For this part in the Fearless Art Journaling series, I thought I'd show you the construction of one of my own pages from start to finish. I hope it gives you some ideas of your own as I show how an art journal page goes from blank paper to completed page.
In the past year, I haven't been as prolific in my own journaling. In fact, until the other day, I hadn't even opened my art journal since last summer. I wanted to change that, so a couple days ago I decided to do a quick page and just play around. No pressure, no stress, just play, which is how I always encourage anyone to work in their journal.
I knew I wanted to make use of my new aspen trees template, but other than that, I had no real goal or outcome in mind. I started the page by sponging on Antique Linen Distress Ink, then I stamped this nifty newspaper background using Frayed Burlap DI.
Next, I pulled out the template. I used blue painter's tape to keep it in place, and using a Ranger ink blending tool, I rubbed on some Rusty Hinge DI.
Working in the same way, I rubbed on Wild Honey, Crushed Olive, and Broken China. After removing the template, I used a toothbrush to splatter Transparent Raw Umber acrylic ink.
At this point, I felt the area where I'd used the template needed to be framed out more, so I grabbed some paper scraps (I have a plethora of scraps and am thrilled anytime I can find a use for them) and glued them down to create a frame. I also added some washi tape in a couple spots.
This is the point where I sat back and looked at the page, trying to decide where to go next. I felt like I wanted to add the image of a woman's face in the trees, so I picked out one of my rubber stamps for that purpose. I wanted some focus on the woman's face and felt that just stamping directly onto the trees would be too busy, so I brushed on off-white acrylic paint where I wanted to stamp the face. I also dry brushed this same paint in different areas all over the page, and then rubbed on some Broken China where I planned to stamp the face. It was then I remembered I'd wanted to flick water onto the page to make use of the water-reactive properties of Distress Inks. I love how the water droplets look with the ink and paint together.
Once everything was dry, I stamped the woman's face in Ranger's Archival Ink in Sepia. This is a permanent ink that works pretty well on glossy surfaces, but it does need time to dry on any glossy or painted surface, so at this point, I walked away to have a cup of coffee as I let the ink dry. Once the ink had dried, I stamped the tassels and outlined the face in Broken China using a blender marker.
I like how this page turned out and feel it's pretty much complete and ready for my writing. I might add something later, as it seems usually I tweak pages some here and there if I feel later it needs something more.
I hope showing the steps involved in creating this simple page gives the beginners out there a little insight into how a page can be constructed.
