Old, New & Digital Too – Challenge 2
Hi everyone.
Found Objects! Well the search was on to see what I could find. I dug down into the mess that I call my studio – and came up for air with a box of acetate sheets. I love the idea of using found objects in making art as it makes you think outside the box.

I really hope you’ll pick up your brushes, stamps and crafting tools to have a go yourself. I look forward to seeing your results and to read your comments.
Don’t forget to visit the ON&DT blog to see the other inspiring ideas and variety of techniques used by Deborah, Sarah and Mo.
I had just finished teaching a still life drawing course in my studio so the arrangement was still there for me to use. Instead of doing a straight forward drawing I decided to do a negative drawing of an indoor plant. While carefully observing the plant, I used a paint scraper to scrape away the printed image on the acetate to end up with a ‘negative’ drawing of the pot plant. So far so good.
Step 3
New
I made a transfer print of the acetate using acrylic Gel medium (this is the New in ON&DT) and transferred the image from the acetate onto white cartridge paper. I let it dry overnight.
The next day I peeled the acetate off the paper to leave behind all the colour and presto! – I had the basis for my art work. I covered the whole image in a layer of transparent mat Gel medium to give it some tooth or texture in preparation for what I had planned next.
Step 4
Old
To me, mixed media is about taking chances and using materials that weren’t necessarily made to go together, work together in unexpected ways. If you remember I used some old masking fluid in the previous challenge. This time I went back to the same box and hauled out the watercolour paints (this is the Old in ON&DT) I had not used for over 10 years and decided to see how this would apply to the Gel medium covered acetate – thinking it wouldn’t work.
I painted in the white areas of the plant that I had scraped away and found that the watercolour paints reacted in a really interesting way leaving some fascinating textures. Because I was working at an easel it tended to drip down which I really liked. So I went with it and developed the dripping theme further.
Complete
And that’s it completed!
I really enjoyed using the watercolours over the acetate and gel medium. It gave some unexpected results that you wouldn’t achieve if you had simply ‘followed the rules’.
I hope this project has inspired you to have a go yourself. I look forward to seeing the results and I know everyone else over at ON&DT will do too.
More art project on my website
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More ON&DT mixed-media challenges
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