Daily Art

Almost every day I make some kind of art.     Recently I was inspired by my friend Sally's larger format art journal.   I'd been working on small ones lately, and this seemed like it would be a good change.  I also like the fact that the paper is heavy enough for watercolor or acrylic paints.     And the spine is a coil, so it can take some expansion and opens full out for two page spreads.     Here are some recent pages.    This is simply called May 2013.

These first two were done with scraping some acrylic craft paints on the page with a credit card.   then going back after it's dry to see if there are any found images.    I usually find people, fish, or birds.     The second one had very clear little creatures which I outlined in pencil.   I don't know why they have an ice cream cone - it was just there.

See?   There are the fish, and a boat.    My friend Phyllis can find 10 times more things on a page like this than I can - and a much broader variety of things.     It's a fun technique.  If you have not tried it, you might like to .  Not every page will have anything.  At least not for me.  But, I'm really only trying to make backgrounds for collages, so anything else found there is a bonus.

This one used some rubber stamps I carved earlier in the month at the senior center.    The numbers are from a purchased set, as are the letters.    This is my take on the Thoreau quote about chairs

This double page spread was done with sprayed on watercolors, through lace and other textures.   Then I sketched in the figures and outlined and colored them with aqua sticks, rubbing them in with my fingers. Last came the collage bits applied with a glue stick. 

More than one technique was used on this page.   swiped liquid acrylic paint, and sprayed watercolor.  Then the rubber stamps with permanent ink, and some collage.

Here is a page where the swiped paint formed a pair of swans?   snakes?   I did not outline them or do anything except punch up the contrast in photoshop, as the paint colors are pale.   

I'll post more pages soon.     Have you tried changing sizes of journals?     I'm enjoying this larger format for a change.    I gave the last small journal to my friend Frances who had a family issue that took her out of town, so she has a small one to enjoy.