I found this old photo of my view out of my old studio in Hamburg Germany and I was reminiscing about the different views I’ve had from my studio windows… often on the top floor, just like now again, but always different. All this while I was listening to a spotify play list …the modern version of a mix tape that a friend of mine just made for me with music he discovered during the pandemic and thought I would like. J. has always been my music guy since we both share a lot of the same taste, so I am excited! It also made me very happy and grateful for the wonderful friendship where someone takes the time needed and puts a tape together for you. Remember those olden times?
Anyway… LOL The background was stamped with Versafine ink with the wonderful Triple Play foam stamps Birgit Koopsen, Marsha Valk and I created for our workshop Beyond the Paper – check it out. I added some sun printed fabric which I show how to create in the workshop using the same stamp.
Put a Circle on It! I don’t know why circles are such a pleasing design element but I definitely gravitate towards them. Maybe it’s just something in our makeup as humans that we like these focused, round shapes that remind us of the Sun and our moon, many things in nature, and are without harsh pointy corners. Who knows. But what I do know is they make excellent focal points in an art journal or on a canvas and they have a ton of innate appeal. That’s one reason I designed my Circle Jumble rubber stamp set – I wanted some nice circle options to go to again and again :)
I used the stamps with chunky embossing powder in this spread. Don’t you just want to touch them? It’s like the embossing emphasizes the roundness and that is even better!
Circles are so harmonious… and they play so well with other shapes and are an excellent building block to patterns. In this art journal page I used those Large Circle Jumble stamps with triangles and squares and it all just fits and makes me happy.
When in doubt… start with a circle! Here I used them as the center of a mandala. All the Circle Jumble stamps have a central focal point that everything can radiate out from.
You can also keep it simple with circles. Just a few on a card and you have a pleasing design scheme. This stamp set has a positive/negative pair in it too – looks great playing off one another.
Put a Circle on It! Get your hands dirty (maybe with some paper clay even!) and bask in the harmony of the circle – the Circle Jumble ;)
This art journal page came after an interesting conversation with friends about old houses and ghosts. We all agreed that the monsters and ghosts in our heads are worse, and I guess that is why Stephen King is doing so well with his books – LOL The quote is from him – “The Shining” …you are welcome.
I started this page with a leftover negative imprint from my “So Much Energy” page where I had just flipped the Chicago stencil over.
I realigned the stencil on top of the print, a bit offset, and sprayed over it yet again with black and teal.
Then I just added the journaling with a Posca marker.
A Look Back – Supplies are one of the things that really inspire me and it’s easy to amass a ton of them… and then kinda forget what you have. When I moved recently I was reminded of all the wonderful acrylic inks I have that are good for so many different techniques. It is such a useful supply that I include it in my Art on the Go Kit too lol. Anyway, all this inspired me to work with them again but also to put together this Look Back post focusing on Acrylic Ink.
Sketching with acrylic ink is a favorite of mine. I like to use a bamboo sketching pen and work on deli paper. It’s a loose and freestyle sketching that takes a bit of patience and multiple dips in the ink to complete, and when it’s done I can use matte medium to seamlessly add it into my art journal. Acrylic ink won’t reactivate with water so then you can go in and add color and detail with all different types of media. Here’s the original post for this art journal page.
The density of color in acrylic ink is really appealing. I made a video here back in 2015 showing just how yummy it is to use acrylic ink over gesso. Backgrounds with this technique can be bold and bright or subtle depending on your color choices. It’s fun to experiment!
Acrylic ink plays well with lots of other media. In this art journal page I began with white spray paint and my Flower Maze stencil. Once the spray paint dried, I spread acrylic ink on the page and then wiped the ink away using a baby wipe. It had soaked into the blank page but wiped to reveal a lighter blue where the spray paint was. I like this two-tone effect.
For a more dramatic resist technique, I like to pair it with embossing ink and a foam stamp like my Mid Century Squared stamp. Do your embossing and once it’s set just brush on acrylic ink and gently wipe. The smooth embossing will resist the acrylic ink and reveal the stamped embossing pattern. Check it out here in this Foam Stamplifier post.
