Tuesday, October 30, 2012

A Saturday spent art journaling...


This past Saturday I took a class from my friend Catherine Scanlon where we made a spiral bound art journal and learned some fun techniques.  This is the journal cover.  It began with a layer of vintage papers and then using a design traced through a stencil, we embellished our covers with washes of acrylic paint and penwork.


In this close-up view you can see how the underlying text comes through the acrylic paint wash - love it!


My favorite page technique is what Catherine calls 'the art of subtraction' where we started with an entire page filled with random watercolor splotches. You then form your design out of the shapes you see and paint out the rest of the page with gesso which takes on a lovely pastel hue from all the watercolor beneath it. I loved the flowers I saw in my piece and it's just amazing watching them develop as you paint in the background surrounding them. I used a favorite Matisse quote to embellish the page further which fit perfectly....although rather crookedly - oops! I still love the page though :-)

7 comments:

Marja's Stamp Addiction en Marja's Creativity said...

WOOOW This is marvelous. What a great pages. love them both and also the different colors of them.
lovely greet
Marja
(marjascreativity)

Jennie Atkinson said...

This is just wonderful Penny and how jealous I am of your weekend with Catherine!! Your cover is just wonderfully colourful but I love the "subtraction" page. I learnt this from Catherine on an online journalling course and can't get enough of it. Your's looks so delicate - just wonderful.

I hope you are all safe and haven't been battered by Sandy.

Anonymous said...

It's all about the layers once again. Vintage text/sheet music is a wonderful way of adding that layer but then obscuring with paint/Gesso but you have taken it one step (and more!) further with those amazing flowers blooming on your page.
This post shows once again that your creativity knows no bounds.
Wishes
Lynne

Ellie Knol said...

LOVE this! Thanks for the description as well, I could actually 'see' how you've made it!

Celeste said...

The gesso subtraction technique looks great.

Linda Kunsman said...

this is fantastic Penny!!! Really beautiful writing too!

Debbie K. said...

Just lovely, Penny. You did an awesome job on all your creations!