. But then I really do like this one. There's something really, very beautiful and subtle about the iridescent white that I used on there. I'm really liking it. The colors really pretty. But that one's nice, too, or do I want the actual feathers? Oh, man, it's pretty hard to decide when you've got so many beautiful prints, and the beautiful tea bag paper makes a fabulous background. So I'll have to make some serious decisions. Pull out my new art journal. Continue on with the fabulous collages, and I think I'll pull out that Coso paper and have another go with that it was rather beautiful in its textures. It just did get a little lost underneath that silver. It's not an easy decision because they aren't all really beautiful, but I think on one side of my art journal, I might put one of these ones, I do like the idea of the feather. By itself floating this way. I think I'll put one of these on here and add some beautiful coso paper to it to give it texture. Think I'm liking this one the best. And I could add some white or even some blue in that beautiful Agora lace coso paper. That could work, so perhaps. I'll make a decision. I'm going to make a decision. I'm going to do that. Exactly that. I'm going to put this one on there, this section here. And then it'll also give me a chance to test how good this particular paper glues down because that one is the second one on my testing list that I've been trying today. So I'm liking this one. I'm going to put that there, and I'm going to add some of the beautiful texted coso paper on the page as well. Do I want to add it in the white for the blue? I don't know, Whispering Breeze. I'm thinking probably the white, but I haven't decided. And then on this other side, oh, man. There's so many options. These are beautiful. I love the subtle look of those. I do like this one, as well. I like the texture of it. There's just so many options and so many possibilities, especially when you make so many prints. So I'm thinking perhaps one of these ones I do like the darker tone of this paper. And this section up here, you can actually see some of that Coso paper coming through. And I like the way these feathers are vertical. I think it will sit nicely next to the one. That's horizontal. So, that's where I'm headed. That's what I'm going to do. Let's see if I stick to the plan. Right, so the papers are down on the pages. And yes, I did add some of the beautiful Coso paper for a little bit more texture of that Whispering Breeze. A This side, I'm thinking I'm going to leave it alone because it does have some nice texture and color in it. And if I put something over it, I'm thinking I'm just going to lose the way it kind of feels. And I like that one. That one worked out. Well, it didn't work out exactly how I had in my mind, and I'm going to try that idea again, but it did work out rather well, and I do like the silvery blue color and the fabulous feather shape. So I'm thinking this side, just a little few drops of this glorious ink that I've been using in all of the papers. Just a little like that. This one is the sky blue. I love this brand, the FW pearlescent inks. They have the most incredible colors. The color range is amazing. So let's just put a little bit of that on there and get out Whispering Breeze movement happening. Across there like that, that's going to sit nicely on those colors and on that beautiful Coso paper. Just give it a little bit more of a move around, perhaps a little bit more water. Everything dries eventually. Especially when it's quite warm here today in beautiful New Zealand. It won't be a problem. Oh, maybe just a little sprinkle of this fabulous antique pearl in the icinks. Oh, yeah, baby. That finishes it off beautifully. Very happy with that. So I'll give you a close up when the paint is dry and then next we're moving on to fire. I think I'm pretty excited about that. You know I'm gonna get carried away making some papers, right? 'Cause red is my favorite color, and I just can't wait. 5. Day 73: Fiery Passion: Day 73 Fiery Passion. Now, you know I'm going to love these colors. Today, we're going to craft a collage that embodies the intense and transformative nature of the fire element. Use vibrant reds, oranges, and warm tones, along with dynamic textures to create a collage that ignites the spirit and captures the energy of fire. It's going to be so exciting. Now, first of all, I pulled out my Canson mixed media pad ripped off a piece of paper because what I'm wanting to do is grab my acrylic paints and my inks and really just layer these beautiful colors onto this paper. So I'm starting with the mop up Posca paint marker. It is beautiful and fiick. It's got a lovely paint to it, and this is a glorious color. And look how much fun I had. I started in the middle, and then I created more and more lines because I was imagining the fire burning bright and expanding outwards. So much fun. I mean, I could tell you that I was very seriously considering the composition. But really, I was having a lot of fun with this paint marker. Then I added some Cacrido red violet onto that color. It's a beautiful. It's actually one of my favorite colors. And I'm using a palette knife because we want to get some nice lines and some free flowing patterns and textures for our fire composition. I threw on some pyro orange in the fluid paint, the beautiful golden, fabulous pigmented color. Look how glorious it looks when I mix it with the palette knife on top of those other beautiful colors. Of course, we had to have some gold next. The liquitex gold in the basics range. It's a beautiful metallic gold. And all of these paints blend so beautifully. Then I added some of the transparent red iron oxide. I'm filling up the page now wanting to just get a layer of the thick, glorious acrylic paint onto it because I'm thinking I'd like to build up some thickness in the texture so I can then add in some other lines with some scratching. So I picked up the catalyst blade. Love this one. That's this one here. It's got a fabulous tooth edge to it. And I ran that through the paint, and because my paint was nice and thick from knifing it with the palette knife and all those beautiful colours, it created absolute fabulous texture. Then I threw on some of the FW ink in the beautiful metallic gold and some of the liquitex acrylic ink in the PirollRdFre hot and intense. Spraying it with the water splashes the inks around, but it also makes them run, creating those organic marks and patterns, and they then sit into the crevices of the grooves that I've carved out from the catalyst tool. It really is a lot of fun. I'm telling you, I could have done this all day. Now I wanted to add some more highlights of the gold. So I pulled out this Chinese ink. Now, this is a calligraphy ink from China. It's very thick. It's very lush. Oh, the metallic gold is amazing. I've squirted it on my paper, but then I'm flicking it around with a silicon pastry brush. This is one of my absolute favorite paint brushes. But let me warn you. Disclaimer, it does tend to flick everywhere. When you're splashing the paint around, it does tend to go up the walls, just a tad. So you do have to be a little careful, but it's so much fun. It creates that fabulous flick texture on the top of the paint, especially when you've got the gold. You want to have that glorious metallic shine. Now, once I had fully covered my paper with all of that glorious texture and thick lush, paint and inks and water, I did move it onto the floor behind me onto a plastic sheet, and I poured out another piece of paper because I do like to make two. When I'm on a roll, I find the first one is pretty much just warm up. So the second piece of paper, I'm starting again with the Posca marker paint pen in that glorious red color, and I'm creating a different composition for the beginning more of the sweeping lines of the upward draft of the fire. It really is so much fun. And then what I did next was add the transparent red iron oxide. I wanted more of that kind of orangy warmth to it, and I pulled in some deep violet. This time, instead of going with the hot and bright of the red colors, I'm going with the deep the deep and intense burn of the fire, bringing in those deeper elements, the violet and also put in some magenta. Again, I'm using the palette knife. It's looking beautiful. The paints all mix really well together. Don't forget I will have a list in your class notes of the exact colors if you want to know what I'm using. I put on some of the same quin red violet and the beautiful liquid text gold. I've got all the paints here, squeezing them out onto the paper, knifing them with the palette knife, and creating beautiful upward kind of stroking movements to create that fire flow. Added some more magenta to it, and I also put in some of the liquitex bronze. Now, the liquitex bronze is a little bit brownier compared to the other bronzes. And I figured it would sit well amongst the deeper tones that I'm using for this particular painting. So what I found that I had built up so many layers of the beautiful thick, luscious paints that when I put the catalyst tool on it, it worked out even better. It created fabulous marks and textures, a little cross hatching, where the swirls crossed over each other. I really liked this texture, even more than the first piece of paper that I painted. Then, of course, I had to splash on some of the beautiful acrylic red ink, and I also put in some of the zinc in the gold mine shimmer, gave it a spray with some water to get that movement flowing, the organic pattern it sits in the beautiful deep grooves that I had created from the catalyst blade. Have a look at how beautiful the paper looks. I think I like this even more than the first one. It has more shade, more depth, definitely more texture to it, and it's got a great element of the gold sitting right on the top. So now I have two beautiful pieces of paper. I moved them on the floor to let them dry. The second one, actually, while it was drying on the floor, I dropped in a little powdered pigment just to add a little more bling. And now I'll show you how they dried. Have a look at how glorious these papers have dried up. This was the first one that I did. See here, I dropped