Marit's Paper World (blog)

Four Art Journal Pages

Marit — Fri, 27 Nov 2015 14:54:47 +0000

We are heading fast onto December (did you vote for the Top 2000? Today is the last day to do that, see my former post) and I’m catching up on the Documented Life Project prompts. I probably won’t get them all done before the end of the year and I definitely don’t want to rush but here are four more pages that I created with the August prompts in the last couple of weeks.

August 8
August Theme: Faces, the Human Form & Characters
Art Challenge: Characters
Journal Prompt: “If you’re going to be weird, be confident about it!” (Author Unknown)

This page don’t need no explanation… weird = weird 😉

August 15
August Theme: Faces, the Human Form & Characters
Art Challenge: Painted
Journal Prompt: How do I face my biggest challenge?

My biggest challenge? Painting a face! This is my attempt on painting a face. I used pallet knifes instead of a brush and I kinda like the outcome. I should practice this way more though and I plan to do that, as I got me the book Mixed Media Portraits by Pam Carriker.

August 22
August Theme: Faces, the Human Form & Characters
Art Challenge: Layered (Using Multiple Mediums)
Journal Prompt: Speak to your younger self – what advice would you offer?

I remembered to take photos in between (yay!) so that you can see the layers build up. And yes, that’s me on that photo. “Speak to your younger self – what advice would you offer?” My advice: “although the world is a harsh place and bad things happen, keep the faith that there will always be beautiful things and nice people.”

Here’s the finished page with the journaling and a lot of doodling.

August 29
August Theme: Faces, the Human Form & Characters
Art Challenge: Self Portrait
Journal Prompt: Mirror Mirror

My blind drawn self portrait… I’m glad I took a photo of it, ’cause I worked on it some more and I don’t like the finished page much. I should have stopped with the drawing.

I think of these four pages, I like the first one the best… but I’m proud about my painted portrait too… which one of these do you like best?

Thanks for stopping by my blog today & have a great weekend. Do something that makes you happy. Paint a portrait!

Give Me a High Five (Documented Life Project)

Marit — Mon, 23 Mar 2015 07:15:39 +0000

I was way behind on The Documented Life Project and had to catch up at least three challenges (and on Saturday it increased to four even, as each Saturday, the new week-challenge is posted on Art to the 5th – the site where you can find all challenges.) But last weekend I found the time to dive into it and I created up a storm in my atelier… yep, I finished three art journal pages with the prompts! I even remembered to take in-between photos when I worked on challenge #9 so you can see how I build up at least 5 layers on my page (that was the prompt – I used more layers even.)

February 28
February Theme: Layers You Will Love!
Art Challenge: Using at Least Five Layers
Journal Prompt: Give Me a High Five

Layer 1: The ‘blank’ page is not blank because I work on old book pages. I used machine stitching on the former page (DLP #8, see this post) and so my first layer is already there!

Layer 2: I used some bright colors of acrylic paint to fill in the stitched rectangles.

Layer 3: I glued rice paper on the page and scratched some of the paper away with a craft knife.

Layer 4: I grabbed my new stencil and sprayed with yellow, red and green (dylusions) spray ink. The absorbent rice paper made the ink run which resulted in blurred lines.

Layer 5: The stenciled images were just too much, so I covered part of it under a layer of gesso.

Layer 6: Next I glued some left over pieces from a gelatin mono-print to the page.

Layer 7: I smeared some white paint through a dotted stencil to add more texture. (The underneath ink made the paint turn a bit green, an effect I like.)

Layer 8: Then I stamped a border to the left and some spirals with my hand-carved stamps.

Nearly done… the page needed some contrast so I doodled some extra circles with a marker and outlined the stenciled images. Finally, I wrote text around the big circle. (part of a quote by Ellen DeGeneres “It’s our challenges and obstacles that give us layers of depth and make us interesting.”

So – how many layers are there on this page? Does the doodling and writing count as a layer? It’s 9 then! Here’s the finished page.

As I said, I finished more pages but I show you those some other time. Wednesday maybe? Stay tuned!

Cover Up Good Stuff

Marit — Mon, 23 Feb 2015 11:47:30 +0000

What for a title is that? Covering up good stuff… are you mad? Yep, that’s what I thought when the seventh challenge for The Documented Life came on line. That was on February 14 and I felt ~~a little~~ resistance to this challenge. I’m familiar with layers, and building it up until the piece is to my like, but I don’t cover up the ‘good stuff.’ If there’s ‘good stuff’ on the page I want it visible! Anyway, after a week of thinking what I should do with this challenge I thought off the page I cut out of a magazine once… it shows John Lennon’s handwriting, part of a song lyric and a photo. It’s a page that I did not know what to do with (glue in an art journal? Hang on the wall?) so it just laid there in my closet. Maybe it was waiting for this moment and this challenge? I used it as a base and went from there… the photos show my process.

February 14
February Theme: Layers You Will Love!
Art Challenge: Cover Up Good Stuff
Journal Prompt: Going Undercover

Finally, I found the inside of the figure too white. I covered the text in the first step but now I wish I hadn’t… I took a crayon and hand wrote a quote from John Lennon inside the figure. It finished of the page!

The quote?
“Time you enjoy wasting, was not wasted.”
It fits wondrous with the image and song lyrics that were already on the page.

I finished a page with the next DLP challenge (#8) too, but I show you that some other time. Thanks for stopping by my blog today, I really appreciate it!