Ever have trouble covering up a background? That didn’t happen here. Starting with an ugly background makes it easy to cover up. What did I use to cover it up? Stencil masks. They transformed the background that was yuck into colorful creatures. Feel free to chuckle about what my daughter pointed out to me in [...]
stencils
This all started with an O.O.P.S., an Outstanding Opportunity Presenting Suddenly, when I spilled an entire bottle of Art Spray. The quest to keep that from happening again introduced me to what I call Splotters. Splotters are empty bottles with a dauber top that I filled with the rainbow. They became juicy, fat graffiti style markers to [...]
Ever have a canvas or a page in your art journal that just stalled out when the mojo just vanished? What can you do when that happens? Give yourself a do over. If there is any part you like, keep that and then cover over whatever you don’t like. That’s what I did to jump start this canvas with white paint. [...]
What can you do when you have the blahs and just feel, well, blah? Make a mess. Just get the art supplies out and do anything. Even making something ugly can help shake off a blah mood. In this video, you’ll see how I made a hot mess of ugly and that it doesn’t matter [...]
Quotes make great wall art, especially when you use a quote that is meaningful to you. What if you could stencil it without having to worry about lining up the letters or keeping the rows straight. That is why I designed this masking stencil, so that it was easy to create any words or phrases, and [...]
Can you stencil using paint without a brush or a cosmetic sponge? Yes! Then what was used to apply the paint? A gel plate! Not only did it make for speedy stenciling, it also gave it a grungy flair. In the video, you’ll see how to use a gel plate as a paint applicator and the exact [...]
Going from the blank canvas to a finished one can feel like the the 12 trials of Hercules, an epic journey. I had a gesso’d canvas, actually a wood panel, fully prepared to tackle the challenges that were waiting as I began playing. The first challenge happened when I started layering some colors and pattern and it looked hideous [...]
What can you do when things go horribly wrong in your art journal? Say O.O.P.S. because that avert-your-eyes-horror on the page is really an Outstanding Opportunity Presenting Suddenly. While working on this page, I drew the ugliest butterfly that was ever drawn in all of history. That might be a bit dramatic but that is what the voice in [...]
Just because spray inks come with a nozzle for spraying, doesn’t mean you can only spray them. They can be used with a paint brush too. In the video you’ll see an OOPS as well as some color mixing. https://youtu.be/LhLEOsQ2oWw Watch Spray Inks Aren’t Just for Spraying on YouTube. Why the word “start”? It is [...]
Ever have a background you don’t like very much…that you just ignore and hope that one day you’ll like it – but never do? There is still hope for those pages, after all this is mixed media art journaling and you just need another layer. I’m going to the dark side, of color that is, [...]