in a little of the powdered pigment. When the paper was drying on the floor there, you can see a little bit of it. There floating in that wet paint. Oh, isn't it beautiful? The tinese ink that I flicked all over it looks glorious and the different shades of the red and the orange. Yes, I know. They're my favorite colors. Now, the second piece I love even more because of this incredible texture from the catalyst blade, the way the movement sweeps up, and then crosses over it, where I went that way. And I'm just really loving that I think it looks good. I also really love the depth of the deep violet that I added into this one, and I love the way you can see the different mix of the plain areas of the paper and then the cross hatching of the texture, yes. I like this one better. I'm definitely going to cut a section of this piece of paper out for my collage today. I'm not sure if I'm going to add anymore to it. I haven't decided, but I'm definitely going to be cutting out a section from here, 'cause I'm just loving this one. Now, I see this as the burning, intense heat of the bush fire raging through, almost destroying everything. So I'm thinking, What about if we create some fire that's a little more subtle little more gentle, like the soft glow of the campfire. That's what I'm thinking next. So I decided I wanted to create some of the beautiful colored tissue. So onto my work table, I've put two pieces of doll store tissue and one piece of wet strength tissue because that's what I had to use. And I wanted to use up the bottom of the median soft bodied paints that I have in the little tube bottles. They're almost finished. So I filled them with water, the red, the orange, and the yellow because I'm going to tip that onto my tissue, allow all that organic flow happening with the water, and then see how beautiful the tissue can dry up. I love using the leftovers in the bottom of the bottles because then you get every part of that paint pigment. Now, also, in doing this, there isn't a strong element of pigment in these particular paints because they are more on the affordable end and putting a lot of water in them will make them dry a lot lighter. But that was what I was wanting. I was wanting a little bit of softness in our fire colors just to have a contrast against my raging bushfire. And all the intensity that I had already created. So I'm tipping the beautiful colors onto the tissue, spreading it out with lots and lots of water. I have it spread right across the full length of my table. I'm filling up the bottles and just continuously pouring them on the tissue. Then I did the same with the Chinese ink bottle. It had some left in the bottom, filled it half with water, gave it a good shake and squirted it on, as well. That's going to create that beautiful, iridescent gold metallic shine. The tissue looks absolutely stunning when it's saturated with the paint and the inks. And all of the water, but I do know it's going to dry a lot light up because there was less pigment and a lot more water. But the water creates that beautiful organic pattern. And remembering, I'm using doll store tissue and one piece of wet strength tissue. So it'll be interesting to see how different it dries. Don't move the tissue. Do not move it. Don't try and put it on the floor or put it anywhere else. You'll have to leave it wherever you created it because it will tear to shreds if you try and shift it when there's so much water on it. Don't touch it until it is completely dry. Then when it's completely dry, it peels off the plastic tablecloth that hopefully you put on your table first. Very, very easily, and it looks absolutely stunning. Have a look at how stunning my tissue paper has dried up. Now I have showed you this before. I do love making it. It's one of my absolute favorite collage papers. So easy. Doll spall tissue and leftover bottles of paint, whatever's left in the bottle, your inks, your acrylic paint, your fluid paint. Well, these ones were soft bodies, easy, peasy. Fill the bottle with water, give it a good shake, and literally throw it on the tissue. Now, plastic tablecloth on your table first, in case I forgot to say that. Otherwise, you're never going to get this off your table. Look at that. Absolutely glorious. You can use it for collage. You could use it for wrapping paper, simple as, but I love it for the collage and see how much the colors have faded in the drawing because there was more water and less pigment. But also, look at the glorious and metallic shine of that Chinese calligraphy ink. I love it. I will use whatever I have that needs to be literally rinsed out onto the tissue. So those paints worked really well. That's the first time I've tried this technique with that particular brand of not a problem at all. I've also used some of the acrylic ink as well, splashing them out from emptying those bottles. I might have even sprayed a little zinc on it. You know, I get carried away when I'm creating. This is the wet streak Hsu. And let's face it, the Dolste tissue looks just as good. No problem at all. They both held up really well as long as you wait for them to dry completely before you peel them off the plastic. Right. Absolutely glorious. This is my soft glow of the campfire. And putting that next to the raging bushfire, I think I've got some beautiful representation of our fiery passion for today. Right, so I have my two favorite pieces of paper. Really, all of the colored tissue was very similar. It didn't matter if it was the cheap one or the expensive one. So that's really good to know. This one has a lot of more pattern on it, so maybe I sprayed more water on it. The amount of water does kind of create the different organic line from putting that ink and paint and colour onto the tissue. So you do have to put a fair amount of water. Don't be scared. It does dry eventually because spraying it spreads out that color, especially if you're using watery acrylics or inks. And it sits in all of the beautiful grooves and crevices. So I am absolutely loving this piece, and I don't even know which section I love the most because I'm loving all of it. So I might just cut a piece of here. And then I might put a couple of sections on it. Layering them on top of each other just to deepen the color and create more texture on my collage. So that's going to go on this side, but I probably won't just stick it like that. I think I'll tear it to create more line and then lay out some pieces on top of each other, just to create more of a texture and pattern on the page, something like that. Putting it like that so it creates more movement. That's what I'm liking the idea of. Yes, that's a brilliant idea. I'm going to do that like that and put like that and see how that looks once it's glued down. And then I can think about whether or not I want to add anything else. At this stage, I don't think I will because I just love the color and texture of my warm, glowing campfire. And then on this side, now I really love this section, I want the middle piece. What can I say? I'm so like that. But I love the way it's shooting up there, and I love this really textured element here. So I'm going to cut this section like this because that's my favorite bit. Somewhere, of course, in the middle here. That's what I want that bit there. And then I think what I'm going to do is put a gloss medium over this side, just so it looks all wet and shiny rather than dull because it's fire. There's got to be some movement. Oh, oh. We could think about putting some deco foil on it just there. Or we could do both. So thinking about a little bit of deco foil on this side. Right oh. Well, I'll start with cutting the section that I want. Of course, it has to be right out of the middle. And then I'm going to glue that down and then think about putting some deco foil on it just for a little bit more of a metallic dye. Right, so both sides are glued down. And look how fabulous they look with the beautiful reds and golds and metallic effects. Now, I can leave them just like this. But you know what? I'm like, go. I've pulled out the mixed gilding paste. Now, it's not a paste. It is actually a liquid, this one, even though it says paste, it's fluid. This one is the other product. I use also says mixed and relief. This one says gilding paste. This one says mixed and relief, and this one is an actual paste. So when you're doing maybe stencils, or you want something thicker that you're putting your deco foil onto, use the thicker one. If you're just wanting brush something on and create a little bit of glimmering goodness from the deco foil, then this one works really well with a brush. So I'm going to add just just a little bit here to add some flickering gold to my fire. Now, you do have to wait, of course, for this to dry. And depending on how thick you've put it on, you'll have to wait longer, but I'm just going to add just a little bit of flickering fire just there. Who up. Nellie Ah. Do I want some on the other side? Oh, you know, I have to. So a little bit of flickering fire over here as well. Now, it's going to be hard to see because, of course, once it's actually dry, it's completely transparent. So it'll be a bit of a guess. How about we just flick it on as to where it's going to be? But that's my campfire. I'm liking this idea. There's my campfire. And this is my raging bush fire over here. Both elements are quite transformative because, of course, once the bush fires gone through, you get all the new life and the new growth. Ooh, yeah, baby. We're getting a little bit deep now. So that's a little bit of that. Now I will wait probably 2 hours for sure for this beautiful fluid mixed in hibio gilding paste to actually dry, and then I'll put the deco foul on. It's going to look stunning. I just know it is, and I can't wait to show you. I'll give you a close up when it is dry. I'll show you how to put on the fabulous deco foil super, super easy. And then we'll be into the deep waters of fluid reflections. Right, so when the mixed and paste is completely and totally invisible, absolutely transparent. You can't see any white elements in it. Then, you know, it's dry. So I've got the eye craft deco foil. One of the sheets is going to have some on it. I just know it. There should be enough good foil bits left on this one. Let's try it here. Now, you can use your fingers, easy peasy, or you can get a scrunched up piece of cloth. Or if you really want to get some serious heavy duty pressure, you can use something like that if you wanted to. But I'm finding because this one has the deco foil on a lot of the textured grooves, I'm thinking that probably using the scrunched up piece of kitchen cloth will be best ta ta. Look how sunning that is, man. Do I love gold? What can I say? What can I say, Hey, I just love it. So you've got to find where you put your adhesive because you can't see it. It can be a little tricky. Oh, my gosh, it's too exciting. Just too exciting. Rubbing it on easy, peasy. Make sure you're putting the silver side down, so you've got that lovely golden goodness and have a look at that. Look how fabulous that beautiful metallic deco foil is on my glorious fire. Let's put some on this side. Just like that, easy PV and on this side, you can see all of the splashy bits where I literally flicked it off the brush, a little bit of the sparks of the fire. Going up there, yes, I love it. It looks so fabulous when the light catches it. My pages are beautiful. I'm loving the added deco foil. Now I'm going to put a little bit of gloss medium onto this side I want this to be shiny instead of dull, matte flat. And then I'll give you a close up when it's dry, really happy with my fire inspired collage pages. Of course I am. They're my favorite colors. 