The Ladies: Art Journal Pages

In general, I just play with stuff in my art journal. I play with scraps, with ephemera, with colors, with stencils. I test out some ideas for other projects but it's mostly just my play time; a time to download from a busy week or just relax. Having said that, I rarely spend days on a page spread. I try to finish up in a single session unless I have to wait for texture paste to dry. (Mostly, it's because I'm not sure when I'll get back to it and I forget what I wanted to do or the direction I was heading. Not always a bad thing but unless I leave myself "clues", I tend to forget where I left off.)

So it's very rare that I spend such time on a spread as I did on this one. My Ladies required a lot of attention and a bit of dry time. In all, I spent about 5 sessions on them. Each session averages about 2 hours, I would estimate, not including dry time.

The Ladies:  It all started with a background that I didn't know how to finish. I had wanted to use up some Glimmer Mist sprays that were still lurking around my craft space. I decided to use a stencil that I hadn't used yet thinking I'd put little butterflies all over the page. But in pulling out the butterfly stencil, I stumbled across another stencil I hadn't used in a dog's age: my Fearless Face stencil.

That stencil always makes me feel like I can draw faces. I don't use a lot of faces in my work. (I'm not much of a people person.) I also admit that I don't like many portraits or faces in artwork. I prefer natural settings, floral images, animals, and fantasy type images. Every so often, though, I like to "make a face" and this is the way I like to do it. My idea began with Butterfly Lady. My original design was going to include the butterfly mask (also from a stencil) but her hair would be long and wind-blown over to the other page. I wanted a color to contrast with the background but also to make sense with it. I pulled out a few other stamps that I could use to design her "clothes" and hair style. Her hair changed from long and flowing to short and cropped. But her hair was originally going to be feathers.

But Owl Lady was then born. See, I originally cut out all these feathers for Butterfly Lady's long flowing locks but when I shifted to short hair, I realized the butterfly wings would make a good short hairstyle. But I didn't want to just push aside all the feathers I had already cut out AND with short hair, Butterfly Lady no longer spanned both pages. I had nothing to tie into the other page. So then I remembered that I also had an owl mask stencil and naturally, I could use the feathers with the owl.

I tried to bump up the detail on the masks with liquid pearls and Stickles glitter glue.

While I am happy with the finished product, it's not my favorite. I might have been happier if the colors weren't so contrasting. I much like analogous colors better, I think. And of course, its two faces which always make me feel a bit "meh".  But it was a good exercise for outside of my comfort zone.

Have a great week!
-Wy