WOIW: Enchanting

This week's inspirational word in the Kraafters Kommunity on Google + is ENCHANTING. I was thinking about this word while I was on my early morning walk the other day. It was a chilly morning with frost on the ground but it was also gloriously sunny. The frost particles sparkled and twinkled all around me as they reflected the sun's rays. They reminded me of the millions of stars in the universe and how every tiny detail here on earth is part of a much bigger picture.

I used I quote by W.B.Yeats to express my sense of wonder: "The world is full of magic things, patiently waiting for our senses to grow sharper".  My page depicts space with its planets and stars, which never fail to enchant me.

I started out with a layer of gesso and on top of that a thin layer of Liqutex Basics acrylics in Quinacridone Magenta. Using one of my texture stamps, I stamped tiny dots with archival ink. This is what my initial page looked like.

I painted a layer of Dioxazine Purple and Indigo Blue on top of this, removing the paint in places with a piece of paper towel. This is what I ended up with:

I printed some images of planets from the Internet in varying sizes and stuck them on my page with gel medium. I shaded around them with white oil pastels, creating a halo type effect.

Finally, I stuck down my text strips in a helter-skelter fashion, shading them the same way and added tiny dots of Stickles reminiscent of the stars in the universe. This is my final page:

LifeBook Week06: Seeds of Love

This week's LifeBook lesson is my favourite so far. It is taught by the fabulous Tamara Laporte and it's called Seeds of Love.

I have to admit, the part of the lesson where she talked about colour theory in relation to shades and tones went right above my head, so I just winged it. I'm hoping a second viewing of her video will clarify a few issues, but I just couldn't wait to get started with this project. This is the type of painting style I might want to develop if I was ever to sell my art. It's "right up my street" so to speak.

I'm not at liberty to reveal intimate details of this technique, but I think I can show you the collage I started out with consisting of pieces of book pages, napkins, washi tapes and patterned paper.

Initial collage layer

Neocolors, acrylics and stamping added

After this, a long process of drawing, layering, colouring ensued. I kept changing the colours and as a result most of the underlying layers got obliterated in places. This is not necessarily bad, but I would have liked more of the layers to show through in those areas as well. Once I was happy with the colour blocking, I did some doodling with black and white pens. I had to stop myself at some point in fear of overdoing it! This is what I ended up with: (hope you like it as much as I do - in order to launch the gallery, just click on the first photo)

Tam's put out a free time lapse video of a similar process - I've included a link at the bottom of this post.

Here's a link to Tam's free video to one of her similar projects:

WOYWW #296: Week in review and sneak peek

Hello WOYWW deskers! We're just four weeks away from the big 300! How exciting is that? Especially for Julia Dunnit, who's been running What's On Your Workdesk Wednesday for a number of years. I only joined a few months ago, but it feels like I've been doing this forever! Follow the link above, if you would like to join in.

First, I'd like to show you what I've been working on since my last WOYWW post. You can see all my projects neatly laid out on my desk. Some people mentioned last week that my desk is "too neat" and they want to see the clutter, so I'll post a shot of my desk AFTER it got messed up as well.

Let's start with the WOIW journal and move counter-clockwise. I'll give give you links to each project in case you want to find out more about them.

• My new Word of Inspiration Wednesday page, Acceptance, is here.
• My new LifeBook page, an Affirmation Feather, is located here.
• The new Documented Life Project journal page can be found here.
• I completed the first page in one of those cheap notebooks I showed you last week. It is posted here. 
• And finally, I have completed my January calendar page. I haven't blogged about this, but I'll show you a closer photo below. Warning: it is very colourful! I followed a tutorial by Tamara Laporte (creator of LifeBook) - I think it was originally part of LifeBook 2012.  Each day shows an event or an emotion. It was an exercise to connect with the present and embrace any emotion, positive or negative. I've been on quite an emotional roller coaster this past month! Ups and downs - thank goodness for art to keep me sane!

And here's a look at my desk a few hours after the first shot was taken. I'm working on the Week 06 project for LifeBook. You can see my acrylics and Neocolor II's scattered around as well as other bits and pieces I used for this project. It is not finished yet, I did some more doodling afterwards - it's so hard to know when to stop! I'll write a proper blog post about this project later - this is just a sneak peek.

I hope you have enjoyed your visit today. Thanks for stopping by! If you're here from WOYWW, please leave your number in the comments so I can return your visit! Too-da-loo!

DLP Week05: What Lies Beneath

The prompt this week for the Documented Life Project is: what lies beneath. The challenge is to use your "underpaper" to create a journal page. An underpaper is basically the sheet of paper you have under your journal to keep your work surface clean. The excess paint and ink can create stunning random designs on this sheet of paper.

