Blogging A to Z: G is for...

April is here!! It's time for daily blogging, lots of visitors and meeting new friends.  In other words, time for the Blogging A to Z challenge hosted by Arlee Bird and his team of minions.  Thousands of other bloggers from all over the world participate in this blog hop each year, and anyone may join in as long as they blog each day during the month of April, (except Sundays) the blog posts correspond to the appropriate letter for that day, and they sign up on the link list. Simple!

Goodness!  There are so many options for a post today, I got a little giddy!

Gesso is the base coat on most mixed media art pieces as it gives "tooth" to media added to it.  Gesso comes in a variety of types, the ones I am most familiar with are regular white gesso, clear gesso, and super heavy gesso.  Some mixed media artists don't even bother to use white paint, they just use gesso instead. It is great for blocking out things you want to cover up, and if you apply it thick enough or use super heavy gesso, you can also use it to create texture on your paper or canvas.  I use clear gesso between coats of media that tends to reactivate when wet, such as Dylusions spray inks or watercolor. It is pretty gritty, though, so if you use it you may want to take some tack cloth or super fine sand paper and knock off the grit.

Glitter: Usually thought of as a craft supply, glitter can be really fun to add to art projects.

Glass Bead Gel:  One of my favorite texture mediums is glass bead gel.  It is a clear gloss gel with tiny glass beads in it that dries clear. I like to press it through a stencil to get defined edges, or smear it over the surface of an area to add interest.  You can paint over it if you like, but I find that adding color beneath gives the glass beads more of a chance to shine.

Glaze medium: This is mixed in with acrylic paint to thin it somewhat and give hints of the color without overpowering the piece.  I usually mix it 50/50 on a palette, paint it on, wait a minute, then use a baby wipe to wipe it off.  If you take off too much, you can repeat the process until you achieve the color saturation you like.  You may have used it to paint with a rag -- it has come and gone in popularity among home decorators.

Gelli-prints:  By far my favorite G word is gelli=printing.  This is also known as mono-printing, but it is done on a gelatin based "plate."  A few years ago, an artist created a permanent gelli=plate and sells it under the trade name of Gelli-Arts.  Artists and non-artists alike have a ball playing with this tool!  Squeeze a little paint on, roll a brayer over it, put down some texture using just about anything you can think of, and pull a print using any form of paper you like.  The prints are always unique and unpredictable, which is probably why I like them so well!  I don't have to take responsibility for the outcome if I have no idea what it will be. My favorite prints are those that have many layers. Here are a few of my prints.

Here I used the prints to make some envelopes. 

Thanks for stopping by today!  I hope you were inspired or learned something new. I'd love to hear from you if you would like to leave a comment.