Two Wild and Crazy Guys

Last post, I mentioned that I was working on my Documented Life cover for 2015's journal...which is very mischievous and irresponsible of me because I haven't done 2014's covers yet!  (I will, I will!)

Well, I finished up last night and here's what I did:

The front cover of my 2015 Documented Life journal!

I always seem to have trouble getting accurate colors to come through on my camera.  I'm pretty sure it's user error...like not understanding lighting or something.  This next picture is much more true to color:

SO CUTE!!!  *shameless self-back patting!*

I really enjoyed working on the cover.  It's thick cardboard, so it didn't bend or curl up when I put the gesso on or when I was working on the subsequent wet layers...that non-curling was VERY nice!

Here's what I did on the inside of the front cover:

Quack!

I learned a little lesson from when I painted the cow from last post, which was to stop being impatient and go ahead and gesso the page, the results are much better!  I didn't do it on the cow page because I didn't want to wait for it to dry, and when you don't use the gesso, the Neocolor II's just kind of sink into the page and become more muted...they're also harder to shift around and blend.  When I worked on these two pages, I gesso-ed them.  I like that adding the gesso layer lets me get more movement out of the paint and I think it makes the colors brighter/bolder as well.

On these two pages, I also learned that I should do an initial layer of color with my Inktense pencils...because I like how that looks much better.  You can kind of see the difference in the backgrounds of the pages especially.  

On the bunny page, where the orange background is, I did a layer of yellow Inktense underneath and it comes through a little.  On the other hand, on the Duckling page, the purple background has just the white gesso underneath...you can see it in the places where the Neocolors are too thin.  I think it's a personal preference kind of thing, but I just think the bunny looks a little more dynamic and lively, and my guess is it's because of that under-wash of color.

I think the duckling is cute, but I am REALLY in love with that bunny page!  As always, you can see the reference photos I used on my Pinterest board called "For Your Reference" (There's a link to my Pinterest stuff in the sidebar.)

Now that I've got my 2015 cover done, I'm going to buckle down and finish my 2014 covers...I'm not really finished with those journals till the covers are done, right?  And I'm SO CLOSE to my goal of not being a flake...I don't want to mess up now!!!  So look for that post to come in the next couple days...

Just a quick side note: where I live, the temperature today is 1...with a windchill of -20...so I hope wherever you are, you are staying warm and toasty and that you will send me warm and toasty thoughts...I need them today! <3<3<3