6. Day 74: Fluid Reflections: Day 74 Fluid Reflections. Today we're going deep, deep into the waters. Create a collage that mirrors the fluidity and the adaptability of the water element. Experiment with materials that represent the flowing nature of water, such as transparent layers, reflective surfaces and shades of blue to evoke the emotions associated with water. Now, this is going to be a lot of fun. I really do like water on the gel plate. It creates the most incredible texture. Now I'm starting with a stencil from Pm artist studio, and it's called Choppy Waters. This is a fabulous one if you want to get your this particular stencil, I'll leave the link in your class notes because I've had so much fun with this one, and I'm using it for all the prints today. First of all, I'm using the muted turquoise straight over the top of the stencil, straight onto the gel plate. Now, you've got to let this layer dry before you move on to the fun part. Next, I'm rolling on some manganese blue and some cobalt teal of the golden fluid paint with a small little roll up so I can get into those grooves of that fabulous, watery shape of the stencil, and I'm giving it a bit of a spritter of our fabulous water. Now, when that layer was dry, I added the golden idscent silver. I know this is going to look stunning with these colors. And when I poured the print, ta, ta. Look how fabulous it is. I absolutely love this print. I really love how beautiful you can see the colors coming through the fabulous choppy water stencil. I've got the deep turquoise and the cobot teal and some of the manganese blue. You can see it all, and it does look very fluid reflections. So once the print was dry, I decided I wanted to add some glass beads, just to create another texture. Another element on the print, and I put the stencil in different places to where I had previously put the paint just so I could create those layers, add a bit of movement across my print. And when the glass beads as dried, Tata, tada. It looks absolutely fabulous. Look how glorious my print is. I'm just loving it. Now, it might be hard for you to see, but you can see all of the little wave movement patterns from the stencil in the glass beads. And, of course, once they're dried, they're completely clear. But you can see the texture of them, and it adds another layer and a little bit of shininess. And with the metallic silver from pulling the print it all looks fabulous. I'm loving it. Of course, I had to do it again. Now, with the second print, I'm starting with the iridescent silver and putting that on the plate with the same stencil. Then I'm rolling on little sections of the manganese blue and the cobalt teal. This little roller is really working well today to get the movement of those waves. And I also put on some cobalt blue onto this print just to deepen the colors to make it more layered in the way I'm putting the shapes on. And once this layer was dry, I added the silver for the pickup paint to pull the print. Now, this print, I was pulling onto tea bag paper, actual tea bag paper because I wanted to see if I could pull it onto something really soft and fibrous, maybe even transparent, but definitely something thin, but it had to also be strong. So pour the print. It looks fabulous. And look how great it looks when you catch the silver in the light, definitely fluid reflections. I like all the shapes that you can see from the different areas of the colors, the turquoise and the two different shades of blue. And the silver pickup paint looks fabulous. Now, the Tabag paper has held up really well, very happy with it. It's light, but it's very strong, and that's what we like about the tbg paper. And it was a great exercise to do. This particular type of paper, I'm loving it. This is definitely an option for my collage today. Now I have two beautiful prints. And for the next one, I'm thinking, What about I don't put the stencil on to start with, and I just put the watery paint on the plate. So I'm using the manganese blue and the cobalt teal, putting it on the plate, and spraying it with the water. I love this technique. It creates the most incredible organic patterns and lines and marks, and you can't get that kind of mark making any other now, if you spray on too much water, you disperse your paint too much. You can just wait a few minutes and roll on a little bit extra. Mmm. I may have done that myself a few times. The patterns look so pretty, especially in these colors. And then I'm putting on the pastel Arctic blue to pull the print, and I'm using my favorite Japanese sketchpad rice paper with this one. I'm absolutely loving this print. Didn't it turn out well? All of these colors are so pretty and they sit so well together. So I'm looking at it, and I'm thinking, maybe now I'll add the stencil, pulled out the stencil, and I pulled out the PBO mixed and relief, the one that you want to use for thicker applications for your deco foil, which is this one. I'll put both of them into your class notes, but this is a thicker one. I'm putting it through the stencil with a palette knife. Now, you have to wait for the paste to dry completely before you put your deco foil on. So I did actually leave it overnight, and then this morning, I added the beautiful lapses watercolor deco foil, which is this color here. Absolutely magnificent color. Have a look. I've put it on the print, given it a rub over, and tara tara it looks absolutely magnificent. Look at the way the deco foil is catching the light. My prints just keep getting better and better. I was on a roll. I absolutely love it. What I love about this particular color of the deco foil is that it's variegated. So it has that beautiful turquoise blue and silver. So depending on which part of the sheet you put on, you get that lovely tone of the mix of the two colors, and I think this is absolutely spectacular. I love the textures here in the patterning of the water that we did first. And then the fabulous wave shape over the top. Yes, I did have a lot of fun with a simple stencil and some art supplies bringing me so much joy. Now, what I wanted to do also was to create some rice paper with the beautiful blue and the bronze color. So I put two pieces onto the mixed media paper and then splattered on some of the beautiful pho blue in the ink, and my favorite idscent bronze fine. Now, the bronze paint I had watered down. So there were some left in the bottom of the bottle, and I added water to it so I could squirt it on really easily. And what I love about is the paint and the ink and the water is going to soak through the fabulous rice paper onto the mixed media paper underneath. So when I finished spraying the beautiful colors with the water spray and allowed that ink to soak through, I picked the pieces up, moved them off my table, and put them onto the floor onto plastic. Then I'm left with the mixed media paper with all of that paint and ink and water on it. So I moved it around, smudged it with my hands, and allowed the beautiful inks and the pigment of the bronze to flow because we don't want to waste anything, and doing it this way means we get another sheet of paper of a mixed media experiment, as well. So then I splashed on some more of the bronze because I wanted to create more pattern on my paper. Hm. I wanted to see where I might head with it. I really didn't have any idea what mediums I wanted to add to it. I just wanted to collect all of that gorgeous color onto that mixed media paper. So I moved it around, tipped it about, and then gave it a spray with some water, which created some texture on the surface of the paper. I decided to throw on some powdered pigment. I wanted to see what that would do. I wanted to create some texture in amongst the beautiful bronzi deep blue color. Gave that a spray. And now I'm thinking, I really need to let this dry and then decide what I might want to do with it. So once the paper was dry, I decided to turn it around the other way. So it was up this way and then put the fabulous stencil on it. I told you this stencil is a winner today, pulled out my liquitex acrylic spray plate in turquoise and sprayed it across the paper. Now, I'm wanting to just capture some of those elements and some of those shapes of the stencil, some of that wave movement. So I'm just putting it on in little patches on my paper. Then I pulled out the silver in the liquitex acrylic spray paint and did the same. But I turned the stencil over, so it would create different marks, and I would be putting on the shape in different places because I wanted to get that kind of you know, that kind of reflective look when you're looking at the water and the light bouncing off the waves. That's what I was kind of thinking about when I was