Blueprint: More CitraSolv Backgrounds

I have been busy making more backgrounds from the CitraSolv technique that I mentioned in my last post. I think I love this latest batch even more than the first! I want to use some of these in my art journals as backgrounds and also experiment with using some of them in mixed media.

What I love to do first is scan my favorite pages into Photoshop to have a "clean" version always available. Then I can either print it out or add to it digitally. The piece above started out with this CitraSolv background:

This photo doesn't do it justice. The colors are much richer and it just looks so full of texture. I think this is my favorite one of all, so far. I added a lot of layers, brushes, images, etc. to get the finished piece but I love that I have this one saved in my archive.

Here are a few of my other favorites from this batch:

And there's usually a surprise or two that surfaces when I'm working with this technique. While I am coating the pages with the CitraSolv, every once in a while I'll come across a page that just has text on it. I usually don't bother to put any of the solvent on that page since there is no color present to blend. What I will usually do is just coat the page opposite the text page and see how that one blends. That's what I did in this instance. I thought the colors around the man would blend into a beautiful background.

I was working pretty quickly and evidently I didn't saturate the page. Much to my delight when I went to remove the pages, this happened:

The photo of the man transferred to the opposite page! How cool is that? And the fact that one eye was left with a blank circle...this all happened by chance! What are the odds of having an inkblot form and cover just the one eye so perfectly! Kind of spooky if you think about it. I couldn't have planned it better if I thought of this myself. I was just wanting the colors to all bleed together...wasn't even thinking about the man. That's what is so fun about this technique. There are so many little "accidents" or things that you discover as you go along. I will definitely be using this guy in more of my art!

And speaking of surprises, after I posted my last entry I heard from the folks at CitraSolv. What a wonderful group of people they are! They were so kind in commenting on my post and I was excited to learn of their website where they post the artists' results using their product!

Check out all of the info they have posted about different ways to use CitraSolv in your art. But the biggest surprise of all was this package that arrived in the mail a few days later. Notice that they also included a few National Geographic magazines, as well:

Thanks again to Melissa and the gang at CitraSolv. I will definitely put these products to good use! Now I don't even mind doing a little cleaning here and there...this stuff smells heavenly! ;)

Dropping In

I had every intention of working on my current project when I started out the day. But I happened to browse through the current copy of Cloth, Paper, Scissors magazine and ended up taking a slight detour. There is a little workshop in there about the CitraSolv technique. I've read about this technique before and have seen the gorgeous results. But this time it really got my attention. So I headed out in search of CitraSolv (found at local health food store) and a National Geographic magazine (had to buy one; couldn't find any at the local thrift stores).

The photo at the top of this post uses one of my favorite backgrounds that I achieved with this technique. The digital characters are provided by Granny Art. While I was doing some digital work, I tried a short tutorial on "zipping" a photo:

Back to the CitraSolv papers. I scanned in all of my results. Here I've included a few of my favorites. This one, by far, is my favorite one of all. I've not only used it in these digital pieces but I've printed it out onto a sheet of silk. Gorgeous!

Here are a few more with lots of possibilities:

The hardest part about the technique is finding the materials! I did manage to find CitraSolv pretty easily once I located a health food store. None of the area groceries carried it. I tried this technique Thursday and today (Sunday) the house still has a faint smell of oranges. The CitraSolv is concentrated and you don't dilute it for the technique so you will have a very strong orange smell in your space for a few days.

Now I'm on the hunt for some used National Geographic magazines. I tried this with a few of my fashion mags but with no luck. There must be something specific in these pages that reacts with the solvent. I definitely want to build up a little stash of these for collages, painting, etc.

Now, back to my original project! I am beginning to see why finishing some things is very hard for me: need to stay focused on the task at hand!