If You Like It Then You Should’ve Put a Bird On It – Art Journal Page

Hope you are having a crafty Sunday!  As promised yesterday, here is the next page finished for my self care journal. So as I mentioned yesterday, back in the Spring I enrolled in a course all about using art for self-care, a subject I am really interested in. It ran from beginning of May till halfway through August.  I started late and then tried to play catch-up for a while but a bunch of stuff got in the way and I only got about halfway finished.  I planned to finish all the art journaling pages and then stitch my book together but of course I haven’t done that because I haven’t finished all the pages yet!  Here’s my book cover if you are curious.  All the pages I’ve done so far are still loose inside it.

So the next lesson on my list was the one from Lisa Taggart.  I’m afraid that I went off in another direction almost from the start as it involved making a background using various sprays and then using a spray fixative to set it, and I was just not in a spray and toxic chemical kind of mood.  I have to say though that what she created was really lovely.  There was one stage in particular that I thought it looked like a Monet painting, but I had to go my own way and avoid the sprays!  I suppose I really just used this lesson as a jumping off point to make something that was more me. Things in common with the class lesson – a Jane Davenport face stencil (but a different one), neocolour II crayons, text stamping on background (different stamps and inks), white stencilling (different stencils and paint).  The class also used diecut roses and butterflies which were nice enough but not really what I wanted to do with my page.   So here is my background which started as the mop up page from yesterday’s project!  (It’s the top one).

I added some more colour to it using Neocolour II crayons to fill in all the gaps and white bits, then activated them with water.

Then I added some stencilling in white using a Finnabair stencil and a TCW stencil and some Paperartsy Chalk Paint.

Some random stamping using a French script stamp and some Versafine Clair ink in complementary colours.

I am really loving this colour combination!  I don’t use a lot of yellow but this yellow crayon is making me happy next to the turquoise and pink.
Getting back to the class video, a Jane Davenport stencil was used in a large Dylusions journal.  I’m using an A4 watercolour paper folded in half so it makes A5 size and much much smaller than the big Dylusions journal I have.  I found a different JD face stencil that fit my page and used polychromos pencil to draw her onto my page. I really love how she looks at this stage with all the pattern in her face.

For some reason I like her a lot less now that she has real skintones lol.  She’s also taken on an air of snootiness that I don’t like – as though she is looking down her non-existent nose at everyone lol.  It was getting late and I had to stop to make dinner, so I had to leave it alone at this stage.

So after leaving it overnight, I got to work on it this afternoon, mostly on her hair and adding more shading and depth to her face with pencils and crayons.  I really like how the background is showing through her eyes but I don’t know if I will keep it that way.

Here’s a closer look at her eyes, the one on the right is starting to bother me.

I’m not saying this is better haha but it is what it is and once I started, I had to commit.
I used some of my homemade stamps on the background.  The top four are lino cut stamps, and the LOVE stamps at the bottom are made from craft foam letters cut from some alphabet dies.

I used Versafine Clair ink for the stamping in turquoise and purple.

It looked a bit bare around the right side so I drew some flowers and leaves with some PITT pens and also did some highlighting around the stamps – and oh look, a little bird managed to squeeze his way onto the page!

Here’s a closer look at the bird, he’s a Tim Holtz stamp.  I drew around him with a white paint pen to help him stand out a bit more from the background and letters.

More close ups, this time the flower and the art journal lino stamp.

And the top of the page…

And here’s the finished page – only thing left to do now is give it a name and I’ve had this song in my head ever since I saw the name of the challenge over on Art Journal Journey.  It’s inspired by Beyonce – Put a Ring on It!  So let’s call it – Put a Bird on It!  Whoa oh oh, oh oh oh oh oh…

How was your Sunday?  Let me know in the comments.  As always, thanks for reading!

Challenges

Art Journal Journey – Add a Bird Challenge November
Art Every Day Month – Day 22

PROJECT RECIPE:

My art journal
Watercolour paper
crayons, acrylic paint, paint pens, gesso, stencils, polychromos pencils, watercolour pencils, homemade stamps, Tim Holtz bird stamp, PITT artist pens, Versafine Clair ink,
From stash: everything!

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