Watercolor and Black Paint Art Journal Pages

Hi again!  This is my poor, neglected blog space.  I've been putting forth any extra time and effort I have into my art teaching blog.  I've revamped it, added a newsletter and a slideshow at the top. I've been adding products to my TPT shop and coming up with new resources for my blog.

I have had a little bit of time to experiment with art journaling again.  I've been using watercolors combined with stark black paint.

Journal page before watercolor lettering

Journal page with lettering added

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Sweet and Sassy Art Journaling

 

I hope you all are having a wonderful winter time so far.  Brrrr... it's really cold here now!  The wind chills are about -20 degrees.   

My New Year's goal is to create at least one artwork per month just for me!  So, that is a total of 12 artworks.  I go to a book club and they helped me come up with that goal.  It is a very attainable goal and most months I make at least one artwork anyways.  It has just been so hard to find time to do anything for ME. 

Art is Basic:  Art ideas for children
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An Art Journal Page In Steps

Would you like to see me create an art journal page with a quote in steps?  Of course you do!  Here goes.

Sunshine Quote - Watercolor Painting

If you like my artwork, be sure to visit my Etsy shop where I have some original Project Life cards, some miniature art cards, greeting cards, postcards and collage packs.  It truly makes my day when someone purchases my art. 

Watercolor lettering collage

I used that Molotow masking fluid pen for the white parts of this image.  I did several layers of watercolor doodling and then used Sharpies and glued a few other collage elements on top.  I cut out two of the images from this previous page to include on this picture.

Gah!  I'm in such a creative rut.  I rarely have time to make my own art and when I do I feel like I don't know where to start so I just do something else.  Anyone else feel that way? 

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You are Awesome!

Art made with Photoshop using my original watercolor doodles and digital text.

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"Count the Stars" Lettering with Paper Scrap Background

After a two week winter break from school, we are having another 2 days off from school!  The wind chills are down to -55 degrees F and the actual temperatures are around -20 F.  This is the coldest it's been in about 10 years.  They've already called off school for tomorrow too.  

Daria and I played a lot of My Little Ponies, made some scones, watched some tv and I practiced some image transfers and painting while she played with my art stuff.  I thought today would be a good day to catch up on some blogging.

A few weeks ago I made this "Count the Stars" picture in my art journal.  I liked the strips of colors in this pin and decided to make something inspired by the background.  

1.  I started by sketching out the letters with a pencil.

2.  Then I outlined them using my Pilot Varsity Fountain Pen (my favorite pen ever.) 

3.  Next, I filled in the areas around the words with strips of blue and turquoise scraps.  Some pieces of patterned tape were added too.  I cut out the hexagon shapes and added a little colored pencil on the edges to make them stand out.

4.  The letters are colored in with colored pencils and white paint markers.  I looked at areas within the background that I thought could use little patches of watercolor paint and added in some extra color.

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Merry Christmas!

Merry Christmas and Happy New Year to all of my blogging friends. These are some cards I made a couple of years ago.

 

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You Shine Brighter than the Brightest Star Art Journal Page

 

I really like how this page turned out.  Very busy and colorful, imperfect and expressive.  I am really enjoying this new pen, the Pilot Varsity disposable fountain pen.   (Picture and affiliate link on left.) 

I also bought another art journaling book.. I really don't need more, do I? Art Journal Freedom: How to Journal Creatively With Color & Composition 

What happened was that I was trying to find those plastic potty training pants that you put over underwear (for my 3 year old daughter) because we are not having the best luck with potty training.  Spring Break is next week for me, so we are going to just put her in underwear all day and see what happens.  You would think that these would still be available in stores, but the stores (even Target and Babies R Us) only carry the pull-up diapers (which are basically the same as diapers).  She didn't feel "wet" in them and doesn't really care if she goes to the bathroom in them.  So, anyways.... I looked online and they had them on Amazon.  But, the ones we wanted were "add-on" items which means you *had* to spend a certain amount.  So, I was basically forced into buying something for myself, right?  Lol.  Wish me luck on the potty training thing. 

I haven't read too much of the book yet, but I like the information on composition and focal points and so forth.  Those ideas are all good for any type of art in general.  I like books where the concepts can cross over into other areas. 

I am so proud of my 5th and 6th grade students who each carved one or two beautiful rubber stamps.  We printed them all on one very large poster board, which is going to be framed and donated to our school auction fundraiser. 

I am linking this to Paint Party Friday, Art Journal Every Day and Show and Tell Saturday.

Thanks for reading!  Best wishes, Marcia
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Fall Fearless and Fly Prompt #6 and Merry Christmas!

Merry Christmas to you and your family!

This is a perfect time for the Fall Fearless and Fly prompt #6:
Headline Prompt:  Divided by God:  What does "God" mean to you?  How do you access"God" or the divine or the sacred in your life?
Color Prompt: Metallics - gold, silver, copper, bronze, or all of them!
Quote Prompt: "This is my simple religion.  There is no need for temples; no need for complicated philosophy.  Our own brain, our own heart, is our temple; the philosophy is kindness."  The Dalai Lama

I do believe in God and the Bible as a blueprint for how to live our lives.  I do believe that God is much greater than any of us can understand and that he reveals himself through Jesus and creation in different ways to people all over the world. 

Here are some Christmas themed art journal pages from last year!

Faith lettering... a picture for my friend's daughter

LOVE Christmas card

Lettering Practice from a Bible Verse

 

Here is another page with a lot of layers.  The idea came from a challenge at Word Art Wednesday... from quite a while ago.  I had started this page and then didn't finish it in time. 

Texture and Lettering

Inspiration Avenue's challenge this week is texture.  A lot of my art journal pages have layers and texture.

Peace Love and Art

The preview for Featuring Magazine is up.  We've been hard at work on it.   Check it out!

New journaling/lettering pages

Above:  Lettering practice for the Lettering Love online workshop with Joanne Sharpe.  Writing in a circular shape was a fun new way for me to practice lettering.  It was a nice starting point for a composition.

Below:  These were notes I made about writing out Bible verses and prayer concerns.  I led devotions for our council meeting at church and I shared a couple pages from my journal where I write out prayers, phrases and verses as a form of meditation and devotion. 

Below:  Here is a detail shot of the lettering page from above.

More Letter Practice!

Letter Love Class

Here is another quote I wrote using techniques from Joanne Sharpe's class. 

Lettering Class

I'm taking Joanne Sharpe's lettering class online and it just started this week.  It's not too late to join in. So I've been playing around a lot with letters this week.