Art Journaling with Bloom Stamps

It's Janine here with today's Bloom Girl post.  I love the size of the Bloom Girl stamps for Art Journal pages.  As I love to colour my images with a mix of Copics and Prisma pencils, I tend to stamp my images onto Bleedproof paper first.  I used a very lightweight Canson Blending Paper for this image.  I then proceeded to colour with some darker skin toned Copics as I really wanted to deepen her skin tones.  After I finished colouring my Freespirit girl, I fussy cut out the image, ready to use Matte Medium to apply her to my journal page when it was ready.

I love the freedom that an art journal can give you.  I am using my journal to experiment with different mediums and styles, just to see if ideas work.  If it doesn't work, there is always trusty gesso to give it a make over!  For this page, I wanted to see if I could create a somewhat abstract autumn scene.  I took comfort in knowing that if my Bloom Girl is in the foreground of the page and she is sharp, the background doesn't have to have a great deal of detail.  Just an indication of the details, which really takes the pressure off on making something perfect!

The background was started with a light watered down wash of Clearsnap Izink, in Topaz and Mango.  I added a few drops of the ink to the page and then sprayed on a lot of water and allowed the ink to travel across the page.  Once that was dry I began adding some tree trunks into the background, very roughly and just as an indication of a trunk.  I dried it off and then used a combination of yellow, orange and red paints and dabbed on touches of this paint randomly across the page, building up the layers of colour.  Most of my trunks got lost as I added more and more paint to the background, but it did mean there were patches of darker areas still slightly visible at times.

After quite a few layers, I dried it all off and added my fussy cut Bloom Girl image using Matte Medium.  Due to the paper weight being so light, a few wrinkles occurred in the paper, but I don't mind, it just adds texture.

Another challenge for me is to create my own lettering on my journal pages.  This has been quite a daunting task for me!  I was given a few hints from my very good friend Lydell Quin (who has AMAZING hand writing) and it has helped me to grow in confidence with this.  She suggested adding a double line to the down stroke areas to build up the width on those areas of the letters and this makes it a bit more special.  It has helped me so much to create lettering that I feel is a little bit more special.  Lettering was done with Faber Castell Big Brush Marker Black and Pitt Pen Black, with a hint of white Sharpie Paint pen for highlights.

At this point I decided I wanted to add some iridescent highlights to the page, so I spritz with some Luminarte Polished Pigments and also added Clearsnap Smooches in Gold, Browns and Oranges to really lift the whole page.  My fingers were very messy and my artistic heart was feeling full!  I really do suggest getting lost in a journal page from time to time to really invigorate your soul.

Products Used: 

Prima Bloom Stamp Freespirit

Memento Ink Black

Canson Bleedproof Marker Paper 70gsm

Copics E31, E34, E42, E74, E37, BV29, R20

Prisma Pencils

Prima Chalkboard Paint Golden

Ceramcoat Paint, Burnt Sienna, Burnt Umber, Crimson, Bittersweet Orange and Tree Frog,

Light Ivory and Tropic Bay Blue

Clearsnap Izink Topaz and Mango

Clearsnap Smooches Carrot, Gold Lame, Molasses, Copper, Platinum

Liquitex Matte Medium

Faber Castell Big Brush Marker, Black, Walnut Brown, Warm Grey, Cobalt Green

and Permanent Green Olive

Faber Castell Pitt Pen Black

Sharpie Paint Pen White

Faber Castell Gelato Black

Luminarte Polished Pigments Persimon, Gold Dust, Spanish Moss and Umber

Liquitex Acrylic Ink, Red, Yellow, Blue