Manga in My Art Journal

A few weeks before Christmas, I was hunting at my local thrift store and found a couple of books of Manga comics. Each book has a bunch of different comics in it - like a serial. I had no idea such a thing existed but I snapped them up and added them to my art journaling stash as soon as I got home.

I thought they would be an interesting element to collage into my journals besides my beloved book paper.  Here are a couple of my Manga-inspired pages.



This page started with the orange background. I had sprayed the page with Dylusions Squeezed Orange Ink spray and then spritzed it with Studio Calico Shine to get the color to blend. I collaged this image right over the top and that's how it sat for a long time - a picture on an orange background. And then, I had one of those days. So, I added a few letter stickers and some black india ink drips for good measure.

Here's a closeup of the picture. Haven't we all had days when we feel like that?



And here's my second page.



This page is exactly how I planned to use the Manga comics.  It's in there. It adds interest but it isn't taking over the page - it's just a layer.

Here's a closeup.



And as an added bonus, these books are so much fun to flip through. I brought them to Art Journal Night at a friend's house and spent most of my time flipping through pages and laughing. Good times, my friends, good times.

Thanks for stopping by!

Cathie

Adventures in Collage

I am definitely a mixed media person. I love experimenting and I'm just too curious to focus on one media. But a few weeks ago, I signed up for Claudine Hellmuth's Composition for Collage class at Big Picture Classes (BPC). I love Claudine's work and I'm a big fan of learning new things. Especially things that might help my scrapping and art journaling.

So, I wanted to share a page I made that is inspired by an image Claudine has showed in her classes.  It's a black and white image of a large tree and a small house on a horizon line. Here's my take on it.



The green paper is from Amy Tangerine's Sketchbook collection and the chipboard tree is from Maya Road.  I used blue watercolor to color the sky.  I used multi-medium to adhere my paper and you can see that I was messy because the multi-medium acted as a resist for the blue watercolor. Fortunately, I love that effect.

Here's a closeup...



The words are from the Tim Holtz Chit Chat stickers.   I added some green watercolor to the paper for added interest and stamped randomly over the whole thing with a script stamp. It's a simple collage but I'm very happy with it.  It's a good starting point for my adventures in collage.

And, in case you're wondering, Each week, we are introduced to a new composition structure. All the information is clear and well presented with lots of examples. My favorite part is the weekly "From Cluttered to Clean" tutorial. Claudine shows us how to clean up a cluttered collage related to each week's compositional structure. And, as with all BPC classes, I have lifetime access to all the class information. The class has been great and I've learned a lot. I would recommend it to anyone - beginner or advanced.

Thanks for stopping by!

zove

Cathie

Art Journal Everyday...with friends!

hey, hey!

Last night,  I was art journaling with my friends, Sara, Rae Lynn and Tina at Tina's house.  Oh, it was so much fun. Like a crop but messier which is awesome. I really do have the best friends.

So, here's what I was working on...



I started this page on Friday night.  I've been wanting to collage magazine images for a while now. Last night, I picked up the page again and added the pink drips and the dots. I don't love it but I'm not going to give up just yet.

Here's a closer look...




I made the dots by dipping the handle of my brush in different colors of Claudine Hellmuth Studio paints. To get that pink paint I mixed Dylusion Bubblegum Pink spray ink with gesso.  The Dylusion sprays are translucent but by adding gesso I made it an opaque paint. Neat, huh?

And here's a closeup of the funny hat-like-thing...



I started another page this week.



I added the picture to the blue background I made ages ago. Then I covered the whole page with gesso and removed it with baby wipes. The hole on her head was an accident.  I closed the book when the picture was still sticky with gel medium and it stuck to the other page. I like though because now the image looks distressed. I have grand ideas about journaling around her outline but I have no idea what I want to say.  It'll come to me.  Someday.

So, that's what I've been up to this week with my art journal but I've also been playing along with Daisy Yellow's Index Card a Day 2 challenge.  I've been Zentangling and it's taking forever to finish my daily card. You can (and should) check out the Flickr gallery.  Also check out Sara's and Liz's blogs.  They are ICAD2-ing, too. So much inspiration.

Thanks for stopping by.

zove

Cathie