creating this paper. Turned out pretty good. What do you think? Not too bad, not too bad. I did have a lot of fun with this, and it was pretty much like a roll off sheet of paper. It was catching all of the water and the inks and the beautiful iridescent bronze from the first layer. And I don't think it's turned out too bad. Have a look at the powdered pigment. You can see some of the texture of that. And also the beautiful movement from the stencils through with the spray paint, creating these areas. I really like it. I think it's turned out nice and I can see under a little reflection of the bronze color coming through, and then the different shades of the turquoise. How fun was that? That's a really good idea. Oh, where's my rice paper? You've got to see how fabulous this turned out. What Look at the paper. This is how it turned out the beautiful rice paper that I had put on my mixed media paper sitting like that. So a really good idea. If you're going to dye or stain or paint papers that are going to seep through or that are transparent or that are very porous, put them on something else that you can capture all the paint and ink and the overflow and then create that into something. These papers turned out stunning. I love rice paper because it does this. It bleeds right through, and it's got that fabulous, beautiful texture, the fibrous element to it. This was the T blue ink and the idscent bronze, fine. Both these pieces of paper look magnificent. And this one turned out pretty good. So I've got all of these beautiful prints. Which ones am I going to put in my art journal today for the collage? Shall I rip them up and put parts of them or shall I just put the whole print in because the prints are pretty stunning, actually. I'm pretty happy with these ones. I think that one might be my favorite, but I do really love the shiny deco foil as well. Although, the texture of the rice paper is pretty nice. I'm gonna get the art journal. Then I'm going to have to decide if I'm going to tear them into pieces or use the whole prints in my collage. Oh, man. Okay, so, which one of these starning prints am I going to use, and am I going to chop them up to put into my art journal or am I going to just enjoy the magnificent, beautiful quality of the gel brrint? Well, I'm thinking that they really are too beautiful to rip into shreds. So I'm going to choose a part of this one. I'm just loving it with its reflection of that deco foil, stunning color. And the watery techniques is one of my favorites. So I have to keep it as a whole piece. I'm going to stick the whole thing on like this. I'm thinking section like that. And then on this side, I think I really love this one with the glass beads. I love the feel of it. I love the layers of it and the texture, and I think the print really worked well. Almost surprised me how well it worked. So I'm not going to rip it up. I just can't bring myself to rip it to pieces. I'm going to put that section on there like that, and this one on there like that because I love them so much. Now, I do also love these other papers, but because I know what's coming up next, we're combining all our forces of the elements. I'm thinking that I'm going to use this beautiful stunning paper for the next lesson in a collage that we'll be putting together all of the beautiful colors and textures and papers and elements. So that's what I'm thinking. I'm going to keep this for the next lesson and the next collage, and then I'm just going to put these two prints as they are straight into my art journal like that because I think they were very successful. I love them so much, and they really do definitely express the fluid reflections theme. So I'll cut them up. I'll stick them down. I'll give you a close up, and now I am busting and super excited to get to our next lesson, which is the Unity of the Elements. Mmm. 7. Day 75: Unity of the Elements: Day 75 Unity of the Elements. I'm so excited because today we get to use all of these fabulous colors and textures together combined in a gelprint maybe definitely in a collage. Bring Earth, air, fire, and water together in one harmonious collage. Use colors, textures and imagery inspired by each element, weaving them into a single composition. Think about how these forces interact, sometimes in balance, sometimes in contrast and let your artwork reflect the interconnectedness of nature. It sounds so exciting. So, of course, I set myself the challenge. I had to create one incredible big gel print with all of the four elements. I started with my 16 20 inch gel elf plate, and I put on the meden gleaming paint in the black. I wanted to add that gritty texture first on the plate, in a section on the top left that's going to represent the Earth. Then I'm putting on some cacrodo magenta and some cadmium red onto the right side of the gel plate, and I'm using the fabulous catalyst blade to create those fabulous lines and textures that I was really enjoying about creating that fire feeling. I'm thinking that I'm going to do four separate areas on my gel plate, and I hope this idea is going to work. Next, I sprayed on some of my favorite liquitex spray paint in the turquoise through that fabulous stencil that I've already used. I'm loving it. Choppy waters, I think it's called. And then when that layer dried, I put on the fabulous manganese blue and the cobalt teal. All these paints we've already used, nothing new. And these are my favorite expressions of the elements. I'm going to put them all on the plate at once. Then in the bottom section of the plate, where I'm going to put the air. So I've got the earth, the fire, the water, and the air. I decided to paint some of the feathers I know I've already taken a gel print with the feathers, and that turned out okay. But this time, I'm thinking, What about if we paint the feathers and push that onto the plate to create a print? What's that going to look like? First one looked pretty good, so I gave it another go a little bit more paint next time. I'm using the fluid paint in those fabulous colors, but I'm thinking next time I try this idea, I'm going to use a full body paint. I think the thicker paint might have printed better, but it looks okay. It looks okay. I think we're doing okay. Now I've got all my other sections nicely covered. So then I went back to the Earth area and added some transparent red iron oxide and some raw umber. I'm using the really small roller just to add little bits of the color. I don't want it to be overall blocky colour. I want it to be broken up a little I'm thinking I might pull the whole print with the iridescent bronze fine, and where you see it peeking through the areas around my elements, I think that could work right for an overall color. Then I added some of the magnificent artillery rich gold onto my fire element. Now remember, all of these layers on the plate needs to be dried before you put the next paint layer on. Otherwise, if you're rolling the plate, and it's picking up the paint instead of putting it on, your paint still wet. Wait for it to dry, then put the next layer on. I put some silver over the waves that had the beautiful turquoise and manganese blue, creating that beautiful layer of color. And then I put the pastal arctic blue over the feathers. So each section has the element, and it does have a paint color backing it. But then, overall, I put the iridescent bronze fine and I laid down. The fabulous wet strength tissue. Now I'm going to leave it overnight to dry because I have found it really does turn out a lot better when I wait. Okay. Are you ready for the big reveal? It's pretty exciting. I've never done a gel brint before with all of the element on it. Tara, Tata. So exciting. Now I'm going to pull the plate off the paper rather than the paper off the plate because I have found when it's thick and textured like this, it does work a little better and comes off a little easier, especially if you've waited all night to let that print dry properly, then it should come up without any trouble at all. And that's what we really love. The question is, is my mead and gleaming paint going to come up off the plate? Turn up. Tara. Have a look at how fabulous the print is. Yes, I'm a little excited. Can you tell? Where's the Earth. There's the Earth, the earthy color. And I think I can see some of that meden gleaming paint, the little speckly black textured areas under there. Then we have the fire. Of course, I love the fire. We have the air with our feather print and the deep oceans of the waters and the fluid reflections. I love it. I just love it. Look at the feather print. Turned out quite good, really. So my idea of the overall bronze to pull the print, I think, was a really good idea. I think it's worked well. It looks nice behind these feathers. I actually really like the feathers. That Arctic pastel blue works well with the bronze color. We knew the fire colours would work, and the earth looks nice and grungy and gritty and earthy. And look, that mean and gleaming paint pulled up. No problem at all. I love trying new things. Yes, and I love this estencil. It looks great in our deep ocean. Now, we've got all of the elements. I've got this fabulous print. I'm going to go and get the other papers and decide which ones I'm using today for the collage. Now, the choice is pretty tough because I have so many fabulous prints. I love this new one of my combined Unity of the Elements. It's fabulous. Look, it's even got the shiny gold coming through there in all of the grand layers. But I think for the fire element, I'm still really in love with the very first piece that I did in the number one lesson of fiery passion. I love this one. I think it's got some great movement and of course the incredible metallic so I'm leaning towards ripping a piece out of this, a small section to add into the collage. And then the Earth one's pretty nice on here. I'm very impressed with way the median gleaming paints did actually pull up off the plant and created those layers in that fabulous, gritty texture. Good to know. I'll be doing that again. But I think I might pull a section from this fabulous one with the Earth colors. I'm loving it. That was a great lesson, too. They've all been fabulous lessons. I've