Stencil Crazy

"Mother Earth Tile"
MaryBeth Shaw "Tile" stencil from the Stencil Club, Balzer Design Stencil.
Watercolor with Gelly Roll pen accents.

"Orange"
Just A Trace stencil "Garbo" stencil.  Watercolor, Derwent Watercolor Pencil,  Sharpie pen.

Detail, 3 Peppers with Stencil

3 Peppers with "Stencil"
I used the cardboard waste from punch out letters as a stencil in this one.
I've used this window-like "stencil" again and again.

Orchid with Stencil
This is a blind contour drawing with stenciled elements  and additional lines added.
Koi watercolors.

I've always loved the rich patterns often found in paintings by Matisse and now I have a not so secret
secret about how to create that effect in my work with fewer tears.  Stencils!!  

This is how it happened.  Element 1: Libby Unwin from Just a Trace was a guest speaker at the first
meeting of my Visual Journaling Group, Colorado (see meetup and facebook)at the Super Good ArtStuff 
art supply store in Denver, Colorado, in the Tennyson Cultural District.  She brought stencils
for us and we used spray ink to create journal pages.  Fun!

Element 2:  I started an online class with one of my favorite artists Jane LaFazio: "Sketching and
Watercolor, Journal Style".  I love Jane's journals and so great to learn some of her techniques.  I'm

working on emulating her way of keeping her whites and sparkle, working quickly and not overworking.

Element 3: I joined Marybeth Shaw's Stencil Club and joined her related facebook page. This means that
I get a packet of three or four stencils each month (large, medium, small, smaller) and have access to

a related video with techniques for using the stencils.  The facebook group is great too--very inspiring to

see how creative others use materials.

So Jane's course assignments ended up with stenciled backgrounds and I'm crazy about the effect.

How I did it:

1. Draw your still life in pencil
2. Ink with a permanent marker
3. Erase pencil lines
4. Draw a square or rectangle around the drawing
5. Lay down stencil and use pencil to draw in a patterned background
6. Watercolor the whole thing

Looking forward to making some paintings in acrylic and getting my Matisse on!