Layers of Paint

This month on the Documented Life Project it is all about layers. I didn't want to do another collage type page so I decided to try to think of a way to do paint layers.

 I used my Cuttlebug machine to cut out a whole field of flowers from some post it notes. The Post-its I used have sticky stuff across the whole page (not just the top edge) so when I stuck them down they would stay. I was able to cut through 5 layers of Post-it notes at a time with the machine. I used the flowers, leaves and a couple of butterflies. It took about 5 minutes but you could draw and cut out if you had another idea.Some other objects that would look great would be a flock of birds, butterflies, dragonflies, hearts, circles or squares for an abstract look.

  I wanted to use transparent paints so that each color is changed by the color underneath it. I started with the lightest and worked along. Oops, just realized the blues are in the wrong order. I used the manganese blue before the phthalo blue.

I masked off a border that would stay white because I like the way it looks and it stops the paint going onto other pages.  I stuck a few flowers and things down. These will be white at the end so I didn't do too many. I went over the whole lot with the lightest yellow keeping it very pale at the top of the page because I don't want to make the sky too green. I let it dry.

 I added a few more of the cut outs and went over the bottom half of the page with the medium yellow. Again I let it dry. This is important because if it is not dry the post-its might come off and you risk lifting off some of your first layers of paint.

I started to get into my painting about this time and forgot to take a photo of the first couple of blue layers. The manganese blue didn't cover very well so I did two layers of that over the whole page (making the sky color), then added more flowers and some of the leaves. This photo was taken after the first layer of phthalo blue was done. 

I did a second layer of the phthalo blue to make the background a bit darker. I let it dry. A quick note about composition here: as you add the flowers allow them to overlap and also go off the edge of the page. The overlapped flowers that are darker will look like they are further back in the finished piece. The flowers going off the edge of the page looks more natural when there are so many.

I wanted more contrast at the base of the picture so I added a few stems that I cut out with scissors and the final few leaves. I went over the base area with magenta. I knew this would make a dark brownish color so I used a paper towel to blot some of it off. I also added a tiny bit of the pink near the top of some of the flowers where the blue color would make it a purple color. It is barely noticeable.

I couldn't wait to see if it had worked out so I tried to remove one of the butterflies but the paper was too wet and split so I left it to dry.

When it was dry I removed all of the post-its carefully. Some of them were a little stuck around the edges but when I rubbed a little they all came off. You can see where some of the paint has bled under the post-its but I don't mind that look. I thought about doing some pen work around the flowers but decided not too. I like the way it is soft looking so I am calling it done.  

I think this would look good with other colors too. Try to stick with only 2 primary colors, like red and yellow, blue and yellow or red and blue. If you use all three you will make brown. I know I used red at the end but it was very limited and I knew how dark it would go. If you are not sure about your colors, layer them on scrap paper first to see what you will get. Some paints are not as transparent as the Golden fluids are and I chose only the most transparent ones.They do have a few opaques in their range that wouldn't work here.
I encourage you to give it a try, it is a lot of fun and no drawing skills are needed.

Under paper

This week the art challenge at DLP was to use under paper. At first I didn't know what that was, like a lot of other people. It turns out that it is the paper you spread out under your artwork to catch the extra paint that spills off the edge of the page. I hadn't thought of keeping it before because it doesn't look that great to me and I would prefer to make nicer paper to use but as my goal this year is to try new things I decided to give it a go.

I didn't have very much paper to choose from on my desk but managed to find a few pieces of copy paper that I had used under my pages and some of the paper towel that I blot my brushes on. The prompt this week was 'what lies beneath' which made me think of the ocean. I found a great quote so made a little under sea scene.

The copy paper with acrylics and watercolor on it was easy to use. The paper towel that had mainly watercolor on it did not work out so well. When I glued the towel to the page the water in the glue made the colors run and it looked really dull and muddy when it dried. I scribbled on some Inktense pencils in the same color as the original towel and wet them to make the colors bright again. I won't be saving paper towel to use in my future projects and only really attractive under papers. I would prefer to use gelatin plate printed papers instead.

My writing exercise for this week was to use a paint brush to do the lettering. I found that fairly easy to do but the color I used didn't stand out against the similar background so I used a fine-liner to go around each letter. Looking at it now I think I should have outlined with black to match the rest of the page. I will leave now and go do that. See you next week.

Try, try, try again...

This week my Documented Life page was quite a long journey to get to the end. I wasn't sure whether I should share the whole journey but decided it may help some people. The prompt this week was words with friends and the art challenge writing.

 I started my page with 3 colors that appealed to me. Turquoise, magenta and pale pink. They seemed like pretty colors for a page about my friends. I randomly applied them with a brush.

 

Next I used a rubber brayer to spread more of those colors on the page and blend the paint that was already there. At this stage I could have left it and used the background like this but I wanted to use a bit more of the light color.

I added more pale pink then thought it was too much so I spread more of the other colors around too. Again the page could be left like this and finished off but I decided my images and writing wouldn't stand out on this busy background. 

I covered a lot of the page with the green and left just a little of the other colors peeking through. I decided to leave this overnight to dry and see if I liked it better in the morning. 

In the morning I decided the background was too dark so I covered the whole page with a little white paint using my brayer. I was thought that was it now.  I got out some scraps of paper to do the paper piecing and when I put them on the background they didn't stand out at all. I needed a dark background for the paler colors of my paper.

 I went through my stash and found this container of Moon Shadow Ink. It has been open for a while and the ink had evaporated into a really thick brown goo. Perfect! I spread it over  the page and then splashed on a few drips of water. The water lifted the ink in spots so I blotted them off and finally was happy with the background.

Looking back I can see that the colors I chose at the beginning did not work with the papers I had for the cups so that is probably why I didn't think the background was right. Lesson learned - to trust my instincts!

