Playing with Words

On Valentine's Day, our Letter Love 201 exercise was to write the words, "Love, love, love. Do what you love" (I can hear you from here Leah! LOL). So I played with different letter styles and had some fun.  I especially like what I came up with for the last word at the bottom. 

 I really liked how using the word to create the word worked for me, and I thought my clever (if I do say so myself) little hearts wrapped around the bottom border where fun. I also really liked the black and white, so I left it there...

Then, this morning I decided to play some more with this technique.  I wrote the words "Play with your words", again using words to create the letters.  I also hid a subliminal message in the page...

I like the ribbon effect that I'm achieving, and I had fun again wrapping it around the border.

This page didn't pop, probably because everything is the same weight and there's really not focal point, so I got the Tombow's out and created a shadow effect with this pretty aqua colour.  This close up shows the effect of the Tombow before the ink was activated with water, creating the sharper shadows (right and bottom) and the softer watercolour effect achieved by activating the ink with a water brush (left and top).

And here's what the whole page looks like: 

The hidden message...the large words obviously say "Play with your words".  The word play was made by repeatedly writing play as you can see in the close up above.  However, with is made up of the words 'but' (the w and i) and 'not' (t and h) and the word 'your' is made of 'with' (y and o) and your (u and r) and then 'words' is made by repeatedly writing 'food'.  My mother's in my head today. :o)

Now, you've all heard the expression "Leave well enough along."  I wish I had...

Perhaps if I go back and do some more, stronger watercolour in the negative space I can salvage it...or maybe I just put down the brush and walk away...

Five Layers of Fun...

...or perhaps a few more.

One of the lessons in Letter Love 201 was to try working with a dry brush technique while lettering with a paintbrush.  A few weeks ago I bought some liquid frisquet or frisket (*see end of post for more info) and I thought this might be a great place to try it out.

1. I started by using the dry brush technique to write the words.  Then I painted over them with watercolour and used a bit of Dylusion's spray (yellow) through a stencil.

1a. You can see the texture created by the dry brushing. Interesting to note that the  Dylusion's spray seemed to go through the frisket in some areas.

2. I added some white lines, using a Uniball Signo, around the letters to give them a bit more pop, particularly because some on the right side didn't show up too well (dry brush was a bit too dry).

3. Still using the white pen, I added the border and the white 'bubbles'.

4. and 4a. Show the highlights I added to the bubbles and the cross hatching in the border.

5. and 5a. The final step was to add another layer of texture by journalling in the red areas. I decided to use a very fine black pen (0.05 Micron) so that the journalling would be very subtle.

And here's the finished page:

*Liquid frisket, or masking fluid, is a combination of latex and ammonia that is used by artists to temporarily block out a portion of a painting until the areas surrounding it has been completed. It can then be gently removed so that portion can be painted or left white.

Masking fluid is similar in consistency and texture to paper cement/rubber cement glue. Once applied to the paper, it dries fairly quickly, developing a rubbery texture that you can rub off with your finger or an eraser.

Artful Lettering and My January Art Journal Calendar

As some of you have long figured out, I've become a bit of a Joanne Sharpe junkie.  I enjoy her online classes and the inspiration they give me to make sure I'm doing some art every day.  

In addition to all of the machine work and hand stitching and beading I'm doing on my fibre art pieces, I've really come to love doing quick little pieces (as compared to weeks for some of the fibre pieces) of art in my journals.  And so, I am signed up for Letter Love 2...

Here are a couple of shots of the first day's play...sort of a title page for the class 'work' to come.  I had a funny sized journal (6" x 12"...not sure why I bought this size but...) so I decided to use it for this class.

And the page below is from the second lesson.  I love the transformation from the black and white version to the colour.  I used my Tombow markers and my water brush to add the colour. It would appear I like bright Towbows!  (Nothing monochromatic about this Leah! LOL).

This has me well caught up on my "TV listening" of all the shows I had PVR'ed for the last week.  Now I've got to get back to my sewing machine for a bit...

I've also included a shot of my January spread of my Art Journal Calendar.  Some of you questioned how much I'd be able to fit into those little circles.  Well, it turns out that with my tiny printing I was able to cover the highlights of my day without any difficulty. Keep in mind that the journal is a 9" x 12" book, so each 2 page spread is bigger than it might appear.

Until next time, stay inspired and make sure you make some time to play with your creative self!

And Then It Popped...

 Yesterday I showed you another watercolour paint doodle I was working on and today I got out my Microns and Pitt pens and added some black doodling over the paint.

I just love how it makes it pop.  I've also added some additional dimension using my Inktense  pencils to add some shading and highlights here and there.

The final step was to add the words and since the image ended up reminding me of a garden path, that lead to the words I chose.  In hindsight, I wish I had written the text in larger, bolder letters, but what's done is done.

If you look at the close ups, you'll also see that I added some text, using a Micron 01 between the leave and petals on the right hand page too.


It was fun drawing the little pebble circles within the larger circles.  I love doing that when I free motion stitch so I decided to add it in my doodle too.

The photos don't really show it, but I love the contrast between the regular watercolours and the Twinkling H2Os.  It just give a bit of glimmer and pop to some areas.

Thanks for your visit.  I don't say it enough, but I really appreciate you taking the time to stop by!  Have a fabulous week!

More Watercolour Doodling

Several days ago, I posted about my first attempt at paint doodles and I said that I was way out of my element.  However, I'm discovering that this is really a lot of fun.  As I was working (playing) with this one, I found I lost all track of time, in a good, relaxing sort of way.

For those of you familiar with Joanne Sharpe's 'Color Love' class, this is lesson 11, so the next step will be getting out my Pitt pens and Inktense so that I can doodle over the doodles with fine black lines and add another level of depth with the Inktense.  I love the idea of adding the layers...

But, it's 4 degrees C here today (that's 39F for my US friends), which is crazy for mid-January, so I'm off for a long, lazy walk with my 'little old lady', Casey (my 12 1/2 yr. old Golden).  I'll post another shot of this when I get the next step finished.

Watercolour Paint Doodles

As you may know from reading some of my previous posts, I am taking Joanne Sharpe's Color Love 101 online class.  In the last couple of days I've been exploring the whole idea of doodling with a paint brush and watercolours.  I discovered very quickly that I am way out of my comfort zone on this activity!

I started with a cool colour palette since I love working with blues and greens.  I added a bit of yellow to warm it up some and give it a bit more of a pop, but it's certainly not great.  However, that was just my first attempt...

My second try was with a warmer palette, bringing in reds, pinks, and oranges, but still using the green for some contrast.  I think that my lines are too 'up tight'.  Somehow I need to relax so I can get a more easy flow to my lines.  Of course, if I truly learned to relax I wouldn't be me, now would I ;o)
You'll notice I included my favourite spiral lines...

 

As a complete aside, I had this background done on a page from many months ago, and I recently saw this wonderful quote by Mark Twain so I used my correction pen and wrote it out so I wouldn't forget it.

Playing With Circles

Today I started working on a background for the first page of a calendar journal that I've decided to make for 2013.  My goal is to work on the start of the backgrounds in the next couple of months, so that when the new year arrives I'll be ready to add the writing into each days designated spots.  As you can see, I've started with circles for January.  I have no real plan yet, other than to do it, so we'll see where it takes me...