Tag Archives: Posca

Colour Journal

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Avid readers may remember a week or so ago I made a couple of handmade journals. I’ve taken this one further, and created a ‘colour journal’. With an unashamed plug for all things DecoArt Media, I have used my own photos of their products as a page  background, before adding glazes of colour fluid acrylics using various techniques including ragging, baby wipes, brushes and paper towel. Headings used the same colour, just undiluted. Add gesso, pen work and a smidge of gloss and the book is complete.

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Art Journal Page: Pictures [Pick A Stick Challenge]

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#PASC416

I’ve taken the opportunity today to complete this month’s Pick A Stick Challenge. Ten steps, in order, mixing up the media and adding collage elements. There are more and more taking part in the challenge, and it’s the perfect way to journal when the artistic muse has wandered off.

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Matchbook Art Journal: Life Experiences

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Though I’ve not posted in a little while, as before, a quiet period online often hides a frenetic few days in the studio. Crafting took a small back step last week as a party loomed and the house had to be cleaned and beds prepared, and clobber hidden away from the seventy or so guests! This week I’ve been working on a couple of differently styled art journals, and this is the first to be ready to share.

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Inspired by an article in this month’s Art Journaling magazine by Stampington, I’ve created my own matchbook journal (3×3″) with six pages. Unfortunately the supplier listed has discontinued the matchbook used in the article, so of course that didn’t deter me and I created and cut my own using my Silhouette Cameo. I’m going to add more quotes and cuttings as I find suitable ones, but you get the idea from the first page.

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Art Journal Page: How Will You Know?

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Greener

Part of art journaling is using a journal as an experimental area. Today I tried a method of creating weathered wood using paint layers, distress inks and archival inks, and it sparked off an idea for the layout. Somewhat annoyingly, it took longer to find a suitable saying to match my idea than it did to make the page!

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A Graffiti Journal

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I’ve been fascinated with ‘proper’ graffiti since a child – I love the colour, the vibrancy, the illegality of the hobby and the absolute control of the medium and the application. I’ve also owned a ‘how-to’ book for a number of years, well-thumbed but never used. That all changed when I made a journal from corrugated cardboard and once I’d started tearing off the surface layer, the idea developed to make faux rusty corrugated iron complete with requisite graffiti. I’ve tried different styles and colouring methods, starting with Sharpie pens, trying an image transfer, then Pitt Artist Pens. Then I had a sudden thought of how to replicate the aerosol can at this small scale – I got out my LetraJet air brush attachment for my Promarkers and thus smooth blends appeared. Lots of Posca pen use as well to finish things off.

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Art Journal Page: Humility

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As one Studio regular remarked last night: ‘you’re doing a lot of art journal pages recently’… She’d been away for a couple of months and hadn’t heard the news that I’m soon to be demonstrating on Hochanda TV channel. This week’s task is to pull together a supplies list for Sam (one of the channel’s buyers) so she can get some stock sorted and book me in for my first shows.

Last night, at The Studio’s monthly art journal session, we were carving our own stamps and developing patterns. I decided to do one too and carved the inverse of one of the stamps I’d previously done to demo the technique. Here’s the page that developed in between showing a first-timer how to build a background, and of course making the refreshments 😉

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Art Journal Page: Nature

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Nature

In between planting out onion sets, garlic and shallots at the allotment, teaching scrapbook layouts, supervising a learner crocheting and making tea for the landscape gardeners, I slipped in an art journal page! It just goes to show that if you aim to do a page a day – you can. Just! I wanted to try my inverse silhouette technique with something other than black ink, and I think it worked really well 🙂

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Art Journal Page: Excellence

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Excellence

Next month’s art journal session at The Studio (Mon 4th April, 7:30pm) is all about pattern development. We’ll be carving our own stamps from Speedball Speedy-Carve before stamping with paint or ink to create our personal and unique designs on our pages. I’ve taken three of my tangle pattern designs to make my stamps: Curly Braces Too, Flared and Circo. And in the process I discovered a new way of using tangle patterns: layering them. Something to explore further in drawn work I think!

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Art Journal: Upcycled Tumble Dryer Sheets

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I was cleaning out the tumble dryer filter this morning, and aside from popping some of the fluff outside for the birds feverishly making nests, I noticed a whole pile of tumble dryer sheets in the fluff collection above the washing machine. I’d heard that they make great inclusions in mixed media work (as do baby wipes btw), so I decided (as I do) to make an art journal from them. And a few hours later, a full mixed media journal is complete.

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Art Journal Page: An Unfulfilled Vocation

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What to do with a dark background in an art journal? Find a quote to match! Flicking through one of my art journals, I found this background that was made up of a combination of distress inks and acrylics wiped on from other projects. There was the option of lightening it with gesso or similar, but then I decided to pretty up the edges with a Dylusions stencil and blend-able paints, and then add text and outlines with Posca pens. I think it turned out quite well, underlining the quote.

As to the veracity of the statement – I think there are more things in a job that can drain the colour from the sense of vocation than it being unfulfilled. Each time I read about the health service and social care cuts, the colour certainly drains from my face. And following my current vocation certainly adds colour – to my t-shirts, jeans, table surface and in one memorable case, the windows!

 

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