Blog: Art Journal

Don’t be a Litterbug – Art Journal

In this art journal page I took advantage of some painty grunge on a deli paper piece that I had used to dab off some excess paint from a gel plate, as well as some stamp marks from my foam stamps.

I adhered the piece for a background into my ledger art journal and stamped on top with Versafine and the Lady Liberty foam stamp. Next I stamped the Lady Liberty rubber stamp in green on an old letter and adhered that too. The “Don’t be a litterbug” is from an old road map…a paper road map… wow, what a blast from the not so far past LOL.

The journaling is supposed to read:

“Beauty is not in the face; Beauty is a light in the heart!” The pen died on me though and I made a little mistake, but oh well ;)

Here are some of the supplies I used:

Nat

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Sam Struck Gold – Art Journal

This is another art journal page – like Pre-Pandemic Letters – that sprung from a sentence in an old letter from 1867 where Amanda writes about Uncle Sam “He is engaging perfect health he says and is going to gold mining in the spring.” I like to think that Sam struck gold – lol

This background was rather mucky as I stared out with a lot of left over blue grey acrylic paint on my palette – I wanted to use it up instead of wasting it – but when I added it to the page it was still too much. So I put the Santiago stencil on top and took some of the paint off with a moist rag and then spread it over to other areas of the page. It was way too much paint in any event so the stencils is not nice and crisp but that is ok. I added some yellow acrylic ink here and there and then sketched with black ink “Uncle Sam” on Deli paper and adhered it with a glue stick to the background.

Cutting out the letter sentences like that seems a bit crude but I did not want to cut this further up. If I find more fun letters I might actually just scan in the parts I like and then manipulate them… although… do I really need more collage material? Probably not, and the look of the old letter paper with ink does look cool to me.

Oh well … next page ;)

Here are some of the supplies I used:

Nat

Comments (1)

  • Rebeccab

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    I like the color of the Santiago stencil section, it reminds me of an old quilt, the blue is like water, and the grid pattern someone might use when cordoning off a section to pan.

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Pre-Pandemic Letters – Art Journal

I love old letters. When I find them at a flea market I pick them up and use them for collage or background purposes later. It is always a spark in the moment when I pick them up and find a word or sentence jumping out to me. I had used some other parts of this letter before but had not read the whole letter and when I was cleaning up my workspace this jumped out to me: “Spending an evening with you. An evening did I say. I should have said every evening.” And while Oscar was really romantic my first giggle thought was “well that was a pre-pandemic letter”.

I am almost tempted to find more sentences in old letters and make a series hahaha- we shall see if I find more.

For my art journal page I sprayed with MTN acrylic spray paint over the Buenos Aires Stencil, then layered the Santiago stencil on top and added some acrylic paint over it here and there.

I also tested a new liner brush I recently purchased (Princeton Aspen Acrylic brush part of a set) and used Holbein black acrylic ink on deli paper for the sketch.

I cut the sketch out and pasted it along with the letter part with Liquitex Matte Medium.

Here are some of the supplies I used:

Nat

Comments (1)

  • Rebeccab

    |

    That old handwriting is gorgeous.

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Why So Scared – Art Journal

“Those who don’t know history are destined to repeat it.” – Edmund Burke

For this page I was working with one of those nice little collage pages from the Artist Almanac calendar (2023 version is in the works!). I still have a few giclee prints left of that original painting here in my shop. Then I added Liquitex heavy gesso onto stripes of canvas and pressed them onto the ledger page for texture.

After it dried I painted over it with some watered down Liquitex Blue Gray paint. For the skyline I stamped with Moonlight Duo ink and the Midtown and Midtown Mini foam stamp sets. To tie things together I used a Neocolor II in a rich magenta color.

Here are some of the supplies I used:

Nat

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Stars Gone Too Early – Art Journal

I made this page last week not knowing that yet again an horrific shooting took place. I made this page after the Shooting in Buffalo as I use my art journal not only to explore materials and techniques but sometimes also to work through thoughts and things that happen in the world. This was another very sad morning when I created it – the page does not really reflect my anger and helplessness about the horrible things that keep on happening here.

I cannot even imagine the pain the families of all those incidents have to go through. All I know is that this has to stop!

What kind of a society are we where we let this happen over and over again?

Quoting Amanda Gorman “What might be if only we tried. What might we become if only we listen.”

Nat

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Soaring High – Art Journal

“No bird soars too high if she soars with her own wings.”

This page started with one of those little calendar pages from the sold out Artists Almanac calendars. The calendar is all gone but the original painting for this page is still available here (or a nice giclee print here) and it always brings me back to when I first moved to Jersey City. Crazy where life can take you :)

I used acrylic paint and acrylic spray paint for my background, in colors to compliment the original painting and build a bigger skyline. The original painting has the Jersey City skyline in the background from back when I first painted it, and it’s definitely gotten much BIGGER since I first moved here. All the tall buildings by the waterfront and beyond.

To add detail and definition to the skyline I used Neocolor II from Caran d’Ache – love how saturated those water soluble sticks are.

I added my journaling with a Signo ball pen. Are you soaring anywhere these days?

Here are some of the supplies I used:

Nat

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Different Realities – Art Journal

“You never win a fight with someone who only lives in his reality.”

This art journal page is using a page from the sold out 2022 Artist Almanac – don’t dismay though, 2023 is in the works ;)

I started by rolling out yellow paint with a brayer to create some texture on the page, and added red acrylic paint onto a palette knife and lightly pressed it onto the yellow background, pulling it down or to the side. After it dried, I used water based spray paints, sprayed through an older Stampendous stencil (not available anymore sorry) – and my What’s The Point stencil (yes that guy is still available).

The only reason I used the old stencil is because I had used it on the background of the calendar page and I wanted to incorporate the form, but you could also make some paint splashes onto a thin piece of cardboard and then cut the form out to make your own stencil. Or if you are brave, make some big paint splashes right on top of the page. Next I adhered the calendar page with double sided adhesive.

The spray paint wasn’t perfectly dried yet and it wound up clogging up my sharpie ball pen which I love to use for journaling – a good reminder to be patient…

Here are some of the supplies I used:

Nat

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Common Sense – Art Journal

“I don’t profess to be profound; but I do lay claim to common sense.” — Emily Dickinson

For this one I used the same colors and the negative print of the Art Deco Wallpaper stencil from the Hope art journal page – I just didn’t mix the colors for the background when I brayered them on.

Then I stamped on top with some of my Cardboard rubber stamps and Ranger Archival Sepia ink.

Using a bamboo sketching pen I wrote the Emily Dickinson quote with copper Liquitex acrylic ink – the metallic inks have a lot of particles in them which makes the journaling slightly raised.

Here are some of the supplies I used:

Nat

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Hope – Art Journal

“Hope” is the thing with feathers –
That perches in the soul –
And sings the tune without the words –
And never stops – at all –

-Emily Dickinson

I painted the background with acrylic paint and a big flat brush. Then I layered the Art Deco Wallpaper stencil on top and sprayed with MTN Acrylic spray paints – using lime green, brown and white colors.

I added some marks with a thin brush and sepia acrylic ink and then used one of my Fan-fare stamps and brown Versafine ink to add some more marks. I layered the stamp up without going for a full image each time and I really like how it looks. I’m definitely using this stamp again for mark making.

It was simple to put together but I like it – simple is ok – not every page has to take ages 🙂

Here are some of the supplies I used:

Nat

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