What You Seek is Seeking You – Art Journal Page

Hi everyone, I hope your week is going well and that the weather is being kind to you.

Today I am sharing this art journal page which I made for Bleeding Art’s October Challenge DT inspiration.  Bleeding Art is all mixed media all the time and always anything goes, so why not enter this month’s challenge.

This page was created amazingly quickly because once the idea formed in my head it all just seemed to come together, and I really love it when that happens!

So a few weeks ago when I was making this page, I was also using my excess paint on this little handmade journal that I had just made.   Here’s a look at the little handmade journal, it’s very basic, roughly A5 size, and made from watercolour paper and an old amazon box stitched together. (damn those amazon boxes come in handy!)

Here is how my page started, just adding the leftover green paints and inks on to the new journal pages.

So back in August, I had added the leftover paint, then shut my book and squished it a few times, then added some Infusions powders, shut it again, added some random scribbles which I didn’t care for and then left it alone for a few weeks.  When I was thinking about what to do for this month’s DT inspiration, I opened this little journal again and thought that the “thing” in the middle of the page was starting to resemble one of those Rorschach ink blot tests (I can see a giant bat or a moth, but that doesn’t mean I’m crazy hahaha).  The colours had morphed into something that reminded me of a dark forest, so I decided to go with it and see what happened.

I started to add some collage from papers that were already on my table, and these black diecuts that my friend had sent me almost two years ago and were still in an envelope.  But you know, if you are going down the creepy forest route, then why not add some sinister looking birds, right?  It’s almost Halloween after all!  My torn papers were put on the edges to hide the scribbles I didn’t like, but as I looked at them, they started to resemble trees, so why not make them into trees!  Very soon a little scene had started to develop and as I thought about the ink blot tests, the phrase “what do you see?” popped into my head so I wanted to use that.

I flicked through some sticker books and found the phrase “what you seek is seeking you” which I thought could be cut down to read “what you SEE is SEEING you“, a bit creepy to be sure lol but also something to think about – a bit like staring into the abyss and the abyss staring back!  But then I could find any words to make up my first phrase, so I decided to use another one which also seemed to fit with dark forests, and I kept the “what you seek…” phrase as it was.

I don’t have any other process photos as it all went pretty fast, but here are a few more of the finished page.  I drew in some features and lines for the trees to make them look more tree-like using a black stabilo pencil and then added the black branch diecuts on each side.  I was deliberately going for symmetry btw to echo the ink blot in the middle.

I added some paint splatters across the background, added the word stickers and outlined them with a black pen.

I painted all the diecuts with some shiny black acrylic before adhering them to the page and used the leftover paint to edge the pages.

It was getting dark as I took these photos so hopefully the shine on the birds and the paint splatters can still be seen enough in the photos.

And there we have it, a couple of creepy birds in a clearing in the middle of a creepy forest lol, plus some words to consider if you feel like contemplating them, perhaps they could be comforting and not creepy.

I really love how the colours came out in this one and that my new journal is working out so well.  There is another page (blue this time) that started off the same way, with leftover paint, and I can’t wait to see what that turns into.  Don’t forget to enter the challenge which runs for one month from today!  I’d love to see what you make for it and II hope you enjoyed reading about this art journal page.  Please let me know in the comments.

Challenges

I would like to enter my creepy forest scene in the Countryview – Halloween, make a scene – Challenge for this month
Also entering Creative Artiste Challenge #65
And in the SSS Monday Challenge which this week is Spooky! – If this page isn’t spooky, I don’t know what is lol
Funkie Junkie – Purple, Orange, Green it’s Halloween  – Challenge – shades of purple, orange and green used

Ingredients

handmade art journal
leftover paint and ink (greens)
Paperartsy Infusions
paper scraps for collage
black pen, black stabilo
metallic paint
acrylic ink
matte gel medium
diecuts (gift from friend)

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