The joy of using a smaller journal is that it makes this challenge possible. There is no way I could make a larger spread each day. Sadly, it would take more time than I have at the moment. It doesn't take very long to complete a spread and because I'm not spending a lot of time on any one technique or idea I'm free to try and experiment with whatever pops into my mind.
Last month, I had restricted my supplies and my motif and painted only watercolor flowers. This month, I can use whatever supplies I want but I am still only painting flowers. It is a mixed media approach to flowers. So far, I have used crackle paste, Gelatos, Gouache and acrylic paint. The paper is too thin for to paint with watercolors so when I do want to use my watercolors, I watercolor on paper and glue the pages in when they're dry.
So, here is a look at the first week of my mini art journal pages.
This is the first spread in my art journal. I used Gelatos like watercolors. I picked up color with a wet brush and layered it on a background that I had painted with gesso.
I used my gouache paints for this spread. I had never used them before so I wanted to play with them. I covered the background in gesso first and painted over it. It took quite a lot of layers to get the colors as deep as I wanted.
I wanted to try gouache on watercolor paper. Gouache is an opaque watercolor paint and I was wondering how it would work compared to the previous spread where I had used gesso. It was much easier to create deep, rich colors. I definitely want to play with them some more.
Next, I decided to play with my acrylic paints. I chose the Dina Wakley Media Heavy Body Paints. I love the colors in this line and I like the texture I can create with heavy body paints. I also had fun blending the colors together while they were still wet.
I kept using my acrylics the next night but I decided to try painting with a palette knife. That was a lot of fun. I had started with a coat of gesso and then added a layer of crackle paste before I started painting. I really love how that turned out.
You can see that the paint actually seeped into the crackle to create lots of subtle texture.
The next day, I went back to my watercolors because I had some watercolor brushes that I had gotten for my birthday. I didn't have a lot of time to play so I glued the page directly into my art journal.
Then I went back to acrylic paints again. I started painting with my palette knife but I moved onto my fingers to create some of the shading and texture you can see below.
I love how the flowers turned out. There is so much texture there.
I don't have a plan when I sit down each day and yet I am never at a loss for ideas. That's a lot of fun. I also like having a daily practice. It's something that I look forward to each day and that's a pretty great feeling. I will keep painting my way through the month and I hope you will stop by next week and see what I've made.
Thanks for stopping by today.
Cathie
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