Stencil It!

It is week 43 of 52 in the year 2014 and the last week in October. That’s apropos of nothing, I suppose, except that there are only nine more weeks in this year to create what I want to create . . .  so I better get crackin’!

In my weekly art journal group journal52.com  the prompt for this week is “Stencil It!” and the instructions were to either use a stencil on our page or to create/cut a stencil.  Well, it just so happens I have a TON of stencils.  I have been going through all of them this week to organize and hang them on a special rod I created in the closet in my craft room so that I can more readily find them when I want them.  The whole pile was just sitting on my desk when I saw this week’s art journal prompt.  So I selected four stencils that I thought I could use together to create a background in my art journal.

I started with a page in my large Ranger Ink Dylusions journal where I had previously cleaned off a paint brush with dark blue paint.  Over that I laid a StencilGirl stencil by Traci Bautista called Circles Circles ( http://tinyurl.com/m3leaz2 ) and dabbed coral pink, light blue, yellow and white acrylic paint through it using a cosmetic sponge.  This is what it looked like.

I then stenciled over the top of that with the StencilGirl exclusive club stencils by Mary Beth Shaw for October 2014 ( http://www.stencilgirlproducts.com/v/vspfiles/assets/images/1SCOct2014Main.jpg) using the same four colors.  This created a background 3 layers deep with blues, pinks, yellows and whites.

I knew I would be putting a quote on the page but I thought it needed something more, a focal point.  I saw a ‘girl’ in the page and I sketched her in with a charcoal pencil, using the larger circles as an outline.

I then painted the girl but decided to leave her eyes closed to go with the quote.  I also used a smaller circle by the girl to paint a cat sitting next to her.  I printed out the quote by Marcus Aurelius and collaged that onto the page.  I finished by outlining the girl and the quote with a Stabilo All pencil in black, smudging it a bit.

Overall, I’m very happy with the page.  I made use of my stencil stash, I used a page in my art journal that had previously just been sitting there with smears of blue paint, and I painted a whimsical girl (something that’s very difficult for me).

I’m glad I created today and hope you’ve been creative too!

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Journal 52 Week 21, Prompt: Mandalas

The prompt for this last week’s journal page was “mandalas”.  I usually draw and create my own mandalas from scratch starting with a hard-lead pencil in my journal then finishing with Micron pens and coloring with alcohol marker.  But I wanted to do something more organic this time.  Mandala means circle in sanskrit.  The circle symbolizes eternity or completion of a cycle or homeostatis/balance.  That made me think of the principles of Yoga and all the elements in Nature that are organically complete and balanced. 

Materials used:

• Dylusions Journal 9×12
• Acrylic paint (different brands and types and colors)
• Gelli plate monoprints that I had previously created on copy paper and deli-paper (this formed the background and the cutout flower, spirals, snake)
• Stencils by StencilGirl and (the webbed design) by TCW
• Pitt artist big brush pens in black, purple, and green
• Sharpie paint pen in white
• Sakura gelly roll gel pen in white
• Micron pen in black (.03)
• Washi tape (to form the header)

And this was the result which I think turned out well.  I really love the colors.

 

 

Journal 52 Weekly Art Journal (Week 20: Book Inspiration)

I have been participating in a weekly art journal workshop Journal 52 ( http://journal52.com/ ) since January.  It provides prompts and motivation to keep creating week after week. I have not missed a week yet, even though I have not posted all of my attempts to my blog and sometimes I am ‘late’ in creating my art journal pages. But I’m doing it!

The prompt for last week was “Book Inspired”.  Almost two years ago I wrote a novel (as part of National Novel Writing Month – NaNoWriMo).  It is mystery that takes place both in 1840’s Ohio and 21st Century Arizona. Part of the mystery is how two main characters in the book are connected across centuries. My book remains unfinished and unedited. There is still a lot of work to do before I can even think of trying to publish it. But it inspired me to complete this journal prompt. I tried to make this page look vintage, much like the 175 year old diary that is central to solving the mystery.

This is a mixed media collage.  I started with a torn blank page from my Dylusions journal.  I adhered torns bits from a printed page from my book to the journal page using Liquitex matte gel medium.  Then I used a generic background stencil and acrylic paints in two colors to ‘antique’ the text.  I collaged on two faces printed out from online images and smudged around them with raw sienna paint to make them blend better.  Then I used a vintage border stamp and black archival ink across sections of the page and stenciled words across the page using a StencilGirl stencil by Seth Apter and acrylic paint.  I used a fluer-de-lis stencil on the corners of the images to make them look like photographs from a family album.  Finally, I scanned the page into iPhoto and used the ‘Antique’ and ‘Edge Blur’ effects to tone down the paint colors and make it look more vintage. 

Sometimes You Just Have to Play in the Garden

Spring is rapidly turning into Summer here in Arizona.  Everything is in bloom and the birds, butterflies, and bees are frolicing in spite of the growing heat.  Yesterday I received the May set of stencils created by artist Terri Stegmiller from the StencilGirl’s stencil club.  They are perfect for Spring and Summer cards, mixed media pieces, art journal pages….just about anything.  I was so excited, I wanted to stop everything and play with them!

I didn’t have much time before dinner, so I used only the 6″ flower and bee stencil.  Looking around for something to create with, I noticed I had a piece of copy paper sitting on my desktop that I had used to clean off my paint brayer with.  It was already covered with old orange and blue acrylic paint and a few blobs of other colors but, since I wasn’t trying for perfection with this piece, it was perfect.  I outline-stenciled flowers on top of the old paint using a black Sakura gelly roll pen (which will write over almost anything).  I did the same with the bees.  I ‘painted’ the coneflowers and the bees with Pitt big brush artist pens, letting the old paint shine up through the new India ink giving it some dimension and depth. I knew I wanted a little more yellow in the flower petals so I used a yellow Sharpie paint pen to add lemony opacity to the flowers. I used a white correction pen to add dots to the brown stamens.  I added the ‘Bzzzzz’ from the stencil between the bees using a black Pitt big brush pen then used a white gelly roll pen to add dots to the letters to make them pop. Finally, I outlined the paint blobs at the top of the page which looked like butterflies to me.  Voila!  A garden to play in!

I will add this to my ‘play around’ art journal.