Art Journal Page: Border of flowers

It’s my monthly art journal session on Monday evening, and this month’s theme is ‘Spring Spraying’. Spray inks, stains and paints are always a fun, and fast, way of making a background. Occasionally, the spray reaches the page… Using stencils and then embellishing with other media, such as white pigment pens, finish the page off nicely.

Speaking of finishing a page… There are some who ask, ‘when do you know a page is finished?’. Here’s an example. The first pic shows where I originally finished the page. It was only when I was editing the photo for posting that I decided I hadn’t finished after all. The second pic shows where I left it after a little more work:

Continue reading

Art Journal Page: All Change

Perfect

Something about this page reminds me of naff pub decor. For the anaglypta effect, I used the embossing paste through the stencil, let it dry, scumble glazed with the tan colour and then sponged the darker colours through the stencil to catch the raised areas. Napkin decoupage and an image transfer of my own typography completes the layout.

Used on this page:

  • Frisk LayFlat Sketch Pad (small)
  • Dutch Doobadoo Stencil: Squares
  • Royal Talens Amsterdam Standard acrylic paints (24 set)
  • Royal Talens Amsterdam Gesso: White
  • Ranger Multi Medium: Matte

Continue reading

Art Journal Page: Try Something New

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

Continue reading

Art Journal Page: What I see in the mirror [Wanderlust Prompt #5]

IMG_7167_w

I decided yesterday that I would catch up with some of the Wanderlust 2016 class activities, and watched Birgit Koopsen’s class as she demonstrated her signature style. This is my response to the fifth journal prompt from the beginning of March (‘what I see in the mirror’) using her techniques, albeit in a slightly different order! And it’s probably more of a reminder of what I should be seeing in the mirror rather than what I do… Anyhow, I wanted the background to show through the white layer (given I’d spent so long working on it!), so used I used thinned gesso for its translucency. I think the colours certainly zing against the white mask.

 

Continue reading