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 🙂
Well this layout has taken pretty much all day, aside from occasional breaks to make tea for the landscape gardeners laying my greenhouse base. I had this background waiting for something over the top – in fact since I printed it using this technique in 2011. I’d also blended a thin layer of Dylusions Paint over the top to help seal it. A new set of alphabet stencils also arrived yesterday afternoon, so that’s where the zen started, continued with the hand-drawn flowers (following some of the examples in the FloraBunda book), and then coloured with glazes.
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!
Gah! It’s so frustrating when you write a blog post and then there’s a glitch and it’s gone and even the saved drafts don’t seem to exist any more… so for the second time of writing:
During the week I was invited by an online friend I got to know through the Creative Chemistry 101 classes a few years ago to join a new art journaling challenge group she was organising. The Pick A Stick Challenge Group on Facebook is open to anyone who would like to join in and is an active art journaler. The premise is simple: each month, ten sticks are drawn at random from a pot of prompts covering media, styles and techniques. The only other stipulation is that you layer your page in the order the sticks are drawn. That is where the process becomes a little more tricky!
It’s the perennial question – ‘what did you do today?’ And alongside that, ‘what’s a mixed media artist?’ Well, today, both can be answered with – I drew lots and lots of short lines. And when I say lots, I probably mean thousands. What possessed me to work at the scale I did, I don’t know, but I suspect the 12×12″ page size, the Crafter’s Workshop stencil and the Signo pens all came together. And I’m delighted with the results. And I have writer’s cramp!
I’m still working with the That Special Touch Art Deco Elements stencil for this week’s project. I’ve used the Cosmic Shimmer Rich Plum Sparkling Texture Paste, with the Cosmic Shimmer Vintage Plum Pearlescent PVA for the Watts-dots and finally mounted it all on Rich Plum card stock. Gorgeous, even though I do say so myself! Continue reading
I’m still playing with the stencils/masks from That Special Touch for my card this week – it’s the 6×6″ Art Deco Elements again. I wanted to make a classic white on kraft colour combo, and after a bit of trial and error, discovered that the Perfect Medium pad isn’t soft enough to get into the finer bits of the stencil. That’s where a piece of Cut ‘n’ Dry foam came in handy. I’ve also made a video of the process – I’m a bit rusty on the commentary side of things, my apologies. I’d love to know if you find the ‘live’ demonstration helpful.
And for the British spelling purists, this is also a stencilled card.
Continuing the white-on-white theme I started last week (and probably ending this week!), I’ve created this shabby chic home decor piece using the Pronty MDF Photo Frame with Four Holes, stencils, texture paste, gilding wax, stamps, embossing powders, die cuts and white PVA glue.