Creating Art Directly on the Gel Plate

In this example of a sunflower I have made a painterly image with a couple of layers of paint. The background is a mix of turquoise and white acrylic just to show you that you can use multiple colours here too. You will note some black dots here and there. I don’t always thoroughly clean my Gel Plate as I quite like the grungy looks and these are specs of dry paint that have been lifted along with the image

The reason the layering processes work on the Gel Plate is that as long as the underlying acrylic layers are dry, subsequent layers bond to those below so that once you lift the work off the plate all layers are taken with it. The secret is all layers need to be acrylic

Enter acrylic paint markers. These come in a packet and are like a felt pen but are filled with acrylic paint. When new the fibre tip will be dry and not have paint in it so you will need to prime each pen by pouncing it a few times until the ink comes through - Once the ink appears in the tip you can draw with it as you would any felt tip.

This means you can draw with it on the Gel Plate - you could use acrylic paint and a paint brush but the acrylic markers gives so much more control. You can draw freehand or you can put an outline under the Gel Plate and use it like a tracing. If you want to do mulit layers you will need to let each subsequent layer dry before you put the next layer on.

When all layers are dry use either acrylic paint for a coloured background or gel medium for a clear background and brayer the plate in the normal way. Place your substrate over the artwork and rub with a barren, your hand or the back of a spoon. Let dry. Remember if you are using fabric it takes longer for the bond to adhere so don’t be in too much of a hurry to pull your plate. The image will also be mirror image so remember to take that into account when doing your painting. If you are adding text it will need to be mirror imaged so that it comes out the right way round when the plate is pulled