Playing with My Name

Today I've been playing with my name as part of the Letter Love 101 online class.  I don't think I achieved the abstracted image I was going for, but it was good practise.  I did discover that I don't like the  Crayola Tempra discs I was using.  I just couldn't get the wonderful bright, clear watercolour look that Joanne demonstrates in her pieces.  I think I may need to invest in some better, brighter watercolours. However, I used the Tsukineko inks to colour over the dull watercolour I had and it helped to brighten it up.  I also added some platinum Tsukineko ink which is more opaque but has a great shine.

Better Late Than Never...

With Valentine's Day being on Tuesday and the Letter Love 101 course, I wanted to play with hearts and a 'love' message.  I started by making a large heart frame using zentangle type doodles.  Inside I wrote the quote and drew a few 'heart flowers'.

The next step was to add a textured background, again falling into the Zentangle style to create a sort of quilted effect.  I added a little shadowing with a grey Copic.

Finally I added some colour.  I lucked into a great deal yesterday when I went to visit my Mom in Kitchener.  I stopped by the Creative Sewing Centre and discovered that they were going out of business.  As such, they had everything in the store on sale.  My best find was the All Purpose Inks for Fantastixs by Tsukineko.  They had all sorts of wonderful colours all for 70% off!  I bought 22 different colours!  I used pinks and reds to colour this page, along with using Copic marker and Le Plume II markers. 

Going Around in Circles

Today, again thanks to the Letter Love 101 online class, I've been playing around (pun intended, LOL) with journaling in circles.  I did a few practice circles, to create a page in my practice journal so that I could add notes to remember what I've learned and jot down some ideas for use in the future.  

Click on photo to see a larger image.

I did this first one on one of the extra pages from an altered book I did a while ago.  I like the extra layer that the text provides, but it was not ideal when using the Silks acrylic glaze because I was using a lot of water and the paper wanted to curl up.  It dried fine, but was a bit tricky to work with.  I might use a very light coat of gesso in future (as I did in the altered book) so that the text still shows through but any paint would have a primed surface.  I recently won the Silks Acrylic Glaze by leaving a comment on Luminart's blog - lucky me :0).  Coincidentally they posted a great video today showing Twinkling H2Os (might need to get me some of those!) and the new Silks.

The next two circle journals were done on bristol board using Copic markers to add some colour.  I experimented with black text, anding some pops of colour, as well as coloured text.  I did add a layer of the Silks in a golden colour (it's called Ginger Peach - don't you love that name?)

 As you can see in the page layout in my practice journal, I made a couple of others too and then I glued them in and added my notes around them.

After all the practise, it was time to use my new found skills.  My husband and I had a good laugh over my choice of words since I am not into shoes at all.  However, I thought it would be fun to draw and then the words just came.

Journaling on Watercolour Grid Lines

Another wonderfully inspiring lesson from Letter Love 101.  It's not too late to sign up! Amazing videos and tutorials that will be available to you forever.  And no, Joanne isn't giving me a kickback for anyone who signs up (although, come to think of it Joanne...).

I love blues and greens, and as soon as I had my lines down, they made me think of water.  That in turn reminded me of a conversation I had last week. 

                                                                                                                

...Breathe, just breathe...

From Thoughts and Words to a Journal Page (and a beautiful pantry!)

Here are some of the journal pages I've been playing around with as practise for the Letter Love 101 class.  It's great to get out all the markers and pens and just play.  In this first one I used copic markers for the colour in the flowers and stems and then I used pan pastels for the overall background colouring.  It's the first time I've used them, and I must say they are a lot of fun to work with.

After doing that page, I decided to try using the same techniques to make an ATC.  I found this much more challenging and realize that to be happier with the results, I'll have to start with a much finer marker when working on such a small scale piece.

The rest of the pictures show the transformation from black and white lettering to the colourful finished page. I used Pitt pens and Microns to do my lettering.

 Then I used my Copic markers to colour in the flowers...

...and some of the features in the grid lines.

 Still using the Copics, I coloured in some of the shapes created by the letters.  Here's what the page looks like with all of the marker work done.  Now, on to the background.

I used my Inktense watercolour pencils.  I love these pencils!  You use them just like a pencil crayon, pressing as hard or as soft as you like and blending and shading as you do with regular pencil crayons.  I wanted a soft background to contrast the bright pop of colour that the Copic markers provide, so I was shading lightly with the pencils.

Here's where the magic comes in.  Using one of these wonderful watercolour brushes, you just paint over the areas you coloured in with the Intense pencils to release the watercolour pigment!  I just keep a paper towel beside me as I work so I can switch from one colour to the next without muddying up my paint.  It really only takes a little dab on the paper towel and you're ready to go. This makes the Inktense pencils perfect for travelling since you don't need a water jar for cleaning your brush!

I just love how the colour pops as you brush over it with the aqua brush!  By the way, Inktense comes in various sets (in wonderful tins) but they also sell individually.  That means that when you eventually use up a favourite colour pencil (they last a long time) you can replace just that one colour that you need. 

Okay, so here's the crazy thing...the other day we went to the Bulk Barn and stocked up on all the various flours and other 'stuff' required for gluten free bread baking (that's a whole other story which I won't get in to here).  Gone are the days when I could just have a bag of "all purpose" flour in the pantry.  Well, as you can see from the photos below, everything kind of looks alike so I organized them into mason jars and labelled them.  Well, thanks to Joanne's influence I couldn't just write plain boring labels could I???  LOL  Thanks Joanne, my pantry looks "Letter Love"ly!

Fun Art Fonts

Yesterday's art activity involved exploring a variety of hand drawn art fonts for my journaling.  Thank's to Joanne Sharpe's wonderful guidance, I'm learning to expand my lettering skills to make journaling more fun (not to mention beautiful!).

Of course, I had to play with another storyboard template to showcase the lettering pages.  As I said in my last post, they're addictive!