Art Journal
Art Journal Page: Be A Rainbow

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Rainbow

I guess you may be noticing by now there’s a common thread for my recent art journal pages… I’m using supplies provided by Judith at Woodware for my art journaling shows on Hochanda. She asked to borrow the journal for a Retailers’ Training Event at the beginning of July, and I’m determined to finish off all 21 double spreads to demonstrate the versatility of the media, particularly the Royal Talens Amsterdam paints. This layout exemplifies the vividness of the colours available in the 24 pack.

Used in this layout:

  • Frisk LayFlat Sketch Pad (small)
  • Royal Talens Amsterdam Standard acrylic paints (24 pack)
  • Royal Talens Amsterdam Gesso: Black and White
  • Sakura Permapaque Marker: Black (Basic set)
  • Posca Markers (1M)

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Art Journal
Art Journal Page: Retro

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Retro

I started this page with no real idea of where it was going to end up – scraping the paint on with an old gift card was the start of the background, before I added the retro oblongs using one of the same colours. The rest built up from there using the stamp set as inspiration.

Used on this page:

  • Frisk LayFlat Sketch Pad (small)
  • Royal Talens Amsterdam Standard acrylic paints (24 pack)
  • Woodware clear stamp set: Retro
  • Woodware Mask-It sheet
  • Royal Talens Amsterdam Gesso: White
  • Ranger Stickles: Stardust
  • Uniball Signo Broad: White

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Art Journal
Art Journal Page: Try Something New

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New

I love the translucency of a thin coat of gesso – pop that over a pointillistic background and I can almost imagine it’s a frosted glass panel. Reversing the stencil  direction and moving it into the spaces of the previous colour developed the pattern over a sprayed page. I sealed the Distress Sprays with the solvent based spray varnish – it doesn’t move the water-reactive inks and stabilises them enough to work over them with waterbased media.

For this layout:

  • Frisk LayFlat Sketch Pad (small)
  • Ranger/Tim Holtz Distress Sprays
  • DecoArt Americana Sealer/Finisher Spray: Matte
  • Royal Talens Amsterdam Standard acrylic paints (24 pack)
  • Dutch Doobadoo Stencil: Faded Dots
  • Royal Talens Amsterdam Gesso: White
  • Woodware Mask-It sheet

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Art Journal
Art Journal Page: A Rose By Any Other Name

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Rose

I’m still trying to master the one-stroke folk art style roses. This was another practice page… and I did some brush-stroked text too.

For this layout:

  • Frisk LayFlat Sketch Pad (small)
  • Royal Talens Amsterdam Standard acrylic paints (24 pack)
  • Sakura Permapaque Markers (Basic)

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Art Journal
Art Journal Page: Be The Beacon

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Beacon 1

It’s been a busy week in The Studio supervising Harry whilst he was here on work experience – a really worthwhile experience for both of us. I started this page last weekend, and finally finished it this morning. Interesting timing given the ructions going on in this minuscule corner of the world since Thursday’s vote…

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3D Projects
Work Experience: Wedding Favours

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IMG_7228Hi, my name is Harry and I am finishing a week’s work experience at Neil’s Studio. My commission was to design, make and blog 100 wedding favours. The wedding theme was liquorice allsorts. These favours are going to be collected by my client this afternoon and then used at her wedding in the summer. I was told to narrow down 10-15 initial ideas to three and then prototype and present them to my client on Tuesday evening. She chose her preferred favour and then was to return to the Studio in three days time to collect them. During that time, I had to make all hundred and blog about them.

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Other Art Pieces/Techniques
Summer of Creative Chemistry: Week 2

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I’ve snatched some ‘me’ time in the studio today and revisited some of the lessons on distress stains and markers from Creative Chemistry 101 – a staggering four years ago! It’s part of the Summer of Creative Chemistry from onlinecardclasses.com, in the lead up to the brand new Creative Chemistry 103 from Tim Holtz. These are three tags created for Week 2.

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Art Journal
Art Journal Pages: Colour Or Black and White?

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I’m busy prepping for my next shows on Hochanda, which will be introducing art journaling, on 16th June. I’ve already shown you the test pages in the journals that will be available, but here are two sneaky peek pages featuring products available to buy during the shows. There will be more sneaky peeks on Hochanda’s social media feeds during the coming week.

IMG_7216IMG_7215

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Arts in Worship
Arts in Worship: Sursum Corda

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image

Today, I went on retreat to Launde Abbey – a space to reflect, be out of contact with the outside world and to re-establish communication with God. The theme for the days reflection centred around Martha preparing the meal for Jesus, and the story of Brother Lawrence finding ways to worship God as he washed dishes for his entire monastic life. I took my iPad, so I could respond in creative worship, and as I reflected on things happening in my life at the moment, I drew on this quote from Brother Lawrence:

Lift your heart to Him during your meals and in company, the least little remembrance will always be most pleasing to Him.

And from this quote from Edmund Morgan, a Welsh Anglican bishop:

… to overcome the temptation to love the praise of men more than the glory of God, your life must be a continual sursum corda; you must ever be groping, fighting, leaping Godwards…

‘Lift up your hearts’ – Latin: sursum corda – is the opening dialogue to the Preface of the Eucharistic Prayer. Rarely featured in Baptist tradition, it was a perfect illustration of what I took away with me from the retreat.

[created in Procreate and Inkpad Pro apps on iPad Pro with Apple Pencil]

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