Guada’s Mandalas

I love Guada’s mandalas, and so was thrilled to have a lesson from her as this week’s Life Book class. Her instructions are always so easy to follow and even though I started out copying her design the end result is so totally different!

The background was created first using neocolour crayons on copy paper, blended using a watercolour brush. When the background had dried the paper was a little crinkly, so I ironed it flat (much more fun than ironing clothes!) and printed Guada’s template onto it. Then following instructions, I created the mandala and coloured it using my Rotring Rapidograph pen and Derwent Inktense pencils.

I just love the result. If you’d like to have a go, Guada is running a free course starting in October called The Seed of Life. Click on the button on my right sidebar for more details. Thank you so much Guada 🙂

New Identity

As part of re-creating my identity back here at Artimess, I decided to design myself some business cards. The front was no trouble, but I thought I’d like to put some of my artwork on the back.

I started by creating this Artimess zentangle:

I used A6(105mm x 148mm) white art board and drew with my trusty Rotring Rapidograph .25 Pen.

Then I found this photoshop tutorial from 10 Steps and thought it looked like fun – I love digital blending! So I gave it a go:

I love the result – mainly because it makes me look a lot younger than the original! So now I have 2 backs for my business card. Which do you think I should use?

Coming Home!

After my travels over at Face of Love, I’ve decided to return to Artimess to continue my messy exploration of all things creative.

Since I completed my Wreck this Journal book I’ve been through a slightly more structured phase in my creativity, but I’ve decided it’s time I came home to Artimess and started having fun again!

I signed up for Tamara Laporte’s Life Book Course back in January and have been joining in rather haphazardly throughout the year. Last week’s lesson by Connie Hozvicka from Dirty Footprints Studio caught my imagination. The picture above is my interpretation of the lesson. Created on watercolour paper (2 x A4 sheets), using glossy gel medium as a base to build texture followed by lots of layers of acrylic paint to add depth and more texture. I had great fun creating this – thank you Connie!

Moving On …

If you are wondering what happened to me and why I haven’t posted in so long check out my new blog over at Face Of Love. Hope to see you there 🙂

Mouth Writing!

Every year about this time I receive a pack of beautiful cards, prints of pictures painted by mouth and foot artists. I have always admired their work and wondered how they manage to paint such beautiful pictures. I now have even more admiration for them having just completed this page of mouth writing for my journal …..

…. it was so hard to do …. it says “I don’t think I’m very good at this! It looks like Chinese. How do people paint pictures like this? I’ll try. Do you like my stick people?” …. I think I need a lot more practice 🙂

Not content with just making a beautiful mess in my journal, I love taking the scanned images and blending them to create more beautiful images. I started with this pen drawing …

…. and blended it with the scans of the “Document Your Dinner” and “Sample Various Substances” journal pages with these results ….

Finally … I just discovered this JigZone site that makes jigsaws out of your images. How cool is that!!! I just had to have a go 🙂

I’ve made two so far and posted them on the Pick a Puzzle page. Have a go and see how long it takes you to do one!

Keep checking … I’ll add some more later.

Ironing My Images

No … I’ve not gone completely mad … I really have been ironing my images! I’ve been trying out another technique from the Image Transfer Workshop Book. By some magical process (the physicists out there will be able to explain exactly how it happens) heating a magazine page that is next to some cling film (plastic wrap) enables the two to bond. You can then remove most of the paper backing which leaves you with a new very thin, waterproof version of the image. Clever stuff!! This is my first attempt … and I’ve stuck it in my altered fiction book before adding paint to the page.

I’ve been busy completing more pages in my Wreck this Journal as well. This page was done using the Gel Medium method described in my last post. I used last week’s church bulletin (which was printed using an ink jet printer). I love the distressed look this method gives to the transfers!

I’ve been struggling over what to do with this next page for some time. The page was headed “Space for Negative Comments” – not something I thought was very constructive! But then I thought … what if I wrote my negative thoughts in thin black pen and wrote their opposite on top in thick red pen – it would be following the instructions, but putting a positive spin on it. So that’s what I did! Next I painted the opposite page and squidged them together to transfer some of the wet paint. That obscured some of the words, but it was still too legible for for my liking, so I added a blur filter to the right hand page after I scanned it!

… sorry … you don’t get to read my secrets … but I like the way it looks 🙂

Simple Image Transfers!

I’ve been wanting to try out image transfers for such a long time … but every time I’ve found a set of instructions they’ve involved using substances which were either dangerous or else difficult to obtain. So imagine my excitement when I came across this book, Image transfer Workshop by Darlene Olivia McElroy which has a huge variety of very simple step by step instructions for transferring images, many of which use common safe substances! I’m planning on trying them all over time, but I started with the ink jet / gel medium transfers as they were so simple. All you need is a pot of Gel Medium, a paint roller/brayer and an ink jet printed image!

