Introduction: Rorschach Painting
What might this be? .....Being a psychology grad student, my classmate asked me to create a Rorschach inspired painting for her. Check out how it was done.
- Template image
- Old picture frame
- old psychology book
- black acrylic paint
-acrylic paint extender
- dark tea (i.e.: black)
Step 1: Disassemble Your Frame
1. Take apart your picture frame. Each frame will be a little different, but don't destroy it. My friend had a large old picture frame, so i used that instead.
- If your frame is especially large, you can add support to the corner by purchasing some corner brackets at a hardware store like home depot.
2. Spray paint your picture frame whatever color you'd like. She wanted a gold picture frame to match her living room.
3. Inside the picture frame should be some type of paper.. if it isnt sturdy, consider using poster board. I used white paint and painted over the original poster in there.
- You will be using this paper as something to glue the pages onto. I did not want anything to show through, so hence the white paint.
Step 2: Book Pages
1. Using your exacto knife, carefully cut out the pages from your psychology book. I went to a thrift store and found an old psychology book from the 1950s. Got it for $1! (pic 1)
- I picked pages that had interesting images, graphs, notes, or words
2. From there, take a large pan and add your dark tea to it. I used maybe 4-6 teabags? . Let your pages soak in the tea for about 10 minutes. (pic 2)
3. set your oven on to a very low temperature.. you will lay your pages out on a cookie sheet and bake each side for maybe 5 minutes. You are just drying them out, not burning them.
4. put your pages within a heavy book to keep them straight.
5. Once dry, take your modge podge and glue the dry stained pages onto that paper from the previous step. (pic 3)
Step 3: Painting Image
1. take your wax paper and cut it into the size from your picture frame. If you picture frame is large, then tape the wax paper together in horizontal sheets.
2. Take your black paint and add your extender to it. it is about a 1:1 ratio.. the Extender allows the paint to stay wet for a little longer, so that it won't dry while you are working on your project.
3. take your image and bend it in half. Since a rorschach is a mirror image, you only need to work with one side. (pic 1)
4. take a pencil and draw a rough outline of where you want to paint.
5. Fold the wax paper in half down the middle.
6. Re-open the wax paper and paint your image on only 1 side (pic 2)
- I suggest doing a few practice runs on a smaller level to see what you are working with
- Apply a generous amount of paint
- work quickly, as the extender seems to only give you a few more extra minutes on the wax paper
- It is okay to splatter paint around. it does not have to be neat.
- If you want, you can add more colors on top of the black paint.
7. Fold the wax paper on itself and press down. You can try to move the paint around while the wax paper is folded (pic 3)
8. Open it and you should have a mirror image. (pic 4)
Step 4: Transferring Image + Reassembly
1. You will leave the painted wax paper on the floor\
2. Take your psychology book background and press it onto the wet-paint wax paper
3. press down on entire paper so as much paint transfers over
4. Peel the wax paper off the image
5. You will notice that not all the paint transferred over and there are large areas with no paint. This is where you take your paint brush and fill in anything you want. The wax paper acted like a guide.
- do not feel as though you have to fill in the entire image. Some gaps add more personality to it.
6. If you are using a small picture, you can repaint the wax paper and press it again onto the image. Be warned though that it can be difficult to re-line it up correctly
7. If you are using a large image, you can cut up the painted wax paper and repaint that section. replace it back onto your rorschach image. It may be helpful to have an extra pair of hands here.
1. Once dry, you can reassemble the frame and place your rorschach into the frame. You should be done at this point! Enjoy!