Personally, I don't use underpaper. I have a craft mat and I usually clean that with a paper towel, so I used a piece of that to meet the challenge for this project. I simply stuck down one of my inked up paper towels on the journal page, which created a really cool texture.

On top of this I added some bright green stenciling, some washi tape and some drywall tape for additional texture. The main element of my composition is the image of a mask, which I printed from the Internet, doodled on it and stamped my quote by Oscar Wilde.

"Give a man a mask and he will show his true face"

I think this means that anonymity gives people the courage to behave without limitations or having to conform to social norms, showing their true colours and say what they really think, sometimes hurting other people in the process. It's rarely a good thing, unfortunately. That's exactly why there are so many trolls on the Internet. If they were to show their own face and name, they wouldn't have the courage to behave the way they do. They hide behind their masks, but the masks actually reveal what lies beneath. 

LifeBook Week05 Bonus: Affirmation Feather

Last week on LifeBook we had a surprise bonus lesson from Tam, inspired by the main Dreamcatcher lesson. The bonus lesson features an affirmation feather on an ink splattered and collaged background. This must be one of very few projects I've ever made that has some white space!

Instead of using Dylusions spray inks for this page, I experimented with some other inks I have in my stash. They are a lesser known Czech brand called Koh-i-noor. It doesn't say on the packaging specifically, but I think these inks may be permanent, or at least water-resistant, once dry. To achieve a splattered effect, I first wet my entire page by holding it under the tap. Yes, you've read that right! This is possible only when you use good quality, 140lb watercolour paper.

I dropped some blue and purple ink on top of the wet paper using an eyedropper and just let the inks do their thing, spreading all over the paper. What I don't like about spray inks is that they splatter all over the place in tiny droplets where you don't want them. That doesn't happen with this method. I ended up with this page:

Next, I incorporated some collage papers and sketched my feather with a black pen, which I thought was waterproof.  I found out  I was wrong when I started shading the feather with a purple, water-soluble metallic pen and applied a wet brush. Along with the purple, the black marker also dissolved. Arrgh! Not to worry, though, it worked out ok in the end. My feather turned out a greyish purple, which is fine and I was able to redo the lines with a different marker.  I wrote my affirmations on the feather with a white pen, added some doodles and splattered some white paint over the entire page as well.

 If I was to redo this project, I would do a few things differently, but I choose to move on to the next project instead. It's not perfect, but I don't dislike it either: it's ok and I enjoyed working on it. I think it will look nice as a page in my Life Book. Here are some more photos:

Last Sunday Sentiments: Love Your Path

Happy first Sunday in February! I decided to make this the last Sunday sentiments because I have too many things going on with classes and challenges. I've also realized I'm more of a "part-taker" than an "organizer".  It was fun while it lasted and thank you so much to those of you who took part. If you're looking for another similar linkup (on a much larger scale!), I would wholeheartedly recommend Stephanie Dunsdon's Tuesday linkup Roses of Inspiration on her beautiful website, The Enchanting Rose.

For this month, I prepared a quick layout in one of the cheap notebooks I bought the other day, proving that you don't need an expensive journal to do art. I just stick two pages together with gel medium and gesso both sides of the page to make it more sturdy. After this, you can do anything you would normally do in a more expensive journal, including using wet media to your heart's content. The pages are a bit wrinkly, but it adds to the appeal in my opinion. Also, the paper is lined, but I consider that an extra layer.

I plan to use these notebooks for doing art without thinking or stressing about it too much, just to enjoy the process. I also want to use up all my cheaper art supplies I bought before I got the "real" stuff. For example, the background in this layout was done with cheap kids' gel crayons. I sometimes feel restricted using expensive products in fear of wasting them. In these journals, I intend to use stuff I don't mind wasting and have fun doing it! You can see these cheap notebooks below. I picked them up from Home Bargains (in the UK) for £1.49 each. An absolute steal, really! I love the embossed cover, the rounded corners, the elastic tie and the fact that the pages lie flat.

I blended the gel crayons with gesso and used a stencil with Dylusions ink (pomegranate, I think) to make patterns. I decided not to worry about the ink smudging or reactivating, so just carried on sticking my elements down: pieces of dictionary paper and magazine cutouts. I added some stamping and some paint splatters and drippage and tada, my page was done!

My sentiment celebrates the freedom of enjoying your journey, wherever it leads you. (There's a parallel here, by the way: enjoy making art, whatever the outcome!) It was fun finding words in magazines and junk mail to come up with the title and a matching image. I think this is closer to traditional type of jornalling and it definitely takes less effort than doing your own images and lettering. It's certainly a lot quicker!

I hope you enjoyed this Sunday Sentiments. The link will be available until the end of February for one last link-up! Have fun playing with colour! Here are some more photos of this journal layout.

An InLinkz Link-up