really enjoyed this class so much. This has got the medant gleaming paint on it as well. And I put a little bit of blue that I had leftovers. I just scumbled it on the paper. So it looks rather beautiful. I'm going to pull a section out of this particular piece because I just love the texture. I love the grittiness. I love the earthiness. What can I say? It feels amazing. And then what about the air? Well, I'm really loving these feather prints. I think they turned out better than I expected. And I wouldn't mind trying that again another day. So I think I'll use some of the feather section. And do I want some of this? Not sure, because I'm totally in love with my rice paper. These are the ones I dropped the color on with the beautiful Palo blue ink, and then the iridescent bronze fine. Look how beautiful they look. So I'm definitely more partial to these particular papers. I'm going to use that section and these two, as well. But of course, I can only cut small pieces I haven't got a very big art journal. It was actually really challenging trying to decide which part of each paper that I wanted to put on because they're all so beautiful. And that print with my combined elements. Oh, man. That was just a whole lot of fun. Now, I do really want to put these feathers on, so I'm going to trim up this piece, which is my wet strength tissue, and I'll cut it as wide as I can fit it on my art journal. So that's a good place to start because that has to have the full length of the beautiful fea. I'm glad I put the bronze behind the beautiful Arctic blue. I think those colors sit really well together. So that's going to go on there like that. I could trim this. Just a little Right. One decision is made. All these tough decisions. And I definitely want the earth. I do like the little bit of blue that I added, and it was just because I had some leftover paint. But it works really well in these colors, and I ripped this piece because it's got the fabulous glass beads, which I love and some of the med and gleaming paints, as well. So, oh, it almost makes it across. Now, do I want maybe I want the feathers to sit up there and then the earth to sit there, okay? Don't really get to fit much on, do I? Oh, man. Right, well, that's how that side's gonna go. Something like that. We've got to squish the feathers on there. I'm liking that. That looks good. And then we'll put that we'll leave that rugged edge there, and I'll neaten up these sides here. But then it only goes to there, but oh, well, that's how it goes, I guess. That's as much as we can fit on the page. But just think of all the incredible leftover pieces, so make sure you're keeping all your prints all the papers that you're making because you might want to use them down the track definitely for another lesson in this class, but even another class, you might want to pull them out. You just never know what we're going to be creating. Right. That's going to go like that, and that's going to go like that, and I'm very happy with the air and the Earth. So this time, we're going with the fire. The fire and the water I'm liking this piece here. I can trim, man, can't fit much of it on there. Can trim that off. I might put it on top of the beautiful blue, something like that or. Do I want the blue on top and the red underneath like that? I don't mind that idea, as well. Something like that once I actually decide, or do I want it across this way? Oh, that's not a bad idea. Maybe that'll be better 'cause it's a little different composition then from that side, right, oh. Let's put that on there, like that. And that on there. Like that. Then we've got all of the fabulous elements. Unity of the Elements together, looking beautiful, highly textured, so much fun. I'm just gonna stick it all down. Mm oh. Have a look at how beautiful my collage looks now that it's all finished. I really think these elements work very well together. I love the feather print of the air, and then the earthy textures here. I really like that med and gleaming paint and the glass bead texture on it. I just think it looks fabulous. And then this side with my fiery colors and my deep water fluid reflections on there, I added a little of the med gleaming gold onto my fire just to give it a little bit of sparkle. Just a little golden texture, and it looks like the Emvas that are flying up in the air. Oh, I just love it. I just love it. What can I say? I had so much fun with these papers and putting these prints and collages together. It really has been so much fun. Now, I'll give you a close up, and then we're on to the next lesson, and we're taking the fabulous colors and textures of our elements and breaking them down into abstract shapes. I know it's going to be a lot of fun, maybe a little challenging, but I'm pretty sure after all of these fabulous prints and papers and textures and collage, we're ready for the challenge of Abstract Elements. 8. Day 76: Abstract Elements: Are you ready for your next challenge? Date 76 Abstract Elements. Create an abstract collage that distills the essence of each element into shapes, colors and textures. Experiment with non representational forms to capture the elemental energies. Sounds pretty fun. We're breaking it down two shapes. Now, some of your shapes can be quite representational in that. I'm thinking for the air, we could use, like, circles or dots. And some of the shapes can be completely contrast. I'm going to use straight lines for the earth instead of the more texture organic shapes that I've been using so far because I think that'll be a whole lot of fun. Now, of course, I'm starting with jelly printing, and I'm starting with my favorite colors. We're going with the fire. And I've decided to use triangles to represent my fire element. So I'm putting this stencil on the plate, and I'm running through it with the Atilia paint in the permanent lern putting that on the gel plate first. Then I decided I wanted to really spice things up. Bring out the metallic shine of the beautiful fire element, and I'm putting gold leaf on the plate. Now, these are small squares of imitation gold leaf. I'll leave you a link in your class notes. What I like about this idea is we're creating a second layer of shape. So I've got the triangle shape and then the square shape of the gold leaf. They're a little tricky to put on. They don't go exactly to plan. And if you put them on when the paint's really wet and poke them, your finger goes through them. So the paint has to be a little bit dry underneath if you want to push them down. But you do want that paint to be a little bit wet, so it adheres to the gold leaf. I know it's a little tricky, but I had a whole lot of fun, and the metallic shine is really worth the effort. Now, continuing with my shapes, once the gold leaf was down, I put on some circle masks because I wanted to create another layer of those fabulous shape idea. Using the Prussian blue, it's a very deep color, and I'm figuring it's going to contrast beautifully against the Did I say gold leaf? This one's actually copper. And when I pulled the mask shapes off, you can see my fabulous circles. So I've got the triangles, the shapes, and now the circles. Then I'm putting on another Atiler pap brand in the red gold, beautiful burnt orange color. And I'm using my favorite Japanese Sketchpad, rice paper to pull this print. Now, make sure you give it enough time to dry so that it can pull up all those layers, especially if you're getting adventurous and putting the gold leaf on your plate. And when you pull it up, ta, ta. Look how fabulous it looks. I'm loving it. I love the triangles. I love my squares of gold leaves. I love that Prussian blue, and the burnt orange, red gold color looks fabulous, as well. Now, when I pulled it off the plate, there was a little bit still left on there. So I'm thinking, I really do need to have to create another one. So again, I'm putting the triangle stencil on the plate with the permanent alizarin. And then this time, I did use the gold leaf sheets. I wanted to see how much different the beautiful gold would look compared to the copper, although I did like the warm color of the copper, but we'll have to wait and see how this print turns out. Now, the gold leaf sheets are on, and what I like to do is just lift the gel plate and crack it a little bit, stretch it, move it, expand it so that those gold leaf sheets break up, and then you can get the paint into them, and they are much more successful for pulling off the plate. I have experimented a little bit with the gold leaf, and I found cracking it up or pulling it apart, makes it come off the plate onto your print much better. So that is a secret tip just for you. And then because I really did love the intensity of that Prussian blue, I'm putting it through another diamond stasil because I wanted to repeat that pattern, and the areas around the gold leaf are going to show through with that intense color. Loving this pattern on the plate. We've got the triangles. We've got the squares of the gold leaf, and then we've got the diamond pattern, as well. What a great way to represent the fluidity of fire with the metallic tones. I'm pulling the print with the red gold color, and you should be able to see little sneaky bits of that coming through the print, as well. Again, you do have to wait for this print to dry completely before you pull it off the plate. Ah, ta, ta. Such incredibly satisfying feeling. Look how good it looks, how glamorous it is with the gold, and that red gold color behind it on the background. That was such a good choice. So, which one do you like better? I'm loving both these prints. My raging fire broken down into geometric shapes and abstract design, to. I love it. Well, I really do love Abstract, and of course, I started with my favorite colors. I think I'm really liking the copper. It's got such a warm color tone, but I do like the Prussian blue diamonds in the background of this one. I think it's quite dramatic. And you can see all that Prussian blue coming through the gold. Beautiful metallic gold leaf. This really was a lot of fun. I loved creating these and experimenting with the gold leaf. So if you're feeling brave, give it a go. Right, I've got my fire elements, and now