Hi everyone, today I’m sharing my first art journal page in my new “Greek” art journal with you all. I feel that a first page in a new journal is exciting and you really want it to be pretty! It took me a while to finish this project but in the end I totally love it! If you would like to know how I created this altered Greek journal book that you can go HERE!
Step 1:
This step is all about preparations: I printed the dragon (“Moonlight Dragon” by The Picsees) onto regular printer paper in the size that I wanted, I draw out my quote in the size that I wanted (because you can’t really erase on acrylic paint I’m going to use carbon paper to transfer the quote onto the art journal page). I also put some washi tape in the middle of my journal so that the paint won’t go onto other pages and I applied a layer of transparent gesso over the page and the washi tape. Finally I transferred the dragon image onto Clairefontaine Paint On Mix Media Multi-Techniques “Grey Green” paper using graphite paper (I couldn’t print directly onto the paper because this paper is 250 gr, which is too thick for my printer to take).
Step 2:
Now I can start the colouring process: today I’m using my Spectrum Noir ColourBlend coloured pencils in combination with a white drawing pencil. I started by adding a layer of white with the drawing pencil everywhere I felt the highlights might be. The dragon is next: for this I used the ColourBlend pencils in Black, Anemone and Wisteria.Than onto the flower: I used CandleGlow, Mustard, Yellow Ochre and a bit of Lagoon. Because I wanted to create a sort of night look I wanted the colours to be a bit muted. For the stem of the flower I used Anemone with Lake Blue. And for the hat I used some of the yellow colours mentioned before as well as the colour Earth.
This colouring process took me several hours to get it where I wanted it.
Next I fussy cut the image leaving a relatively larger border.
Step 3:
Back to the art journal: I’m now ready to work on the background. My quote is going on the left hand side, that is why I needed a fairly light area there, the dragon is going on the right hand page and needed to be fairly dark.
I used DecoArt acrylic paints in the colours Hauser Dark Green, True Blue (mixed with white), Snow (Titanium) White and Silver Sage metallic paint as well as a Van Gogh acrylic paint in Chromium Oxide Green and I used my fingers to put the paint on the paper.
Step 4:
I did not adhere the image yet. In this step I’m transferring the quote onto the left hand journal page using carbon paper and than I’m going over the lines using a black Spectrum Noir ArtLiner pen.
Step 5:
Still not adhering my coloured image. I used a stencil (this one is TCW726s) to create the look of more flowers in the background: for this I used the white paint mentioned before as well as the DecoArt Grape Juice acrylic paint.
Step 6:
Time for some splatters, bringing back in some of the yellow tones. For this I used Coliro Pearl Colours in the colour “Arabic Gold”.
Step 7:
To finish the project I now only have to adhere the coloured image to the page using one millimetre thick foam tape and I edged the pages using first Archival Ink in “Sepia” (being a bit more heavy handed on the bottom) followed by “Jet Black”, in combination with a foam applicator tool.
Detail pictures:
And that is it for my first art journal page in my new journal! I wish you a creative day!
