The Universe has been conspiring to make me experiment in my art journal. Over the last several days, three art-related groups I participate in have had ‘experimentation’ as the goal. Chelle Stein at journal52.com set this week’s prompt to “EXPERIMENT!” and told us to experiment with techniques or supplies we had not used before. Tammy Garcia at daisyyellowart.com posted an Art Journal Tangent and Tactics video called “Paradise” with the instruction of using heavy body acrylics and a stencil and letting our art journal pages take us where they wanted to go, i.e. EXPERIMENT. Connie Hozvicka at dirtyfootprints-studio.com posted an Art Journal Wisdom tutorial (Day 7) called…..you guessed it!…..EXPERIMENT.
Okay, so I experimented! I started with a two-page spread in my 7×10 art journal on which I had wiped heavy black acrylic off my brush from another project. I had also stamped an unmounted stamp that I had just received to see how it would look without mounting it on a block (not too good).
Step 1: Where I started
Next I used my favorite 9×12 ‘mod’ stencil from Joggles and Radiant Rain Shimmering Mists in hot pink and blue that I received in a grab bag of art supplies and had never tried out. The next two images show the effect of spraying the mists through the stencil onto the spread. The closeup shows the shimmer of the mists on the black paint but overall the shimmer isn’t really noticeable.
Step 2: Radiant Rain Shimmering Mists through Joggles Stencil
Next I decided to collage onto the pages. I went through the stash of small collage elements that I had sitting in a box on my desk. I randomly chose a few and collaged them to the journal pages using gel medium. I found out that the Radiant Rain shimmering mists are permanent and do NOT re-activate with moisture. That’s a good thing.
Step 3: Adding collage elements
After completing the collage and letting the gel medium dry, I finished up the pages by outlining the collage elements with Crayola Portfolio Oil Pastels (which I had never tried before); doodling in various places with a white Signo Broad pen and/or a black Fude pen; hand-lettering ‘Bee-You-Ti-Full Experiment’ on the right page. The final pages can be seen below.
Step 4: Doodle and journal to finish pages
I have to say, I had fun doing these pages! I had no expectations and I really got into the flow of things. Do I love the end product? Not really. I do love the grunge look that the black paint brought to the spread and I love individual pieces of the two pages but I think that overall the spread is too busy for my taste and is without any real discernable focal points. I’m pretty sure I would have liked it better with just the black paint, shimmering mists, and some doodles (and maybe a tiny piece of collage on each page).
But I EXPERIMENTED! That’s what is important. I learned about products I hadn’t used before. I learned what I like and don’t like. I got out of my head and let the art take me to an unknown destination. And I love that! My journal pages may not be beautiful but they are BEE-YOU-ti-FULL!
I hope you do something creative also this beautiful Autumn Sunday!
Ain't No Ninny 
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