Gelli Print Collage - Becoming an Artist

January 31, 2022 • Leave a Comment

I strive to be an artist, but find my overly analytic mind sometimes gets in the way of the artist I want to be. I started out with botanical illustration. I so admire illustration and the beauty of it. I have done nature journaling which requires observation, but artistic technique is secondary. This has suited me at times and got me to be a little less judgmental of my art skills, which can be a major barrier for me. I am impressed with the skill of hyper-realistic art, but for my own work, it requires a patience and a precision I’m not willing to invest.

For me, my camera has served as a major visual medium for the natural world. But for my artwork, I have always wanted to be more creative and expressive.I tried some printing techniques with different types of ink and different types of paper. This was getting me closer to what I wanted.

One of my more relatively recent discoveries in art technique is gelli printing and collage. I have learned this from a class, YouTube, and Facebook, so I can't claim to be totally self-taught, but my education is limited and I'm not really sure I am using the 'proper' terminology, but I am loving the experimentation and learning process. For vibrance, spontaneity, ease, and flexibility, it is my current choice of media.

I started out just making prints on art paper with different layering techniques. Then I learned about using deli paper (yes, the kind they wrap sandwiches in at the deli). I just started making prints. I roll acrylic ink onto the gel plate with a brayer. I use stencils, bubble wrap, and anything for texture and pattern. I may do layers. I press the paper, and voila! I now have a box full.

In a class I took with a marvelous instructor who specializes in abstract, watercolor, and abstract landscape, she taught this technique to make the deli gelli prints. She looked through the paper, and chose colors she liked, and used them to make abstract collages. This helped me with some of the technical aspects of printing, cutting, and gluing onto Bristol paper.

But my analytical brain keeps raging and I don’t work in what seems a totally spontaneous visual manner.

So here is how I have worked things out for myself.

I start out with an idea of the subject, usually based on something I recently saw as a naturalist or my go to muse (mews?), my cat.
I look through my photos and select several.
I lay awake at night thinking about composition and color and how I might work it out. This is my heavy analytical brain working.
I then go into Photoshop and try to work out a general composition. My technical skills come into play here.
I look through my stacks of paper and I usually wind up making more to get the colors I might want. This is my most spontaneous fun creative brain.
I scan the paper into the computer.
I play around in photoshop a little more using some of my scanned paper.
I start to cut out images and then lay them on the paper in various places.
I photograph them and may bring them back into photoshop to see what else I might want to do.
I finish by gluing them down with matte medium and use a matte finish spray over the whole piece.
At seaAt sea
Collage