Second Thursday Tutorial: Resists revisited

For the first Second Thursday tutorial in 2018, I'm revisiting resists.  I've played with resists in the past, but not all in one post.

I decided to test several types of paper, including 90 lb. watercolor, 120 lb. card stock, and 20 lb. copier/printer paper.  

One of my favorite resists is a white crayon, a white candle, or even colored crayons.  But that works best with watercolors (as shown here), and today I'm focusing on acrylics. 

Another resist I have tried in the past involves using white PVA glue (Elmer's or equivalent).  This is something I created in my Houses altered book.

This one also involved watercolors, specifically Twinkling H2Os, just like the technique with the crayons.  The theory is the glue acts as a barrier between two or more watercolors.

Today I'm focusing on four resist techniques that should be relatively easy for anyone to accomplish.  For the most part, these involve using acrylic craft paints.  From left in the back clockwise:

Salt (use various salts if you have them, because they each produce different effects)
Petroleum Jelly (either Vaseline or a store brand)
91% Isopropyl Alcohol (best to use stronger than 50% if you can find it)
Bleach pen (I have two, one a store brand and one by Clorox, and I decided to use the Clorox because it has two tips)

I began by painting a sheet of watercolor paper with acrylic paint.  Any brand, any style will do.  I used what comes in bottles and is cheap.  Allow the paint to dry thoroughly.  This is very important.

Decide on a resist design,

or just play with the petroleum jelly until you are happy with the amount of background color you want to show.  Make sure you add plenty of petroleum jelly to the painted surface.

It's now time to cover the background with a different color.  The  idea is the petroleum jelly will resist the paint you apply and, once removed, you will be able to see the background.

Next up is probably my favorite resist.  I love this alcohol and I love my handmade shimmering mists.  However, I spent a huge amount of time looking for my pipette, which I seem to have misplaced. 

I assure you, it had a LOT to do with the outcome of this technique.  You can see I got way too much alcohol in a few spots, which,

had I had the right tools, would NOT have happened.

Not wanting to call this page a bust, I decided to add more shimmering mist to the page,

then apply table salt to the ends that were previously bare.

The salt quickly began to saturate the shimmering mist.

I noticed it began to mix with the alcohol on the page, too.   I have no idea why the color changed so radically, but my craft room is very dark, especially since it sits on the north side of my home.

For my final resist, I chose a page from a calendar.  This technique is best when using a photograph or a slick magazine page.  I thought the lion would work just as well, but I now suspect the paper was a bit too thin.

It had been ages since I had used this bleach pen in my art,

and I was surprised by how thin and watery the liquid was coming from it. 

Then I realized I had to shake the bleach pen.  If you try this technique, be sure to shake the pen before using it.

What a difference the shaking made.

Now it was time to wait, wait, wait.

I allowed 24 hours, because it is cold in my craft room, especially when I turn off the heater.

You will need that long for everything to dry properly, unless you live in a very hot climate.

What a disappointment.   This didn't look like anything I remembered from before.

However, it was time to scrape away the excess bleach. 

You can see the excess sediment I got from scraping the bleach from the page.

I admit, this was rather a disappointment, but I will use it in my art, anyway.

As an aside, the photo above is the first time I used the bleach pen as a resist.  I altered this photograph in 2008, and must admit, it works best with photos.   I first applied the bleach pen to the hair and beard, neither of which the man had, and left it on until the emulsion was nearly gone.  Then I used the bleach pen to make a Santa hat, but didn't leave the bleach on as long, thus producing the red hat.  After the photograph was dry, I gessoed the bottom.  This was in a frame I purchased at a garage sale and decided to use it on this technique.

Next it was time to remove the salt from the paper that had been painted, then spritzed with shimmering mist.

Even though I considered this a failure (the alcohol), I was now quite pleased with how it turned out.

I tried propping the paper up to show the two techniques,

and when I did, I got some really unique images.

I was stunned at how different the page looked depending on which angle I shot it from!

I saved the messiest technique for last.  

I wiped the excess petroleum jelly away using several baby wipes.  Now I'm an advocate for saving these wipes to use on other projects, but these you cannot save, because they are filled with the gooey petroleum jelly.  I believe this is relatively close to the end colors on the page.

This photo is so much darker than the actual image.  I included it because it had so much atmosphere.  I can't wait to use it in my art.

Thanks for joining me this Thursday where I've been reviewing various resists on paper.   Once this goes live, you'll find it on my Tutorials page for future reference of these four resists I tried today.  And of course, thanks for supporting my art.  I greatly appreciate your visit.