Gelli Arts Monoprinting: Making Masks Tutorial

Make Your Own Masks And Use Them To Create Unique Monoprints That Honor Your Own Personal Symbolism. 

Hello Beautiful Art Blog Visitors!!  
Welcome to the virtual home where I channel my wild light. I've been enjoying so many gelli plate monoprinting tutorials I've been finding on pinterest, lately. There are also great videos on youtube that have offered me a ton of inspiration over the years during my gelli arts experimentations and meditations. I wanted to share a little tutorial with images that share the process I've been exploring and enjoying, lately. 

This Is What You'll Need For The Process:

• A Gelli Arts Printing Plate, or A Home Made Gelatin Plate

• Plastic Index Dividers (for cutting mask shapes) 

• A Pair of Small Sharp Scissors. 

• Acrylic Paints - Folk Acrylics or Professional, I like a combo

• Acrylic Paint Markers - I like Posca

• Deli Paper

• A Brayer

• A Sense of Adventure

• Your Favorite Tunes

I've had a great time making my own masks.
One day, I started cutting out shapes from little plastic index separators with tiny fiskers, in a kind of creative stream of conscious cut-outs. And low and behold, a full bowl of Gelli plate masks appeared, right before my eyes, almost like magic. 

So Once You have Used Your Sharp Little Scissors To Cut Out All Kinds Of Mask Shapes, You Can Toss Them In a Bowl and Get Your Gelatin Plate of Choice Out for Monoprinting Fun!!!  I like to lay my Gelli Plates out on Plexiglass, So I can make prints on them or use them as large stamps.  Take a few colors of acrylic paint and dab here and there on your gelli plate. 

Then Use a Brayer to Roll the Paint all over Your Gelli Plate. After you roll the brayer, your gelli plate will look something like this (If You Use A Combo Of Blues & Purples): 

Now Take A Sheet Of Deli Paper and Press Your Deli Paper Down on The Gelli Plate, If You'd Like to Create A Solid Background Color. 

Now, take another color of acrylic paint that is either complimentary, or in contrast to the background you pulled on the deli paper. I'm choosing to use a complimentary color in this example. Roll this color of your choosing onto the gelli plate with your brayer and cover with several of your masks, to create an interesting design. 

Now You Can Pull A Print Over Your BackGround.  Alternatively, You Can Pull Your Print Onto A Clear Sheet of Deli Paper, If you'd rather have the affect of negative space that can later be filled in with watercolors, doodles, markers, etc. I enjoy experimenting with Gelli Arts Monoprints in all kinds of ways. 

Here is a Series that I Created Using This Masking Process, with the intention of creative negative space to later be filled in with watercolors and outlined with posca paint markers. For this series I used the 6x6 square Gelli Plate, and all the other supplies listed above. 

Happy Creating!!! 

 

Gelli Arts as a Creative Meditative Practice

I Heart Gelli Arts!  What a wonderfully addictive process that, for me, is also healing and grounding. There is something that happens, while pulling Gelli Plate mono-prints, that centers me.  Creating Monoprints is a Creative Meditative Practice.

Gelli Arts Mode: Beyond Time and Space

When I am Rocking, in my Gelli Arts Mode, I lose track of time and surroundings outside my art space. I gain some kind of deep time creative focus, where I learn many discoveries in a compressed amount of time. Experiential learning at it’s best and most playful!

Breathe Deeper

I find myself breathing deeper when I’m using the Gelli Plate. Gelli Arts help me to combat stress. All things mono-printing are soothing for me, and at the same time, very joyful creative practices.

Letting Go

There is something addictive about this process, perhaps because it is generally so satisfying to move into a space of trust and openness. It feels good, letting expectations for a specific outcome go.  A kind of magic in mono-printing with Gelli Plates seems to bring out my inner child artist - The one who is willing to play, to experiment, to let go and embrace the mystery.

Embracing the Beautiful Mystery

I never quite know what the outcome of a Gelli Plate Print will be, and I don’t need to have an agenda, or an intricate plan to create something that often reveals itself as so unique and surprisingly beautiful.

And isn’t that what is so amazing about life? Isn’t it all that unexpected and astounding beauty and surprise that awaits us?  There is the opportunity with the Gelli Plate to Let Go and Let Beauty Happen! Much of the time it is beyond our complete understanding - that mystery that pulls us into creating, allowing, letting go, learning and growing.

as we pull Gelli Plate prints, Beauty Emerges. As long as we appreciate it and allow ourselves to be touched by it - We Are Honoring Our Artistic Nature as A Mindful Practice. Via Art We can Be moved, and Propelled forward, towards more of the mystery and beauty that emerges when mono-printing! 

embracing the blessings of Gelli Arts - and it’s ability to be a Creative Meditative Practice - Can Offer Us Freedom, Creativity, And Beauty, Over And Over Again, With Every Monoprint we pull. Enjoy Meditative Playfulness! 

Share The REsults of Your Own Creative Meditative Practices In The Comments Section Below.