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Saturday, January 29, 2011

Citrasolv Fixation ~ Affixation


I became aware of National Geographic's image manipulation with Citrasolv last year. I had about a half a bottle that I had purchased several years ago. Remembering that it was difficult to find and that it was expensive, I sparingly painted a few of the pages. Nothing happened! After several tries I gave up and forgot about doing it. A friend of mine emailed me that she was hooked into creating Citrasolv pages for her collages. When I saw her wonderful collages I knew I had to try to master this technique. I went to the Citrasolv site and found some technique videos. One of the videos is by mixed media artist, Gary Reef. Gary has a great Ning site, Loving Mixed Media and I've been a member for a few years. Gary made me aware of what I was doing wrong. I wasn't saturating the page with enough Citrasolv. Too bad I didn't heed his warning about doing this outside. I love the orange smell of the product and thought it would be a great way to freshen my studio. It did that and more, it went through my return air ducts and took over my house! I woke up with a sore throat and my son had nightmares all night. My other warning is when you pull the saturated pages apart and see the results you become addicted! It is the most magical thing I have done in a long time.

Gary points out that if you are going to use these as a final piece of art, avoid using any with recognizable images as they are copyrighted. I have no idea how much of any image or type you can use, but I haven't heard of any law suits resulting from the thousands of pages all the artists have used doing this or other collages. I plan to use mine in my journals and as inspiration for paintings so I'm not concerned. Try it (outside) and you'll be hooked too. If you can't find it locally you can purchase it at Amazon.

13 comments:

  1. Wow, I never heard of this technique! Very cool.

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  2. Beautiful! I've seen other artists use it, but I haven't. I already have so many ongoing addictions and my time is limited.

    I can see how this technique for you Eva will be very inspirational. They will make gorgeous journal pages!

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  3. Thank you Pamo. I understand about not wanting to start something new. It took me awhile to try it the first time for the same reason and didn't want to deal with the mess. It may be awhile before I do it again. I'll wait for warmer weather.

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  4. Eva, I first saw these works and thought they were encaustic paintings. Collage elements are often used by encaustic artists and I have been told deconstructing images from someone else and re-assembling in a new way is what avoids any copyright disputes. I don't know the legal details but I have only been using my own photographs in my image transfers to be safe about it. Your technique is stunning and if you did large scale work it would be breathtaking!

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  5. These pieces are stunning. Just your style of art. Hope to see more.
    Jean

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  6. Hi Robin, yes, I have heard of artists that have used Citrasolv transfers in encaustic.I have the wax, but I still haven't given it a try. I appreciate your comments.

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  7. Jean you are so nice to say that, but honestly I didn't do anything, but pour Citrasolv on the pages.The only art part was me selecting them :O)

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  8. Thanks. I had never heard of Citrasolv; just what I need--something dangerous. I once filled my house with fumes while pouring resin. I denied doing anything the following morning.

    Beautiful pages.

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  9. It's a non toxic orange cleaning solvent, that wasn't intended to be used in it's concentrated form. Too much of a good thing I guess can be harmful!I don't know how much I'll play with it as everyone is doing it now and it can be gimmicky.

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  10. Hi Eva
    I have heard of Citrasolv and love the effect that you're getting, as you say, techniques can get gimmicky...but, that said, your pages are very beautiful and it will be fun to see what they evolve into.

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  11. Thank you, I been playing with them in Photoshop in my PJ's and robe. Can't wait to get over this cold so I can get to my studio.

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  12. ooo, they look gorgeous. I have a barely started bottle of citra-solve bought for an image transfer class. It is amazing for image transfers but I've never used it in this way. Gotta give this a try. Yeah that smell can be pretty overpowering!

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  13. Thank you. Try it, but fair warning you'll get hooked!:O)

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