Having a really “off” day today. My sentiment on this particular journal page reads
“There are some days when I don’t know what it is I want to make or if I have the talent to even make it. All I know is I have the urge to create so I follow it.”
I only really knew a few things that I wanted to do with this layout:
- I wanted to create an abstract background in blues, teals and yellows and maintain a lot of the white of the paper stock behind it.
- I had new dragonfly stamps from the latest issue of Crafts Beautiful magazine that I wanted to use.
- I wanted to experiment with taking cutouts from magazines and using them as elements and/or focal points to a layout.
I did accomplish all of those and I think where that’s concerned, my layout was a success.
I’m not ecstatic over how the face of the girl came out. It’s much better than her original face, which, while humorous was not what I wanted in the design. I do like the approach of using primarily blues and yellows to accomplish shading with minimal black. I wish her face had come out prettier and more proportionate, I suppose. I am happy with how her dress came out – I was very successful in covering up the original red and white design with the yellow and blue.
When I adhered the magazine elements to the page, I gessoed over them so my paint would stick nicely to the pieces. And I really do enjoy the approach of painting over a reference image like that – really takes a lot of guess work out of trying to make sure things are in correct proportion (again, with the exception of the new face I gave her.)
For the background I started it off by spraying a few blots of blue ink into my crafting paper then blotting it up with my journal page. I wanted it to get runny so I sprayed the ink on the page with water, holding it upright, and allowed the color to drip down. I then took out my acrylics in blues and yellow and did quick swashes of the color randomly over the page, making sure to not get too heavy or enthusiastic with any blending or mixing.
I sped up the drying with my hair dryer then stamped the page with my dragonfly stamps using Archival ink. I cut out and adhered the magazine elements I’d found onto the page, gessoed over them and painted with either acrylics or my Faber-Castell Gelatos. I added the silk flower and a string of yarn to represent its stem.
I added little additional details with both my Sharpie pen and my Uni-ball Signo white pen, then wrote my journal entry onto the page.
Hope you enjoyed the layout. Leave a comment below or like the page and share with your friends. :) Thanks for reading!
List of materials:
Canson Mixed Media sketchbook
Mod Podge
Liquitex clear gesso
Golden Soft Gel (Matte)
Faber-Castell Gelatos
Artist’s Loft acrylic paints
Ranger Dylusions Ink Spray
Sharpie Pen in medium
Uni-Ball Signo white pen
Prismacolor Premiere Colored Pencils
Dragonfly stamps
Archival ink
Magazine cutouts
Yarn
Silk flowers
Rhinestones
Elmer’s CraftBond tacky glue
Odyssey Art 