Monday 28 January 2013

The Art of Art Journaling

I keep several art journals and sketch books that I work in regularly.  For me, those books are places that I can freely create, try new techniques and ideas and mix all sorts of media.  I encourage you to start one if you have never art journaled before - it is a wonderful place to release your creative self, without any pressure to "produce" something!

Today I will show you a page out of one of my art journals, as well as my process of getting there.  In this journal I used a hard cover book that we had in our house - it was one of those coffee table books that fill up thrift store book shelves - perfect for up-cycling into an art journal!

I often glue several pages together before I use them to make my surface sturdier.  That can cause the paper to buckle, which just adds character and an interesting surface to work on.

This was a fun, messy page! I don't always write many words - sometimes just doing the page is all that is needed. However, I plan on writing a little in this one.

Here we go...

I began by adding gesso to the double page.  It was thick in an area, so I heat dried it, creating some great bubbles.

Here's a close-up of the bubbles.

Using my palette knife, I spread some pink, purple and blue acrylic paint. 

Next, I dipped the end of a paper towel tube into yellow & green acrylic paint and randomly stamped the page.

Afterwards, I used these two inks along the top and bottom of my page and allowed them to freely drip down.

I began the yellow ink at the top of the page and let it run down towards the bottom, then I turned my journal upside-down and did the same with the green.

I added some doodles using a black permanent marker.  The thick texture created by all the gesso and paint made an uneven surface for my marker, which again, adds to the character of a project like this.

And here is the end result, awaiting some text.



Have fun creating!!

Silvia

Wednesday 23 January 2013

About the Feather

I've had a few questions about the feather in my blog heading so I thought I'd show a few pictures of my process of creating it.  

Lately I have been working at doing less detail oriented work as most of my work in the past has been detailed and it has been so fun to explore new horizons.  However, I still love to get lost in a detailed project like this one ...



We were down by the St. Lawrence last September where I collected a few items that caught my attention ... knobby sticks, unique leaves and this feather.


I used water colour paint on black paper. It is purely white except for a bit of yellow ochre on the stem.  




I put a bit more of a curve in the stem, and made it a bit longer.


The feather shape changed a bit, even as I was painting it, but I tried to stick closely to the original.


The finished product, mounted on red card stock.

Silvia

Monday 21 January 2013

Beginnings...

Hurray! After thinking about blogging for a long time, I have begun.  Thanks to my sweet hubby Tim, who sat with me for hours, I am up and running. I hope you enjoy following my journey ... I am daily discovering that life is beautiful, creating is liberating and goodness & mercy truly are relentlessly hunting me down!

Here is a peak at some of the art I have been creating this past year and a half. I've started several art journals, sketch books and canvases. I can't tell you how incredible it feels to be holding a paintbrush again, to be getting messy with paints, inks, charcoal ... whatever I can find to use. This one is done in oils...






Silvia