Why do you need clear gesso?

I used to ask myself why I would need clear gesso. Gel medium seals surfaces and then you can layer over, and white gesso does the job to prep plain paper. So why would you spend money on yet another art supply? This year I've found the answer....
I first used it HERE when I wanted to stop pens bleeding up through my layers

and it's a great solution for being able to use shiny magazine images as a collaged layer - apply clear gesso

and then you are able to apply other mediums over the top 

This was my paint over collage Life Book lesson. The clear gesso gives lovely 'tooth'/grip - here it is wet

and I like the  brush markings it can leave as another textural layer once it's dry and being worked over

Katie Kendrick used clear gesso in her Documented Life project to seal her photo transfers so she could add a layer of coloured pencils and pastels. 

In the Documented Life project in June, Lorraine Bell shared how she uses clear gesso as a surface for watercolour in a non-watercolour paper journal. Go HERE for that post.

I used it in Week 35 of Documented Life to seal my watercolour layer so that I could add more watercolours and acrylics on top without re-activating and blending colours.

In my Life Book lesson with Jeanne Oliver, she used clear gesso over neocolor II crayons to set and layer colours on the face - again I liked the extra texture this gave and it was easy to work over with additional layers because it was sealed as well.

I don't do bible art journaling, but I somehow came across this post the other day which is about using clear gesso to prep your pages. This is another great use : strengthening and adding tooth to a thin page so you can then add art materials, and also for being able to still read the text beneath (white gesso as you know disguises the print).

For some other ways to incorporate clear gesso in your work check out Finnabair's blog - including using it with a palette knife for texture in your background or through a stencil

You can read about Finnabair's Art Basics clear gesso HERE and it's one of Tam's favourite supplies. Also worth a read is Rhonda Palazarri's post where she compares clear gesso and matte medium - you might not always like the effect of clear gesso.
I think clear gesso is useful for a number of purposes and a great addition to your supplies. In summary, my favourite use is if you like using a variety of papers and various wet media and you're not sure how the next layer will react - you can apply a layer of clear gesso over the entire surface of variables and have a unified surface with a nice tooth, and all your lower layers still visible (and I like the look of any brush strokes). You could also add colour to clear gesso to get gritty texture and permanence for watersoluble mediums!
As with other supplies, I don't spend big when I can get away with a cheaper alternative. I use the following which I probably chose because I got it on special!

Happy creating :-)

LB2015 : Painting the Muse

This next Life Book project was created by Alena Hennessy. Last month I shared how much I'd enjoyed her bonus lesson "Be here now" - quick paintings. These were my paintings after spending 15-20 minutes.

Really fun and freeing so this was the natural next lesson choice for me. The topic was goddesses - here's one of hers (not the goddess that was demonstrated) 

I especially love how she uses caran d'ache neocolors and gel pens to add details and make marks. I decided not to think about a specific goddess, but to think about goddess qualities while I created my piece : abundance, nature, strength, kindness, peace (especially with the horror of the Paris attacks all over the news), wisdom.
And I did a little bit of research about what colours symbolize :
Yellow/orange : energy, optimism, health, happiness
Gold : prosperity, abundance, success. compassion, wisdom, love
Purple : magic, spirituality, creativity, dignity, royalty 
Started with an inky background dripping down the page in my main colours.

Happily these formed a good face shape. Unhappily I rushed it and her eyes were too close together and not looking right. I could have just painted over and not shared, but I want to encourage beginners (I only started faces at the beginning of this year) not to give up on your work, but to try again. Layers and a bit of thought make your work better.

Thankfully, nothing is unsalvageable and I laid down a heavy layer of white acrylic paint so I had another chance - she already looks better!

I covered all her face in a coat of pink because that yellow wasn't working for me either, and then went back to basics with face proportions

and with a flower stamp to start her crown of flowers, I can see she is heading in the right direction now

Really happy as I kept working on her face

then more layers to her hair and it was time to add pen work in various places - lots of fun - I used a white sharpie paint pen and a gold sakura gelly roll metallic for the most part

The flowers needed more definition towards the end so I overstamped again using my lovely gold stamp pad

And in the end my goddess looks nothing like Alena's examples and totally like mine. This is a good thing, but I really would like to do this again with more opportunity for patterning in the background.

Click on the photo to see it larger or see it in the Flickr album for all my Life Book projects HERE. You can see all my posts about Life Book HERE.

Week 45 : DLP 2015

Information about the FREE weekly Documented Life project is HERE. It's a new month and a new theme : 

VERY happy to see this - I use stencils and masks and stamping extensively in my work so I think these are going to be joyful playing weeks which is just what I need in our busy last term at school. This week's challenge : 

Responding to this week's prompt, as far as art goes, I want to keep myself challenged - on the edge - stretching myself to try new things, so I started in a different way from usual by choosing a palette of colours I don't usually use - red, yellow, and blue - but I am also "allowed" to use black and white as I get to my last layers.

I like starting with paper on my bottom layer, so lay down a bit of that, and then my 2 lightest colours for my background. 

Now I'm challenging myself to just use stencils for all my other layers....

The stronger colours are acrylic paint, and the lighter ones are cleaning the stencils off with a baby wipe as other layers on the background. Layering stencils add depth and interest :

I used letter stencils for my daily journaling block this week 

and I've had this Dina Wakley word stencil for a while

which I used to add words to my spread

The butterfly is the one bit that wasn't stenciled but was too perfect not to be added to the page. And here's the finished spread :

Click on the photo to enjoy it larger or see it in the Flickr album I've created for all my Documented Life 2015 spreads HERE. You can see all my posts about this project HERE.