Art Journal: Oriental
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[Image ID] An oriental themed double page spread in my art journal. The left hand page has a brown border with a central panel of green bamboo. Some Japanese text has been stuck over the top left and bottom right corners of the central panel.
The right hand page is a pond with waterlily leaves and 2 koi carp. [description end]
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Update: this art journal spread was featured on the letters page of Creative Stamping Magazine issue 110!
Normally my art journal pages are created as a united double page spread, but this time I tried something different by doing separate designs on each page but with a coordinated theme. The left hand page was inspired by a workshop @JournalWithPurpose taught at the online ‘Creative Retreat Live’ event back in March. The right hand page was created on a whim with a set of stamps from a recent issue of @creativestampingmagazine
Behind the bamboo drawings there is a layer of gesso, which is a surface primer often used with Acrylic paints. I applied watercolour over it, as was suggested in the class that inspired the page, because of the interesting way watercolour dries on top of gesso. The brown border around the page is made up of torn pieces of kraft card and paper – which made it a great way to use up some of my scraps! I drew the outlines of the bamboo with waterproof fineliners, and coloured them in with felt tip pens. The Japanese text was stamped onto tracing paper so as not to hide the background behind it.
I began the right hand page by stamping the koi fish and lily pads. All the clusters of lilypads were done with a single stamp, but by masking off the top lilypad with a piece of printer paper I was able to make the others appear layered behind. The colouring of the fish and lilypads, as well as the water ripples around them, was done with Fabre-castell Pitt Artists Brush pens. The blue water splotches were achieved by strategically sprinkling Nuvo Shimmer Power into the empty areas of the page and then spraying it with water. I believe the shimmer powders are a form of ‘watercolour pigment powder’, but with sparkly mica added in, so when sprayed with water they give watercolour-esque effects.
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Koi fish & lily pad stamps: ‘Japanese Dream’ stamp set from issue 104 of Creative Stamping Magazine
Japanese text stamp: A wood mounted stamp I got second hand, so unfortunately don’t know who it is by or where it was from.
White gesso: Cass Art brand
Watercolour paints: Cotman range by Windsor & Newton
Nuvo shimmer powder: in the colour ‘Atlantis Burst’
Assorted colours of Fabre Castell Pitt Artist Brush pens.
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