Using fabric in an art journal.

The challenge from DLP was to use fabric on a page. I learned this technique from Jane Davenport.

•   I used clips to hold a teflon craft sheet to the pages underneath the one I was going to work on the protect them from the glue. This left the top page free. 

• I laid my scrap of silk fabric over the page, adding extra pieces on the right to fill the page. 
• I spread Liquitex Matte Medium on top of the fabric making sure it soaked through onto the paper so it would glue the fabric down. It is important to let it dry for several hours or overnight before drawing on it. 
• When I came back I could see a couple of bubbles in the fabric where it hadn't stuck down so I applied more matte medium and let it dry again.
• I trimmed the fabric back to the edge of the page.

•  It is hard to erase on the fabric covered page so I laid tracing paper on top and sketched my design. This way I could see where to place the people on the fabric design.
• I used white Saral paper (like carbon paper) to transfer the girls to the page. This was a dumb idea because it was a bit too waxy and showed up later when I was painting. I should have used graphite paper. I went over the traced image with a pencil so I could see it better.

•  I used acrylic paints to color in the image, leaving the girls' dresses untouched. 
• Initially I left a border around the page (you can see the outline in the sketched image above). When I painted the purple background color in I didn't like the colored border distracting from the girls' dresses so I painted over it with blue, letting the color blend with the still wet background. 
• I started to add shading on the dresses with watery paint but it went through to the next page so I stopped and let the page dry.

• I used colored pencils to do the shading and hair details. 
• I glued some gold thread to page. It is Lurex and even though it gets squashed when I close the book it springs back when the page is viewed. I expect it will be squashed permanently one day.

The quote that inspired this page is:
Some people weave burlap into the fabric of our lives and some weave gold thread. Both contribute to make the whole picture beautiful and unique - Anon.

An abstract page

The word I used for my DLP page was ink. The prompt was 'before the ink dries' and I was going to try and do something with that but my ink was drying before I had time to do anything with it.

I coated my page with gesso first and let it dry. This journal I am using is like blotting paper and any wet media goes straight through to the next page if I don't gesso first. I took out 3 bottles of Dr PH Martins Bombay india ink to use (teal, brown and yellow). I used a paint brush to randomly apply some swishes of the yellow ink first. Uh oh...it was a lot brighter than I thought so I tried to use water to mute it but it was already dry and permanent. Next I put the teal right on top of the yellow and added a few brown swishes too. I sprayed water on top and tilted the page so everything would run together. While it was wet I flicked on a few brown dots too and then left it to dry. The next day I tried to find an image in the ink but all I could see was a few butterflies. I did them and then started outlining the painted shapes. After that I filled in some areas with doodles and added white pen doodles too. It is not my usual style but it was great fun to do.