The image on the left-hand page of a rose bud is my very first attempt … pretty impressive I thought. I got so excited with my success that when I did

the next one, after remembering to reverse the image when I printed it, I stuck it to the page upside down!! Luckily it was in my Wreck this Journal Book so I figured it was meant to be!!

This next transfer forms the first completed page in my creative business plan which was inspired by The Right-Brain Business Plan devised by Jennifer Lee. The page is in the middle of

the book I have made and I have written ” Development and growth are vital to my business. I need to experiment, experience, and constantly be trying out new ideas. Having Fun!`’ around the the image. This is much more fun than a traditional business plan 🙂

This last image is my favourite of the lot! Inspired by my Wreck this Journal Book, I have decided to alter one of the many fiction paperback

books I have littered throughout my house waiting to be taken to the charity shop. I love the way the text looks like it’s been aded after, when in fact it’s the only bit of the original page that you can see!

I can’t wait to get started on trying out some of the other techniques in the book … keep watching this space!

Green Thumb …

Yes … I have a green thumb …. but no – that does not mean I’m good with plants! I just got a little bit too enthusiastic with a spray can of metallic green paint 🙂

It all started last week when I taught leaf printing at one of my craft classes. I get so much inspiration from teaching! … I came away from that class inspired to find as many ways as possible of using leaves.

A few weeks ago I came across several cans of spray paint left over from previous projects … so I decided to try using them with the leaves, and the ‘Sample Various Substances’ page seemed the perfect page in the journal to use for the experiment.

After I’d picked a selection of leaves I used them as both masks and stamps to achieve this effect.

Using leaves for printing, you end up with some beautiful colourful leaves. I took a couple of the ones I brought home from the class, covered them in Gel Medium and used them to create this picture.

Going back to my journal, I decided to do something with the ‘Document Your Dinner’ page. I wasn’t prepared to feed my dinner to it, so I did the next best thing and used a heap of favourite ingredients to splatter over the page. I used Soy Sauce, Spaghetti Sauce, Strawberry Sauce, Lemon Juice and Salt!

I’m quite pleased with the visual effect … and it’s added yet more interesting aromas to the journal – it really is a multi-sensory experience!!

Sleep With The Journal? ….. No Way!!!

Sleep with the Journal? …. No Way!!! It’s much too lumpy and there are far too many sharp bits sticking out!! Instead I altered the instructions and created new ones!!

It now has a series of statements/ instructions:

Sleep is something we all need
Are you happy with Life?
Experiment with the book!
Journal your thoughts …
Descibe how you are feeling …
Play with the art
All experiences are useful
Leave your comments here

I then coloured the pages using a water colour pencil wash, and added an explosion of colour to the left page! I may well add some more comments to the right page as I think of them 🙂

This next page evolved as my doodles are inclined to do!! I had no intention of drawing a face when I started out … it just ended up that way!

The left page evolved after I used it to try out some new rubber stamps I got from the SSP Guild on Saturday morning. It just reminded me of these words from an old Dave Clark Five song called Here comes Summer (Showing my age there!!) Only trouble was … the page got really wet after I wrote the words and they bled everywhere!! So I wrote over the top again. I think it looks even better now!! What was that I was saying about accidents improving artistic content? (see bottom of last post)

Following another set of instructions …

… I coloured the edges of the pages using Perfect Pearls from Ranger. It would have been easier to do at the beginning before the book got so fat!! 🙂

Back to Wrecking My Journal …

I got back to wrecking my journal yesterday. The instructions on this page say “This page is dedicated to internal monologue”. For someone like me who struggles with words, this was a bit of a problem … but when I really thought about it – I knew what to do!

I splattered paint over the pages, squished it between the pages, then combed it with a small makeup comb! I used the colours that are currently a major influence in my life right now – red, yellow, gold and green. The scan really doesn’t do justice to the amazing sheen of the the metallic gold paint and the vibrant tones of the colours peeking through from underneath!

I started this next page a while ago, I drew the castle tower with a soft water soluble graphite stick and washed over it to smudge the lines; but when the ink from the following page (four-letter words) bled through all over my drawing, I couldn’t decide what to do and just left it half finished. Inspiration came the other day! I created a grid of lines with the graphite stick, smudged the lines with water, then filled the gaps with sharpies to give an abstract stained glass effect. I coloured in the letters on the castle page and inked over the bled through words to accentuate them.

It’s one of the main things I have learnt from this journal … things don’t have to be perfect to look good … accidents often improve the artistic content of a piece of work 🙂