Hellllllllllllllllllllllllloooooooooo
A veryyy veryy late post.
Finally after doing numerous trials on Resin, I am, almost happy with my piece.
Here I have tried to mix a lot of different mediums like colour pencils on sketching paper, Quilling Outlines and finally Resin.
Although I must admit that I did require a lot of help from youtube on this occasion ... especially paperlace princess for her tips on shading with pencil colours. (Do look at her zentangle colouring for an easy to follow tutorial, of-course do it alongside so you can make adjustments and corrections to your own work, because there is nothing like self learning).
I cannot stress the point, that do a couple of practice trials before you can figure out the best way it works for you. I have used Staedler Colour Pencils ( Faber Castell I think would be a better option, but I didn't want to buy a new set of colour pencils), some local resin mixture, black Quillography strips from Art'zire & glitter from Colour Conceptions.
After making this I came to the following conclusions ( picture of a trial gone wrong in all possible ways, to highlight my points below.)
1. The need to be more careful about the kind of paper to use as the base for the drawing, or your resin will soak through giving your design a transparent look. So all that colouring that you have spent an hour doing, get's lost somewhere. The other option to give a protective coating on both the top and bottom of your painting with maybe varnish, or a transparent drying glue.( In the above picture there is clearer spot towards the centre.... that was the original paper colour) If you are using pigmented colouring techniques, like colour pencils, charcoal colours etc which can dislodge and form streaks as they come loose. It involves a two part process, varnish (preferably spray), the coloured area to prevent the colour pigments transfer while applying the layer of glue. The glue creates a film between the porous paper and the resin leaving your colours intact and original.
2. While Quilling outlines, perfection is everything. The strips should be able to act as walls to keep the resin within the design. If there is even a little crack, it's going to leak through on to the outside and spread, pretty much spoiling the effect you are aiming to get.
3. If you want to add a little something extra... say like glitter, mix it in the resin. If you put it on after you have poured the resin into your design it does not sink to the bottom, so you get an uneven surface and at times it will cover part of the design that you have worked so hard on. ( Part of my drawing above is hidden because I sprinkled glitter on the top)
4. Air bubbles is resin designs biggest enemy, it will make your design go blotchy and/ or uneven (above picture , the spot of clearer design that you can see is because of an air bubble that was caught under the paper while inserting it into the resin).
5. If you want a doming effect the key is layering the resin. In effect it means that you will need to work the resin in batches, atleast 3 hours apart. With paper, especially where you have non uniform shapes , mix in resin, let it cure for half an hour ( please decide what the right time is with trials, the outside temperature makes a lot of difference to the curing time)
6. Dust is hell on earth. Living in India , it can be anything from dirt particles, threads from clothes, residue particles from whatever craft you do on your table. Keep it covered! Make sure its not air tight or you will have condensation inside, which may fall into the resin ( if it forms a big enough droplet).
7. Any imperfections in drawing, leaving behind pencil marks that you have used as guidelines, settled dust particles, uneven grooves, WILL BE ENHANCED! The clear concave effect acts like a tiny lens where it zooms a little. So things you thought were insignificant once will definitely enlarge and become obvious. Sometimes if you are using a darker background ( for example black) all the little tiny air bubbles will cause disturbance in the otherwise plain black background.
8. Working with 3D surfaces lends itself to trapped air bubbles. Its not something you can get rid of 100% , but it makes it easier if you try and reduce the straight edges into sloping ones, using transparent drying glue. Basically you fill up the crevices that may cause these air spaces to be created within. Secondly pour the resin slowly, if required use the stirring ice cream sticks to apply resin.
I also did a series of free video tutorials along with Pritesh, from Art'zire, follow the link below for a live demonstration.
http://artzire.blogspot.in/2015/07/handling-casting-resin-series-of-free.html
Do leave me feedback... and if you try something similar, I hope, I have inspired you and helped you a little in the right direction and you will be kind enough to acknowledge my hard work.
~ Richa
A veryyy veryy late post.
Finally after doing numerous trials on Resin, I am, almost happy with my piece.
Here I have tried to mix a lot of different mediums like colour pencils on sketching paper, Quilling Outlines and finally Resin.
Although I must admit that I did require a lot of help from youtube on this occasion ... especially paperlace princess for her tips on shading with pencil colours. (Do look at her zentangle colouring for an easy to follow tutorial, of-course do it alongside so you can make adjustments and corrections to your own work, because there is nothing like self learning).
I cannot stress the point, that do a couple of practice trials before you can figure out the best way it works for you. I have used Staedler Colour Pencils ( Faber Castell I think would be a better option, but I didn't want to buy a new set of colour pencils), some local resin mixture, black Quillography strips from Art'zire & glitter from Colour Conceptions.
After making this I came to the following conclusions ( picture of a trial gone wrong in all possible ways, to highlight my points below.)
2. While Quilling outlines, perfection is everything. The strips should be able to act as walls to keep the resin within the design. If there is even a little crack, it's going to leak through on to the outside and spread, pretty much spoiling the effect you are aiming to get.
3. If you want to add a little something extra... say like glitter, mix it in the resin. If you put it on after you have poured the resin into your design it does not sink to the bottom, so you get an uneven surface and at times it will cover part of the design that you have worked so hard on. ( Part of my drawing above is hidden because I sprinkled glitter on the top)
4. Air bubbles is resin designs biggest enemy, it will make your design go blotchy and/ or uneven (above picture , the spot of clearer design that you can see is because of an air bubble that was caught under the paper while inserting it into the resin).
5. If you want a doming effect the key is layering the resin. In effect it means that you will need to work the resin in batches, atleast 3 hours apart. With paper, especially where you have non uniform shapes , mix in resin, let it cure for half an hour ( please decide what the right time is with trials, the outside temperature makes a lot of difference to the curing time)
6. Dust is hell on earth. Living in India , it can be anything from dirt particles, threads from clothes, residue particles from whatever craft you do on your table. Keep it covered! Make sure its not air tight or you will have condensation inside, which may fall into the resin ( if it forms a big enough droplet).
7. Any imperfections in drawing, leaving behind pencil marks that you have used as guidelines, settled dust particles, uneven grooves, WILL BE ENHANCED! The clear concave effect acts like a tiny lens where it zooms a little. So things you thought were insignificant once will definitely enlarge and become obvious. Sometimes if you are using a darker background ( for example black) all the little tiny air bubbles will cause disturbance in the otherwise plain black background.
8. Working with 3D surfaces lends itself to trapped air bubbles. Its not something you can get rid of 100% , but it makes it easier if you try and reduce the straight edges into sloping ones, using transparent drying glue. Basically you fill up the crevices that may cause these air spaces to be created within. Secondly pour the resin slowly, if required use the stirring ice cream sticks to apply resin.
I also did a series of free video tutorials along with Pritesh, from Art'zire, follow the link below for a live demonstration.
http://artzire.blogspot.in/2015/07/handling-casting-resin-series-of-free.html
Do leave me feedback... and if you try something similar, I hope, I have inspired you and helped you a little in the right direction and you will be kind enough to acknowledge my hard work.
~ Richa