Some Paint and Finishing...

Today I'm showing you the final steps in the piece I've been working on based on Angie Hughes technique from her book Stitch, Cloth, Paper and Paint (click here and here to see the first steps).  I really enjoyed this process.  Once the gesso was dry, it was time to paint.  As suggested, I used slightly watered down paint to make it easier to get into all of the folds, nooks and crannies in the textured material.  The watered down acrylics also work well to get a little 'drippage' going on!

I managed some right handed painting and
I also did a little 'pinky painting' because I was having trouble achieving what I was trying to do with a paintbrush in my 'wrong' hand. LOL

Notice my rings on my right hand?  I decided to put them on my right hand since it's looking like I won't get them back on my left hand for quite some time.

I also did some stamping with one of my favourite 'found' objects...the empty scotch tape role you can see in this picture.  It gives you two concentric circles and because it's plastic, I've been using it for years!




My plan for this material was to make a journal cover, so the final step was to fold each of the ends in and then do a satin stitch along the top and bottom edges.  This created the 'pockets' into which you tuck the cover of the composition book.  The best thing about this is that when the composition book is full you can easily replace it with another one!  I even "put a bird on it" with my fun little stamp.

So...Now what?

I've been trying a few of the techniques, or variations of them, from Creative Jumpstart series.  In this case, I started with a page that had a bit of paint on it from a day when I didn't want to waste the paint left on my brush.  The page was actually like this for almost a year.

In addition to learning some new ideas, I've also pulled out a few materials that I have but haven't used for a long time.  I started with a couple of Pearl Pens, in blue and copper.  Their fine tips are great for drawing with the paint right out of the 'pen' (probably why they're called Pearl Pens).  I drew a bunch of circles and some spirals ('cause that's just what I do...).  I love the wonderful raised texture they give you when they dry.  

I thought I'd add some stamping, but because of the raised edges, it can't easily be done.  Enter that great tissue paper technique!  Stamp on the cheap tissue and then adhere it to the page using gel medium.  Very cool!

I also had some scraps of tissue paper on which I had hand written some text using a Micron pen, lying in my tissue paper bin so I added them too.


But, as you can see it needs more...

So I got out some white acrylic paint and a fine paint brush and I added some white around those raised blue circles.  Then, just because it was lying on my desk I picked up an empty tape spool and stamped it in the paint and added a few more circle with it.  I like the double concentric circles I get with this particular spool.  

But, I think it still needs more...

I got out the black paint and added some 'shadows'.  And then I stared at the page for a while and finally asked myself, 

"So... Now what?  And then it came to me...

Sometimes you just have to go with the obvious.  It's not a work of art, but it certainly was a great way to try out some new ideas.