Be Bold Art Journal Page
Be bold, be impossible to ignore. Let your freak fly. Weird is good. Be weird. Be afraid but do it anyway. Be fearless in the pursuit of what sets your soul on fire. Do it for You!
Transparencies are a great starting point for style and colours. They can be layered over each other, over and under paint, tissue, collage fodder, anything. I tend to use a whole sheet at a time, however they're great for cutting into shapes or strips, tags or cards, pockets or envelopes! Use just like you would paper :)
I've used 2 sheets of Dina Wakley's colourful Chroma Transparencies, one with pink diagonal lines glued on top of an abstract sheet in blues, peach and mustard yellow.
Matching colours of acrylic paints to the print, I painted a wavy abstract background starting with Dina's Papaya and Dyan's Coral Reef.
Feeling my brush marks were too rigid, I decided to smoosh using cello packaging. I put splotches and scribbles of blue acrylic paint (Dylusions Robins Egg and Balmy Night) onto scrap cellophane packaging and pressed the paint onto the paper. I smoothed it around then peeled it off the page and let it dry.
Repeat the process with yellow acrylic paint using Dina Wakley Mustard and Dylusions Pure Sunshine.
Draw a line of pink paint (Dylusions Tropical Sangria and Dina Wakley Raspberry) onto the craft mat. Using something straight like a folded scrap of cardstock, scraper or plastic card, dip the edge into the pink paint and print onto the page to make a diagonal grid similar to the transparency layer.
I got a bit carried away, I only meant to do a few lines but it was such fun! lol :) I used the same bit of cardboard and rest of the paint to paint the pink squares.
To add colour to a printed transparency face, I used Posca and Sharpie paint pens to colour the eyes, cheeks and lips, then once dry, pressed brown acrylic paint (Dylusions Vanilla Custard and Desert Sand) over the face.
Adding marks in purple paint (Dylusions Crushed Grape) to add some contrast was done in the same manner as the blues and yellows using the scrap cello. Looking at it afterwards, a seasponge would have been great for this too.
Abstract art has no rules, do whatever makes your heart sing.
On your craft mat, make a puddle of pale blue paint using Dina Wakley Watery with water. Pick up the paint with a Distress splatter brush and have a fabulously fun messy time splatting pretty blue everywhere. Preferably only over the page, but you do you :) lol
Pale blue splatters broke up the solid marks and lifted the colours.
In the packet of Dina Wakley's "Bold" Tissue there are two sheets of phrases featuring wisdom for being bold and fearless. I glued the sheet to plain paper and once dry, cut up the phrases into strips.
One by one, glue the strips onto the page, shaped like a fan over the head ... like thoughts beaming out from the mind :)
Let the page dry, naturally or with a Ranger Heat-It Tool - try not to use the hot air on transparencies or it may curl or bulge (plastic melts with heat). A great way for making curled petals and leaves though!
My page needed some big words so I practiced on scrap, then wrote "be bold" in black paint pen directly onto the page, then over the top drew the words again in fine white paint pen, adding decorative spirals and dashes.
You could use sprays, gel printing plate or freestyle painting to make an abstract background. I just realised I've only used green for her eyes and that beautiful blue-purple splot on the transparency I loved, has been covered up by the head! Not quite what I had in mind, but it still turned out ok and I feel much less stressed than I was before I started.
Hopefully my crazyness helps you too, and inspires you to have fun, make a mess using all your favourite colours and enjoy watching paint dry! Thanks so much for being here :)
Happy Creative Day!
:)
Jenny
