Series: Wanderlust 2021 #18 This was a fun page to make. I enjoy using stencils and this has more stencils than I've ever used on a single piece before — seven in total — four on the background, one for the border, and two different butterfly stencils. Technically one of the butterflies used a mask,… Continue reading Wanderlust: butterflies
Series: Wanderlust 2021 #17 I know that different mediums can be used on a gelli plate but I've always kept it simple with just acrylic paints. This was the first time I've used alcohol ink. The instructions said to use a light colour acrylic paint base layer on the plate — I think mine wasn't… Continue reading Wanderlust: ravens
Series: Wanderlust 2021 #16 Trees! A subject that I am a lot more comfortable with than faces — it's nice not to have to change the focus of the lesson — though I do have to work from a source photo to get something that looks natural. And props to Nicole for talking about what… Continue reading Wanderlust: white tree
Series: Wanderlust 2021 #15 In a change from the inspirational art journal page that Kasia usually makes to introduce a new theme, this week she demonstrated two techniques that could easily be used to create silhouettes or more detailed work. Once again she used a picture of a person to work from and, once again,… Continue reading Wanderlust: two techniques
Series: Wanderlust 2021 #14 The most interesting part of doing the Wanderlust classes is coming across new ideas, whether it's a product I haven't come across before, a technique I haven't used, or just a different approach to creating a page. I was vaguely aware of the existence of bleeding art tissue, but hadn't been… Continue reading Wanderlust: mini collages
Series: Wanderlust 2021 #13 I don't know whether I was just in the wrong mood when I watched the video for this week's Wanderlust lesson, but it just ended up annoying me. I liked the technique she used to create the background and, although I don't use them in my mixed media projects, the pocket… Continue reading Wanderlust: pocket of tags
Series: Wanderlust 2021 #12 Planned serendipity seems like a bit of an oxymoron, but Carolyn's class is a blank-page-block breaker that creates the conditions for something interesting and unplanned to happen. The starting point is to pick a few (she suggests five) supplies without considering how they'll be used. I grabbed some acrylic paints that… Continue reading Wanderlust: planned serendipity
Series: Wanderlust 2021 #11 A new theme this week and new themes always start with a class from the host, Kasia Avery. Unlike the detailed, real-time, step-by-step classes, these ones are more of an introduction to the theme with a chat from Kasia and a speeded-up video of her interpretation. The hope is that it… Continue reading Wanderlust: woodpecker
Series: Wanderlust 2021 #10 When I started doing mixed media, I started collecting things. A variety of paints, pencils, powders and other ways of making marks and laying down colour. Then there are all the papers, patterned and plain, old books and maps, and digital versions of vintage papers ready to print out. And that's… Continue reading Wanderlust: collection of ideas
Series: Wanderlust 2021 #09 The idea behind this week's Wanderlust Ephemera lesson was to make it personal. The most obvious way to do this is to use personal photos. I spent some time looking through family photos and pondered using either one of me as a child or one of my mum from before I… Continue reading Wanderlust: make it personal
I was sorting through various journals and sketchbooks scattered around my room, dividing them into ones that are full, ones that have never been used, and ones that are somewhere in the middle. It was in one of the last group that I found this piece — the only piece I made from one of… Continue reading Gilded leaf postcard
Series: Wanderlust 2021 #08 This was a lesson in three parts demonstrating some of the different ways you can balance collage and paint in mixed media art journal projects. The first is pure collage, no paint at all. There are areas of this that I really like but the overall effect is a little busy… Continue reading Wanderlust: collage 3 ways
Series: Wanderlust 2021 #07 The previous mandalas I've made have been quite precise, with all the colouring done carefully inside the lines. The aim with this one was to be much looser and relaxed, to the extent that the initial long petal shapes were painted before the outlines were drawn. It goes against my instincts… Continue reading Wanderlust: mandala
Series: Wanderlust 2021 #06 It took me a while to get started on this lesson. I have plenty of papers that can be used for collage and even a small supply of ephemera that has accumulated over the years — though, as with adding words to art journals, I do prefer elements to have some… Continue reading Wanderlust: Rocket
Series: Artful Academy 2020 journal #13 It would have been easy to have chosen Christmas as the subject for the last art journal page of the year, but I like to avoid the obvious option so I chose to make a Solstice page instead. After the painterly Boundaries page, I changed the style up by… Continue reading Artful Academy journal – December
Crafty Rat 