Inspired by Challenges
Since the beginning of this year I have been inspired by so many challenges and classes. Although I haven’t necessarily completed all the prompts and suggestions, I’ve found that having so much inspiration has enabled me to maintain a much more consistent artistic practice. I have been making art every day – and am definitely feeling the benefits.
I’ve been working in a number of different journals and have been playing with lots of different styles.
This first piece was inspired by Effy’s Book of Days theme for the month of January. The background is a created with lots of layers of acrylic paint, then I added the bird and the lettering as collaged cutouts which I created using tombow pens. I like the subtle contrast to the bold colours of the background this creates. I wrote the quotation using a dip pen and indian ink.
“Transformation” is my interpretation of Tam’s lesson from Radiant 2. I used Tombow pens to colour the lady and the phoenix and watercolour paint for the background. I added the text digitally after scanning the completed spread.
Moving on to challenges – I thought I’d try to include some male faces in my responses to the 29 Faces challenge this year – this is my first four. I’m really loving using oil pastels for the faces.
Finally, as a result of following the Journal 52 group on Facebook, although I haven’t got around to journalling any of those prompts, I was inspired by Sarah Trump’s work and checked out her blog posts. As a result I discovered the “Together We Letter” challenge by @lissletters on Instagram. This is my response to the prompts for the first four days – so much fun!
Playing with Layers
I really enjoyed all the mixed media work I’ve been doing recently, so I decided to do some more playing with layers, both physical and digital.
This first image started out as a collage using a mixture of old papers, book pages, old paint stained tissues, and magazine clippings. This was followed by a liberal application of acrylic paint, stencilling, homemade stamps, washi tape, and more collage. The quotation made me smile, as it’s the kind of thing I say all the time!
This second image was inspired by some work I did at the weekend on the Person Centred Expressive Arts workshop that I attended run by Dinah Brown and Nuala Eden. It began life as a geometric abstract created using watercolour pencils. Although it was quite colourful, it looked a bit flat, so I gave it the mixed media treatment. I added acrylic paint, stencils, homemade stamps, paint markers and indian ink, then finished it off with some letter stamps and collaged letters.
Its been a while since I played with any digital layers, so this last image is a digital blend of two journal pages – a series of swirls drawn with watercolour pencils, and a page created to use up some leftover paint.
Only five days left before the start of 21 Secrets Fall 2015 – I’m really looking forward to working and learning with all the amazing teachers Connie has gathered together.
Playing with Mandalas
Thinking about mandalas, I created this hand drawn one in my small journal the other day.
But as usual, I couldn’t just leave it at that. I had to play with it once I’d scanned it. I started off by adding some ‘twirl’, then blended the two together to come up with the final version.
Once in the blending mode, I find it’s difficult to stop! This image is a blend of two paintings to which I added the Maslow quotation.
Two More Pages!
Two more pages to add to the steadily growing collection! Another painted postcard for journalling on…
…created using acrylic paint, a stencil and acrylic ink. The black blots remind me of seahorses or maybe glow-worms. What do you think?
And another page in my recycled journal. This started out as a collage with acrylic paint. I added the scanned person doodle and blended her in, then chose and added the Nelson Mandala quotation using digital text.
Filling the Journal!
I’m slowly filling my recycled journal! If you look closely you can see the fabric strips down the centre of the page marking the end of one signature and the beginning of another.
I created the background using acrylic paint in layers and used an old credit card to scrape the final layer on which gave it a more textured look. Some of you may recognise the quirky bird on the right. I originally painted it some time last year, but thought it would look good on this page so I added it digitally and blended it in a bit. Lastly I added the quotation using digital text. I love how the coffee creamer lid shape from the previous page makes a perfect frame for the quotation!
Inter–connected–ness–
Ever since I can remember I have always believed in the interconnectedness of everything. So when I came across this Pueblo Indian saying in Way of the Doll: Art and Craft of Personal Transformation
I decided to use my recycled journal, and created this double page spread using acrylic paint, moulding paste and a linocut stamp. I added the quotation by cutting up a digital printout of it, glueing it down then adding paint, stamping and permanent marker to help it to blend into the page. Did I mention that I printed it on yellow paper?
And talking of blending…
…I just couldn’t resist the digital kind!
Finally Finished!
At Last, I have finally finished last weeks Life Book 2013 lesson!
For the final touch I added the Thich Nhat Hanh quotation using die-cut letters.
Now I’m off to pack some more boxes!
Finished Page!
At last all the layers have dried and it’s safe to scan the finished page.
I love how the finished page turned out, and I had such fun making it. The only tricky part was managing the wet media on the thin pages of my new journal, but I managed that by starting with a thickish layer of white gesso and using the acrylic paint with a dry brush. What I love is that you can still see some of the original pages through the layers in places!
Just for a change my ‘ingredients’ list is quite short! I started with white gesso, added layers of acrylic paint, and stamped using various clear and homemade stamps with a staz-on ink pad and some distress ink pads. I printed the quotation onto plain white copy paper then cut out the letters by hand, leaving me with a stencil affect. I coloured this using distress ink pads, then stuck it to the page using a glue stick. Lastly I added some more acrylic paint using an assortment of household items!
Mixed Media Madness!
I’ve been working on a mixed media piece in my new journal for the last couple of days and experimenting with the camera on my iPhone as well.
Inspired by this post from Julie Fei-Fan Balzer, I spent a while cutting out this quotation to use on my new page.
After I’d finished the cutting out, I downloaded the Snapseed app and took this photograph to play with on my new app!
Today I was working on the background, and scanned in the different stages to use as future collage material. As is often the case, I got sidetracked into doing some digital blending 🙂
This is the result – pretty colourful, yes? You’ll have to wait till tomorrow to see the finished page as the final layer is still drying at the moment!
Blogalong with Effy!
I’ve not been blogging very regularly of late, so when I got effy’s newsletter today and saw that she was hosting a blogalong during August, I thought it would be a good idea to sign up in an attempt to complete thirty posts in thirty days!
Meanwhile, I’ve been back to playing catch up with the Life Book 2013 lessons. I started with Danita’s great class entitled Key to Freedom. The class started with a link to this cool podcast from Tarah Brach
The theme of the lesson corresponded exactly with the July Rumi Project quote over at the Glitterhood, so I had to incorporate it!
“Why do you stay in prison,when the door is so wide open?”
I started out by drawing the girl and the cage in pencil, then painted them using masking fluid before journalling on the background using a white gellyroll pen. I then painted over everything using Twinkling H2O’s. When everything was dry, I peeled off the masking fluid, coloured the girl using neocolour crayons and painted the cage with Twinkling H2O’s. Lastly I wrote the Rumi quote using a white Uni Paint Marker.
This week’s class was from Dina Wakley.
I started the page with a coat of white gesso then added some collaged book pages and old scanned artwork. Next I dripped some ink down the centre of the page and journalled across it, then placed a silhouette mask I created over the top and used acrylic paint to cover most of the page around the mask. I used stencils to add some interest to the background, and lastly, added some detail to the silhouette using a Stabilo All pencil and white acrylic paint. I found creating this page very therapeutic – thank you Dina.