Art Journal Adventure: May 2017

So May...where did you go?
I honestly don't know because I did most of these pages all at once. But now I'm feeling close to caught up.

Here's the last April page all finished, as I promised:
Fortune:

Hair or no hair? That was a question but I decided I just liked her this way. This was my first time actually adding real eyeballs to the Fearless Face Stencil. It turned out all right. Next time I'll try to tackle the nose! I only wish the splatter from the opposing page hadn't smudged right on her face! I am rather proud of the hat...reminds me of the Wizard of Oz...in the "gypsy" cart.

On to May!

Week 18: Feature Scallops: The Afterworld: The only thing I knew when I started this page was that my scallops were going to be a frame around the outside made up of Sticky Snippets. These are the circles cut in half. I also had this lovely stamp from Lost Coast Designs sitting nearby so I went with a background to match the greenish hue in the stamp image and the deep blue of the sticky snippets. The background came out much bolder that I anticipated but I rolled with it. I was trying to tie in a quote from the movie The Corpse Bride, but I was too lazy to look it up. And I decided against coloring her in. I thought that if I added all the coloring she would get lost against the background. I remembered the quote from the old Prince song and it seemed to fit.

Week 19: Use colors outside your comfort zone. Combined with Week 20: Music:
Better Dead than Red  
I don't usually combine weeks even when I am behind. Somehow, I tend to feel like that's "cheating". When I started on Week 19, I didn't really plan to tie it into Week 20 but it all came together like this.
I knew my "uncomfortable" color was red. (It was that or just straight up yellow. I might even have leaned toward yellow because at this time I was working on a project in which I was using an unusually large amount of red and I had red mop up papers scattered everywhere.) I always think of red for Valentines and Christmas and mostly as an accent color. Since I had mop up papers of red, I went ahead and used one. Why reinvent the wheel, right? So I ripped a sheet diagonally and stuck it down on the left. Then, I stared at it. Seriously, what the heck do you do with red?

So I began rummaging through the junk/scrap pile on my table...all those little bits of torn papers that I just hadn't tossed yet. I found the small word, torn from a dictionary top..."Russia". It all fell into place. The quote popped into my head and I couldn't shake it. I tore more dictionary text and lo and behold in the very front of my old children's dictionary (Yes, a Children's Dictionary!) was one of many "new" terms added to the language. And "Red" was one of them...red as in Russian.

Once I decided to add this element and the quote, I knew it would run over to the next page and since Music was the next topic...the song, "Russians" by Sting became the obvious choice.

I got to use up a mop up page of red, and two tags, as well as some dictionary text that had been covered with red sprays. On the right hand side, I added a music sheet down first then some clear texture paste through a square stencil. I dripped some red Lindy's spray. I like how the texture paste resisted the color.

I added the images of Putin, Trump, and the Russian building last as I wasn't certain I wanted to make it about that. In the end, I have decided that it's my journal and art is influenced by life. And with the pace of life in this modern age, you need to mark reality in the moment. I started this page with trepidation but I really like the finished spread.

Week 21: Use a brayer to apply background paint: Believe in Fantasy.  I figured since the prompt was about the background, I should decide what I wanted to be my theme or focal images first. I thought that might help me choose colors. I used to be quite a "Sticker Queen" and decided to use some very old stickers to create a scene. This didn't turn out quite the way I wanted but I just couldn't figure out the scene. It's not horrible but I don't much care for my background. I applied paint with an old credit card, since I don't own a brayer. I just couldn't get the soft blend I wanted and finally just gave up on it. Maybe this page will grow on me.

Week 22: Lift:  Landscape:  I just had a vision for this prompt and I sketched it out quick with a pencil. I know I could have made it more "real" with a different medium but I wanted to just use markers...just like I had when I was a kid. All I had was a box of markers and what kind of pictures did I draw with them. I had been thinking of hot air balloons for a project and then has seen some wonderful photos on Facebook and it just seemed to be calling my name. It was quick, fun, and no pressure. I got the added benefit of testing out all my Distress Markers to see if I needed to replace any necessary colors.

See ya next month!
-Wy
"A world of never ending happiness. You can always see the sun, day or night." --Prince, "Let's Go Crazy