Colorful Abstract Art Journal Page with Bird Sketch

Hello lovelies!

I still don't feel great, unfortunately. I did finally see a doctor last week to rule out pneumonia and he prescribed some medication to help alleviate the symptoms. Other than that he told me to take it easy and get some bed rest.

If you've known me through my blog any amount of time you'll know that it's almost impossible for me to lay in bed with my mind in overdrive. My "to-do-list" is stretching ever longer and I am feeling quite antsy.

Then I remembered that before I fell ill I filmed a little tutorial, but only uploaded it now. 

 

At the time I was tired of the gray weather that I decided to bring in some bright colors on the page to cheer me up! In the above collage you can see some of the process that went into creating this page. I used various tools for the background, such as a brayer and stamps and also a watersoluble pencil to make random marks. 

The little birdy is a sketch I made on a separate piece of paper, cut out and glued to the page along with some strips of collage and random word snippets. 

This style is more abstract than my usual and I utilized the white space. I explain this in the short video above. It's a simple page, but in the end it really did cheer me up with all the yummy bright colors!

I really do hope that I will feel more myself soon. Thank you so much for visiting and your lovely comments. I do appreciate every one of them!

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Monday Moodboard

Hi everyone!

Today's mood board is "the linen edition" in pastels. Linen is a flax-based textile used for home accessories and clothing, which, unlike cotton, dries quickly and thus it's a very popular fashion choice if you live in a hot and humid climate! These days most clothes are a mix of linen and synthetic fibres which prevents creasing and doesn't shrink when washed. I wish they had had those when I lived in Asia! 

Click on the links below for more info on the items. 

1 -- 2 -- 3 -- 4

p.s. I've been battling a rather nasty flu - hope to be back to regular blogging soon!

Mixed Media Art Journal Page with Vintage-style Birds

Hi lovely readers and followers,

I am close to completing the final pages in my vintage-style-themed art journal and it's getting quite fat, hence the three clips to hold the pages down! This spread is similar in style as the previous one, except for the bird images which were a free download from The Graphics Fairy. There are plenty other birds in various styles available over there.

I intentionally kept things simple with less layering and focussing more on composition and shapes.  I painted the background with beige acrylic paint and dropped in some ink in raw umber, then let it flow down the page. 

Once the background was dry I adhered bits of collage papers in browns and creams. I mixed a pale mint with a light gray-blue and applied it randomly all over the spread. Then I brought in some subtle colors with more collage bits and pieces and stamped a botanical image on the right side.

I made some splatters with watered-down, light green paint and shaded the edges of the pages with my Stabilo All pencil, which turns a nice grungy black when water is added.

I like how bits of the brown collage papers peek through the gray-blue paint and the pop of color from the bird images. When I printed these they came out in rectangular format with a white background. I only wanted the colored bit, so I cut the images along the blue edges. I considered going around the images with more paint, but then decided to just leave it as is.

As I am writing this it is snowing again. The sky looks like the paint in my artwork! I am off to make myself a steaming cup of tea and hoping to see a sign of spring soon...🌸

Thanks so much for visiting and I hope you have a cozy Sunday!