Remember I told you about using up all your paint by splotching it on a page? I never waste any paint because leftover paint does another background page. There are interesting marks on our page already and it becomes the base for future layers.
This is a page that was splotched with paint from painting the blue girl we finished off yesterday. Today, we will try a two-page spread. I have already got coordinating color on the left-hand page.
First, I am going to tie the two pages together with color. I choose yellow. I do not usually do yellow. It has not been a favorite color, but the color on the right side begged for pale yellow. I paint the left hand page a solid pale yellow acrylic and just add some yellow to parts of the right hand side, leaving as much of the acrylic colors already on the page. So, the theme color is yellow and the splotches of wiped-off color accent the yellow. I will be using acrylic on these pages.
Hint: You will learn to love acrylic paints. You can start out with a kid’s pack and work up to as expensive as you wish. You can start by buying some at WalMart of dollar stores so you can get a feel for using acrylics. It can be painted on, scraped on, spackled on, scratched and textured. It is water-based but dries permanently and can not be rewet. You can, however, add anything on top of it. Acrylic is a type of plastic and you will learn much by experimenting with it. Too thick and it does not work well. Water it down too much and it fades and does not adhere well. You can use pens, inks, more paint, glues, collaging over top. Use permanent pens, charcoal, pencils, dip pens, white pens, gel pens. You can stamp and stencil over them. They are awesome and if you wish to thin them out, gel medium thins out the color so you can glaze a page with them.
I am thinking that some black is going to help make the page interesting. Art is mark-making, so I make a circle on the bottom of the one page and some interesting marks, with a round-tipped brush, around the circle and on the other page. This will tie the two pages together. I let this dry.
I really have no plan in my head, at this point. I am just trying to get a background going. I let it all dry.
Next, I use a brighter yellow and do an almost translucent wash over both pages by making small circular motion with a larger brush. Of course, I rushed it and I have some smearing of black on both pages. I could drop my brush in a panic and in despair, but… wait.. let’s let that dry and see what comes of this ugly page now.
It is not enough to make simple marks for mark making. Make more. I used a felt pen to make different marks on top of the brush-stroked marks. I have a sense, right now, that this two-page spread is going to be abstract, but I cannot say for sure…yet…
Now, you see… I have lost a lot of my smear-colors, but they show through lightly. I searched through my stash and fund bits of tissue paper to use and it matches those colors beautifully.. hmmmmm…what to do with it? Well, get some mod podged down… willy nilly. I look hard at what I have already got. If there is a place I do not like all that much and does not feel ‘right’ or likeable, I cover it up…
HINT: make up sponge wedges are so awesome for using paint, or gesso, to cover over some areas. Sponges of all textures leave wonderful marks and really help to soften edges of color divisions and to blend…just like makeup.
I am not in love with the smudged look where the black was still wet when I added the yellow. Now I am going to fix that mistake…I hope…
Ok, I do not like what is happening at all….ugleeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee…. so now…poof! It disappears. With a covering of gesso, letting that dry and then painting on bright yellow acrylic. I do not mind things showing through as it adds interest to have many layers.
Now I turn to using a charcoal peel pencil by Generals to draw a quick oval head shape, a neck and part of arms heading down below the circle I left since the beginning. Suddenly lines appeared from her head. Don’t know why. Don’t care because it looks awesome.
HINT: Our heads are 1/5 of the length of our body from crown to bottom of feet.
Now I do not like the other page. I smeared some mod podge on enough of the page to cover up what I had drawn. Then I lay a sheet of tissue paper down and smooth it out so it sticks, then tear it off where I did not have mod podge. I finish off the background on that page by painting yellow over top so it tones down the printing on the tissue paper. Let dry thoroughly.
HINT: Tissue paper is an art journaler’s best friend. I will be showing you how to use it in many ways. I am the crazy lady at parties where giftwrapping is included asking if I could have the tissue paper they were going to throw away.
I feel a need to tone down the page a bit more so I am
going to use a pumpkin spice and a bit of white acrylics to do so. Guess what I paint it on with? Baby wipes.
HINT: Baby wipes are another of those art journaling staples you will use often. They clean the hands, they can be used to knock back some layering so you see more of the bottom layers, etc.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_MsMSNxYSD8
So now, I am stymied as what to do next. This is a page I will come back to.
Have fun playing with a double page spread. Journal on, sisterfriends.
To be continued…maybe…or else… It is absolutely alright to leave a page when you become blocked. You can always leave it for a day or two, even more..maybe, even until you finish the whole book, before you completely finish some pages. It goes against our nature to leave things undone, but rather than totally wreck the page, it is best to let it sit.
©Carol Desjarlais 4.8.21
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