Annabelle's Under the Sea

I really enjoyed working in this journal. I started out doing a background using Gobal high flow paints as they are transparent 

I went from light to dark then put a sandy colour on the bottom and went over some of it with blue paint. I then added my collage pieces

I am sorry that this post isn’t very well done but Blogger isn’t very iPad friendly 

This isn’t  in the journal but it was my inspiration for the spread

I just couldn’t seem to stop lol I found so many whale pictures in my stash , I just had to use them all. The tiny diver is in scale to the whales. 

I found this picture of Neptune and I couldn’t leave him out, then my warped sense of humour kicked in

I finally added my quote and I was done with my fun !

Jan works in Pam's 'Inspired by Teesha' Journal

This is such a lovely colourful journal and all the pages are awesome and really go with the theme.
I chose to do one monotone page and one colourful. I have admired Teesha for many years as well and find her really inspiring.
I started by doing my borders and then filling the inside space. I have several Teesha stamps and also some collage sheets so i used these to complete my pages.
I hope you love them Pam as I certainly loved doing them.

This is the monotone one.

And the colourful one.

Colleen's Page in Joanna's Fairy Tale Journal

CINDERELLA

Joanna's journal is very wide when opened, so I thought I would do a story across the page.

I  love this theme of fairytales Joanna.

I started with a pastel background made using dylusions paint rubbed on with a babywipe. I added some collage pieces of painted napkin & glued on my images which were originally colouring in pages from Pinterest.

I coloured in the characters with a mixture of copics & other markers. This was not easy as the gel medium I used to glue them on with was resisting the colour. I apologies Joanna for some of the colouring which is patchy in places. With black ink I stamped some text & stars in the background & a larger star stamp was stamped with white paint. I then went around each area with a black pen & then with distress crayons around each one as well. I loved the distress crayons, they went on like smooth butter, but also resisted the writing. Life wasn't meant to be easy they say.

And they lived happily ever after.

Hope you like this Joanna, it will soon be home.

Joan works in Empowerment

Joans page in Lesley's "Empowerment Journal"

Lesley Journal is A4 and made up of lovely thick paper. The existing pages from other participants are all wonderful and so much better to see them in real life. 

This month I picked a quote I wanted to use first and then made the page to complement it.  I originally envisaged a spread with lots of white space, but it did not turn out that way.  As usual my mind had one thing in mind and my art muse had another.

I started by using a 12x12 stencil which has lots of small shapes randomly placed and translucent texture paste from Tim Holtz,  I used it all over the left page and on top and left side of the right page   I then used some Lindys magicals which are water colours to colour the left page.  As I said before at this point I was thinking lots of white area left uncoloured..I used greens, yellows, blues and pinks from different sets of magicals.  I really just wanted some drips but as usual I was heavy handed with the powers and ended up with lots more colour than I intended. The translucent textured paste took on the colours of the magicals beautifully.

On the right page I imagined a young women with lots of coloured hair making a statement of empowerment. As I can't draw I thought at first that I would cut one out from a magazine and collage on, but then I realised two things, A: as the journal is A4,  finding a face that I did not have to scan and enlarge  and still be able to print out in required size after cutting out was going to be a task in itself.  B: as the page was all about empowerment, should'nt I take the bull by the horn and try to draw my own face and have enough courage to use it. And so it came to pass that I drew freehandly a face on the right side and painted her up with some other watercolors I had.  Apart from vampire like teeth and a long crooked skinny nose, it was passable.  I could live with it mostly but not that nose, so I covered it up and tried again.   The journal then sat on my table for a few days, whilst I decided if I was going to let her live or was going to gesso her out completely.  By the time I had fiddled with her nose and eyes each day she waited, she kinda grew on me and I decided she could stay. I later on  added some feathers and bling to her hair and dress.

After adding some background stamping to both pages, I decided it still needed something. I then added some more magicals, this time some orange and pinks. I also dragged out some gold leaf sheets I bought about 9 months ago but had not yet used.  The foils were a beautiful copper base with green and blue type effects so fitted in with the colours already on the page. The pictures do not do justice to the fantastic sheen and colour of these.  I rubbed on first one colour where I had placed the size and later on when I accepted that I was not going to have much white space and that I should embrace the page that was emerging, I add a heap more in a slightly different colour pattern. I put it on the left page and only on the right page where the textured paste pattern was. I also added a small amount to her hair.