I'm onto the air. I decided to do the air element next because I had a strong idea. I want to go with the small dots or the circles, and I've got a fabulous stencil. Put that on the plate first, and I'm starting with white. It looks absolutely fantastic, and I'm thinking all those little round circles or dots look like air particles floating. So then I'm thinking, Let's add another shape behind them. I put on the second stencil in the pastal Arctic blue, and I'm figuring it's going to be a repetitive circle shape, but this one's got some lines through it, as well, so it will create more kind of shadow behind my fabulous white circles. Then I wanted to increase my circular movement within this print, and I pulled out my favorite today. Prussian blue ran this over this particular stencil, so it gave it another shape. But it's all in the circular movement. And I'm pulling the print this time with the cobalt blue. Allow each layer to dry when you're adding the stencils onto your gel print. They do turn out a lot better. So once the print was dry, ta, ta, pull it up. I absolutely love it. I think it's fabulous. It's definitely air droplets, particles floating around. What do you think? I really love the layers of this print. You can see one, two, three, different, four different combinations of layers and colors. But it's got that strong circular bubble like texture of the print. Now, I'm thinking what I might do with this one in the collage. I might just cut a circle out of it and put it on my page in my art journal with one of those beautiful pastel blue prints that I already took in the Whispering Breeze lesson when I did a whole heap of the ones on that teabag paper. Hm. Thinking that I'll make a great background, and I could put a circle shape cut out of this print onto that. So note to self. That's what I'm thinking for this collage using my air elements in my abstract shape. Right, so then I was onto the Earth. Now, I wanted the Earth to be contrasting because I've used so many organic patterns and shapes so far from my representation of Earth, I'm thinking, What about if we did straight lines? So I've pulled out this stencil and I've put it on with one of my Medan 100 colour colors. I grabbed a few of these beautiful tubes. These colours are stunning. The first one I'm using is coca brown, even though it doesn't look brown. It's a beautiful pastel color, and I'm running it straight over this stencil. Then when that layer was dry, I pulled out this stencil, which is a lot of straight lines, and I'm running over these shapes with Mars orange. It's a lot darker, a lot warmer. And I'm thinking both the vertical and horizontal lines on top of the other print is going to create a cute cross hatching pattern on it. I'm liking this idea. And then I decided I needed to pull the print with something deeper, more earthy and intense so those other beautiful warm earthy colors would be able to really show up with their patterns and their abstract marks. I'm using Amsterdam graphite, and the print turned out absolutely fabulous. Have a look. What do you think? What do you think? I like the way it's got the cross hatching of the colors. You can see all the different shapes and elements from the different stencils. It worked really well. I really love the color of this. Very earthy, and I'm thinking for my collage using my abstract elements. I think I might put it on my art journal with some other pieces out of my scrap bag. That's what I'm thinking for this print because I know I've got some other beautiful earthy tones of papers in scraps, and I could put some extra rectangle shapes onto the collage as well. That's what I'm thinking at the moment for My Earth element in abstract design. So we've got fire, air, Earth, one more to do, and we're doing the beautiful water. Now, I've already used a wave stencil to represent water elements in the papers and the prints for this class. So I don't want to do that again. This time, I've pulled out this stencil, which is like little dashes. I like this idea. Little dashes or even little droplets, and I'm using, again, a couple of the tubes from my med and 100 color pack because they're beautiful and they're really nice paints. It's just a shame the tubes are so small. I'm starting with peacock blue, and then the second stencil I'm putting over that one, I'm using ultramarine. Now the second stencil is still in abstract shapes, but they're bigger shapes. So you're going to see the smaller shapes on top of the print and then the bigger shapes behind them. And this is the best way to create layers when you're creating your jelly prints. The layers are looking beautiful, but you can't fail with blue. Now, the color I've pulled the print with is sky blue, another one of the beautiful Medan 100 color paints. And when I pulled it up, Terra Terra, it's looking absolutely gorgeous. I love the different sizes of the shapes on my print, the small ones, and then the bigger ones, and then you can see that glorious sky blue behind them. I think this one turned out really good. I like the representation of water because it's like little droplets, and then there's, like, little pools of water, but it's completely abstract. Abstract Elements in its finest. Now, what will I do with this one? I think I'll pull out my scrap bag and add some more shapes onto the print in the art journal. So I have four beautiful prints except for my fire ones because I did two. And now I'm going to pull out the art journal and put them all together. I think I'm going to put a separate page for the fire and the air. I'm going to do a separate page for all of them. What can I say? My art journal's pretty small, and the prints are beautiful. And I've got some great ideas for pulling papers from my scrap bag. So let me just go and get them. Right, so I'm thinking that the Earth one would sit really well with the air. The Earth and the air, I'm thinking. And I absolutely love the contrast of the red and the blue. In it. I think I've loved that the most so far. So I have to decide if I'm going to use some of each of these prints or just one of them. Haven't quite decided on that one. I'm definitely putting this print in and I'm adding some scrap bad with that. So some of the decisions have been made. I think I'll start with a section of this the earth one will cut it off there, and then I'm going to stick that in and then pull out some bits and pieces from my scrap bag. That will be just a matter of deciding what I want to add to it. I think I should definitely stick with the kind of rectangular shape, like all lines that are on there. I'm liking that idea. So that's going to go there. Now, this one, I really like the idea of cutting a circle shape. That's going to fit on my page. So I'm going to cut a circle shape from what about like that? Okay. It might be easier to see if I turn it over. So I want it about there. Right. Like that. Something like that. Something about there with my fabulous circle shape. I'm thank you. And that could look quite good. And then I'm going to pull out one of the beautiful prints that I've already taken. I did a whole heap of beautiful blue ones in those light pastely colors for our Whispering Breeze lesson. That was a whole lot of fun. Actually, all of these lessons have been a lot of fun. I really enjoyed making these beautiful papers and prints Definitely my favorite class so far. I probably said that last time. Right. See? See how good that looks? We're just cutting the circle out. So that's gonna go on there. And then I'm going to pick a section of this, probably that section there. That'd work on there, like that. Like that. Let's cut across there. Out there. Am I there, yep, I'm thinking so. Thinking so. Cut it down like that. Beautiful, beautiful Whispering Breeze color. Oh, I love that. So that's gonna go there like that. And my fabulous air droplets can go in the center like that. That's gonna go on there with some more scrap bag pieces. And then I just have to figure out the next two pages, I'm going to do the same. So I think I'll do these first before I move on to the fire and the water. When that was a little challenging, it sounded like such a simple idea. I pull out my scrap bag, have a look through, pick some pieces. As soon as I opened my scrap bag, I started picking out some pieces, and then I got completely overwhelmed because there's so many beautiful pieces in this scrap bag. I was looking at this one and then that one, and then another one. And before I knew it, my whole art journal was covered in scrap bag piece. But I seem to have made some decisions. I've stuck some pieces down now, and this is what I have. Oh, man. That was rough. But you do have to laugh. Sometimes it's not good to have so many beautiful pieces. But I've made my decisions. I've put these pieces down 'cause they're such earthy and textual pieces of beautiful coso paper there and some other bits and pieces and some prints. And I'm pretty happy with how it looks. The colors are earthy and textural, and I'm loving it. I might actually find something for the middle of that circle yet, but I don't know, man. I'm a little scared to go back in that scare bag. Now, this side is looking absolutely beautiful. I love this simple background, and you can see a little bit of the feather print there, as well, representing the fabulous air element now. We've got the Earth and the air. And the Earth moves. You can't help yourself. So next, I'm going to do the fire and the water, and I'm thinking with the fire one, what I might do is because I love both of these prints. What about if I first of all, I have to trim the top and the bottom, so it fits on the page. Wait until you see this brilliant idea. I'm telling you, I'm going to roll today about there on the bottom, right? So that's going to fit the page. That's the plan, Stan. And then I'm thinking, I didn't really. Hang on. Hang on. Hold the phone caller. We're gonna get that one. And then because I want both of these magnificent prints on my page, what about if I do this? Now, I'm trying to hold them both together. That's my plan because I'm thinking if I do it like this, right. Now, I have to wait till these pages dry because then I'm going to turn it over and stick it