The Great Gatsby Party

Janie's collaged creation in Roz's Art Deco journal; my theme is a Great Gatsby Party.

This is the background paper I chose which was printed for me by Spoonflower. Roz's journal was a most unusual size as each page was approximately 7 x 11 inches, making a double spread about 22 inches wide. I decided to make separate but similarly themed pages. 

Left hand side page; spraying with Lindy's iridescent sprays and adding collaged elements sourced from Pinterest.

Left hand side completed; "The arrival"

Right hand side completed: "The dance"

Janie's Nature Art Journal by Pam.

The month of June saw the arrival of Janie's Nature Art Journal which is already looking very special. My entry was a little experimental as I decided to give watercolour a try. I painted the background with pretty pearlised watercolour but it didn't flow as it should.....(no idea).  So then I got some stencils out and my distress inks added the flowers and tres. Then some black paint for the dragonflies.  A lovely little butterfly arrived in some happy mail so it had to join in too.
The quote is from a song from the 50s by Al Hibler.

Hope you like it Janie.

Melissa Guest's Underwater Journal for May 2019 featuring the Water Babies; by Janie O'Brien

1. 

1. This month I managed to remember to get some shots as I progressed. Melissa provides a humungous journal with more than 120 pages, opening to A3. Too big? Yes I think so; postage is steep at more than $20.00 according to the label when I received it. The paper to work on though is very light and not really fit to paint on. Luckily for me I decided in advance to collage and I chose most of my papers from Pinterest or Google. The above picture shows the background sea water paper I decided for my background. I used photo quality Epson matt papers for my collage elements as these papers display colour really well.

Next I started adding my 'coral' elements

and more......

and more until the bottom 1/3 was filled with coral.

Finally, the top portion of the water was painted in green & turquoise, a snorkeler was added along with water babies fish. Touch ups with marker pens finally added accents.

The Fig Tree

If you are ever looking for me 

and there is a magnificent buttress rooted fig tree nearby, 

check there first. 

There can be nothing that says nature to me

 more than a fig tree,

 it embodies the essential divine feminine energy of earth for me. 

My page is quite simple 

and meaningful to me,

it is textural and was fun to play in.

Totally unplanned. 

These are my supplies plus a green and a brown marker.

Pondering the Exotic

Janie's Exotic arrived the other day and I was determined to get to it early this month, so I had thought about the spice markets and wonderful tiles and colours of Morocco as being about the most exotic thing I could imagine- however the lovely Lisa Jones already took Janie's journal to Morocco so the pondering continued. 

Thinking back over my life - what have I done that is exotic, I mean I love gardening and herbs and trees and art and making compost-  There was that time the circus came to town and I raced down there as they were leaving to collect the elephant poo to make my most exotic compost heap ever!

Hmm - maybe not- there are already elephants in Janie's journal and the other images, well nothing exotic came to mind, however the kaffir lime tree and the lemongrass that eventually got that compost loved it. 

Oh well, I had some time to play today so bugger it I will just jump in and let it unfold.  

I started with a magenta oil pastel - that is pretty exotic, right?

and I scrawled the word exotic across the double page.

Looking around my desk I spied the stencil I used for Alice so I grabbed 2 warm and 2 cool 'exotic' colours. I love pink and orange together, it makes me think of Indian sari's and teal is very exotic, as well as my favourite colour, next I picked ultramarine.  I played with the stencil to cover the page and my word.

It was wonderfully vivid, but all those blank spaces! Grab another exotic stencil and some black paint and work in strips to cover some of those spaces and I am loving it.

 Then I scratched off the acrylic paint from the oil pastel to re-expose my word and outlined it in a white posca paint pen.  And in all of that exotic- maybe even chaotic background what would be more exotic than a calm white egret.  He looks like the page was built around him- pulling the whole thing together.

 So I went in without any idea of where I would end up simply following my impulses and intuition and I am very happy with how it turned out and it was lots of fun.