I then stuck on some borders I had in compatible colours to left and right pages.  The left got a multicolour one and the right a metallic pink one. Just as I had decided that it was probably done, and I should print out my quote and put it on, I found a packet of bright gold leaves on a banner. Probably a purchase from an op shop at some time, and I thought I had to add some of these to the page.  As they were gold rather than bronze I painted them with a bronze inka gold paste. I added one to the girl's hair and two to ground my quote.  The quote is from Coco Chanel.

I then sprayed the whole page with a matt protective spray. It is very different from what I imagined when I started out, but I started this year saying that I was going to let the art have control rather than my right brain, so hopefully this is proof that I am succeeding somewhat.  I hope you like it Lesley. 

Inital face

After I change the nose 

My spread in Annabelle's "BE YOU" Journal

I started with a torn paper collaged background and added paint and pixie powder pigments for colour.

This is a flap that I treated differently.

I used a Dyan Reavely Stencil/Mask with black gesso to create 3 figures (Me).

Added some Washi Tape and Inca Gold in Silver to the background.

I did a lot more fiddling with colour,etc until I felt it was finished.

Fairytales and Mermaids & Seahorses.

I have been a little slack at the blogging so am in catch up mode today bringing you few photos of my creations from the last two journals I have been working in.

I chose Rumpelstiltskin as my theme for Jenny's Tales by Brothers Grimm Journal. 

This theme was going to stretch me so I decided to push even further outside of my comfort zone. I decided to play with some Gelli Prints and other papers and pieced them all together to create my scenes, and I drew some quick somewhat scribbly characters.

I chose to depict two parts of this tale.  I apologize for the quality of the first few photos as they were rushed and not checked prior to sending the journal on its way..

The first being where Rumpelstiltskin appears to the Millers Daughter whilst she was locked in a room in the castle claiming he could turn the straw into gold for her.  My straw bale was created by me cutting and sticking down bits of paper cord. 

The second when one of the men who the Millers Daughter now Queen sent out to find out all the known names of man in the region stumbled upon a small man dancing around the fire in a clearing in the woods.


The second Journal was Sharon's Mermaids and Seahorses Journal  For this I started with a quote I love and went from there. 

I layered paint and gelatos to create my watery background.  Then concentrating on the sea floor I used a little texture paste and some stencils and stamps to add the seagrass, shells and starfish  To create that mysterious feel in line with my quote I chose to work with Distress Oxides and added some stenciled mermaids and more sea creatures  before adding a few extra fish and my seahorses stamped with black ink to give them the appearance of being closer as we look out through the water.

I am getting excited as this was my first journal swap and it won't be long now until we receive our own journals back and I get to see all the beautiful art in this as I have totally loved seeing the wonderful art in everyone else's as they have arrived each month. 

The Three Spinners

Jenny's travelling art journal

"Once Upon A Time"

Tales by the Brothers Grimm

has been sitting in my studio all month calling to me whilst I was madly finishing off the biggest collaborative painting I have ever done. 

I struggled for a long time finding a tale or story that felt right for me and inspired me in some way.

Eventually I started to panic about my looming deadline and laid down the background stencil. I knew I wanted to play with my new supplies and once those decisions were made things started to flow more easily. Its funny how just a couple of little steps can get you started on a page.

I still had to choose a tale, I liked some of the animal characters but not the dark and mean themes I found in many of the stories. 

Finally I settled on 

"The Three Spinners"

Mainly because they were 3 kind supportive women and apart from a frustrated mother there were no dark characters.

Of course I enjoyed it once I started to relax and play, the art is the easy bit, it's the chosing what to do that is the tricky part.

 There are threads of words and thinking that connect us through time and space. Reading stories of the Grimm Brothers it is wonderful to see how far we as a species have evolved, and also how we have maintained so many traits.

Oh and that huge painting I have been working on for the last 8 months- "Magnolia Cottage" Fully painted ( and restored) inside and out - yay team!