Playing with this resist is also a fun way to finish a page. Here in this art journal spread I used spray paint with a hand cut stencil and acrylic paint with my Groovy foam stamp. When everything was dry I painted yellow acrylic ink over the whole thing – it doesn’t overpower anything but ties it all together. Done :)
I hope you enjoyed this Look Back post and will try your hand at some of these techniques. Acrylic Ink is super fun, versatile, and comes in the whole rainbow of colors to fit anyone’s aesthetic. Here are some of the supplies I used in the projects above:
A Look Back is a blog series to show you some projects and posts that you may have missed – sometimes going WAY back in the archive. I think it’s fun to revisit a few ideas that we haven’t seen for a while. I’m excited to see how a little look back might inspire something new in the future :)
Hello from my Creative Squad! Today we have a special roundup of Creative Squad Extracurricular Activities that I’d like to highlight for you. My Squad is awesome as you know – so much talent and creativity – they always blow me away with their projects each week!!!
Let’s have a looksie at some of the extracurricular projects that caught my eye.
First up we have a super cool card from Robin Seiz who has some major texture going on with a collaged background and one of the patterns from my ATC Mixup stencil. Super touchable, dontcha think???
Next is an art journal spread from Jordan Hill who is sharing her signature character over collage, this time using one of the Triple Play triangle foam stamps for her eye-catching background pattern.
Speaking of patterns, how about this one from Maura Hibbitts using my Wabi Sabi, Triangle Love, and Mini Motifs rubber stamps? We love to see unexpected combinations of all of these – so fun!!!
Finally we have an art journal spread from Riikka Kovasin, inspired by my lesson for Creative JumpStart 2022 and using my Art Deco Empire and Amsterdam stencils for her colorful background, and my Row Houses and Brownstone foam stamps for her subject. Love the hot hot hot color combo and that Riikka is still enjoying and posting work from CJS22. Fun fact: Riikka is also one of our CJS22 teachers :)
I hope you enjoyed this roundup of Creative Squad Extracurricular Activities! Please follow our team (their links are above) and also be sure to follow Nat’s Creative Squad on Instagram for weekly content from this stellar group of artists!
I’m still on a total spray paint high – kidding – wear your mask if spraying even low odor spray paint inside. For this art journal page I used different MTN and Liquitex acrylic spray paints over my Chicago stencil.
For a later art journal page I flipped the stencil over to print with the extra paint on it, and then printed with excess paint on the stencil from spraying onto another page, back onto this one.
I used black Versafine and one of the Floral Tile Small stamps to stamp into the squares. I liked the juxtaposition of the floral image with the very orderly structure of the stencil.
To finish my page I used a Posca marker on that label stuff (I have no clue where it comes from) for the journaling.
Recently I was invited as a guest on the podcast series called The Left Brain Artist by Suzanne Redmond. We had a wonderful chat about where I’m coming from as an artist (what inspires me and drives many of my creative decisions), my workshop Creative JumpStart 2022, and my book Artful Adventures in Mixed Media.
I really enjoyed our time together and you can listen to the podcast here:
Suzanne interviews a new artist each week and gets tons of different perspectives on what it’s like to be a practicing artist. I shared with her my love for architecture and buildings, and my fascination with the stories and history of these structures. I talk about how that research finds its way into my paintings in the colors and marks that I make. I also share how I prepare for paintings by testing things out and just playing in my art journal.
I hope you enjoy listening :)
Acrylic paint, spray paint, markers, gouache, collage 10×10″ – Available for Purchase –
The background for this page started with the Produce Joy art journal where I flipped over the Art Nouveau Wallpaper stencil after spray painting the background onto the next page to make an imprint.
When I came back for this page I aligned the same stencil onto the pattern and sprayed over it with different colors. This especially looks nice in the areas that were just a bit offset – it gives a better, crisper distinction between the two different paint applications.
I used a calligraphy nib pen and a brush with acrylic ink by Liquitex for the sketch on deli paper and applied the deli paper with fluid matte medium by Liquitex using a fan brush. I also used the calligraphy nib for the journaling. I had the nib set for a while in my stash and finally used it. I used the pen cleaner to clean the nib pen afterwards – a good idea to make sure it keeps writing and drawing well.
I used four different colors of acrylic spray paint to layer up over the Art Nouveau Wallpaper stencil. I flipped the stencil right over to the adjacent page – more about that page later – so that I could get a nice print of the surface as well.
I used some Versafine in black and grey to stamp with one of the Mini Motif rubber stamps and one of the Fan-fare stamps into the solid fan areas.
For my journaling I used the tissue like stripes with a thin Posca pen.
This was a very fast but fun page. I love spray paints – they have such an instant effect and if you are using the low odor ones with a mask and in a well ventilated room, you can create forever using your stencils and layering them up, or mixing them as I did with stamps. Just as Walt Whitman says “Do Anything, but let it produce joy.“
Comments (1)
Sue Clarke
| #
I love that sentiment…a friend really likes you when they make a mix tape/CD for you!
Fun LO Nat.
Reply