Hi there! I love to challenge myself to try new or different styles or techniques. I have a pretty good handle on my style yet by trying new things it pushes my creativity, helps me stretch those creative wings, and keep from slipping into a rut. It keeps art fresh. If I try something and don't like it, I learn from it. If I try it and like it, I learn. Win/win. One of the things that I struggle with is keeping white or empty space in my art journal pages. I love colour and detail and while I think I'm going to create a more minimalist piece, it rarely ends up that way. One of my eP teammates, Broni Holcolme, does a fabulous job with this so when I saw Tamara LaPorte's Life Book Lesson, I decided to give it another go. I followed Tam's example, added my own twist, and ended up loving the results.
I started with an un-gessoed page in my 7x10 mixed media journal so that it would take the Art Anthology Color sprays in all their glory. I spritzed puddles of Glorious and Studio Blue onto the page over water sprayed from my Mini Mister. Then I just splashed, splattered, and dripped to my heart's content...just like a little bird in a birdbath...lol. Once dry, Beach Hut and Inky Pool Fresco Finish paints were pounced through TCW's Mini Harlequin Circles stencil creating circles, rings, and the harlequin pattern.
The next step was to grab some of that wonderful black Studio 490 Embossing paste and scrape it through TCW's Tiny Circles stencil. You just know that I had to add black...love the contrast with the vibrant colours. It just seems to ground the page for me. Jet Black Archival ink was used to randomly stamp some ledger text from Wendy Vecchi's A Form of Art set by rolling it onto the page. A few pieces of black dotty washi tape were added. I love this particular roll because it's defective so part of the next layer sticks to the bottom one giving it a very distressed grungy look...a happy accident.
Tam created a large ring around her stamped image using paint on a lid. I wanted something more substantial so I punched the outer circle and die cut the inner one. White gesso was then stencilled onto the page in a few places through TCW's Mini Punchinella stencil. The ring was overlapped to embed it into the background, creating more depth. The bird was cut from a scrap of designer paper, given a black flat pearl eye, and popped up on foam tape.
To finish off the page, the creativity quote was inked with Jet Black Archival onto one of the TH Random Quotes stamps. I chose this quote because I had placed what I thought were limitations, following a template and leaving white space, but which ended up encouraging me to be more creative in order to "do it my way". The inside of the letters in the main word were coloured with a Prismacolor pencil and the shadow was filled in with a Micron pen. Using a black Stabilo pencil, shading and outlining were added to some of the stencilling and around various elements. Black Big Brush pen was used to narrowly edge the page.
And Tah Dah! I did it...created a minimalist (for me) journal spread. Not only that, but I was able to follow a template provided by Tam's lesson which is something else I struggle with since my approach is much more intuitive and not thought out :). I might start out following a sketch or template but usually lose it so quickly that the end product in no way resembles the original. And I did it using some of my favourite products ~ Art Anthology sprays and Embossing paste. Doin' the happy dance! Thanks so much for sharing this adventure with me!
Life is good; so is art.
Bonnie
Here are links to the products I used from the eclectic Paperie store:
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Bonnie! I love this! It's clean and the colors and elements are so crisp and well-defined. Makes me want to linger on each one of them! (You used my favorite colors too!) Thanks so much for the shout-out!!
ReplyDeleteAbsolutely LOVE this. I love white space and all that white space really makes those colors pop! LOVE it!!!!!!!!!
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