Thursday, June 20, 2013

Page at last and icad too

I finally did an art journal page last night.  FINALLY!  From start to finish (thanks to my beloved industrial strength heat gun)!  And, I suppose, technically two pages.  *insert gigantic sigh of relief here*

I decided that I would start to watch some videos for art journaling and see if I could learn some new techniques, be reminded of ones I've not used for a while, and even to see if I saw something that would inspire me to create a brilliant technique of my own.  

So, last night I sat down and queued up Pinterest and started searching...and then ingeniously forgot to pin the video I watched, so I sadly can't share it with you.  When I stumble across that video again, I promise I will put up the link...and I'll remember to pin the video next time so I can share it with you right away!

At any rate, I watched a video (it was a lady who did a Dyan Reavely inspired video, using Dyan's products/style)and then tried to copy what the woman in the video did.  She did some things I didn't/couldn't do (because I didn't have all the supplies she did) and I added in my own touches as well to get the pages to be 'finished' and more my style.  And here they are:

Started off by spaying the page with fresh lime and black marble Dylusions (I notice people using this color combo a lot, and it looks good when they do it, but I HATE it when I try it...)  Then I used one of Dyan's stencils (which I do have, but don't know the name of...it's the one with the flower edge and dots in the middle) and sprayed through it with the same color dylusions as above.  And then I decided (she did not do this in the video) to use some white acrylic paint and went through the stencil with it as well (because the page was VERY dark in places, and I didn't like that.   Then, in the video, the woman uses one of Dyan Reavely's stamps on a separate piece of paper, and then glues it on the page, but I don't have any of her stamps, so I just drew a girl instead, colored her in with Dylusions and pasted her in.  I used postbox red Dylusions sprayed through the same stencil on the left page to tie in with the headband of the girl. Then I used the mini "Mixed Up Alphabet" stencil and traced out the letters on the left page ("You gotta be kidding me"), with Pitt pen and then colored it in with acrylic paints in yellow and in turquoise to try to tie in the girl a little better...she was sticking out like a sore thumb pretty badly.  Then I took some black acrylic paint and added in the words on the right page ("Can I just be over it now?") because there was too much white going on.  Then I added the dots with turquoise and black acrylic in some random places, outlined some stuff as well.  I used black faux-latos around the girl and then a sparkly peachy one to color in her face a little more (it was a VERY stark white before)...then I took that same sparkly peach and went over the whole page randomly.  And then it was bedtime!

I also got my ICADS done for yesterday and today, just didn't have time to share them.  Both are on 3x5 cards.

This is the one for the 19th, the prompt was 'summer':
I saw a picture of this on Pinterest, and it had these really bright awesome super saturated colors, and I thought that looked pretty summery, so I tried to recreate it on a card.  I REALLY LOVE how the colors look on this.  (Used watercolor and Pitt pen)

And here's today's card, with the prompt of 'poem'
:
"Faces of other people follow me around the room."  This is acrylic paint and then I glued down some faces I made using paperclay (the blueish white ones) and Martha Stewart Crafter's Clay (the purple ones).  I painted their eyes, lips, and cheeks with acrylic.  The poem this is from is below in it's entirety.  I wrote it and it's a double alphabet poem, minus the letter 'x', because there are just not that many 'x' words out there to use...  I always end up cheating and using words that sound like 'x' at the beginning...extreme, extra, etc.

"The Firing Synapses"

And you will always
Be with me, beloved.
Closed eyes call and you answer in 
Dreams that keep you dear to me, 
Ever in my thoughts, even where you shouldn't be.
Faces of other people follow me around the room.
Giddy laughter covers the gloom in me.
Half of my life rots with you, hallow in the grave.
Indecision corrodes the rest.  If only you had not...
Justice, however, won't be served and I'm always jolted back.
Killing me slowly, they keep it up.
Love, they never seem to let me alone.
My memories of you are constantly interrupted,
Not by anything I care for, nothing important,
Only for the sake of this half life I lead.  This open wound
Pouring, barely enough left to keep me going.  Nothing easing the pain.
Quietly, life drains out of me...quick enough I suppose.
Ready or not, when the time comes, you can't resist.
Sometimes I wonder where you are now.  Sickly
thoughts try to make sense of it.
Useless.  I know I will never understand
while I still breath, while I still think, 
exactly what happens, what to expect.
You yearn to know or else try to forget the question.
Zapping your brain, the synapses zero in or else try to disconnect.


So there you have it...if you'd like to read more of my poetry (some is pretty decent, I swear!) you can check it out HERE.

6 comments:

  1. I love the girl and that alphabet stencil. Would you send me a link for where I can find it? Cool page.... I hope you art journal is not in therapy for too long.

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    1. Thanks Boo! I got mine from oozak.com (this is the link directly to that specific stencil: http://www.oozak.com/proddetail.php?prod=TCW272s)

      The mini stencils (6x6 size) are just $4.00, which seems like a good deal to me and they have A BUNCH of different stencils and art supplies in general. And if you order $50 worth of stuff, it's free shipping (otherwise, I think shipping was expensive...)!

      I am going to try to make it up to my art journals by showing them more attention from now on...and not let so much time go by without them! I love them, and I don't want them to be sad! :)

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  2. Wow, that page is beautiful. LOVE LOVE LOVE It!!! Happy that you are back in the groove of AJing!!! Hugs Sweets, Love Pamikins!

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    1. Thanks Pamikins! I am pretty happy with the way it turned out (after pretty much all the green and black dylusions were covered...I don't know why I can't get mine to look as good as everybody else's does! I'll figure it out eventually...)!

      I will never forsake my AJ's again!

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  3. I love your art journal page and the girl is so sweet! Also your poetry is awesome. You have an incredible gift of talent, Sweets. I love looking at what you create. I need to branch out and do more layering I think. Great job!

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    1. Thank you my Cheryl! I was glad to do a more cartoonish style girl after practicing all the more detailed fancy faces so much...she was fun and fast to do!

      Thank you for the kind words about my poem too! Writing was my first real creative love, and I kind of let it go a little when I discovered other creative outlets. I think I would like to make an art journal specifically for illustrating my poems, putting the whole poem on a page (or the page opposite the illustration...however that would work out..) And then I would have to start writing poetry more often again!

      Layering is not my strong suit...I need more practice. This is the first page I've done that I've been really ok with how the layering turned out... We'll have to branch together! :)

      SMOOCHES!!!

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