Wanderlust: painted texture

Series: Wanderlust 2021 #31

I very nearly didn’t do this lesson; this is another one from the Wanderlust guest host Kate Crane and the foundation process is quite similar to that used in the Found Poetry page I made earlier in the year. But, I enjoyed making that one so I decided to do this one too. Apart from anything else, I’ve filled up my first art journal with Wanderlust pieces this year and I wanted to have something I would be happy with as the first piece in the new one.

Kate often starts off working on black pages to which she adds a layer of white, leaving the corners dark, which gives a nice framing effect that lasts through the subsequent layers. This lesson is about the subtle textures that can be built up in an art journal where you want to avoid too much bulk and the first elements of that were adding sgraffito scribbles in the still-wet white gesso with collaged squares of paper on top once it had dried.

The next layer brought in daubs of colour, knocked back with white where needed. Then layers of stencilling, stamping and junk stamping — my favourite bit is the gold grid made using a piece of plastic tapestry canvas — layered under and over the large black circles. Being generous with the paint when stamping with things like bubble wrap can add some interesting texture.

The last textural element was the addition of some Ranger enamels: green on the large black circle and silver on the light green dots.

The flower was from a piece of rice paper, far too thin for a focal image on this busy background, so I glued it to a scrap bit of white card first and fussy cut it out. The leaves are stickers that were bought on clearance and have been in my stash forever.

I do love building up layers like this, though I often struggle with finding the right focal point for pieces. If this wasn’t in an art journal I would cut the page in half, with the large circle and leaf as the focal point of one and the flower on the other.

Class:

• Wanderlust 2021
• Theme: texture
• Teacher: Kate Crane (website, Instagram)