Using Oil Pastels as a Resist on a Gel Plate

Oil pastels and some other crayons and media can be used as a resist to transfer the outline of an image to the gel plate and then to fabric/paper. Draw or trace the image onto copy paper. Remember your final print will be a mirror image. If using text you will need to write it back to front. Use any coloured pastel and make the lines reasonably thick. I tend to use black as it is easy to see on the plate. In this exercise, the lines will be transferred onto the gel plate ready to “pull” as an outline or to colour with other acrylic mediums

Ink up the gel plate in the normal way and then lay the copy paper image face down on the plate. Wait a few minutes and check to see if the image is appearing on the plate. When you pull up the copy paper, the acrylic ink will have transferred to the paper and the oil pastel (resist) will remain on the plate, as in the left hand photo above. The mottling you can see is my drop cloth underneath the gel plate. If you want just an outline you can pull this image off the plate by adding acrylic paint (for a coloured background or gel medium for a clear back ground) to the gel plate in the normal manner.

The second alternative is to paint or colour the image on the gel plate as I have done in the right hand photograph above.. You can mix colours on the plate but it you want to add details such as the line on the leaves and petals, you will need to wait till the under layer of acrylic is dry. Once it is dry you can pull the print off the plate using either acrylic paint or gel medium. Remember if transferring to fabric the bonding process will take longer than if transferring to paper