Paint & TAP Play Date Tutorial

-
My friend is a watercolorist and has a group of friends she paints with.  
  We have been trying to get together so that I could teach them how to use TAP (Transfer Artist Paper) on paper with their watercolors.  It isn't hard at all, they could figure it out on their own, but we wanted to have a play date, and show them something different than what they usually do.  We finally settled on a date and time and today was the day, until 5 a.m. this morning.  My daughter woke up with a stomach bug.  
No fun for her! 
And NO play date for me.

 I feel terrible for all of us.
It couldn't be avoided.
So to make myself feel better
I thought I would have a play date with my blog readers.
Get out your supplies and let's play!

Materials Needed:
Watercolor or mixed media paper
Board or foam core larger than paper
painters tape
pencil
Sharpie or other markers
watercolor paints and watercolor brushes (you can use inexpensive kid's paints for this project if you don't have the "real" thing sitting around)
white acrylic paint or gesso
acrylic paint in whatever colors you would like to use (I used acrylic craft paints for these projects)
Foam brushes and/or acrylic brushes
stencils
newspaper
printed tissue paper (you can make your own by putting the tissue paper through your printer if you tape it to a piece of copy paper)
TAP - Transfer Artist Paper
Iron & ironing board

1. Start with a piece of watercolor paper or mixed media paper taped to a board or foam core, and draw light lines across the page.  You don't have to use a ruler. This is a 9"x12" piece.

2.  Fill in the squares with sloppy washes of watercolor paint.

 3. Brush a wash of white acrylic paint or gesso over most of your watercolor image. Use stencils to add a few images and/or draw an image with a white gel pen or Sharpie.
4.  Forgot to photograph it, but at this point this is a good time to mod podge some bits of tissue paper and newspaper to your painting.  Sometimes I will mod podge first and then stencil, paint and draw and sometimes I do it the other way around.

5.  Print an image onto your TAP paper (be sure to print images of people you know and words backwards).  Please do NOT use a copyrighted image!!!  This is a copy of my Mom's high school graduation photo - no copyright.  My printer was printing with lots of lines but they weren't too terrible to use.  There are so many great copyright free images online.  A couple of my favorite sites are The Graphics Fairy and The NYPL Digital Collections.
 The image will be fairly transparent when transferred but you can scratch into the TAP paper to create parts where the the paint and mod podged images will show through even more or to create more design.
 This is also a good time to add bits of bright color.  I like using Sharpies, Crayola and other types of markers.  Don't press too hard or you will scratch off some of the polymer that makes up the transfer.
6.  Apply the TAP image to painted background according to directions in package.  
Add more stenciling and markering over the top until you are satisfied.
This piece may still need more.
I would like a quote or phrase.
I'm not a big fan of my lettering abilities.
I need to work harder at that!
I'm not satisfied with the lettering on this piece:
Maybe if I asked really nice my friend Juliette 
would do some calligraphy for me to add to my pieces.
I liked this piece but felt there was still something missing:
A couple of friends told me the images behind her face were distracting
so I added a wash of white 
across her face and suddenly it is much better!
I could have added a wash of another more realistic skin color but I didn't have my acrylic paints handy and honestly it was 2 a.m. and I didn't want to go searching for my box of paints!
Most of my creating has been done very late lately.
Volleyball season ended for my daughter and then club season started earlier than I thought so I will be spending many, many hours a week driving and waiting for her.  As a result I have been doing more drawing.  Zentangling.  I will share those later.  Perhaps I should commit to practicing more lettering while I wait.  Anyone have any great sites for all kinds of lettering practice?

Comments

Lynda said…
Lisa, This is great! I still haven't tried this stuff even after taking that class! Love your tutorial and how your lady ended up. I really hate my writing and lettering - something I really need to work on. Well, now to put TAP back on my list to work on. Thanks.
November 19, 2013 at 8:29 PM
Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Gelli Plate Tutorial with Leaves

-
Image
Here's the Gelli Plate Tutorial you asked for! My Gelli plate has been well used and well loved. 1. Place Gelli Plate on a flat, covered working surface, and place small dots of paint onto the plate.  My demo photos are with me using acrylics and paper but it works exactly the same with fabric paint and fabric.  I like using Jacquard Textile paint when I make fabric prints. 2. Use a brayer to spread the paint evenly across the plate. 3.  I used the leaves as a resist for the first print. 4. Place the paper/fabric on top of the printing plate and smooth it out nicely to get an even print. 5.  Carefully lift up the paper/fabric. Found a photo from when I printed the fabric - see same process. This is a first print. 5.  I know that MONOprinting means ONE print but seriously, when you remove the leaves from the plate there are these beautifully textured leaves left on the plate just dying to be printed.  I couldn't ignore t...
Read more

Quilt National

-
Image
My husband and I took a red-eye flight to Columbus, Ohio, and then drove the one hour to Athens, Ohio, to attend the opening of the Quilt National quilt show where my piece, Wild Flowers was being shown. Made a stop at Tim Horton's, a Canadian chain for some delicious breakfast sandwiches and donut holes. We went to the Kennedy Art Museum, on the Ohio University campus. This is the side of the building. Photo of the front of the building from the cleveland.com website. The building was designed in the 1860s by Cleveland architect Levi Scofield, and was originally part of the Athen's Lunatic Asylum. It opened in 1996 as the Kennedy Museum of Art. There were some lovely prints, paintings and exhibits. It didn't take long to tour, which was good for my knees. I was glad to be able to see this Elizabeth Catlett print. I admire her work. I've seen some of her her other prints in person, and was anxious to also see this one. Friday evening, the Quilt National show opened, and...
Read more

Fabric Printing at Home Blog Tour

-
Image
About two months ago I wrote a review about the book Fabric Printing at Home written by my friend, Julie B. Booth . Today I'm going to show you one of the things I learned from her book and then give you an opportunity to win a copy of the book for yourself. I used a hot glue gun to create a design onto a toilet paper roll.  I was impatient and didn't seal the toilet paper roll with white glue or a gel medium before creating my design.   I inserted a short roller handle that one can find at the local hardware store into the toilet paper roll. . .   . . . and used my 3x5" Gelli Plate as a paint palette.  I rolled the paint across a sample piece of fabric. . . . . .first going long ways. . .  . . .and then again short ways. I really like the texture this provides whether I go once or twice across the fabric and I'm gladly adding it to my art "toolbox."  Have you tried something like this before?  What ha...
Read more