Art Journal Page: Cave Painting

This page is called Cave Painting because that's what it reminds me of and I couldn't really think of anything else to call it. I welcome suggestions. It features my dog, Annabelle Dangermouse, who is a very spoiled, almost eight years old rat terrier.

I started this page by ripping a brown paper bag into squares, which I then crumpled into balls. I sprayed them with water and let them dry crumpled up. I'm not sure why I wet them. I may have read it on a blog or seen it in a tutorial video, but I really don't remember. It just seemed like a good idea at the time. The next day when I went to flatten them, the paper was very crispy. That's not really the word I mean, but it's close enough. I tried to flatten them a bit, by rubbing them on the edge of my desk like you do a dollar bill that won't go into a vending machine, but I didn't try real hard. I wanted to keep the texture.

I glued the squares onto my page, and using a make up sponge, I spread some gesso, mostly on the high spots, but on some of the lower spots too.

At this point, I thought it might look kinda cool with a silhouette in black.  My dog has very distinctive ears, so I thought I'd use her. There was a lot of empty space due to the width of her ears, so using q-tips, I painted some dots in various colors around the edges.

While I liked the dots, the silhouette looked funky, and not in a good way. I think the problem was that the picture I used as a guide for her head shape was taken from above instead of straight on. To make it look less like an alien, I painted her white stripe. Is it still called a blaze if it's not on a horse? Anyway, I like it much better now.

For comparison, although this is not the picture I used as a guide. There aren't very many pictures of Annabelle with her ears up because if she sees the camera, she runs or looks away.