Be Strong

I should be getting on with showing you pages in my art journal made back in June and early July (rest assured they will be coming!)  but instead you're seeing the spread I did yesterday. The earlier pages simply look too sunny and happy at the moment and the above ones are much more a true reflection of how I feel now. It was hard to even go to my art journal and get started and once I did, it was also difficult not to make it look too dark. In fact I had to pull these pages back from the edge of darkness several times and for the first time ever I used my black Liquitex ink to drip down the pages. Black is always included in any packs of paints you buy but I virtually never use it as such, preferring to go for Paynes Grey when I need some darker areas. But black got an outing here although I have resolved to leave it in the cupboard in future. Once you have black areas it's very complicated to make them lighten up.

As you may remember my word for 2015 is: Courage, and I'm beginning to think that I may have had a premonition at the time of choosing it, that I would need it in the year to come. There are many messages to myself on these pages and you can clearly see some of them. I have always liked Matisse's saying that creativity needs courage and he could have added that just living does too.

Now for how I made it! The background consists of vintage texts that were glued on and then covered with paints (all the paints I used are by Dylusions). I used a baby wipe to rub some of the paint back though stencils. I then added the figure as well as the flowers facing her on the opposite page and significantly altered her attire. I used rubber stamping (text stamps are from Donna Downey, and the background ship one from Stampendous) and then dripped down several inks (including that black). The pages got too dark and needed to be lifted in colour and I tried various ways eventually settling on adding the large text (from a stencil by Donna Downey). Things were outlined with black, white, pink and yellow markers. I also added little white stars through a piece of sequin waste.

 The final addition (as it often is) was to glue on postage stamps as shown.

I used several pearlescent paints and mica sprays to add further light and above you just catch a glimpse of it. I can't say that I'm completely happy with how this worked out but for me the importance is in the message I try to convey to myself at the moment, so far with limited success.