THE AMAZINGLY VERSATILE TYVEK!

TYVEK STENCIL

I discovered through some meanderings on the web, that TYVEK is a good stencil material.  The timing was perfect for my next painting.  I have been struggling with creating a portrait with just a few simple shapes, so I created a NOTAN (black/white) image from a photograph I took with my iPad by running it through a filter in Photoshop Elements.  It is important that the shapes be interesting.  Since I was going to create a stencil, either the positive or the negative needed to be linked so the piece would hold together.  Most stencil material is not very large, so this was an exciting discovery.  I created a simple grid so I could enlarge the image and drew it with a watercolor crayon.  I could easily make changes and corrections by wetting and rubbing out the mistake.  I used a Darice Ultimate Crafting Tool that has 8 metal tips, one of which is for stencil cutting and has a very fine point with a bent tip making it very easy to see what you are doing.  I had a heat proof sheet underneath the TYVEK to protect the support surface.  It was like cutting butter with a hot knife!  If you want to make smaller stencils, you can get free TYVEK envelopes at the Post Office.

GESSO SCRAPED THROUGH THE TYVEK STENCIL

The next step was to scrape gesso through the stencil which had been placed over a failed painting I had worked on YUPO.  I used a lace doily to texture the gesso.  When the gesso had totally dried, I started painting with Dr. Ph Martin's Spectralite Acrylics.  

                                       

At this stage I discovered the shadow side of the head was not quite right but not much could be done about that!  Working on YUPO created some interesting challenges and effects.  Here is the final result.  I may tweak it a little more tomorrow, but basically, I am ready for the next challenge.

TYVEK PORTRAIT FINISHED!