Art Journal Fun

Having fun in my journal! Still trying out new toys and techniques, but also getting rid of some ideas. I hope to turn some of these spreads into canvas art at some point.

Mixed media, too many to name, but I will tell you that the coffee was done with soft pastels. In case you were wondering :)

Imagination is more important than Knowledge
Mixed media on journal spread

Morning Coffee
Mixed media on journal spread

Art is Messy

Made another journal spread: Art is Messy, because, well, it is! Since I discovered ink misters, and the Distress ink range, my hands look like a mess all the time. And gosh, I love it!

Art is Messy
Mixed Media on journal spread (handmade paper)

Valentine Tag Walkthrough

Made a Valentine's Tag, inspired by 12 Tags of 2013 - February, over at Tim Holtz's blog. I'm not sure I followed the rules, but the stamp that's used in the example is one that I don't have. And since I have spent way too much money on new supplies recently (there was an awesome arts & crafts fair here in NL not too long ago), I couldn't afford to buy the queen of hearts stamp. So I improvised! 

Most of the supplies you will see here are new and bought at the fair. Now, down to business! (Scroll down to see the end result.)

Valentine's Tag

#8 Manila tag dragged through Distress Inks.
Colors: Fired Brick, Tattered Rose, Spun Sugar.

Distressed the sides with the distresser
and colored them with the blending tool and Fired Brick.

Added Script to the background with Distress Ink Fired Brick.

Created a label from pink card stock and punched a heart from it.
Stamped hearts on that same card stock and cut them out. 

Colored a piece of string, because the original color
of the string didn't fit the color scheme I was working with.

Because I don't have stamps in the Blue Print line (yet),
I decided to draw my own and colored it with Copic markers.

I glued the separate elements on the tag.

Because I felt that the colored hearts didn't
fit the color scheme and because I wanted to ad
some glitter, I went over them with
Twinkling H2Os: Jasmine and Love Struck.

I also added the string and glued hearts at
the ends, because the ends were ugly looking.

Finally, I added a string with beads to the top.

New Toys and Productivity

Been playing around with my new toys. That is to say, all the stuff I bought on a 'local' arts & crafts fair. I spent so much money there, it's not even funny anymore. But it's awesome to play around with all my new supplies. As the images below testify :)

Love and Art
Journal spread
Mixed media: Acrylics, collage, stamps

Turn and Turn
Journal spread
Mixed media: Ink misters, acrylics,
water-soluble crayons, stencils, stamps, label

Wonder Always
ATC
Mixed media: Ink misters, acrylics,
water-soluble crayons, stamps

January Art Envelope

Trying my hand at creating art videos. I love watching them, so I thought, why not make them myself as well? Maybe they'll be useful to others.

Anyway, since it's only a try-out, this one is just about adding a bit of text to a previously created altered envelope. Hope you like it anyway!

January Altered Envelope
Mixed media on envelope
A5

Little one in the sky

The introductory illustration to my story. Please ignore the discoloration down the middle. That because I had to scan it in two pieces and merge it in Photoshop.

Hope you like it!

Mixed media

And the spread (text is in Dutch):

My Little Brother in the Sky continued

Hello!

Though I'm super busy at the moment, I haven't been completely inactive. Been working on my storybook idea. Redid the earlier illustration and played around with it in Indesign. I like how it came out.

I know the clouds on the left page look off. They've been cut out and copy/pasted from the right page. I still need to make individual clouds for the left page.

Little Brother in the Sky Cover

The cover. Sort of. Not entirely suited to be the cover, since I didn't take the backside and lettering into account, but whatever.

Mixed media: acrylics, collage, charcoal, soft pastels

Little Brother in the Sky

Yay! Finished the final illustration! It's from the first chapter of a story I'm working on.

Mixed media: collage, acrylics, soft pastels, charcoal

Op de Hemelweg / On Heaven's Road

A second illustration for my story - de Hemelweg or Heaven's Road. This one, and Sarah, both are elaborate sketches for a bigger illustration for chapter one of my story. One more of these sketches and then I'll work on the bigger one.

Mixed media: collage, acrylics, charcoal, soft pastel

Edit: Finished the last one as well! Meet Uk (Little One). He keeps teasing his sister, even from Heaven. Not with crayons and paint on new dresses, but through the weather.

So now I'm ready (I hope) to work on the big illustration for this story. Yay!

Again, mixed media: acrylics, collage, soft pastel, charcoal

Experiment

Wow! I think I'm ill... I started experimenting with collage! Oh My Gosh!

Turned out pretty cool too. Did this after leafing through Layered Impressions: A Poetic Approach to Mixed-Media Painting by Katie Kendrick. Gosh, I love my library full of inspiration...

Also, meet Sarah, a character from a story I'm currently working on.

Mixed media: collage, acrylics, pencil, tiny bit of ink

Harmon and more

Got some new stuff! And finally got around to scanning it.

First, Mark Harmon, or, as some may know him, Leroy Jethro Gibbs, from NCIS. I've decided to practice portraits more. First in black and white and later in color, when I think I'm good enough for it. Right now, it's all still practice - proportions and likeness still have to improve. But I'm happy with it all the same.



Second a series of illustrations I am planning to enter in the Bologna Children's Book Fair exhibition. It's a long shot, but I'll try anyway, you never know. They're done with acrylics and collage elements, and are about a girl who escapes her boring, colorless city to seek colorful scenes.

The Grey City


The Green Forest


The Yellow Dunes


The Blue Ocean


And The Red Mountains will follow asap.

Children's illustration

Gah! I've been busy! Drawing and painting mostly, but also uni stuff, and now I'm not even going to show all of my works, lol. I know, I'm a bad girl, but you'll have to make do with just this one illustration and I'll post my new card designs and bookmarkers soon (still have to scan them...).

This one is a concept I've been wanting to try for a while now - collage with newspaper. I like how it came out. Maybe I'll make a series out of it, sort of like a children's book, but then separate pages. Lol, we'll see.

Enjoy!

Collage: Acrylics, newspaper, colored paper, pencil, ecoline.