Frida for a friend

The woman who got me started with all this art journaling and mixed media really likes the artwork of Frida Kohlo. I found a tiny self portrait of Frida in one of my magazines and thought of Emily right away - so I dedicated this page to her.

The background was already complete in my journal and had been done with leftover spray inks.  I added the little portrait and then embossed the ivy design around it; then doodled the leaves on the adjourning page.  I usually doodle in-between the leaves, but I didn't want to cover up this lushes background.

Create something everyday.

Joan

"Children, like animals, use all their senses to discover the world.  Then artists come along and discover it the same way all over again."  Eudora Welty

More Doodling...

A couple weeks ago I was working with Dylusions Spray Inks, but I was painting some lines (dribbles) with the inks.  So I had squirted a little of each ink colour into a little plastic container.  When I was done, I didn't want to waste the ink, so I dribbled it down the pages of a journal and spritzed it a bit with water.  I then decided to do zentangles on the pages - but on the left page I doodled only in the white spaces, and on the right page I doodled in the coloured spaces.  White space can be a good thing - although it's a hard thing for me to leave along.

These flower prints have been waiting in my Paper Bag Book for a long time.  I had extra paint one night, so I put the saying on - and then I decided just to doodle (scribble) around the petals of the flowers.  You may notice that there are different layers of paper on this spread - so some where along the line, some of those flowers will be incorporated into another doodle spread.  Fun, fun, fun.

Create something everyday.

Joan

Spray Inks and Stars

I sure had a battle with this particular piece!  The word Music has been put on with molding paste, so it's raised, and picked up the colours of the inks as they dripped down from the top of the canvas.  When I started working on this I had painstakingly stencilled the words with black molding paste.  However, some letters came through cleaner than others and by the time I got to the beginning of the word Problem - I had had enough of smudges and such.  So, I took a paint scraping blade and took all the words off, re-stencilled them onto paper with a sharpie, placed them over their "original" spots and highlighted them in white.  Once the words were on, then I took a painted with someMedium Matte gel from the top to the bottom so that the spray inks flowed down the page and over the words.  Believe me, this is not how I had first envisioned this page, but I'm happy with it - especially since the gel helps the colours to pop!

For this piece I painted the background with two purples and a metallic silver by dragging the colour with a card. Once it was dried I added strips of some current Designer Series Paper from Stampin'Up! at different lengths.  The original paper was a silver marbled look, but by the time I highlighted the pieces they turned purple and blended in with the background.

To be honest, the choice of orange and pink stars was really a matter of begin lazy at the time and not wanting to make a matching gelli print - which is just as well because I really like how these stars pop off the page too.  It was a brave choice to go with, but I'm glad I did.

Create something everyday - and be brave!

Joan

Three Prompts and a Mandala

This piece (prompt #52) of Prompt60 had three prompts that went with it….Tangerine, Dance, Synonyms.  I found this wonderful tangerine coloured flower as part of the background and covered the rest of the background in orange.  I cut this ballerina from a poster I had and did a gell transfer of the "Little Dancer" by Degas from a photo I took of her when I was in New York.  Then….I got out my humungous thesaurus and found as many words as I could for Dance.  I'm not happy with the way I wrote them on…..but we don't have to like all our work!

This mandala was completed over three sittings.  It's in a book I take with me when I know I'm going to be waiting.  I always carry some sort of doodle book with me and most of the people who know me are now expecting to see it and don't mind if I'm doodling during a conversation.  I'm still paying attention - it just keeps me a bit more relaxed.  The background on this page is a "second print" from a stencil that was being used with Dylusions Spray Inks.  I love the way it sort of melted into the page in a subtle sort of way.

Doodling is relaxing - that's why there's so many books out on it right now!

Create something everyday.

Joan