Where the Art Masters Meet our Muse

Where the Art Masters Meet our Muse is the wonderful new focus for February over at the Art Journal Caravan Expedition on Scrapbookgraphics.com..  Isn't it funny I hadn't really given the Masters any thought till seeing then I realised I just love most art and artists from the Impressionist/Post Impressionist Era such as Monet, Seurat and Gauguin.  Probably as they are who I remember from Art History at School.   The other Master who's work I really love is Gustav Klimt and it is his work that was my muse for my journal play last night.  He had a love for Gold Frescos and the use of geometrical shapes in his work so I decided to do my take on his 1907 painting which was a portrait of Adel Bloch-Bauer I seen here.

So I reached for my A3 Watercolor Paper and started with a layer of Gesso before taking to it with Gold and Yellow Oxide Paint.  I then continued to add color with paint and detail with my Big Brush Stamper Pens and Black Art Liner and White Posca Paint Pen.  Finally adding detail to the face with Charcoal and Watercolor Pencils.

I then took my A3 work to my A4 Scanner and scanned it into my computer.  The above picture is the A4 scanned result.

I then took my file into Photoshop Elements and added and enhanced the color as well as adding some grunge style elements which include a piece extracted from one of Klimt's original works.  I have used three of these hexagon portions as the sleeve of the ladies dress on the right as you look at the image.  All of these elements were from the AJC2014 Kits by Tangie Baxter to achieve the below look.

I am really loving my experiementing playing along with the Art Journal Caravan this year.  Doodling, painting and enhancing on the PC are all things I enjoy.  This art is truly just for me and my enjoyment but I hope you like it too!

Wk 2 Journaling

Hi Everyone!  Today I am sharing some of my art journaling.  And not to worry I am not sharing any of my heavy emotional stuff.   As well as Journal 52 I am now playing along with the Art Journal Caravan for 2014 which is also a year long workshop.  The years theme is Not all those who Wander are Lost and January is all about having Nature as your Muse.  Nature truly is a wonderful inspiration for my art so I couldn't resist joining the fun.  Plus it combines my two loves, art and using the computer.

For both this weeks Journal 52 and AJC prompts I have chosen the same quote.

Here's a look at my page -  Journal 52's prompt is Somewhere a Simple Place, and I have used a scribbled Gelato Background with stamping, Paper and drawing to represent that place, which for me is sitting outside with a coffee in hand watching and feeding the birds that frequent our garden and enjoying all that nature has to offer.

AJC has numerous prompts from colors, to words, to photos to use as inpsiration.  This week I used two colors from their Color Sparks and the Word Soothe.  The exact place I have depicted above is somewhere that for me soothes the soul.  For my Page I have used an A3 piece of watercolor paper with Black and White Gesso, Stencils and Spray Inks.

I have then scanned this background into my pc and added digital elements to achieve my finished page.  I really love how this has turned out just looking at it for me has a soothing effect!

Thanks for stopping by!

Craving for Color - It Makes Me Happy!

Hi Everyone, yesterday was a sad day, as we bid farewell to our foster son Alex who has been part of our family for the past year and a bit.  So after some writing in my journal I decided to hide away and play in my craft room.

I had recently purchased some black gesso and black was how I was feeling.  So after initially playing and completely messing up what I was doing by smearing it all with black, I went again with another A3 size piece of water paper and with a credit card I started by smearing on and smoothing out some black all over.

I then took some stencils, some water, white Gesso, Dylusions Ink, Yellow Paint on a Sponge Roller, and my Gelatos and went to town.  Playing with color makes me happy the most.

Here is my end result which I will sit on for a while before using it as a background for a piece of art.  .

I love creating and using my own background papers for my cards and ATC's and. normally I would just cut up my larger pieces to a useable size, however the stencil design was rather large so I decided to scan this piece into my computer.  My scanner is only A4 in size so the outer parts of my design didn't make the scanned piece.  I then boosted the colors slightly in my photo editing software. The scan of my background now looked like this - A4 in size.

Using my scanned background I created a quick digital journal page inline with Art Journal Caravan 2014, the Main Prompt for this is Where we Meet Nature as our Muse.

I used some digital elements from the AJC Jan14 Collection as well as taking two butterflies (birdwings) from photos I took at Mt Tamborine in December to add to this.

Nature and Color really are my two main inspirations for my art.  So where did my muse take me? .......

Next I shrunk the design to print as a card front size (4 to a page) and printed on my ink jet printer as my laser is out of ink. 

2 different looks are achievable with a black base card simply by choosing whether to leave a white border or not.

It's perfect for some Simple, Colourful and Flat Cards to send off with my ATC Swaps and a perfect background to team up with the Donna Downey Empowered Words or Art and Possibility Sentiment and Quote Stamps from Unity.

I hope this qualifies to link up with the Unity Friday Friends with Flair as I have missed playing along for quiet some time.