The Wandering Mind

When I knew this was the next journal I would be working on I was thinking about elephants but Deb beat me to it! I spent a lot of time thinking about what exotic animal I could do or should I do exotic blooms or maybe a place in the end I just started sketching and this was the result

Next I started with watercolours and her face, while I was doing this I decided to add collage elements as well so I stopped and added the background then I moved onto the flowers. I decided to leave her hair white as there was so much going on.(maybe a little to much)

While I was working on another project I found the title, it just fitted so perfectly.

Three Whimsical Owls

Three Whimsical Owls

Wild and Free,

Hung prayers for peace

Up in their tree.

With wisdom and knowledge 

To spare

They pray for us all

Everywhere.

Grimms' Fairy Tales - Red Riding Hood Down-under for Jenny James by Janie O'Brien

Firstly, I painted my pages with water colour wash in appropriate outback sunset colours and sealed them with spray-on British Paints "Spray Easy" Clear Gloss. I "fussy" cut all my collage elements and readied them for placement.

I then proceeded to stick down all my collage elements in layers, letting each layer dry before proceeding with the next one.

I finished adding my elements - the wolf (thylacine) and the cockatoos flying, and adding more colour by paint and metallic sprays to achieve the desired atmosphere.

details left side

detail, right side

Just Janie in Annabelle's journal

Janie's page in Annabelle Reid's journal. 

I have given a brief overview of my procedures under each picture. Annabelle, I hope you enjoy my art, cheers. Your journal is called Just You and the piece of art I've created is a collage  which I love doing and represents my love of the whimsical.

This is the beginning. Annabelle has provided A4 watercolour sheets with an A5 flap. First I spray the page with walnut frosted in, then stamp selected images and lastly, stick down torn Australiana papers. Click on images to enlarge.

I have previously selected images from my stash and fussily cut them out. I scatter the images onto the page and begin to make a careful selection and placement for them. These are changed around for a while until I'm completely satisfied with the result; then I stick them all down. Lastly I use black and white inks to enhance some of the images, then I apply a spray lacquer.

Panel 1

panel 1 part 2

panel 2 (underneath the flap)

panel 3 (top of the flap)

Entire image with under flap showing. Click on image to enlarge.

Wendy's Layout in Janie's SIMPLY WHIMSICAL

Before I started work in Janie's Journal, I thought to myself how far I have grown when it comes to working in another artists journal. I remember my very first swap and the feeling of being so very nervous that I would make some sort of mistake in that person's journal. Then I looked down at the blank page in Janie's SIMPLY WHIMSICAL journal and couldn't wait to start experimenting...lol.

I gave the page a light layer of gesso and have wanting to try the 'streaking' or dragging effect for some time, so why not now! I can always paint over it if it doesn't turn out. After the gesso dried, I used a paint spatular to drag a few colours from top to bottom and bottom to top to get the streaking I was hoping for. Not quite happy with the way it was going by using the spatular, I ended up using a dry hard bristled brush and found this gave me the more smudgier look, which is what I was looking for. I then used a few stencils using the same paint colours that had already been placed on the background.

When I was happy with the background, the whimsical feeling arose when I thought about using some of my 'skatter cats'. I had recently used a few of these cats in another journal and as I save all my templates of anything I draw,,,yep!...too easy...I grabbed my skatter cats, gave them a bit more colour with some watercolour paints and they were ready to be placed on the page. I used a tacky glue to adhere them and then went round the cats with a wash on white paint and then highlighted then with a black watercolour pencil. The final touch was to write the word 'FRIENDS' above the middle skatter cats and my simply whimsical layout was finished. I really enjoyed just playing in Janie's journal and hope you all enjoy the outcome as well. Thank you.

P.S. I have also included the video below, if you would like to watch the whole process.

HAVE A GREAT DAY !!!!!

Janie's "Simply Whimsical" Journal page June 1 . 2017 "My world"