Transforming Backgrounds

I do a LOT of gel plate printing and as a result have a ton of sheets that I roll off excess paint on — I call these “brayer sheets.” I also have many prints that are, honestly, just “meh” but I never have the heart toss them. Maybe I’m just a hoarder.

Anyway, I keep all my brayer sheets from my gel plate printing sessions and random “test prints” as well as discards bound in this journal. From time to time, when I’m in between projects or just procrastinating, I’ll doodle in this. There’s no agenda or particular style, as usual, but just a desire to play and see what happens.

Exercises like these, on a whim, are important to me because there is no burden to create something “worthy.” It’s all discarded paper anyway. It helps give myself permission to create “whatever.”

I usually don’t record these sessions because they’re never done with the intent to share but I wanted to record this one so I could show you just how ok it is to play, to change your mind over and over and to keep going even when, at several points, it seems like you could stop.

I hope you enjoy this hyperlapsed video and it will encourage you to take out a scrap piece of paper and create something — anything — just so you can enjoy the process regardless of the outcome.

Supplies used:

• Gelli Arts Gel Plate
• Copy paper
• Liquitex Acrylic Paints
• Eyelash Yarn
• Folk Art Color Shift Paints
• Speedball Soft Brayer
• Distress Crayons
• Stabilo Woody Pencils
• Pan Pastels
• Jane Davenport Birthday Suit Pastels Set
• Jane Davenport Chilled Palette Pastels Set
• Jane Davenport Lit Up Pastels Set
• Caran D’Ache Classic Neocolor II Water-Soluble Pastels
• Baton Blenders
• Discs for Binding
• Desktop Arc Paper Punch
• Black Sharpie
• White Gel Pen
• FineLine Applicators