10 May 2016

Some Art Journal Pages

Hi! It’s been a while since I shared anything, so this is going to be a long post with lots of eye candy. I’ve been busy with all kinds of projects. The weather is beautiful too (not today though), so I’ve also been outside taking photos. Some successful, others a bit less succesful. There’s still so much to learn. I know now, full sunshine is nice and helps for a good mood, but it can be a struggle to take photos in the bright light. Lesson learned: I need to avoid that hard, bright light. Better not take photos in the middle of the day.

I’ve also done some art journaling. I’ve made myself a stamp too. It’s big and I love it. The type of linoleum I used doesn’t like to be used with stamping ink, but it does a good job with acrylic ink applied with a brayer. I had some mono printed papers lying on my table, that made a good base to test the stamp. The mono print was done with the Gelli Arts® printing plate.

Flower-border

Another day I started working on a page in my Dylusions art journal. I started on a page I already brayed some paint on in a previous session. Sometimes I like to start on a clear page, but sometimes it helps more to start on a page that already has something on it.

When I’m in doubt of what I want with a page, I start doodling loosely with a pencil. Sometimes I pick up a pen too or coloured pencils. This time I just took a graphite pencil. Next I stamped with a backgroundstamp (by Hema). I don’t have a lot of inkpads, so I chose a colour from my Neo Color II crayons, rubbed a bit onto my stamp and spritzed it with water. I love the look this gives. I also used a chevron stamp (also by Hema) with black Stazon ink.

Notions-step2

Still happy with the stamp I made, I fuzzy cut one of the flowers from the print and started playing with composition. While moving the flower from edge to edge, ideas were flowing through my mind. I drew a scalloped border shape on the same mono printed paper and cut that too. I used a black and a white Posca marker.

Notions-step1

I went through my collection of quirky collage images by Tumble Fish Studio. I chose this body of a football player together with a label and the “notions” word. I drew the head on a scrap piece of paper and fuzzy cut it. I also cut a crown out of a piece of mono printed paper. Next I adhered it all in place and wrote a list about some currently facts in my life. The page had some maskingtape to prevent the paper from tearing out of the journal. I decided to make it look pretty by embellishing it with a piece of washi tape. I wrote a statement and finalized the page by drawing a border.

Notions

Another page I made, also started with a previously brayered background (same session). I sprayed some Bubblegum Pink Dylusions spray ink through a stencil by The Crafters Workshop. In order not to waste any ink, I also turned the stencil and stamped the ink on the page like that. Then I applied purple (Seedless Preserves) Distress ink through a piece of punchinella (sequin waste). I knew I wanted to make a cluster following the rule of thirds, but didn’t exactly know how to do this. Luckily I have a book called “Art Journal Freedom” by the wonderful Dina Wakley that explains this way of composition very well and has some great inspiration photos. I adhered the washi tape, wrote some journaling about how I felt that day, tore a strip of mono printed paper, together with a piece of kitchen towel I once used to mop up some ink, stamped a postcard image on a piece of paper I aged with Distress ink (antique linen) and fuzzy cut it. While going through my washi tapes, I found this cute mushroom tape that says “how are you?” and I just needed to use it on my page.

How_Are_You-step1

When I adhered al the pieces, I stamped on of Dina Wakley’s Scribbly Birds, fuzzy cut and adhered it. I also added a bird of a very old Maya Road collection to the cluster. To finish the page I splattered some purple (Funky Fuchsia)Dylusions spray ink on the page.

How_Are_You

Here are some close-up pictures of the page.

How_Are_You-2

How_Are_You-3

And then Carla Sonheim happened. I bet a lot of you have heared that name somewhere. She is an illustrator from the States who teaches the fun of making art through online classes and the books she wrote. I adore her cute creatures who always seem to look a little confused. A couple of weeks ago she shared a technique on YouTube called Ink Figures. The idea is to make some marks with black ink on a piece of paper and from this draw a figure. I just had to try this as it seemed such a fun technique. And it is! I’ve noticed how this small exercise can take you into a creative mood in seconds.

Inkblot-figure_06

Inkblot-figure_01

Inkblot-figure_03

Inkblot-figure_02

Inkblot-figure_04

The next day I decided to try if this technique would work for an animal too, which it did.

Inkblot-figure_05

Now I am really hooked! So I ordered Carla’s book “Drawing and Painting Imaginary Animals”. Can’t wait till it arrives. A lesson in patience here, as the book has to come all the way from the UK. Until then I already enjoy the book “Creative Photography” by Carla’s husband Steve Sonheim, which I also ordered and was delivered the next day.

Please make sure you follow my blog as I will be back soon showing some pretty photos I made during the nice weather. Bye for now!

4 comments:

Hilde said...

Mooi gedaan Monica. Echt de moeite waard om een bezoekje te brengen. Groetjes, Hilde

Unknown said...

Dankjewel, Hilde. Leuk dat je op mijn blog was!!

Unknown said...

They are beautiful ❤️❤️❤️

Unknown said...

Aww thank you, Sherry! And thanks for visiting my blog!