So Grateful – An Art Journal Spread – Mini Tutorial

Hellooooooooooooo my friends!  I am feeling so completely inspired lately.  I love it when my muse is happy, and I can create stuff that I actually like.  On the heels of taking two in-person classes with the fabulous Joanne Sharpe, I pulled out my Dylusions art journal, and some of my new products from the Art House Studio, and this is what happened.  I only wish that I had made a video of my process.  I am doing the next best thing – sharing lots of pictures, and see below for a description of all products and techniques used to create this spread (a mini tutorial).

First, – I am NOT affiliated with any of the blogs, stores, or products mentioned and linked in this post. Since I often get comments/questions about where I get my products –  I purchased all products mentioned in this post from The Art House Studio, in Cambridge, Ontario Canada.  

I started with a spread that had already been sprayed with my Dylusions Ink Sprays, and pulled out one of my new Crafter’s Workshop Stencils and glass bead gel, and stenciled the buildings across the bottom. That is the COOLEST effect!  (If you would like to see this technique demonstrated, check out my Youtube video here) After the glass bead gel had fully dried, I added some pan pastel over the top of the glass bead gel (LOVE!).

This is what the stencil looks like (designed by Rhonda Palazzari) –

I used a variety of black permanent markers to draw the circle in the corner, and journaling lines.   Then, I pulled out a few of my favorite shimmery paints – some Silks, as well as some Perfect Pigment Pure Liquid Acrylic (in Green Pearl – *YUM*).  I painted each journaling section with a different shimmery paint.  Then, I did the journaling,  using several different permanent black pens.  Then, I outlined in white with my Uniball Signo white pen.  A little doodling around the edge, and I was finished.  🙂

Art Journal Pages & Christmas Cards

      Hello everyone!  I promised to share some of the art journal pages I did while in Jamaica.  I always find time to journal, no matter where I am.  Travelling is an ideal opportunity.  There is lots of idle time in airports, etc., and, of course, while basking in the sunshine.  I get some funny looks sometimes, with all my art supplies spread out on my beach chair lol.  For this trip, I did not bring much in the way of art supplies – my Moleskine watercolor journal, my Smash book, my small Strathmore visiual journal, some watercolor paints and pencils,a couple of woodless graphite pencils, and some of my markers.

I didn’t finish any of the pages in my Smash book – but, I did glue down some travel ephemera.  I usually add doodling, rubons, etc., after I get home, so I will share those pages when I finish them.  This is the only one that is close to finished.  I will probably add some details later, but maybe not!  😉  I took some private coaching from one of the local pros in Jamaica, and wanted to remember some of the things that he told me, so I created this journal page for that purpose.

The next couple of pages were done in my small Strathmore Visual Journal (Bristol paper version):

The next few were done in my Moleskine watercolor journal.  I used lots of media – watercolor paint, watercolor pencils, markers (Sakura gelly roll, and Faber-Castell brush and fine tip pens). These are all definitely zentangle-inspired.

Lastly, I have been busy since I returned from vacation, trying to finish up my Christmas cards.  These are made with one of  the Basic Grey card kits (not my design):

This kit included all the supplies to make a total of 12 cards – 4 of each of these 3 designs.  A quick and easy way to get 12 cards done in a short period of time.

 

Drawing Faces and Making Paint

That’s what I’ve been up to – drawing faces, and making paint.  I’m taking a couple of online courses – one with Jodi Ohl, over at the Luminarte “Dreaming in Color” website – she is calling it “Painterly in Pink”, and we are doing a couple of portraits, one on canvas, and the other on watercolor paper – using the Luminarte watercolor paints – Twinklng H2O’s, and their new acrylic shimmer paint – Silks.  I started late, so I am a little behind the other students, but I am enjoying drawing faces again.  I started by making some color charts in my art journal, to test the paints.  I made some of my own (link to my tutorial on Youtube):

And, here are my faces – drawn with graphite on bristol paper:

And, my canvas – work in progress:

I’m also taking Joanne Sharpe’s latest course – her first mini course.  She is calling it “Bling it on”, and we are also playing with the shimmer paints by Luminarte in this course.  I will be sharing some of my work soon.  My camera battery is dead at the moment.

So, that’s all for today.  Thank you so much for stopping by!

Twinks

Hey everyone!  I’ve been playing with my Twinkling H2O’s in my watercolor journal, and thought I’d share a few pics.  As many of you may know, shimmmery does not photograph well.

For this first image, I drew the hexagon shapes with a template, and Faber-Castell pitt marker, and colored them in with FC Big Brush pens.  The background is twinks.

I drew this Zendala with Faber-Castell pitt pen, and colored everything with my twinks.

So Sad to See it End :(

So, Joanne Sharpe’s most recent course  – “The Magical Marker Mystery Tour” – has come to an end.  I’m sad.  I always get a bit depressed when a course ends.  But, she is running another one starting on November 5….called “Bling it on”!  Woo hoo!  I’ve already registered.  So, I thought I’d show you the finished art journal.  One of the things I love most about Joanne’s courses is that you always end up with a hand made, full to the brim, art journal full of color, ideas, and just plain fun.

This first pic shows the binding.  I ended up with more pages than what Joanne had intended, though, so I had to bind it a little differently to accommodate the thickness.

Jane Davenport <3

Aren’t you shocked?  Blog posts two days in a row?  WTF?  lol  Today’s post is about the art I have created while participating in Jane Davenport’s classes.  I’m taking almost all of her classes, and love them!  My drawing skills have improved so much.  This first piece isn’t my best work, but I like parts of it.  It is from the “I Heart Drawing” course.

My next piece is from her newest workshop – “Express Yourself”.  This is quite an advanced course.  I recommend you do “Supplies Me” before this one. This lesson was “drawing realistic eyes”.  I have a ways to go, but did okay, I think.  I drew/painted/colored the eyes in an altered book (an old UK atlas).  I used a Crafter’s Workshop stencil for the brick wall, with some Golden fluid paint in Cobalt Turquoise.  The black is Dylusions spray.  The eyes were drawn and colored with prismacolor pencils mostly, with a bit of Copic marker and Sharpie paint pen.