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.

Art Journal Page: Embrace the Magic

This year, I've been trying to use more of the magazine images and other ephemera that I've been hoarding. This page came from trying to use up some pictures from a Harry Potter page-a-day calendar. It's not my favorite page ever, but to be honest, it came out better than I thought it would. In the past when I've tried to do collages like this,they never really looked very good. There was always something not quite right about them. But this one turned out okay. The only thing I really don't like is Ollivander's hair (the man in the top right corner). In person it's not quite that bright, but still. It would probably help if I got my "real" camera out and stopped using my iPod to take pictures, but I know me and that's just not going to happen.

Project Life week 8

Week 8 is done! Kind of a boring week, really. Nothing much happened.

I used the yellow and gray labels I used last week. I'm still not really loving them, but I wanted the two facing pages to match. I probably won't use them again, unless I get lazy (which, quite frankly, is very likely).

Art Journal page: Limited Edition

Here is my most recent art journal page. To do the background, I used masking tape to make a grid and used several colors of spray inks. The tape I used was cheapy stuff from the dollar store and it didn't stick down very well, but I rather like the look where the ink seeped under the tape. I drew in the grid lines with a black marker. The girl was drawn on a book page, painted with acrylic paint and outlined with Glaze pens. She was cut out, glued down, and outlined with black gelato. There's also some washi tape at the bottom, mostly because she looked weird without something to ground her. The words say "You are a perfect limited edition." The blobs around the words started out as circles with little asterisks or maybe flowers in them, but when I was smearing the gelato around them, they turned into blobs, probably due to the cheap cardstock they were printed on. I may go back and try to cover them or somehow fix it. Right now, I can't think of anything to do that isn't likely to make it worse. Oh well, I still like the page overall, and I'm rather proud of the girl. Faces really aren't my strong suit and I've been practicing a lot this year trying to improve. I'm especially proud of her nose. You can actually tell it's a nose! And I did it without erasing 500 times.

 

The background- I almost left it as it was because I liked it so much.

I think I may have mentioned in an earlier post that I find this art journal a bit intimidating. The pages are twice the size of the journal I used last year and somehow I feel like each page has to be pretty and complete before I move on to the next page. In last year's journal, I did a lot more experimenting, mostly because I has no idea what I was doing. I intend to keep working in this journal, but I decided that I needed another outlet. So I made an art journal from scratch. It's tiny- only about 4 1/2 by 3. The cover was made from a box of those little packets of flavoring for bottled water and the pages are all from my scrapbook paper scraps.

I absolutely love this journal. I've been doodling in it and glued in some book page scraps that were too small to keep. I haven't started painting in it, but when I do, I don't plan to worry too much about messing up other pages. I just wanted a place where I could go wild. So I made me one! It doesn't really look like much and I probably put too much paper in it- I'm using a rubber band to keep it shut and I've barely started working in it, but I really just love it!

Project Life week 7

I'm running a little late this week, but it's done now, so yay!
I bought these yellow and gray labels at a discount store this week. They don't really match my color scheme, but they were $0.50 for 150 and I don't have to print and cut them out like the ones I used the past few weeks. I'm not sure if I'll keep using them or not. I think I prefer the others.

Art Journal page: Rainbow Connection

One of my goals for the year is to use more ephemera than I keep. I have a tendency to store it away in case I ever want to use it and then never use it. I have a box full of pictures cut from magazines and catalogs from five or ten years ago that are just not my style anymore. I can't see myself using them, but I don't want to just throw them out. So I'm trying not to add to the stash of stuff I'll never use.

This page was inspired by the blue, cloud-shaped bit at the bottom of the page. It's a tag off of a pair of Old Navy jeans that says "The Dreamer" (Well, said. I added an S.) When I saw the tag, I decided to use it right away. The words got me thinking and the song, "Rainbow Connection" popped into my head. If you don't know the song, click here. Fair warning: it's sung by Kermit the Frog.

With that song stuck in my head, this was the only page I could do. It's not my favorite page ever, but I kinda like it.

Project Life week 6

Here's week 6!

Art Journal page: True Colors

Here is my newest art journal page. I wasn't sure where I was going with it at first. I was just playing around with some spray inks on the background and decided to try out a magazine cutout as a mask. I sponged black paint over it, and outlined the figure with white gel pen. The words are the lyrics to the song "True Colors" by Cyndi Lauper. It just popped into my head and I decided to use it.

The background before adding the black paint.

Sherlock Keychain

I am a huge fan of the BBC TV show, Sherlock. If you haven't seen it, you should really check it out. It's awesome!

Due to the long wait between seasons, I've been getting antsy for season 3. I've been getting a bit obsessed with photos of rebuilding the sets, watching old interviews with the actors and writers, reading theories as to exactly what happened in the last episode and what will happen in the next, and things like that. (Yes, I do realize that I need to get a life, but I'm perfectly happy as I am.)

I made a Sherlock keychain. I didn't really need a new keychain, but once I had the idea, I had to make it. And once I made it I had to use it. The pictures on it won't make much sense if you haven't watched the show. (So go watch it- now!) I painted the base purple in honor of the purple shirt.

 

I made the keychain like I make Scrabble tile pendants; it's just a bit larger. Click here for a tutorial that's similar to the process I used. I just used both sides. If you have any questions, feel free to ask!

Project Life week 5

I really don't have anything to say so here's Week 5:

It's nothing spectacular, but it's done and that's what counts!