Art Journal Play Inspired by Matisse

Art journal tutorial inspired by Matisse and his stars

How do I find the meaning in my art journaling? It isn’t always logical. That random “t” on the bottom of the page would lead me to Marilyn Monroe when I expected to use a Henri Matisse quote. Along the way for bonus fun, I was able to annoy that logical left brain of mine and that makes everything even more fun!

Watch on Art journal play inspired by Matisse’s stars YouTube.

Backgrounds are often the result of cleaning up my supplies. This page came about when I was gel printing and instead of using a scrap of paper to clean the brayer off or take the last ghost pull, I did it directly into my journal.

As I stenciled Stars Inspired by Matisse on the page with the rainbow, the logical left part of my brain had a bit of fit. I was using lots of paint and not being very careful about it.

Logical leftie was sure it was going to be a runny mess. But since I was using heavy body paints, which are wonderfully opaque and help colors pop on a background, it turned out just fine.

That random “t” at the bottom along with stars had me singing Twinkle Twinkle Little Star as I looked for just the right quote to put on here. I expected it would be a Matisse quote, but nope.

It was Marilyn Monroe’s, “We all of use are stars, and we deserve to twinkle.”

If some twinkle is good, then more is better, so I added the word twinkle all over the bottom and a few at the very top. Marilyn is right, we all do deserve to twinkle!

Here are the supplies I used. Some of these links are affiliate links which means I get a small percentage. It doesn’t cost you anything extra and it helps keep the free tutorials coming!

InLinkz.com

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What are Scribble Sticks by Dina Wakley?

What are Scribble Sticks? Inquiring minds want to know! Are they like a crayon or a colored pencil or a watercolor or an oil pastel? Will they work on dark colors? Will they react to water? Will they bleed through paint? This is what I set out to learn as I played around with Scribble Sticks in my art journal.

Watch What are Dina Wakley’s Scribble Sticks? on YouTube.

Can they work with stencils? Yes indeed they can! There is a trick to making sure words are lined up on the edge, start at the end and work backwards, as I did here with my Ransom Alphabet stencil.

The color reacts to water so a cup of plain water and brush easily turned what looked like colored pencil into vibrant watercolors, even on a regular art journal page. No gesso involved. The Scribble Sticks also could do a crisp lines and details.

What about over dark colors? This clean up print from gel printing with my Wall of Words stencil was just the right scrap to test this out. All the colors stood out on black, including white. Something white that writes over paint…be still my heart. But this paint was very matte, would these write on a glossier paint?

So I had to try that out on another gel printing scrap. They wrote just as well on the slicker, more glossy paint. But what about bleeding? A thick coat of white paint was added on top of some of the colors. The pink bled through big time but the other colors not much.

All the white space on this art journal page couldn’t stay totally white. A touch of scribble journaling finished it off. Since Scribble Sticks don’t smear unless wet, my hand did not smear what I had written, which a great feature for art journalers!

Here’s what I learned from my play with Scribble Sticks:

They write easily over paint.
All the colors write over black, including white.
They react quickly and completely with water to be a vibrant watercolor.
They write like a colored pencil and won’t smear if you keep them dry.
Some of the colors bleed through paint.
They work nicely with stencils.

Here are the supplies I used. Some of these links are affiliate links which means I get a small percentage. It doesn’t cost you anything extra and it helps keep the free tutorials coming!

InLinkz.com

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Gel Printing with Impressables and the Rainbow

Video tutorial using Impressables Gel Press plate and Dylusions paints by Carolyn Dube

What happens when a few colors are added to an Impressable Gel Press plate? FUN! Jen Starr Studio’s design, Repeat Circles, with Dylusions paints created a stack of rainbowed circle prints! And yes, rainbow should be a verb!

Watch Making rainbow circles with the Impressable Gel Press Plate on YouTube.

The Impressables Gel Press plate has a raised pattern on it. Since it is entirely made of that magical gel it has all the properties and characteristics of a gel plate.

I used an 8×10 plate as my palette and from here applied Dylusions paints to the Impressable plate. Poor orange, it thought it was going to be used in the play but at the last minute, I decided it would be sidelined. Loved these 4 colors all by themselves. I promise I’ll make it up to you later orange!