on. But I could use one of these top pieces on here. And then the bottom piece should fit perfectly because I cut them together like that. Yes. And it looks beautiful. Then I've got the copper leaf and the gold leaf with my fabulous triangle fire shapes, the Prussian blue behind there, a little bit of the circle mask and more of the little diamond shape in there. I've got it all. I got it all on one page so happy with myself with that. That's gonna be on the next page. And then the water. Well, I need to do the same with the water. I need to bull out my scrap bag. I don't know, man. That last time was a little overwhelming, but maybe the blue one won't be so bad. Will it? Will it be so mad? Oh, man, it could be as bad. There's some beautiful pieces. So, if that's gonna be stuck on my page, I might just put a few other pieces without getting myself too overwhelmed. That was just really funny. Or the white looks nice, too. Oh, man. Maybe some of the white. That looks pretty nice and fresh on there. I think it should definitely be in that kind of a shape. So I'll have a rummage through the blue scrap bag without getting myself too carried away and find some pieces for that page, as well. That's what I'm gonna do for that. A few pieces on there. Absolute. You fabulous had so much fun making these fabulous Abstract Elements. Now, I'll give you a closer when it's all dry and everything's stuck down, and then we'll be on to the final lesson of this class, which is combined of forces. So you get to choose one of the elements that you've enjoyed the most or a technique or a different print style or a different color or shape. Or you could put them all together in the collage. So what are you gonna do? Think about which ones you've really loved the most. I can't quite decide, but you know what colour I'll probably start with. Just say. 9. Day 77: Combined Forces: Are you ready for it? Gay 77 Combined Forces. Choose the element or mix of elements that speaks to you most and create a final collage for the week. Reflect on which colors, textures or ideas felt strongest and bring them together into one piece that represents your personal connection to the elements. So which of the elements do you respond to personally? I bet you can't guess which is my favorite. And how are we going to combine them all together? Also, which of the techniques or papers or styles or applications did you really enjoy the most? Hmm. That's a really good question. I loved quite a few of them, but I absolutely adored the feeling and the texture and the absorbency of the rice paper. When we put the rice paper on top of the mixed media paper and splashed all the paint and inks on that, I loved it. So because the fire element is my personal favorite and I loved the textual elements of the rice paper. I'm going to start with that. I'm going to make some more pieces because I thought that was just a really fun exercise very creative. But also the papers ended up stunning. So I've got my mixed media sheet of paper and two of the rice papers sitting on top, and I've pulled out the Chinese calligraphy red ink. It's stunning. So pigmented, scribbling across my rice papers, and then added red orange in the acrylic inks, and I've also got some of the transparent red onox. I put some in a little bottle and added some water just so it would be a little more fluid and flow a lot better. I want it to soak into the rice paper. I just love how stunning this always looks, especially in these fabulous colors. I've sprayed it with water. You've got to get it to move around. You want it to soak through the paper. And then I've splashed on some pearlescent FW acrylic ink, and also some gold in the golden high flow. Put some of that on all these colors. They look stunning together. They mix so beautifully. And, of course, they're all acrylic and water based, so they all flow. Together, in my fire colour elements, I love it so much. Then I added to some fabulous gold mine, which really is a gold mine because it's hard to find these days. It's been discontinued heartbreak. My papers are looking stunning, fully, fully saturated with all of that beautiful paint and ink. So I give them an additional spray with water, and of course, now they're dripping, literally dripping, and I need to move them off my table. I put them behind me on the floor on a plastic tablecloth where they will eventually dry. And looking at my fabulous mixed media paper now, look how much paint and ink has soaked through the rice paper. It really is a two for one deal. But I wasn't quite ready to be done just yet. I pulled out some more of the fabulous rice paper, put it straight on the top, soaking up some of that fabulous underneath paint and ink color, and, of course, hit it again with my beautiful acrylic inks and paints. This time, I added the deeper shade of the naple red in the acrylic inks, some more transparent red iron oxide, just a little bit deeper this time, but I'm still using the same or similar colors. I've splashed on the gold, sprayed it with the zinc and lashings of water. You can't go wrong. I just had to make more because I so love these papers. Now, when I finish saturating these fabulous rice papers, pick them up, move them off my table, and then smudged around what was left on that mixed media paper. From all of the fabulous papers and textures that we've been experimenting this week, I really loved putting on the thick gold and scraping through it with the cantalys blade. So I had to do that with this paper because I thought it looked stunning on those other pieces that I created in the fire colour when you swirl it this way and then swirl it that way, the cross hatching creates a fabulous texture, and it's just so super easy. Now, then I waited for the paper to dry, and I pulled out my bag of posca pens, posca markers and decided to scribble on my paper because it was so fun. Pulling in some beautiful purple and orange, and then a little softer tone. I'm literally scribbling on the paper. It is so much fun. I'm just wanting to create some marks and some textures because I know I'm going to cover it and splatter it and add some more paints to it. But the buildup of the textures and marks really does look fantastic in the end, when the papers are dry. It's really good for your creativity, just to allow yourself to bust loose and to have a good scribble. Especially with the paska markers because they'll go nicely over the top of my paint layers. Then I pulled out the mop up posca marker, the big fat one with the real flowing paint and squeeze that across the paper in a beautiful bright yellow because we are doing fireclors. I absolutely love this paint marker. It's so liberating, and it's so easy to get the paint flowing in those fabulous lines that you can create. Of course, then I had to add some of the ink, some of the red, some of the gold, splash that on, spray it with the water, and now it's all flowing. Have a look at how rich and lush my paper is. It's holding up well, considering I did saturate it completely with the water. But you can see all the layers of the posca pens and the paper markers and the inks and the cold and the textural underneath with the catalyst blade. I love it, absolutely love it. I know it's going to look fabulous when it dries. And here it is all dried up and looking fabulous. You can see all of the textures in it. I love it. It's held up really well. This mixed media paper, quite happy with it. There's my fabulous cross hatching texture and the glorious Posca marker. You can see the purple of the posca pin under there and all of this texture and flow from the inks in the shades of red and the gold. What's not to love? It's absolutely fabulous technique, especially pretty much it's a roll off page because you're catching the underneath paint and inks and all of those beautiful colors from the initial rice papers that you put on to start with. So how much fun is that? It's just a two for one deal. Here's the beautiful rice papers. Man, I love this paper. Have a look at that. That's the texture of it. That's the lighter one. I put the red orange on thirst. Look at the beautiful gold. Oh. There's the transparent red iron oxide a little bit deeper, and this one's got the red on it, the Napole red in that fabulous acrylic ink. I love these papers. I love the texture. I love the beautiful fibers in it. So I'm definitely going to create a collage with some of these papers. I also might bring in some of the other rice papers. This was the first one that I did in the earthy tones. Look how beautiful this is with the glorious bronze. So I've got some leftovers of this one. That could go in it as well. And, of course, the blue, which looks stunning. This rice paper really is a bit of a favorite today. But that's just today. So I'm going to put at least one side of my art journal with some of my newly made red, glorious pieces. What do you think? What do you think? Now, Combined Forces theme. Maybe some of this one or this one, that's got some pretty nice texture in it. And then some of the blue on it and definitely a little snippet of the fabulous earthy tones as well. I'm thinking something like that on the page with the red, the blue, and the earthy tones. In my fabulous rice paper, saturated, glorious colors. Love it. Love it, love it, love it. Now, of course, I couldn't stop there. I did have to keep going, and I decided to pull out the gel plate. Now, I really had a lot of fun in the previous lesson with doing the shapes, the Abstract Elements. I just thought that was just fantastic. So I'm thinking I want to continue with that idea, but I want to create it on my big gel plate, all in one combined forces gel print. Do you think I can do it? It's quite a challenge, but I'm going to start with my favorite. The triangles with the red. I loved that in the last print. Let's put that on first. Right. So we've got the fire element on. Then I'm going to go with the air. Those little circles, little dots in the white. That looks fabulous for the air. So let's put some air on the plate. And, of course, I have to have some of that gold leaf. Man, that was so much fun. So I'm putting the little squares of the gold leaf on a lot of them over my fire Triangles, but also over