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Thursday, November 7, 2013

The Mixed Media Artist - Step-By-Step-Old and New Friends Meet

Today on Seth Apter's blog the fourteen gallery artists from section three of The Mixed-Media Artist, Seth's latest book, are being introduced.  I have three pieces in this book and I thought it would be fun to show you the steps that I took to create Old and New Friends Meet, the piece that I created for the book.  The prompt for Friends was Imaginary Worlds.  I am so very pleased to have been asked to be included in Seth's book.  If you have not seen it yet, it is a treat!  Thanks Seth for asking me to contribute.
 
 
 

I used matte medium to adhere pieces of newspaper to the substrate in the first step.  Then I brayered a layer of gesso over the substrate.
step 1
In step 2, I added paint using rainbow colors.  As you can see texture is now coming through from step 1.
step 2
Since I was honoring four great 20th century artists I wanted to give a flavor of their work in my piece.  I create gel skins transfers using gloss gel medium.
 
step 3
After four gloss gel medium coats and once the skin is dry, I submerged the skin in water to wet the paper fibers.
step 4


 In step 5 the rubbing off of the paper fibers begins.
step 5
Step 6 is a completed gel skin for the background.  I completed several different gel skins to represent four artists' work: Jasper Johns, Robert Rauschenberg, Keith Haring and Andy Warhol.

step 6
 In step 7, I adhered the gel skins to the painted background.
step 7
 Another layer of gesso was added to the work in step 8.
step 8

I added a glaze over the gessoed layer and then added the decapitated bodies of Rauschenberg, Johns, Haring, and Warhol.
 
step 9
Because Donatello, Caravaggio, Michelangelo and da Vinci are using time travel to visit the 20th century artists their heads were added to the bodies of the other artists.  Finally, I sprayed slide covers with a black gloss and attached the covers to the artists.
step 10


8 comments:

Roberta Warshaw said...

Oh I am amazed! SO the gel skins make a transfer? DO you still need that special laser ink to do it? That is my problem with image transfers. Having to find a laser printer with the special ink puts a damper on it for sure!

Seth said...

Thanks so much John for being a part of my book and lending your creativity to its pages. How cool to see the way in which this piece was made. Gel skin transfers?!?! Who knew? :-)

tgarrett said...

Congrats John- Also thanks for showing the steps- You try everything- I just love that about you.

Cate Rose said...

Thanks for posting your process! Wonderful work, and congratulations on being in Seth's book!

Robert said...

Saw your post on 'A Stand For Art Journaling' and came here to see your step-by-step sequence on this piece. Great job on this, John!

Irene Rafael said...

Congratulations John! Nice succinct tutorial. I will try it. I love rubbing the paper off the back of a skin

anonymous said...

Amazing that you end up with something that looks free and uncontrived!

Brian Kasstle said...

Congratulations John! You did amazing work for the book! So happy to be a part of it with you!