Stolen Ideas Project #5 - textured backgrounds

In 2012 I started my Stolen Ideas Project. Here's how it works:  I put the titles of all my artsy books in a box and draw one and then do something inspired by that book. Also I am not above taking an idea from the internet or a magazine. The point is to expand my horizon or just try something new. On this blog I will report on what I did and hopefully inspire you to get out of your comfort zone every now and then too.  Despite the title of this project it is not my objective to actually copycat ideas and works of others, I like to take something and make it my own.

The book I drew from the box was Claudine Hellmuth's second Collage Discovery Workshop book. Love it!

One of the first chapters is about textured backgrounds. No need to look any further. I'm your girl!

As a substrate I chose these left over canvas boards. Three squares and two rectangles.

The first technique I did was about crackle. Claudine shows how to do this with Elmer's glue.

I didn't have that, but I did have actual crackle medium. So why not use that?

I later added some foam stamped stars. How about all that neon paint by the way?

The second technique I tried was masking. I used sticky back plastic instead of contact paper.

I really loved the effect of the circles.  I added some dabbed paint afterwards for even more texture.

I think this is my favourite of this project.

This one is not from the book! It's just something I had bought a while ago and wanted to try.

It's like a metal comb with four sides for making diferent textures in paint. I painted one layer and let it dry.

And then another thick layer which I worked on with the different sides of the 'comb'. Cool!

This texture was done with tissue paper.

You put tissue paper on wet paint and move it around a little.

Let it dry and paint over it with another colour.

The last one was done with cling film. Put cling film on wet paint and let it dry overnight.

Then take offthe cling film and you have a very interesting pattern.

I added another colour of  paint after I removed the film for some extra interest.

It was interesting to see how these different techniques lead to different backgrounds, although I think the last two look rather similar. And now I have five canvas boards all ready to do a little collage or mixed media on.

And there's a little bonus too. Whenever I use many different colours of paint I dab off my brush on a tear off palet and not one to waste too much I then use that palet to print on pieces of paper. This left me with three index cards with backgrounds too!

That should make some interesting mail art some day!

And that concludes my fifth project in this series. I hope you liked it and try some backgrounds of your own.

If you want to see the other projects  you can just click on the label 'stolen ideas project' on the side bar.

Wishing you all a wonderful and artsy Wednesday!