Art Journal Page: 2016?

Posted on 5th January 2019 by perfectly4med

On Monday night I have my art journal session in The Studio, and we’re using the prompt ‘New Year’. This layout developed from a teaching session I did with a new Studio guest a few weeks ago, showing the difference and similarities between Distress Oxides (left-hand side) and Distress Inks (t’other side). A quick layer of acrylic paint forms the background to the white text. The purple text is a combination of stamped and handwritten, using Distress Oxides and Posca pen respectively.

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Bible Journaling: Old & New

Posted on 4th November 2018 by perfectly4med

I’ve been busy Bible journaling, trying to get back into the habit of reading and reflecting on what it is I am drawing. I’ve found my own style now, and my process still begins with choosing the words or phrases I’d like the emphasis to rest on in my illustration. Next is playing with typography, something I now prefer to do on screen – the undo function creases the page less than trying to rub out pencil lines! Then follows adding illustrations where appropriate, before tracing and colouring into my Bible.

One benefit of working in this way is that there is a FREE downloadable version containing all five outlines for you to print out and do your own thing with… just click the button:

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Art Journal Page: Collaged Chrysanthemum

Posted on 1st August 2018 by perfectly4med

It seems that for the last few days my corner of blog land has been out of service due to a duff plugin. Apologies! Here’s another art journal spread to make up for the absence (not that anyone noticed and let me know!). I experimented with collaging papers for the background and unifying the whole layout with a blanket stencil design. Masking off the area intended for the stamp and covering with gesso helped take the busyness away behind the ‘mum. It’s the first outing for my new Dusty Concord Distress Oxide ink pad. I’m not sure if it’s all a bit much, but experimentation is the name of the game in my journal.

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Art Journal Page: What to write

Posted on 25th June 2018 by perfectly4med

I don’t experiment much in my art journal any more, which is a shame. I have developed a style and, generally, keep to it with occasional variations. This week, I was inspired by the work of one of my colleagues at That’s Crafty!, Lynne Moncrieff. She has a wonderful grunge style that uses nature as inspiration, developing textures and colours from natural inks, pigment crystals and sprays.

So I raided the tea bag waste bin for old tea bags and reached for the sprinkles. And learnt that I need to do far more experimentation with both! The pages started to come together with the various bits of ephemera and using some tea bag paper to mount them on. It finally knit together with a healthy dose of vintage photo distress ink and oxides.

But what to write? Well, having done so, I wish I hadn’t! I found a fountain pen and filled it with sepia ink – but of course, it didn’t really like the gessoed page. Tracing over it with a cocktail stick dipped in the same ink gave a much better finish, so next time I’ll go straight to that. I recovered slightly by spritzing with water – the smudging and feathering is now deliberate rather than accidental 😉 Continue reading →

Art Journal Page: Want to Fly

Posted on 18th June 2018 by perfectly4med

In my last art journaling post, I wrote about knowing when a page is finished. This time around I went a step too far and completely spoiled the layout. See the staining through the gesso middle left and bottom right? That’s archival ink soaking through several layers of gesso. I thought once the butterflies were on, and the gesso painted around them that I would stamp more butterflies over the top. What a mistake to make…

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Bible Journaling: three more examples

Posted on 4th March 2018 by perfectly4med

So February turned out to be a bit quiet on the daily bible journaling. I managed three days. Well, it was a short month. Here are two…

The above were drawn freehand, with a couple of stencil flourishes. I’ve started pencilling outlines first after finding this, though taking a little longer, gave better outcomes. I still enjoy designing with more fonts than I can draw, so for my next verse, Psalm 8:1, I created a digital version first and traced it onto my Bible margin for colouring.As a quick experiment, I’ve saved the digital image as a PDF and you can download it below if you’d like to add it to your own Bible. If there’s interest, I’ll be sure to pop up some more printables in the future (that’s the experiment bit).

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Art Journal Page: Tim Holtz Stampfest

Posted on 20th February 2018 by perfectly4med

At next month’s art journal session*, we’ll be having a Tim Holtz Stampfest. I have a fair collection of his stamps and, as with most crafters, some haven’t been used yet. I thought it would be a great theme to work with, and lots of possibilities open up as we mix in the Distress line of products.

* The session on Mon 5th is fully booked, but if you would still like to take part, it will be repeated at the following Wednesday’s afternoon group.

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Bible Journaling: Psalm 136, Psalm 139:14

Posted on 28th November 2017 by perfectly4med

It’s still busy at The Studio, as there’s a That’s Crafty! One Day Special on Hochanda on 8th/9th December. That means I have six hours of live TV to prepare for – samples, show prep and lots of mental rehearsal! There are moments, though, where drying time gives me the chance to have a bit of ‘me’ time – and I’ve done a couple more Bible journal pieces. I have a couple of favourite verses from the psalms – Psalm 139:14 is one. The opposite side is the refrain in Psalm 136, used for page balance.

I experimented with a different medium for this double spread. By using [amazon_textlink asin=’B000PD3M8E’ text=’Derwent Inktense’ template=’ProductLink’ store=’themanicstamp-21′ marketplace=’UK’ link_id=’991cfa48-d2a1-11e7-a146-679050d7348b’] pencils on clear gesso/matte medium mix, you can direct the concentrated colour and use a dilute wash to create the background. For those unfamiliar with Inktense pencils/blocks, they are a richly pigmented colour pencil, which when wetted on or off the page become more vividly saturated and easy to blend. Once wetted and then dried they become waterproof – so much so they can be used to dye fabric too.

I topped off the text with some Stickles glitter glue to add a little glitz.
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Bible Journaling: Isaiah 61 & 63

Posted on 15th November 2017 by perfectly4med

Whilst some things I am making, that I can’t tell you about yet (but it has something to do with upcoming TV appearances), are drying, I have started to dabble again with doing some art journaling in my NIV journaling bible. I turned to these passages in Isaiah and picked out a couple of verses to concentrate on. Today I had a little experimentation with things to seal the page to prevent bleed through.

For the left side, I used a wiped-on layer of matte multi-medium, heat dried. For the right, I didn’t prep the page at all. Add some pigment inks for background colour, and watch them slide right off the multi-medium… it just has no tooth at all. It did, however, seal the page very nicely and not too much bulk added. I got around it by applying some ink, drying with the heat tool and then reapplying the ink. I sealed the pigment in with a spray fixative before using a Posca pen to add the text.

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Art Journal Page: Frozen Fractals

Posted on 9th November 2017 by perfectly4med

Last Monday was my regular art journal session at The Studio. We took the theme ‘baby, it’s cold outside’. Coincidentally, it was one of the coldest evenings of the autumn too. The theme called for cool colours, shimmer and sparkle to evoke frost rime on windows and icy surfaces:

$art journal frozen fractals$

I started with layers of gesso, creating ridged fans/feathering by jittering the edge of a palette knife to make the texture. Sprinkle a little Ultramarine Color Burst. Add more layers of gesso and then iridescent medium. Stamp with archival inks before adding the quote. Smear some Stardust stickles over the page and set aside to dry. I think the quote source is fairly obvious and just fits the theme perfectly!