Thursday, January 10, 2013

El Mustacho :{)


This Christmas I decided to paint my sister something instead of going out and buying something. I looked around on her pinboards on Pinterest and she has a whole board dedicated to mustaches. Then I saw a pin that said "I mustache you a question" and I was inspired. This was my first hand lettering project and I must say I am pretty happy with it.  I have to say, my sister was ecstatic when she got it.

Process:

I first drew it on to a masonite board with gesso and scanned it into the computer. (I didn't like the way it turned out so I decided to try a different method rather than drawing and painting.)


I did a rough trace in Illustrator because I was going to be painting over it anyway and then printed it mirror image.

I then layered more gesso onto a masonite board and laid the print out on the board so the ink would transfer. Once the ink was transfered I scrubbed off the paper and then painted over the image.

The reason why I painted rather than make a print from Illustrator, was to practice my craftsmanship and mainly because I love the texture paint has and the character it adds to the piece.


2 comments:

Sarah said...

Just browsing your blog and saw this... I'd like more detais of this process! Specifically how you transferred the reflected image onto the gesso... I think I kinda get it but would like details so I can do it successfully myself. Is there some online tutorial you followed or something?

Katie Bevan said...

Hey Sarah!
I learned the ink transfer trick from my husband. What you do is make your image you want to create mirror image of what you want the final to look like. You print out the image and prep your board with gesso, a smooth coat so the image won't get distorted. You carefully place the image ink face down onto the gesso and let it dry (I let mine dry over night). To make sure it is dry you touch the paper to make sure it is not cold. I took a damp sponge with the rough side and lightly scrubbed the paper off. If you scrub too hard the ink will lift as well. Once all the paper is off, you have a transfered image! This has made my process go so much quicker than drawing out the image again. Good Luck!