Journal of spray painted pages

This journal probably took me the longest so far to put together. But it's all good because I do love spray painting and sewing and putting all the pages together. I spray on a larger sheet and tear them down. I like to look at the pages and see if I can use my copic sprayer on any of them---which I did. I actually used it to coordinate the back side of the pages to the spray painted pages. Does that make any sense at all? Here are a few more pics.

More backgrounds--my favorite thing to do!

Calligraphy written with black gouache and Speedball nib.

These are actually two sheets of Bristol board spray painted and torn in half. As a whole they didn't work but torn in half it takes on a new life with possible places to write and add embellishments. Some always work out better than others but it is an exercise in problem solving and layout. Anytime I have something I have painted or spray painted and it's not quite right then it goes into problem solving mode. Usually I can save it with copic spray or stamps and writing---but....sometimes not. It's all fun though.

OK, I admit it....

I am a Mary Freeman wannabee. I just love how she does her paintings with all that yummy color and as I was spraying painting and splattering the messed up pants I decided to spray paint and splatter a failed canvas painting that I needed to paint over. I do love to look of graffiti with the bright colors and lettering---which I also wish I could do. It is very difficult to do that style of lettering. Anyway, Mary, if you see this...here's to you my friend!!!!

Before and after

I tried to soak it out---no such luck...

Front.....and

...back.
OK, I feel better now. I like them better than before.

Canvas Journal

Here is the red shed out back and where I spray paint and do also sorts of fume-y and messy things. I do wear my mask and I even try to hold my breath.

Here is a journal I made with some sprayed canvas. After I sprayed I took it inside and embellished more with lettering etc.

Here is the back.

I have Fabriano Medioevalis folded note cards inside but I haven't sewn them in because I like this journal but I don't absolutely love it so I don't want to use the fancy- schmancy paper in it. I might just make it a Remains of the Day type journal.

More spray painted pages

I should be drawing 3/4 faces but I still have the spray paint bug. I didn't have my large post it notes out there so I had a bit of overspray for the black ---but it's ok.

These are 1/4 of a large Bristol sheet (14x17) that I sprayed front and back. Some were better than others.

I have learned that I don't like the gloss paint and I have several cans of it. I think I will just get rid of them. What in the world do you do with cans of spray paint that you want to throw away? I hate to throw them away into the earth. "Hurt not the earth"---(actually that statement in Revelation is not talking to us) but never the less--hurt not the earth anyway.
And I received my Alisa Burke DVD! Have you all discovered Alisa Burke yet? I am loving her funky graffiti chic style of painting.
So, I went out to the red shed and sprayed away. The weather is nice and the mosquitoes aren't out too bad yet so I put on my new mask and sprayed. Most of these have some calligraphy on them and more stenciling and copic spray after I tore them down to see what they needed. I will use them for a journal maybe. It's just fun to make them. It's an exercise in layout and design for each page and making the page work. I probably should be drawing the 3/4 face but that is so hard...I'd rather spray. More tomorrow...

More in my favorite journal...

I am into the journal thing these days...and I actually do better when I have detached pages and put them in but so far I have enjoyed working in my favorite journal with these pages. In the page spread above I colored the face with copics and painted the flowers with dabs of acrylic. When it dried the face was very flat looking so I painted over her with gloss ModgePodge which, by the way, I LOVE! So now it all looks as if it was all painted with acrylics. And below, as you see I have a bit of Pam Carriker flair. Her journal pages are really nice and I enjoyed her class on Shades of Grey. I turned the writing backwards because I was whining a bit so I did not want to subject you to that. If you are interested feel free to read it backwards! :)

This page below (and above) was sprayed with my copics air compressor sprayer (man, so ever love that toy!) with a stencil and I used stamps for the Scripture. The two girls are transferred with Sheer Heaven which is the transfer that works best for me most of the time. I really have a love- hate relationship with transfers! Apollo Transparency paper with inkjet printer and Golden gel mat medium works pretty well also...sometimes...

The page below has a pocket as you can see with some spray painted tags that I painted in the red shed the other day. The weather is cooler so I can spray again. The tags come in a bundle from Office Depot. I just made a little pocket for the tags. The girl is drawn with copics and the lettering is a calligraphic lettering called Blackletter. I think it can an an interesting element to a journal page. I am thinking about offering a little online class on it in the new year. Surprisingly it is very easy with no prior calligraphy knowledge required. Kids can do it. This page probably needs a little more but I will come back to it.

And below are the tags. Some are better than others but most of all--it was fun. Isn't that the main purpose of our creativity anyway?? I have to keep reminding myself of that. Well, with that in mind, have any of you ever read The War of Art? Our son, Zach, the Renaissance man, had read this book a while back and thought it would be interesting for me---and it was. I am not necessarily recommending this book but I think, at least for me, it held some truths about the resistance we all experience as artists. I had some trouble with the book, the Artist Way. I guess because I was just lazy and wasn't faithful in completing the morning pages but I might try it again because so many people have had their artistic lives changed by this book. I guess for me, and this is just me, if I was going to spend that much time on morning pages I should be reading my Bible and meditating on God's Word as my morning pages. Again, that's just me. And whose to say I can't do both? Lazy again... I know saying that is not PC these days... but actually I am PC... I'm Pursuing Christ.

Selling my babies...

That might alert the authorities!! Actually I am selling some of my original art and books that are all my precious babies but need to fly out of the nest and live elsewhere. This one is the Stencil Book Two --Art Affirmations that I created about a month ago.  I am putting this one is Etsy today but only for a week or so. If it doesn't sell then I will grab it back into the nest.

Stencil Book Two--"Art Affirmations"

I think it is fun to go out into my red shed and spray paint with my stencils. I then gather all my pages and tear them up evenly  (as possible) and see what I've got. And--you get what you get. Sometimes it is magic and sometimes it's mush but the challenge to me is to see if I can put some lettering on it. I guess I was in a Blackletter mood for this book. I wasn't practiced up on the Blackletter but I won't go there and critique the letterforms. I also found a few spaces for some Italic and monoline lettering. It was fun to do and it took me most of yesterday to edit it. I love editing though--it's fun for me. I love Enya so I decided to use "Carribean Blue". It's amazing how the music will set the mood-- Music is powerful isn't it?  (Sometimes that's a good thing and sometimes it isn't.)

I did sew the book but not with Bernie. I tried it and the needle pulled completely out since I had used cloth tape for bookbinding for the spine. That stuff is super adhesive so of course the needle came out---duh!

"Stencilry" Book

I really thought this spray painting Stencilry online class was really fun. As I look at the colors again I guess they are not really all that bad although they are not my favorite color combinations. I need to get to HL and get more spray paint colors. But.... the only bad thing is that it is so hot in my little red shed out back and the mosquito jihad is even worse with all this monsoon rain here in FL so I guess I will have to suspend my spray painting with the stencils for a while. As I said in the video, my good buddy Lori, at Elvie Studio will be so proud of me for sewing this book together.  She knows how "sew challenged" I am. 

Do you see why I call my blog "Art du Jour"---the art of the day?  Well, each day, I never know what it will be---so it is the art of the day. It's like a box of chocolates--you never know what you are gonna get.   Maybe one day I will settle on one.

nah....

For some reason beyond my understanding, the video within Blogger gets cropped a bit. If you double click it it will take you to YouTube for a better viewing.