A TWIST TO A BLAST FROM THE PAST - WITH SKELETONS

This little post isn't quite paper mache related but when i came across it on another blog i had to ask for permission to use a key image from it to tie this post into it & link back to it immediately. Not only becasue it featured skeletons which i love... Well okay a LOT to do with the skeletons in it. More though because it's so simple it's just shear genious. Let me try to explain a little.

Do you remember back when you were back in your early school days messing around with various tricks & messy things paint related in art class? Did you ever do that wonderful trick drawing a picture on plain paper with a candle then paint in details such as grass & sky, a tree or two in the foreground etc? Or making a fireworks display picture on black paper & coloured wax? Low & behold where the candle had been drawn the paint would not go. I remember being able to create some wonderful effects with that. Whispy clouds where the blue paint slid off etc. I even showed it to some of my children when they were younger as the schools they attended didn't seem to teach them it in art anymore.

Now of course children can buy those 'ahem' magic water based pens that only draw or write on the special easy wipe clean sheet or magically change colours at certain places. Anyway the other day whilst trying to make time to flip through the blogs i follow & find new ones to follow i came across a wonderful blog http://thatartistwoman.blogspot.com/. There i saw not only some cool skeletons but also a NEW twist on that old candle trick. Being an avid white glue user since day one of taking paper mache back up a few years back, just HOW this trick even slipped past my fertile imagination i have no idea. Countless times i have made my water based paints too watery & had them not take to the glue, anyway... Rambling sorry.

A rather cool artist by the name of Gail Bartel has come up with this twist in the story. As you may have guessed, YES she uses white glue in place of the candle wax. Then paints over the glue with water based or thinned down paints. Not only does the paint slip off the white glue regions, the white glue is actually raised off the paper slightly giving it a wonderful ghostly raised image effect of the skeletons which looks brillaint. Here is one of the main images in the article.

CLICK TO ENLARGE IMAGE

It's not easy to see the effet in this image as this is shown flat on. Trust me there IS more both of the 'HOW TO' & the wonderful skeletons on her blog that show the effect much better. If you like skeletons or not you have to go get the lowdown on this simple but cleverly effective trick direct from Gail's blog & Gail's much better explanation of the process (I don't want to steal Gail's lime-light lol). It's a great little blog with some great little idea's that have a BIG impact.

Go, look have fun, Tell Gail I sent you... Er!, don't forget to come back here though afterwards though lol.