Art Journal Adventure: June 2017

There are those times when you tell yourself you're working too hard. I'm kicking myself as I realize this is my first post for July. But...meh...I do what I can. Don't we all?

Art Journal Adventure for June was a bit tricky. The prompts weren't exactly my cup of tea but I finished them. This journal is a large Dylusions journal and the prompts can be found at the Joggles blog or Facebook page.

Week 23: Color Gradations: Fantasy Flower:  My plan was simple: use Gelatos for the background gradation and use up the red paper scraps I had from one of my canvas creations. (Look back and guess which one.) I ended up with this large fantasy flower and the blue/yellow/green combo is one of my favorites. I just added a bit of wording and called it done. This has to be one of my favorite pages so far.

Week 24: Something Old/New/Borrowed/Blue: Regretfully Yours:  This week was challenging but it started with "New". I had the new Gelato colors from Faber-Castell; the iridescents. But since I had done the background last week with gelatos, I decided to use them differently. I used them to stamp the butterfly and it worked great. I tried pink as a background again, hoping to redeem myself from the "fantasy fiasco" of a few weeks back. I don't think I gained much ground. I needed blue so I went with a "chipped sapphire" tone. The page came together under the wedding theme.

So here are the elements: New; Iridescent Gelato, Old; photos, Blue; blingy butterflies and squares, Borrowed; the quote, "I can hardly wait to regret this" (Dyan Reaveley set) that seemed quite appropriate. (Note: the page was neater until I did the next spread. I used spray ink on the other side and some seeped through the spine and the edges. Fortunately, the color matched the blues already on the page. So it's more of a "happy" accident.)

Week 25: Borrow Supplies: May:  I borrow very few things from my sisters because I have more supplies than I can ever possibly use. But my sister does have a die cutting machine and I don't. She cut me these two birds and I just had to use them for this page. This page isn't actually in my journal; it was a separate sheet torn out and used as a mop-up page. This will probably appear in a calendar I'm working on to represent the month of May.

Week 26: Mystery: The Hound of the Baskervilles:  This was a theme I could get behind and since I had just ordered a new paper pack, I went with Sherlock Holmes. I needed another paper pack like I need a hole in the head but when you're a Sherlock Holmes fan, there are some things that you simply must have. It's elementary. I knew I'd use the paper pack's ephemera to collage with but I wasn't crazy about the colors. The orange/green scheme seemed too "Autumn" so I hoped a deep blue and jade would contrast. I think it looks okay but I'm not entirely satisfied with it.

 I wanted to create the Hound but my drawing skills aren't the best. So I went through my magazine cut-outs and found a jaguar snarling. I decided that I might be able to paint it into a dog. Whether or not I was successful is debatable. I think I'll have to come back and look at this page after a month or two and decide. I kept the mouth and eye and covered the rest with black paint. Then went back in with a white pen to add details to the darkness. I also highlighted the outer line with a bright yellow/green gelato to give it the phosphorous glow.

Hound or jaguar, monster or shadow, it is quite the specter of the novel and I rather like it.

More to come soon.
Have a great week!
-Wy
"Where there is no imagination, there is no horror."