My oldest technique: corner-corner-side

For me, this technique was a crucial 'a-ha' moment. About 15 years ago the concept of 'direct-to-paper' or DTP as we would refer to it in our yahoo groups back then was all the rage with Cats Eyes pigment ink pads (colour box) where the shape was specifically suited for DTP, and I also loved using the gorgeous VersaMagic ink (Tsukineko). Those colours were (and still are) so soft and chalky, and if you dried between layers you could put the lighter shades on top of the darker ones to soften back, or even successfully stamp the white on top of dark blues. Then we would stamp our preferred images in Brilliance Black, which was juicy, black, and dark, and easy to emboss in clear powder. Or background stamps in other lighter shades. he effect was very similar to this below, however, the piece below is done with Fresco Finish Acrylic Paints.

For DTP, we would apply the ink directly to you paper using the ink pad itself as the applicator, and because they were pigment inks, and wetter/thicker than dye inks they would blend beautifully, apply easily, and of course there was no mess. We did do try to do this with Adirondack ink (Ranger Industries), but dye inks, as you know have a firmer felt pad rather than the sponge of pigment ink pads, and so the dyes tend to suck onto the paper in one spot and are not as easy to blend, so to get the ink onto the paper more effectively, and softly for backgrounds, our preference was to use mens shaving brushes, or various thickness of stipple brushes to apply dye inks. These are the days of the Grid Technique, Masking stamped images, plenty of embossing powder, and who can forget the star books that kind of popped out and you could hang like a Christmas decoration.

Of course this all happened in the years before Distress Inks and Ink Applicator tools were invented! LOL Hard to imagine now isn't it! We did fabulous watercolour techniques with Adirondack dye inks, as they are non-permanent, I really think that colour palette has stood the test of time. I must have bought my first Lettuce and Cranberry ink pads about 19 years ago, and they are still reinked regularly, and still going strong.

So the challenge with all these inks was how to get the ink onto the paper backgrounds, and have a variety of blended colours across the entire piece. And, if possible, layers. And thus, about 11 years ago from my very own head was born the concept of 'corner-corner-side'.....11 years ago. Hmmmmmm....So it must have taken me at least 8 years to figure it out then? LOL

It's pretty simple, all you need is 2 groups of contrasting colours, eg blues/greens and a light, medium and dark of each group. You apply the lightest shade to 2 corners and the opposite side (centre) of your substrate. Then in the contrasting shade fill the 3 gaps, which should be the remaining corner, corner and opposite side. Now start building depth using the darker shades, and try to blend the different zones into each other so they don't look like separate blocks of colour. You can use background stamps as 'bridges' between the colours, for example, stamp a script in green over the blue zone, and postmarks in blue over the green zone.

So the natural progression was to also do this technique with distress inks, you can get some great effects when you apply, then knock back the concentrated ink with a baby wipe.

I also have done this for many years with acrylic paints, which I do find, are much easier than inks to get the zones to blend. Remember, the light shades like Vintage Lace and Snowflake, Moonlight, Ice Blue, Sherbet, Honey Dew are your blending friends!

So take a look at this video, and maybe 'corner, corner, side', even though it's quite an analytical and structured process, will help you achieve totally random, blended backgrounds. I hope you enjoy it!

 

Leandra

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