Bring autumn’s magic into your home with a leaf-inspired series that blends charcoal and pastel sketches with Gelli plate printing to make smudge-free, permanent, and beautifully layered mixed media prints.

This simple transfer process fixes your drawings so they won’t smudge, while opening the door to creative exploration: you can combine textures, colors, and additional marks in ways impossible on the original drawing.

You’ll also discover how to reuse one drawing to create a series of variations – positive and negative prints, textured backgrounds, and outlines – giving your sketches new life and turning a single idea into a cohesive set of artworks.

You’ll start by exploring easy drawing techniques using charcoal, soft pastels, or soft pencils – whether drawing freehand, tracing, or using frottage (rubbings). Then, you’ll learn how to transfer your drawings onto paper using acrylic paint or acrylic medium, turning fragile sketches into durable prints you can layer, paint over, or reuse to create a cohesive series.

Along the way, you’ll experiment with classic Gelli plate techniques – printing positive and negative leaf shapes, adding textures, and combining color layers – to create beautiful, one-of-a-kind artworks that celebrate the season’s changing colors.

You'll Learn How to

Draw and trace with charcoal, pastel, or pencil to create expressive line art.
Transfer those drawings onto a gelli plate for permanent, smudge-free prints.
Create positive and negative background prints with real leaves and textures.
Combine drawing and printmaking into a cohesive series of mixed media prints.

This class is a natural follow-up to my beginner class From Gelli Prints to Handmade Art Journals: Print, Bind, and Create inviting you to experiment with a new gelli plate technique. But don’t worry if you haven’t yet taken that one – you’ll still be able to follow along.

This class gives you new ways to:

Preserve your drawings – turn smudgy sketches into permanent prints
Explore mixed media by combining wet and dry media in exciting, layered ways.
Reuse your artwork to create cohesive series without starting from scratch.

By the end, you’ll have a collection of expressive prints that merge drawing and printmaking in an exciting new way.

Who This Class Is For

Gelli plate printers who want to add a hand-drawn touch to their prints
Mixed media artists looking to merge drawing with paint
Art journalers who love repeating motifs and textures
Beginners who enjoy drawing but want a fresh, approachable process

Materials You’ll Need

(You’ll find a printable list in the “Projects & Resources” section.)

Gelli plate (any size)
Acrylic paint (colors of choice)
Acrylic medium
Brayer
Drawing tools: charcoal, soft pastels, 4B+ pencils, conté, or pastel pencils
Smooth paper (copy, Bristol, or printmaking paper)
Your motif: Real leaves, printouts of leaves, or your own leaf sketches
Textured items (bubble wrap, lace, stencils, etc.)
Scrap paper for rolling off paint
Wet rag, baby wipes, or packaging tape for cleanup
Mineral or baby oil to remove pastel/charcoal residue

Join me and transform simple sketches into beautiful, permanent prints inspired by the colors of autumn.

See you in class!
– Cornelia –

Namrita Kapoor

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