 The finished page. I sketched some cups, cut them out of paper scraps and glued them to the page. I added some black and white pen details. I wrote the quote out to look like stripes across the background. It was quite a journey but the finished page pleases me and reminds me of many cuppas shared with wonderful people I love to call friends.

In this photo you can see the metallic pigments of the ink. When I turn the page in my journal it catches the light.

  

 My handwriting for this week is another idea from the Creative Lettering book. I used my own writing and added the little flowers like the example in the book.

Each month I am also doing an extra page of watercolor paper. I will add 4 images to about that month. For me that means summer and Australia Day.

A color wheel

This weeks challenge for DLP was a color wheel. I decided to do color wheel sections full of things that are one of the six primary and secondary colors. I wanted to keep it simple with my technique this week so I only used a lead pencil to sketch and watercolors to fill in the details, no mixed media this time.

I had to gesso my page first because the watercolors seep right through the paper in this journal so I can't really blend them like I would if they were on watercolor paper. I picked easy things to draw because I didn't want to spend too long on this one.

The quote is the one we were given for inspiration. I came across an old lettering book from my scrapbooking days that I used for the words this time. The book is The Art of Creative Lettering by Becky Higgins. I think it will be a great resource for my art journals.

Textured gesso...again

Okay, I know I have shared this technique before but I do like it a lot! The challenge this week for DLP (Documented Life Project) was to use gesso so I went a little crazy with it.

 I started my page with some random book paper glued down with matte medium. Most of it will not be visible so I didn't care which direction the text was in. I use clips to hold my pages down when I am using glue or gesso in journals so it doesn't shrink and curl the page as it dries.

 Next I used my very worn old sea sponge to apply gesso over the book paper. I tried not to cover the whole page because any areas without gesso will stain darker later on. It is a look that appeals to me. I took my book outside and used a heat gun to make the gesso bubble. It adds even more texture than just the sponge.

 I spread gesso through a stencil in a few areas to make even more texture. I was careful when lifting the stencil off so it doesn't smudge.

 Next I used the distress inks to colour the background. I started with the brightest blue and edged the page with the browns.

 The page was a little too bright for me so I decided to spray it with my dye sprays. That was a big mistake. The dyes washed most of the distress ink off and changed the gesso to blue. I quickly wiped the whole lot off with a paper towel. Now I had a mess but I kept going.

I redid the distress inks but I left out the really bright blue this time. In the final image I also added a little green distress ink to tie the images in to the background more.

The final page, almost. I stamped the birds on separate paper, colored them with pencils and cut them out. The are glued to the page with matte medium. I wrote the quote out with a black permanent pen.

 

I thought the writing didn't stand out enough so I colored in the letters with a green pencil. Now it really is done. 

Documented Life Project

I decided to join the documented life project this year because they are going to do a year of art journaling and it looks like fun. I had already decided to do a year long journal after buying the 'No excuses art journal book' so I am combining the two ideas.

The first prompt for DLP is: be your own goal keeper and the challenge is to use book paper. My main goal this year is to experiment with my art and use familiar materials in unexpected ways.

I started with a blank journal and drew in my own planner, leaving a lot of blank area for art. I did not rule the lines because I wanted it to look handmade. I slapped on two blue colors of acrylics for the background. When it dried I also sprayed it with brown but later on washed off those spots because they were distracting to my eye.

I have 4 books that I use for my mixed media work. 3 of them were falling apart already and the 4th is an old Anne of Green Gables book that I chose because the words were nice. Be careful when you are choosing a book to use. Once I did a class where the teacher bought an old book for a couple of dollars only to find during the class it was full of violence and swear words so nobody wanted to use it, lol.

 I painted one page with blue for the water and while it was still damp I tore it into strips leaving a white edge. I used the brownest book for the sand. The wavy edge comes from tearing across the grain. Any type of paper has a grain and when you tear in one direction you will get reasonably straight lines but if you give the page a quarter turn and tear, the lines will be uneven. The other objects were sketched on the book paper and cut out. The bird wings were done with cut out lines of print.

I glued down the water strips and then the sand. I used a clip to hold the page flat while it dried. With the sand I tried to put some blank areas between each of the printed strips to make them stand out more.  Later on I thought that I should have alternated them with some horizontal strips of print for an interesting look.

I used colored pencil along the edge of the sand to make it stand out. It probably would have been easier if I had done that before they were glued down! I also added a little blue pencil at the base of the waves for shading.

I glued everything down and added a little watery acrylics for color. I kept them watery so they would be transparent. I left the whole thing to dry before I added the shading. 

I did some outlining and shading around each of the parts of the picture. I used a Quick Kutz alphabet to cut the letters out of book paper and added them to my page with some shadows.

I have also bought the 'Whimsical Lettering' book so I am doing a different exercise from that book each week as well. Here I have used a pencil to doodle on the letters that I had cut out. In the book it is supposed to be marker doodles on letters that have been drawn with a marker but this is close enough. I am also adding the weather each day and a brief description and image of what I have done. I hope it will be an interesting journal/diary by the end of the year.

Post Christmas painting.

After a couple of hectic days of preparing and celebrating Christmas I usually like to spend the following day relaxing in my studio and doing a little painting. This year I got out a canvas and did one of the patterns I have been saving.

It is a Monika Brint pattern from an old Quick and Easy painting magazine (2007). I love her designs and sometimes it is nice to have the drawing already done by someone else. All the painting instructions come with the pattern and I mostly followed them except I wanted a blue sky. If you think want to learn to paint all the instructions that come with decorative painting patterns is a good place to start. Any one of the magazines or online sites will have many types of patterns you could try, from beginners to more experienced artists. That is how I started many years ago.