Tips for Raised Grunge Letters

I love grunge surfaces and wanted some less than perfect text for my painting. This was sanded but it could have also been scratched into or carved into. This is just a starting point for me on my painting.

SUPPLIES
Sandpaper
Stencil
Paint
Creative Paperclay®

I started by taping off an edge on my painting, laying down the clay then covering it with wax paper. The wax paper keeps the clay from coming off on my brayer. I then brayer the clay flat.

The next step is to remove the wax paper and lay a stencil down in its place. Brayer again then remove the stencil. I could have achieve a similar look by applying a thick clay slurry to the stencil but this is faster and cleaner.

Now we have raised letters. We have a lot of options when the clay is dry thoroughly. We can paint the clay and dry brush paint over it to highlight the letters, gold leaf the clay or?

I have painted it with a burnt umber paint then let it dry.

















Sanding it takes the raised letters back to it's base color. This is because the clay was not sealed with polymer medium and was just paint on the clay.

It was finished off with a glaze of Quinacridone Nickel Azo Gold and glazing medium plus a little salt sprinkled on salt. When the glaze dries the gritty surface is permanent.

Play, Experiment and Dream in Color.

Darlene Olivia McElroy