Fairytales

I love Fairytales, so this prompt from Journal 52 was great! I created my own fairytale as a dinner party one evening for a group of my friends, decking my table out as the Mad Hatters tea party, complete with dormouse in a teapot, giant playing cards, a giant cup and of course a whole stack full of delicacies for dinner and dessert! We had a great evening full of giggles and entertainment. Making your own fairytales is so much fun!  I painted an 'Alice' themed background for my journal, then illustrated my fairytale through photos.

 

Trees

Loved the prompt of Trees from Journal 52. I had a great photo I took of a tree and wanted to attempt a painting of it. I drew the tree in soluble graphite and added water to spread the tones, then added watercolours on the top, adding texture and hints of colour. I finished by adding some darker areas in graphite and highlights in white pen.

The photograph I worked from:

 

 

I am....

Interpreting the Journal 52 prompt of I am made me think. I could have created a list of things describing me, but decided to opt for another interpretation. I decided that I just wanted to say I am who I want to be, not who others wish I would be. We only get one shot at this life, and we have to be brave, stand up and say I am happy with who I am, no one else is going to make me into their ideal.

I created this by collaging a background, painted a thin layer of colours I like , then added photos of me with my quote to finish. Hope you all have a great weekend.

Calendar

How to interpret a journal prompt of Calendar? This was the starting point for Journal 52, Week 38. I decided to use a calendar image that has always held a fascination for me - the calendar used by the Mayans / Aztecs. They had an ingenious idea for using three layers of dials to tell the date, supposedly ending with the end of the world on December 21st 2012. (So prophets foretold!) I think we are all still here.... ;-)

I decided to keep this one simple - a pencil drawing of the key shapes, adding colour with watercolours and a touch of water soluble graphite over the top. I wanted to keep a loose, sketchy feel to this one. I love how civilisations find inventive ways to record the passing of time. Hope everyone is having a good week.

Hope

Week 37, Journal 52 - Hope. Hopefully I am getting caught up on my art journal! Finding time to get messy is good, although I do need to clear up my workspace as I have just a few bits and pieces now strewn about! For this journal page I decided to start with a black gesso background, a textured stencil of a flower and then layers of acrylic paints in shades of green - lime, pool, sea-green. al rubbed back to see the textures and layers of colours as they built up. On top I placed some stamped butterflies and then a quote in mixed font stickers - When the world says give up, hope whispers try one more time.

Hide Out

Loving having the time to play and create my own artwork, if only work didn't always get in the way! Journal 52's prompt of Hide Out proved elusive at first. Then I decided to go down the lines of hide and seek, using Storm Trooper Lego minifigures of course! I took some photographs of them hiding out and created a collaged page around them. Tearing book pages for the background with a light red wash over the top, then some strips of washi tape and a piece of patterned paper. I cut photographs into three strips and layered these together on the top, adding the title to finish.

 

Plans

Plans - Week 35, Journal 52. I struggled with how to illustrate the concept of plans. I didn't just want to do a list of words, or paste in pictures of places I want to go. So instead I created a textured background with modelling paste and a damask stencil, created a stencil of my own silhouette and used that to build the background higher with modelling paste. Once dry, I then created a glaze with acrylic paints and used turquoises and a grey/purple on the background, orange in my silhouette, painting over the whole page and rubbing back with a baby wipe to reveal the patterns and textures in the background. Once dry I added a sentence about my plans into my silhouette. The most frustrating thing was waiting for all the stages to dry - I kept wanting to do the next bit, but had to wait... ;-) I hope you like the end result, quite a simple layout, but says what I wanted it to.

 

Keys

Journal 52, Week 34 - Keys. An interesting prompt with so many directions to go in. I wanted to use the keys on my typewriter as a focal point for this journal page. I made a collaged background of music notes, then sprayed distress inks in black and peacock feathers over the top and spritzed with water to create drips down the page. I then printed photographs of my typewriter with a polaroid frame and arranged over the ink. I finished with two die cut typewriter shapes and a quote - Life is a journey, and only you hold the key. I hope you like it.

 

Comfort Zone

Week 33 at Journal 52 - Comfort Zone. For this one I decided to work on a technique I feel slightly out of my comfort zone with. I love the idea of collage and adding different elements together, but my brain freaks out at how to mix found ephemera together with painted sections and patterned paper or tape. Getting to grips with it...

Perspective

Finally some time to finish a few art journal pages and get caught up on my Journal 52 book. Here is my take on Perspective, Week 32.

I used a photograph I took of me holding a crystal ball - you can get some great views through those! I then image transferred it to my page and then painted around the edge the remainder of the view. Finishing with outlining the hand and crystal ball, to give it an illustration feel and a quote stamp in the top left. I decided to keep this one quite simple, as I think the photograph does the talking for perspective!