the aired circles, as well, because I think the copper leaf is going to look stunning against the white. Next, I pulled out some of that beautiful blue with the medent 100 color pack. I think it was the peacock blue. I'm putting it on with that stencil I totally loved for the waves. What a great shape that is straight onto the plate straight over some areas. In between the air and the fire, I might even run over some areas and create those fabulous layers. Next, I put on some of that beautiful red gold color around my fabulous copper leaf and over my triangles, bringing in those layers of those beautiful fire colors. Now I have to add some droplets of water. So I've got this fabulous densil and the Prussian blue. Actually running it over quite a lot of the section of the gel plate right over the fire, right over the air. We've got the water rushing over all the other elements. I'm thinking it's going to look pretty cool having those shapes on top of each other. So I've got the fire. I've got the air. I've got the water. I need the Earth. So I've pulled out my favorite iridescent bronze. Fine, beautiful, earthy tone and the bronze, and I'm going to put it all over background on the print as the pickup color, it's going to come through in and behind the other shapes and the other colors, and it's going to ground the whole print in an earthy tone. What do you think of my Combined Forces gel print? Now I'm using wet strength tissue to pull the print, and I'm going to leave it for quite a few hours so that it dries enough to be able to pick up all those fabulous layers of paint. Right. So I gave the print quite a few hours to dry. I then turned it over because I have found that pulling the gel plate off the paper pulls away a little bit easier than pulling the paper off the plate. Slowly, slowly, we go. Caught a little on the end. Not to worry. You just have to be a bit more careful. And then, tra, tra, we have the print. What do you think of my beautiful masterpiece, my combined forces gel plate print of all of the elements? It actually turned out pretty good, considering we had all those layers and all those colors. We've got the fabulous fire here with the triangle shapes. I really enjoyed that the abstract. I think it's because I like abstract art and the glorious copper leaf. Then we've got the beautiful air in the fabulous pearlescent white circles. We have the water all over the print. Actually looks really good covering all of those other shapes and the earthy tone of the iridescent bronze in the background, pulling it all together to make a unanimous color and creating a bit of harmony, grounding the print. I really like it. I'm actually surprised it turned out as good as it did. I like this section of the air and the copper leaf. Good to know how good that looks. You got to remember these things because you might want to do them again. You might want to repeat something in the print. Now, so for today's collage in my art journal, I'm definitely going to use those fabulous rice paper pieces for a collage. And then I might just stick a section of this because I really like it. I'm thinking maybe this section here. Like that, putting it in my art journal. It's got all of the elements all four elements, lay it on each other. A good presentation of their colors and their shapes. And I just love it. So I'll get the art journal. Let's stick some collage down. And oh, man, I can't believe how fast this class has gone through. I've loved making these papers. I want to make some more. Right, I'm definitely going ahead with this idea of the combined forces with the fabulous rice paper. I just love it. What I love about doing this class in the art journal is you can look back over maybe six months down a track from the different classes and the lessons, and you can see ideas or techniques or even color schemes that you really liked, and you can do it again or try a different idea or look back and go, Oh, that was the rice paper. I need to make some homes. Or the fabulous deco foil that looks stunning. Oh, what about that? Watercolor? The lapsus watercolor one. That looked amazing. Or even the gold leaf on the gel plate. That is so much fun to experiment with. So I think it's a treasure trove actually of techniques and ideas that you can always come back to another day because you'll know where they are. They'll be in the art journal. Now, I'm liking this section of the red. I definitely, definitely have to have a section of the blue, and I'm going to put a little snippet of the earthy one, as well. Which piece do I like? Well, I like all of them. Probably some of that one. And then on this side, I'm going to cut this section here and I'm going to stick it on like that because I think the print turned out fabulous. Makes me happy. So that's what I'm going to do. Going to do that like that, cut that out. Just like that, I'm thinking. Actually, I should mark it in. I like it on that edge. It goes to there, it comes up to there, and it runs to there like that. Then I've got the fire, the air, the water, and the earth all on my page. That turned out absolutely fabulous. I'm just gonna cut that, stick it down, stick that down. I'll give you a close up, and I'll show you how stunning they look. And then we're up to our final words. We'll have completed another class in the series. So much closer to the 100. It's been such a fabulous journey. I just love it. I love making the papers and the prints and the collages. I've learned so much. I really hope you're enjoying this journey as much as I am. Right, oh. Let's cut that section out. Let's put that on, and I can't wait to see how you're going with your ideas. It. Right. All the papers are stuck down, and I'm pretty happy with this collection of collages. Now, my paints do look absolutely fabulous. I really love this beautiful texture of the rice paper, but I've decided at the last minute, I want to add a little something a little symbol of something personal, perhaps just right there, I'm going to add a couple of the dance moves in the champagne, gold stencil butter. Look at that magnificent colour. Straight through the stencil just like that. Ta ta. I think that's absolutely fabulous. And look how thick it is because I used the beautiful stencil butter. You can see how raised it is on the page. That finishes it off beautifully. 10. Lets Celebrate: Congratulations to us and a round of applause. And we've completed class 11 for 100 days of class. You know, that's a bunch. And I think we deserve a fairly good pat on the back. I had so much fun with this class. I absolutely loved creating from the inspiration of the elements. What about you? Which element did you like the best? I know you could guess which one I liked the best. I think my pages are fabulous, and what I really enjoyed about this class was all of the papers that we made, all of the textual papers and the experiments and the collages that we put together. I thought it was so much fun and all of those layered elements. I started a brand new art journal with this class, which is fabulous. Look, this is the last one for the series of 100 days, and I've enjoyed it so much. Picking out which of the beautiful papers I like the best was probably the hardest because I really love all of them. I had a lot of fun with all of the elements. Which ones did you like the best? Yes. Look at my fire. Look how much it shines with that deco foil. Don't you just love the deco foil. Although I do think that these pages are probably my favorite of all of the papers that we made during the class. I really love the design of them. It was so simple with that watery technique, and then the beautiful glass beads and the deco foil. Oh, man, I just love these ones. And what I love about having it in an art journal is I can come back to it another day and be reminded about how much I really loved making these papers and these prints, and I could make some more. I could put this onto a canvas very, very happily. I loved combining the papers together. That was a lot of fun, too. And that meten gleaming paint, that was really fun, just to create that little bit of glittery goodness. I really loved using those paints, and I hadn't used them before. So, what how did you go with your pages? Oh, I love this one, as well. Of course, I do. It's all shiny and beautiful. Which ones did you like the best? I'd love to know. So don't forget you can put a photo into the project section. I'd love to see what you've done with your fabulous collages inspired by the elements. And don't forget you can put photos into my Facebook group, creative Adventures making art. I'd love to see that. And there's so many others in that group that would also love to see the fabulous artworks that you're making don't forget you can check your class notes if you want to find out exactly the materials that I use to create these pages. There's also the discount codes on there. Don't forget the discount codes. And you can download the treasure map to find out where you're up to in this fabulous adventure. I love the treasure map because you can kind of mark out which ones you really like the best and cross out the ones that you finished in case you skip some along the way. We're heading for 100 days of collage. That's not a small feed. That is a great achievement. Thank you so much for joining me on this incredible adventure, I've absolutely loved creating these classes and these lessons for you. I've learned so much in preparing and creating all of these are fabulous techniques. Now, if you have any questions, you can leave them here on the platform, or you can email me directly fro frolt.com. You can also find out more who I am on my website. Now, if you jumped into this class to have a look and to give it a try, don't forget you can go back and check out all the other classes leading up to this one. Each one is a different theme, and all of the techniques are building on each other. By the time we get to the end of 100 days of college, you're going to know everything that I know. Right, so I hope you've enjoyed the class as much as I have. I'd love to hear from you, so leave me a comment. Show me some photos of your fabulous artwork, and I can't wait till we get started on the next class.