Spring has sprung, and the willow are starting to green! April showers have turned everything mud colored, but the promise of green is there. For this art journal page the subject was “Your favorite color.” Of course, mine is green right now. The gray-green of moss, the grown green of snails and the blue-green of cold creeks…

Step 1.

The very first thing I did in this art journal page was to mix a bit of black gesso and white gesso in a jar, shake it up good and paint the whole page gray. By doing this I gave myself a nice neutral background that would make all the other colors “pop” out.

Once this was dry, I cut up a couple of print outs of my lime watercolor paintings.

  • Tip: I save all my tester and failed prints now, just for this purpose. I also cut up one of my tester prints that I did of “Entwined”, a HDR photo of some roots all entwined and covered with moss on a creek branch I shot a while back. (You can see the originals here: ErinSparler.com)

Step 1 of mixed media collage.

I cut the lime shapes in half and used them to edge the sides of the page. I then cut pod shapes, similar to the shapes used in the lime paintings themselves out of a striped pattern I had painted. I also cut these in half and used them to trim the bottom.

I cut out the Entwined roots and used a  fairly think mat medium to attach them as a sort of focal point, right in the center – dividing the page.

In the same sitting I decided to add a piece of one of the newsletters we get from our CSA, Spiral Path that had gotten watercolor marker on it. Water had spilled on it an made the whole thing bleed and run and I loved the turquoise it made. I just around the bleed shape to retain the shape.

 

Step 2.

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Next I painted the Totem Poppet Snail brown with my Tombow markers. I used some water to make it bleed and spread. And then I assembled him using the 1/16″ brass eyelets. I added him to the page with just a bit of Golden mat medium under his body. I did not use any on the Totem Snail’s shell so it could still move.

 

Step 3.

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Next, I added a series of washi tape pieces as sort of vertical lines at the top. I just ripped up pieces and laid them down to complete the frame feeling that I had going on with the rest of the page. I let them overlap and I used three different tapes. A blue tape with dots, a green checkered one and a washi tape with a green leaf patterned.

 

Step 4.

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Some final bits of collage are added… I didn’t like the bright yellow green piece I had in the center -I found it too distracting- so I added this watercolor painting print out of a Jalapeno I had done to cover it up.

  • Tip: If you don’t like something about your piece in mixed media, or your art journal, don’t be afraid to cover it up! You can use another piece of collage or black or white gesso. Sometimes covering something up is just what you need to add depth and interest to a piece!

I also added the USDA  Organic collage piece and the I made a spiral piece of collage to add to the Totem snail’s back.

Adding 3D:

For the Totem Snail’s shell I cut a circle from a thicker piece of magazine paper. I then cut an spiral into the center. I cut and folded a long thin rectangle of paper into an accordion and mounted one side to the shell and one side to the inside of the spiral.  I glued the outer rim of the spiral down.

Then I broke out the paint pens!

I added dots all around the cool shape of the Spiral Path Newsletter piece to blend it in more. I had lots of fun adding dots all over the snail to give him personality and texture. And I added some spirals coming down from the Washi tape at the top to fill up that blank gray area.

 

Step 5.

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Now that most of the space if full of collaged bits, and paint pen its time to stuff the words in. I found this fabulous quote about green online by just searching “quotes and green”. I used a white Signo pen.

 

Step 6.

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Finally, I outlined each letter in blue and then added in a bunch of drop shadows to make the letters and the snail “pop” out using a medium gray Copic marker.

  • Tip: Keep your shadows all on the same side of letters and objects to make things feel more real.
    ie. Like the lighting is all coming from the same source.