Art Journal Page #2

This weeks Art Journal spread was originally inspired by the lovely Donna Downey's Inspiration Wednesday Video.

#2~ I attempted image transfers ... again. 

After not managing to get it to work in previous attempts I had pretty much given up thinking it was something I would admire rather than do myself. Watching Donnas video made me want to have another crack at it though. My first attempt failed miserably, but then realised that was because I had used a laser printer. I decided to use the similar butterfly stock images that Donna did and printed it on our (low on ink) inkjet printer. Using Golden Gel Medium, it didn’t turn out too badly. Definitely more of a background image but overall I was just chuffed it was recognisable.

From there I began to build layers, using my favourite combination of colours. It ended up feeling too ‘in-your-face’ bright though so I used some Gesso (+ water) to cover up certain parts, leaving circles of dominant colour popping through. It was quite therapeutic doing this part, which is why I ended up with so many circles hehe.

I was feeling rather sparkly that evening too so I added glitter paint & glitter. I reckon glitter is way too underrated and needs to be used more often. (On that note, hop over and check out Natalies latest Journal Pop lesson on glitter)

At this point I had no image to focus on. The butterflies weren’t supposed to be the main point of the spread so I went through my huge pile of collected images/cars/magazines and found one that fitted perfectly. It's the front of a card my wonderful Aunty gave me. Such a sweet little illustration with a reminder to “reach for a star”.

Remember last week I said I wasn’t overly happy with my handwriting? Well I made a point on this page to focus a lot more in planning how I wanted to write. Did I want it bold? Curly? Tidy? Messy? It paid off because I am so wickedly happy with how it turned out.

Overall? I am actually really happy with how it all came together and don’t think I would change anything.

Materials used?

Golden Gel Medium

Uni-ball black pen

Gesso
Various brands of acrylic paint

Printed butterfly image [here]

Cheap Glitter paint & loose glitter

A card from my aunty & PVA glue

 Rhiannon xxoxx

P.S. Thank you to everyone who sent hugs and condolences about Max. I am still coming to terms with it but am focusing on the good memories we had xx