Friday 5 November 2010

How To Blend With A Brayer .... Part Two



Pic 1
All ready to go now? Wrists all relaxed  and floppy? Okay, lets roll.

As you can see from Pic1. Adirondack ink pads have an easy peel label on the back that gives you  advice regarding colour combination's to use for a 'tone on tone' look. I find this useful and I am going for the Willow,Citrus and Lettuce option with Pitch Black to shade the edges.

Pic 2
Pic 2 shows all the 'kit' for today and I remembered to lay my brayer on it's plastic frame not on the rubber roller!
I have cut a DL strip from my Lavinia Smooth Matt card stock and placed it on a pile of cheap copy paper. Next to this is another stack of cheap copy paper that I will use to take off the excess ink from my brayer.

Pic 3
Load your brayer with the lightest shade of  ink making sure it has even coverage right across the roller with NO gaps. (See Pic 3) Uneven coverage leads to lines and 'messy' blending
Flick your brayer three or four times over the cheap copy paper to take off most of the ink.

Pic 4. cheap copy paper on right!
All the time you are using your brayer, to take off ink, or to blend on your card stock use a QUICK FLICKING movement and be gentle!
Also, it is vital for the blending process that you just 'kiss' your card stock with the brayer. If you press too heavily your brayer will 'bite back' and give you unsightly lines...not nice!
After removing most of the ink go to your card stock (which is placed in a vertical position) and starting 'off  the page' from the copy paper, go across your work from left to right using the light flicking movements.
You should hardly see any colour!
Ink up the brayer and take off the excess ink and do the same again......repeat this over and over until you are happy with the depth of colour of your background. Pic 4 shows the pale background and how much ink is on the cheap copy paper.
Change ink pads to the next shade up and with fresh copy paper in place, ink up just half of the roller (see pic 5) Take off the excess ink by rolling across your copy paper FOUR or FIVE times. Yeah I know it's a lot but trust me I'm a card maker! You will get lines if you rush this or leave too much ink on!

Still keeping to the same 'light touch flicking method ' Brayer across three quarters of  the card.
REMEMBER to keep an eye on your copy paper as you must not allow any ink from this paper to taint the clean area of your brayer.
Picture 5

Repeat over as before until you are happy with the blending and depth of colour.

As long as you are gentle you should not get any lines as you 'blend' into the lighter section.
If you do, then don't panic, ink the roller again and take off the excess, brayer again going from left to right   until it smooths out! If you are left handed do you go from right to left.

Always, always, brayer from the beginning of your work each time. The very edge... 'off the page' and go from left to right. Please do not start from  'where you left off' or the middle. I hope that makes sense!
Repeat all of  the above using  your final darker shade.Take your time it's worth it.Once you have got the 'knack' you can blend colours very quickly. Are you asleep yet?
Part three tomorrow !
Eileen x