Art Journal Adventure: August 2017

So in between my October projects, I managed to complete my August pages.

The Art Journal Adventure is hosted at Joggles.com and they have a Facebook group for sharing. Find the details on the link.

Let's dive!

Week 32: Water: Octopi:  With the theme of water, I just decided to pull out all the octopus stamps I have. (and wouldn't you know I did forget one. On the up side, it's probably too large to make it into a single page layout along with all the rest.) I'm not a big fan of fussy cutting so I knew I wanted to stamp the octopus on the page directly. I'm also not a big fan of coloring in a background around focal images. Sooo...I stamped the octopi directly over the blue background. I used Moonlight Sakura gelly roll pens to color them in. It worked way better than I thought it would. Those pens are really opaque so they came out well on the colored surface. (I did lose some color intensity as it dried but I didn't mind that as these sea creatures are supposed to be underwater.)    

Week 33: Mythology/Fairy Tales: St. George and the Dragon:  This was just a quick page with nothing special about it. I just wanted to preserve that sheet of paper I've been hoarding for years. Remember that Once Upon a Time paper pack from DCWV? I think you can still get it. The papers are so cool that I don't like to use them. So why not just preserve the stuff I like.

Week 34: Patchwork or Mosaic: Luna:  I called this page Luna because the sticky snippet in the center (on the yellow square) reminds me of the moon. It has a lot more detail to it that the photo suggests. All these bits of paper came out of my scrap pile and I used up some old stickers as well. The doodling is done with a metallic gelly roll pen.

 Week 35: Collage:  Butterfly Kiss:  When I decide to do a collage, I generally start with a color palette. I had just received my new Dylusions colors so decided to test some out here. I used Rose Quartz and Lilac paint on the background then added stenciling with the Lilac spray. I really liked the soft pink and found the photo of the woman (as seen below) to match it well. That led me down a victorian, romantic, shabby chic, floral, soft lilac and pink path. All my collage elements were arranged in a horizontal line then I added the vertical. 

Even though I have a page of similar color in this journal, I decided to add a butterfly just like that one. Well, almost. This is the new butterfly stamp I have...the one from the new Dyan Reaveley set. The set with the tentacles. (I have no shame in admitting that I bought the set for the tentacles. I've got a million butterflies it seems but I had to have those tentacles! Those will be showing up soon.) I cut the butterfly from some scraps of already sprayed paper and just glued her down. These might be Lindy's Stamp Gang sprays...leftover from my Masquerade page.

So that's August. Not sure when I'll get September done as I'm using my art time for October projects. We'll see what September brings. Have a great week.
-Wy

Lindy's Challenge: Masquerade

 

This post is to share my challenge project with everyone. The Lindy's Challenge happens every month and revolves around a particular color palette. (That's totally in my wheelhouse.) They also have a Facebook group for the Challenges.

I finally got mine done and in time for the Challenge, too! I just loved this color palette and I went ahead and ordered the special edition of sprays for this challenge. All I can say is that it's just fabulous. These colors go together so well...I mean, the Voodoo Violet Blue is amazing on it's own but add in a bit of the Amethyst and whoa: outta this world. In fact, I'm visualizing a few galactic backgrounds with this palette. But I digress, here's my project:

Masquerade:  This is an Art Journal page in my Large Dylusions journal. I was truly taken with the Voodoo Violet Blue Starburst Spray (released from retirement just for this challenge month!) and it reminded me of mystery. I wanted to use a face because I haven't done that in awhile and I need the practice. Upon examining the colors, I realized I had everything I needed: a soft pink for a flesh tone; coordinating accent colors; and a light color for a background.

I stenciled in my face first then masked it off while I sprayed Whale Watch Blue over the background. I added Voodoo Violet Blue with a brush around the outside for a frame. I used a paintbrush to dab Chateau Rose onto the face to give it some color. I used two coats. I sprayed another piece of paper with Voodoo Blue and Open Arms Amethyst, then cut out the mask. The medallions were also cut out separately from a piece covered in the Amethyst only. There was so much shimmer in it that my stamping got a little lost. I embossed the stamp details with Lindy's Prima Donna Purple Embossing Powder.

The heart was also a stamp and cut from watercolor paper covered in Bodacious Blush. The doily is also sprayed with a touch of that and more Chateau Rose. Chateau Rose is the first Flat Fabio I've tried. I like the very soft color it provides.

I just added some lettering and bling from my stash to finish it off. I simply couldn't get this song out of my head as I was doing the page so I added the line to fill in some space vertically. (If I had planned it out a bit better, the word "masquerade" would have been a bit closer to the face and I wouldn't have felt the need to fill the gap. As it is, I rather like the fact that I could fit the phrase on there. Serendipity.)  

This group of sprays is probably my new favorite palette. (that's saying a lot because I ADORE the Drop Dead Diva collection and all those bright, neony, sassy colors)

 

Thanks for dropping in for a peek. Hope you'll stop in again soon for more art journal pages and my month of Halloween projects throughout October!

-Wy

"Masquerade! Paper faces on parade. Masquerade. Hide your face so the world will never find you."

---"Masquerade", The Phantom of the Opera

Inspiration Wednesday: July

Yuppers, it's more ugly from the Inspiration Wednesday Journal. sigh.

I'm beginning to think that I'm releasing my subconscious stress and unhappiness in the particular journal. I like little bits of pages here and there but overall, there are few that make me happy. Few that make me proud of my skills.

These two pages seem to reflect that trend.

BeeLieve:  I had a good picture in my head and this isn't it. I liked the idea of leaving a little window for color. It really went wrong with the glaze. I probably should have gone a more yellowish tone to reflect my honeycomb but tried working with Raw Umber again. (I have decided never to use a raw umber glaze again. I never seem to like it.) I wasn't liking the page as it was so decided to draw my own bumblebees. (I mean, hey, I don't like what I got so try some stuff out, right?) Not quite sure about them. I think they are whimsical when I should have gone for more realistic. This might be a page that grows on me.

Garden Disaster:  I'm not quite sure how I feel about this page either. Donna used old paint skins for flowers but I don't keep that stuff. So I decided to just make a rainbow garden and draw it myself. I'm probably being overly critical but I'm not in love with it. I thought about pulling out a black pen and detailing/outlining some of it but I decided I'd like it even less that way. So this might be another page that will grow on me. (Note to Self: I think I'd like it more if the flowers were more "painterly". A blend of brushstrokes and colors.)

Sigh. Wow, this was a disappointing post. Here's the silver lining: I keep practicing stuff that I don't think I can do and I don't think I'll like. You never know what might happen along the creative process. You'll never find It, if you don't look. You'll never learn from your mistakes if you're afraid to make them.

-Wy