Carol’s Humble Art Journaling 101: What? Wallpaper ?

 

 

I had a piece of border wallpaper that exactly fit my page…bonus!!!   Simply cut it out and fit it on page.  (Sometimes it will not fill the whole page.. use that to get creative.)  Wallpaper has a great textured surface, for most of it.  It really is nice to paint.

Since it was dark, I used a white Craft Chalk Writer to sketch out a face.

 

 

When I have the sketch, I begin blocking in color as the first layer.  Then, second layer, I begin to define a bit.

HINT:  paint layers in the direction of the plains of the face.  For instance, from ear to now you paint in a slightly curved motion to help the face look round.  By adding a darker foundation color at the rim of face helps round the face, as well.  The same goes for the neck.  Paint darker at the edge and curve your brush strokes from edge to other side.  

 

When choosing colors for the painting, stay conscious of the colors in the background so that you come as close in tone to those colors so your painting is unified.   

Keep layering but make sure you let dry between layers or your brushstrokes take the paint off, until you are satisfied with the page. 

 

HINT:  When using acrylics, realize that acrylics are really just glue, plastic glue.  Acrylic is the glue for the pigments.  All paints are identified by their binders, for instance, acrylic, oils, gum Arabics, egg yolk, and all are binding agents to help adhere the pigment to the substrate. 

I, purposefully, am not doing YouTube with complete explanation because we have so many incredible artists in our group.  For beginners, just know that I am an intuitive artist and I go with a feeling about what, how to do something that shows up as an artistic idea in my mind.  But, truly, sometimes I do not even have a clue as to what I am doing let alone an end product.  I simply start somewhere, with something, and keep going until I feel done.  W are all at different levels of artistic abilities and this is not about levels.  This is about inspiring all or any to take what is offered and do your own thing with it…then share it with us so we might learn from each other.

©Carol Desjarlais 4.17.21