Awesome NEW Gelli Arts® Printing Tools!!!

printingwithgelliarts

10 years ago

Sometimes bigger IS better! That’s exactly what we discovered
while developing our dream for the fabulous NEW Gelli^® combs! Watch this video
and see our Great Big Gelli^® Combs in action!

It’s a THRILL to introduce Gelli Art’s^® first mark-making tools! Our
goal has been to develop fun tools that enhance the Gelli Arts^® printing experience — and
we came up with these two sets of BIG combs. I love, love, LOVE them!!! All of
us at Gelli Arts^® do! And we know you’ll love using them as much as we do!

Each set contains three combs — each with a
different edge producing a different mark. They work beautifully together for
creating a huge range of striped patterns and swirly marks, depending how you
apply them. Lots of mark-making to explore!

One set has squared ‘teeth’.

The other set has rounded ‘teeth’.

Swiping a comb through paint is intuitive and easy — and
watching amazing patterns emerge is mesmerizing! There’s so much variation in
the patterns you can create with these large combs. Pulling combed prints is as
addictive as it gets — start combing patterns in the paint
and you’re in the flow! Such FUN! Just look at some of the possibilities!

To create a great print in one layer, try this:

Apply more than one color to your Gelli^® plate and roll into a smooth layer with a brayer.
Comb through paint in one direction.
Using a different comb — swipe in another direction. You’ll see the dimensional result, as one pattern appears on top of another. It’s fascinating!!

An easy way to create dynamic prints is to layer combed images.
It never fails! The trick is to create a contrast in color and value in the
layers. If you don’t love the image you have — once your print is
dry — print another combed layer over it. You can do this over and
over on the same print — with the creative use of opaque colors
or metallic paint — and end up with amazing, complex
images.

There’s usually enough wet paint left over on the plate, and you
may find you’ll have lots of second and even third pulls of combed prints. So
keep layering!! It’s so much fun to watch a print evolve this way from layers
and layers of ghost prints!

You’ll get beautiful color blends by applying several colors to
your Gelli^® plate and combing through them. Using analogous colors (next to each
other on the color wheel) helps keep your colors clean and avoids making muddy
mixtures. But there are NO RULES! Here’s an example of a multicolor print
created with complementary colors (opposites on the color wheel) — and
no mud 🙂 Just use a light touch and take care not to over-blend complementary
colors with your brayer.

All of the paint used in the video and in the prints shown here
are Liquitex^® Basic and Liquitex^® Professional Acrylic Color Soft Body. The colors
are vibrant and the paint viscosity is wonderful for combing. As a plus, you
can usually get a great ghost print (second pull) as well — and
sometimes a third!

After you’ve pulled two or three prints from the plate, there’s
often a thin layer of residual paint remaining on the plate. It’s too dry to
print at this point. But don’t clean your plate! The dry paint will come up in
the next combed print you pull! (I find this technique works best after the
third pull) Simply apply fresh paint right over the dried paint on your plate,
comb your design — and pull your print. Magical!

The ghost print after that first interesting print is often
another great print. The negative space is usually free of paint in this pull — creating
a great opportunity to work back into the negative space. For ideas on how to
do that — take a look at this older blog post!

If you’re wondering if a single color produces interesting
combed prints — the answer is YES! In fact, some of my favorite prints are
done using black paint, resulting in beautiful movement with a lovely tonal
range.

Aside from making amazing prints, these combs are sturdy and
flexible — optimized for working on a Gelli^® plate. They’re comfortable
to hold and use. And they’re so easy to clean!

While we designed the Gelli^® combs primarily for Gelli Arts^® printing,
you’ll find they’re perfect for any paint or medium application where you want to create
interesting patterns! So keep them handy while you prepare a surface with gesso
or molding paste — or for applying paint on your favorite
substrate. Instant texture and pattern!!

Here I’ve added some textured sand paste with a palette knife
and scraped texture into it with a Gelli^® comb!

Using combs is a subtractive process — and that means
you’re removing paint from the Gelli^® plate to create your image. That also
means you have a build-up of wet paint on your combs — so you’ll want to
have paper or other substrate handy for wiping off that paint and creating more
fabulous marks!

What a great way to start an abstract painting!! Be free and go
with the flow!

Eager to try our new Printing
Tools?

THIS GIVEAWAY IS NOW CLOSED!!!!

Winner is Lori W.

We have an AWESEOME GIVEAWAY!

One lucky winner will receive our prize kit including:

1 – 8″x10″ Gelli Arts^®Gel Printing Plate
1 – Set of Round Edge Gelli^® Printing Tools (3 combs)
1 – Set of Square Edge Gelli^® Printing Tools (3 combs)

1 – Liquitex^® Acrylic Painting Setincludes:

12 Tubes of Heavy Body Acrylic Artist Colors 0.75 oz.,
1 Tube Titanium White 2 fluid oz.,
1 Tube Gloss Gel Medium 2 fluid oz.,
1 Palette Knife & 2 Brushes!!

To enter the giveaway, click on the red “ENTER GIVEAWAY HERE” button below! (This will ensure that we can contact the winner and that entries are limited to one per person. One winner will be selected from all the entries via a random number generator to receive this very special giveaway!) Entries will be accepted until Tuesday, August 25th at noon EST. Our lucky winner will be contacted by email and announced here on the blog and on our Facebook page no later thanWednesday, August 26th at noon EST.

ENTER GIVEAWAY HERE!!