Joggles Art Journal Adventure ~ Week 28 ~ Nautical

Hi everyone! It's Week 28 in the Joggles Art Journal Adventure group and the prompt this week is to feature something nautical or beach related. I chose to feature a beautiful digital image by Norma J. Burnell which can be found in her Etsy shop, Fairy Tangle Art. I love the detail and flowing elements in her designs, as well as the beautiful faces of her characters. While they can be challenging to colour, they are always worth the extra time and effort.

I coloured the image called Deep Love Mermaid with Prismacolor and Polychromos pencils as well as gold Posca paint pen and some metallic gel pens. The mermaid and her seahorse friend were then fussy cut leaving a narrow white border. It was then adhered to black cardstock, and fussy cut a second time leaving a narrow black border. I like how this adds visual weight to the image as well as helping it stand out against the background. It also gives it physical heft so it withstands being popped up on foam tape better.

The background began as a gel print which used Liquitex Basics acrylic paint to add colour through some stencils. More patterning was added with Carabelle Studio Toujours des Ronds stencil and Forget-Me-Not plus Manganese Blue Archival Inks. Joggles Nonsense Latin Text stamp was applied using Managanese Archival Ink and Kate's Doodle Cube by Stampotique Originals was added with Liquitex Light Green Permanent acrylic paint. Jet Black Archival Ink was used to add 49&Market
chevron stamp from the Captured Adventures set.

To create the sand area below the mermaid, a torn strip of kraft cardstock was embossed with a TH snowy stencil which makes great grains of sand. These were then brushed over with Coffee Archival Ink and White Fire Treasure Gold wax. I love the sparkle that adds and how it emphasizes the texture. Some small shells were adhered on the sand strip either side of the image.

Underwater plants were added by die cutting another gel print twice using a leaf flourish die by Cheery Lynn Designs. They were adhered behind the image, shaded both on and beside the plants with Inktense pencils activated with a waterbrush. Little circles were also coloured in so that when clear Dew Drops were glued over them, they would show up as deeper turquoise bubbles. A simple doodled border was added with black pen and black Big Brush pen was used to edge the page after Manganese Blue Archival Ink was used to deepen the outside. The wording was printed onto white cardstock, matted with black, and popped up on foam tape to finish the page.

Thanks for stopping by today. Mermaid, her seahorse friend, and I appreciate that. To see how others in our wonderfully supportive and talented art journal community respond to the Nautical/Beach prompt, pop over to the Joggles AJA Facebook group throughout the week. It's one of my favourite places to hang out!

Life is good; so is art.

Bonnie