Wednesday, June 24, 2009

making a mess


i'm still working on journal pages that i need for an alphabetica journal swap i am in. the pages are 5 x 7 and the theme is the alphabet so how hard could it be? well i have to admit that it's harder than i thought it was going to be. i started off doing the backgrounds - front and back - but i wasn't happy with them. so i really lost interest in finishing them. i only have about 3 weeks to get them finished so i really need to work on them and get them completed. since my original idea wasn't working i had to come up with something new and i am kind of liking the concept of this page but yet i still feel the need to have this collaged image on it. as hard as it is to make myself quit adding things i am forcing myself to stop with that tiny little face on the letter m.

in case you were wondering how i did this journal page i took a 5 x 7 piece of 140 lb watercolor paper and used some large stamps that i put gesso on to make some pattern. i left that dry and then i used some light green and yellow acrylic paint to paint a wash of color over the watercolor paper. i then splattered brown acrylic paint all over. i used my brown staz on ink pad and some alphabetical type stamps and randomly stamped on the page. then i thought to myself...yuck!...too bland. i decided to make it brighter. i used white foam core and punched out different letters of the alphabet. i used gel medium to adhere them to the page. i had to leave that dry overnight and the next morning i put gesso over the whole piece - yes....there went all the previous color under a sea of white wash. once the gesso dried i took bright colors: red, orange, yellow green and blue and randomly painted color washes over the whole page. once that dried i tore some pieces off an old blouse pattern and used gel medium to adhere the tissue over the letters. i used a text stamp to stamp over some of the page at random spots.

8 comments:

  1. Holy cow, Roc! This may have caused you a ton of angst, but the result is amazing! Love that you shared all of your techniques as well as the trials and tribulations.

    You've gotta love gesso! An art teacher once told me, "It's just paint!" Bravo that you kept trying and reaped some wickedly awesome results! Hugs, Terri xoxo

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  2. This is not a mess! This is a gorgeous piece! The face on the m is the anchor. I'm going to give you one of my little art lessons. You are probably struggling with the even-ness of the overall. We may love a piece of gift wrap paper because it is interesting and colorful and pretty, but if we put it in a frame on the wall, it wouldn't make a good picture. That is because wrapping paper has no focal point - it is even, so balanced there is nothing to anchor the viewer's eye and it drifts on the page. You anchored your viewer in that subtle little face on the letter m. So quit fretting! It is lovely and subtle and attention grabbing.

    Oh, I am so high and mighty aren't I? Don't mean to be, mostly, but with your . . . .!

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  3. Love the raised letters and colors... great idea.

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  4. This is great Roc. Love how the letters P O P off the page. Thanks for the how to, very helpful.Hugs, Diane

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  5. This is not mess !!!! I love it so much !!!
    You are really talented in all your artpiece.

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  6. This is adorable and the most important thing is you know you had fun playing with it!LOl! Making art is relaxing if you don't have to!

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  7. great technique, thanks for sharing, though it sounds like a lot of work to me. Where's the flipflop card? I'd like to see it.

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  8. Might have been alot of work and time involved, but it is amazing. Great art and artist.

    katie

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