Mixed Media Mayhem - Fish Out of Water

Mixed Media Mayhem - Fish Out of Water

What's more fun than random Gelli printing?  Using a range of blues and violets, old wall paper scraps for stamps, and circle stencils and sequin waste, I made a a two page spread that, while stimulating the tactile sense (doesn't that Gelli plate feel great when you use your hands as a barren?), left me uninspired.  But this is an art journal.  It doesn't matter. It's just for fun.  Maybe I see bubbles, maybe a reef, so I drew a fish on it.  To give the fish presence, I colored him in with gesso and gave him stripes with yellow gelatos.  Since my drawing skills are minimal, the fish was ill proportioned.  To cover his distortion, I cut shapes from my scrap deli paper where I had cleaned off the Gelli plate to make some kind of reefy things.  I was really proud when my grandson, Brody, popped over my shoulder and recognized it saying, "Oh you drew a clown fish."  See...fourth graders and I have an understanding.

MIXED MEDIA MAYHEM - GLITTER BIRDS

When my shipment of Dylusions Spray Ink arrived, I couldn't stop spritzing it here and there. This journal page began with random sprays of turquoise and blues.

I had some lazer cut wood birdcages from Michaels that I was eager to turn into stamps so I made the stamped images on gelli printed deli paper and cut and pasted them to the page.

As usual, I had no real plan so I browsed through my stash and found scrapbook paper that I could use as a stencil.  I applied light weight molding paste through the swirls and placed the birds on opposing locations.  I stained the paste with Marvy markers to get precise placement.

I added the foliage through an old stencil with paint and markers and finished with the words stamped on Gelli printed deli paper. Oops...not yet.  I had to add the glitter to the birds to make them stand out.

Oops...not yet.  I had to add the glitter to the birds to make them stand out.

Mixed Media Mayhem - Tribal Patterns

I enjoyed watching JournalArtista, http://www.journalartista.com/, Paula Phillips, work through her journal pages.  I was particularly inspired by her video,  Art Journaling Fast Forward 3 Bright Collage at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=laO36tC_24Q#t=144.

  

I followed her example by spreading a blue acrylic with the credit card palette knife and stamping number 9 over a gessoed background. For papers to collage I looked through my Gelli stash and found some beautiful multi layered deli papers.  Then I went in a new direction.  Stamping on the Gelli papers gave me translucent images of tribal masks to cut and glue with gel medium, stenciling with Stazon insured vine images would adhere to the background. My clip art collection of West African images provided the round graphic which I printed on transparency.

Mixed Media Mayhem - Beware the White Rabbit

When I was teaching in Xian, China, (#1 High School), I came across the bagged candy, White Rabbits, in the local supermarket.  Creamy, chewy, sweet, these taffy-like candies became my go-to treat.  When I came home, I was able to satisfy my craving finding them in import stores... until the Great Melamine Scandal.  No more to be found...then last week shopping in World Marketplace, I was happily reunited with these tiny joys.

To make this page, I inked the background with several colors of Ranger Inks using a cosmetic sponge and added texture with TCW stencils and some old rubber stamps of concentric circles.  I drew the rabbit trying to make him scary, not cute, and used fiber paste to give him fluff.  The text is stamped on deli paper.  When I glued the text down I forgot that the gel medium would reactivate the ink...

Architecture - Mixed Media Mayhem

This journal page began as an experiment with new stencils - Crafter's Workshop Template 6"x6" - City Grid and Dyan Reaveley's Dylusions Stencils - Shattered and a new set of Ranger inks.  I added impressions from homemade stamps in circles and zigzags.  What emerged was a geometric pattern that called for an overlay of map images.  In my stash, I found my tourist maps of Hanoi that had the blue and yellow needed.  An old art book provided the text.  I scanned architectural images and converted them to stamp outlines with photoshop and printed them on transparencies.  What I really enjoyed was the unpredictable randomness that led me in what seemed to be obvious directions.  Love art journaling!

Mixed Media Mayhem - Faces in Flowers 2

I filled several pages of my journal with my stamps of flowers then had to decide how to use these backgrounds.  I used images from my sketchbook which I photocopied and glued to the page.  To make the copies more transparent, I filled in the back side with a solvent based marker - one yellow and one brown.  I used a variety of media to paint on the faces to try to add some dimension.  I will keep practicing learning to draw.

Mixed Media Mayhem - Faces in Flowers

After practicing making foam stamps and printing them in my art journal, I had to take the next step.  I have been practicing learning to draw faces (not portraits!) so I wanted to incorporate two very different results.  I transferred the outlines of the faces to my page to match the composition of the flowers.  I experimented with paint, colored pencils, Inktense pencils, and Faber Castell Brush Markers to bring color to the faces.  Since my face drawing lessons were originally based on using classic proportions and forms, I found text from an old art book to caption the page. NB- I fixed the stamp background with spray then gesso before going forward because I had stamped with water soluble markers