Friday 14 December 2012

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

16 comments:

Helen said...

I have to say having these videos to watch early in the morning before work in the office, is really brilliant! This one was a beauty too.

Trish said...

WOW! What can I say? Amazing Leandra - thank you! Having been to a few of your classes, I know your corner-corner-side technique (and I use it), but to be able to watch the whole process really helps. I need lots of practice with blending (and layering), and as I haven't tried it with paint much I am looking forward to lots of painty practice this weekend!
Thank again, I really appreciate these videos, they help so much!

Anonymous said...

Wow just loving youre videotutorial! Thanks for the great ideer, wat a lovely background.
I am gone try it ...

warm regards
Anna Lemsma

Julie S said...

I have really appreciated your instructional videos lately. Being a wanna-be-artsy, untrained person they are tremendously helpful. Thank you!

Inkypinkycraft said...

great colours and fab videos..hope sant is bringing me some treasure gold!!! trace x

Jassy said...

This is a fab video, extremely educational and worth its weight in gold. It has to be my number one craft video of 2012! Thank you Leandra xx

froebelsternchen said...

Thank you..this is great!

Ellie Knol said...

Fabulous !! I really have to get some of these paints, it looks so artsy! I assume these paints are more chalky than the normal acrylic paints?

Craftyfield said...

I have been watching your latest videos and enjoyed them thoroughly ! Love learning about new techniques and new products and seeing other crafters' ways of working... so many, many thanks for taking the time to produce the videos.

Mieke said...

Love it, Thanks!!

Carol said...

Thank you so much for such a great video. The tips and techniques will be invaluable and can't wait totry this. Very clear and easy to view and understand.
Carol x
ps thanks for the christmas e mail have tried to use your link from it to join your you tube but the link doesn't seem to work, nor your blog one on that mail, perhaps it's just a glitch, will try another few times xx

SamsHomeCookedDesigns.com said...

Thanks for a great video, I love watching you at work. I have used a similar technique for ink blending but didn't think to use it with paints. So off I go to try it out. Sam

Linda said...

This is such a fun technique. Thanks for sharing-I had to subscribe to the video link...:)

sandra de said...

Great technique ...and really appreciate your sharing how you achieved such an integrated look.

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Scrapmate said...

Thanks for sharing this technique with us. I find it really hard to do 'random' and this video has helped a lot by analysing the technique and breaking it down into smaller steps.