“Meet me at the corner of Catastrophe & Confusion.”
For this page I used a collage from a while ago – a 6×6″ piece which I had painted and stamped on with acrylic paint and Signo markers.
I stamped the background of my ledger with my Powerhouse, Warehouse, Queen Anne, Midcentury Modern and Brownstone rubber stamps, covering the images to mask off while layering. I adhered the collage with double-sided tape and I used the same green as in the collage to carry it a bit into the background and tie everything together.
I sketched into my ledger with a Derwent pencil, added some watercolor, and colored in the hair and face with Caran D’ache Museum Aquarelle pencils. I used a super fine point Posca marker for the journaling.
The background is my Beacon stencil used with acrylic paint and a cosmetic sponge.
“I’m too busy working on my own grass to notice if yours is greener!”
I thought it would be fun to pull out some of my hand carved stamps again and put them together. There are about 5 hand made stamps in the background which I stamped with a black ink pad. Then I used some magenta and yellow paint and created a glaze with matte medium, spreading it over the background.
I stamped one of my Fan-fare stamps as well as the lady from my Actually I Can set inside the window and added some journaling with a fountain pen.
“Leave your imprint on the world… but think hard about the kind of imprint!”
We can make so many… the environment, our loved ones, society, etc.
For my background I used Daniel Smith tube watercolors – they were dried up on a palette and I wanted to use them up before they went bad. Then I made some marks – triangles, dots etc. – with Posca markers. I was really just playing around and it felt good.
For a focal point I stamped my Row Houses foam stamp with acrylic paint.
The printed portion of the quote is from tissue paper that was part of the packaging of some shoes I bought and I liked it… but then thought a bit deeper about the implication of the quote and wanted to add that too.
“I have to remind you that Your Kindness is Due! ” – We can definitely use some more kindness :)
I grabbed a bunch of different stencils (Art Deco Empire, Art Deco Fairview, Amsterdam, and Toledo) and I used them with a blender tool and Distress Inks and Distress Oxide Inks which I applied through the stencils.
Lady liberty is stamped with green acrylic paint onto printer paper and cut out. The “I have to remind you” is from an old letter copy that I cut out. The tag is old – no clue – it was in the magic drawer LOL. I adhered these all with my fav glue stick.
But before I collaged in the tag, I traced it with a Derwent water soluble sketching pencil on the top and dissolved some of the pencil with a brush inside the traced tag. Then I added journaling with a thin black Posca pen.
This art journal page came together in many stages. First I glued down collage paper like old letter pieces and parts of a pattern sheet I created a while ago (with my Mini Motifs and Triangle Love rubber stamp sets) using Gel Medium. I didn’t really know where this page was going to go – and so I just let each step inform the next. Hence the wildness of the page :)
Next I added some pink acrylic paint with a palette knife to tie the collage pieces together. I placed my Santa Fe Stencil on top and scraped some gesso over the stencil with a palette knife. It is raised but very thin, so it still works well in an art journal.
After it dried I used a water-soluble Derwent Pencil to sketch out the face. Instead of going over it with a brush, I used a Faber Castell white brush pen, creating a grayish, brushstroke-like effect. Later I went over it with a green acrylic pen as well. I then used a Posca marker for the journaling.
I finished up the page by stamping my Actually I Can rubber stamp.
This page reminded me how much I love playing with heavy body paints or gesso through stencils- and I definitely will visit this again. It is funny how play can sometimes remind you of techniques that you used to use a lot, that maybe you moved away from as you continued on your path and the next stage in your artmaking. If I pull out my earlier art journals I can definitely say for me it used to be all about actual texture in my journals.
“Strive to create a world you might never live to see!”
I stamped my Row Houses foam stamp with acrylic paint onto the ledger and then added a sketch of the row houses on top. I also used some collage paper – an old letter and old prints of mine.
I had initially painted a lot of the background with yellow paint but I didn’t like it going over the top of the building so I toned it down a bit with a Gesso wash.
Then I added some stamping with my Mini Motifs rubber stamps and speckled some paint.
“It’s OK to say no, sometimes it is an expression of respect of the person asking.”
First I primed the ledger page with some light gesso as I did not know how the paper would take water. I used my Batik Stencil and traced parts of the pattern with a Derwent water soluble sketching pencil, then used a wet brush to pick up some of the pencil lines, dragging some grey coloring into the shapes.
I also used my Tokyo Stencil with a brush and watercolor and went over the stencil, knowing that it would not be a defined stenciled image, but liking it.
I added a sketch on deli paper, also done with the water soluble pencil, and adhered it with gel medium.
I finished up my page by journaling with a black Posca marker – a super thin one.
“American history is longer, larger, more various, more beautiful, and more terrible than anything anyone has ever said about it.” – James Baldwin
I used a credit card to spread some acrylic paint and gouache onto the ledger page over my Fan-tastic stamp. Next I inked up wooden number blocks and pressed them onto the page – as they were wood the image is not very prominent without a press, so I enhanced and outlined a little bit by tracing and coloring on with aquarelle pencils. I left that partly as is, and partly spread it around with water.
I stamped some stars using my Star Fish rubber stamp as a complementary color in red to the green background. I also stamped my Lady Liberty foam stamp with Versafine ink onto a piece of paper, added some marks with Aquarelle Pencils and a journaling pen, then adhered it to the background as well. I finished it up with my journaling.
In addition to my large letterpress wood numbers, here are some of the supplies I used:
I love the phrase almost as much as the art!!! So good!
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