Week 2 of The Documented Life Project 2015 - The Journal
If you're not familiar with this project, go HERE to learn more.
January Theme
The Blank Page and How to Face It!
January 10
Art Challenge: Gesso
Journal Prompt: “The beginning is always today.” -Mary Shelley
I chose to go with a path. Each day is the beginning of my daily journey of my life. Instead of fretting about the future, focus on today. If it starts wrong, start over. With reading, memorizing, and meditating on scripture, optimally, to restart the day gone wrong. Sometimes that's the middle of the day for me!
I think of the scripture Psalm 119:105:
Your word is a lamp to my feet, a light on my path.
Over the years I have come to see how much it helps me if I start my day right with certain rhythms: the word of God lighting my path. There are many aspects to this, so these things I have doodled along my path.
1. See the the white polka dots on the yellow? That's what I put down first on this blank spread: it's gift wrap. Then I applied gesso on the middle areas.
2. Next came the gorgeous, fantabulous rubber stamps that I received as a gift for moderating on the DLP Facebook page! These are designed by Rae, and Roben-Marie sells them in her shop, Paper Bag Studios. I used black Staz-On ink. People, the smell of this ink is fantastic! Maybe a bit strong, but it smells like Christmas to me: almond extract. LOL I sttamped them in a line, from top to bottom. After staring at the page for a few days, totally stuck! I got to the third step:
3. A big blob of black gesso on the stamp was my next trick. I stamped it on the bottom right edge. Oh my. That was a mistake! It looked horrid! So I covered it in gesso a few times, drying between each application. Then I sprayed some Dylusions ink onto that area. There was so much thickness going on with all those layers, that the gesso started to crack, which I LOOOOOVE!! The paper ripped too, so I ripped it further, and added some old watercoloring bubbles I had in my journal stash. I just glued it down directly under the white and yellow polka dot paper, as I hadn't stuck it perfectly down on the page. I like!
Peek-a-boo!
4. I applied some gesso over some of the stamped flowers to tone it down.
4. Next, I went crazy with Gelli-printing. I didn't actually include any of the prints on here, but I removed the access paint from the brayer onto the page. See it there, in the path?
6. Out came my ogee patterned stencil I made a while ago, which I use REGULARLY! See photo below. I applied white modeling paste. Once dry, I applied more of that luscious pink Viva Inka Gold. Forgot to mention I wrote in the wet white gesso on Step 2 with my General's Sketch and Wash pencil. See it below? :)
8. Rubbed OLD graphic almost-vintage office letter rub-ons randomly in places. They don't work well, so I just grabbed the whole page full of letters and rubbed away. Fun fun!
9. Doodled on the path. Kinda private, so I wrote illegibly.
10. Next came the girl dancing along the path. Life's a great big dance, in love with life, in love with my Savior, and FREE! And, gloriously, at the end, I will spend an eternity with my God, the creator of heaven and earth. I glued her down with matte medium, and added some dimension with some watercolor pencil on the edges.
11. Almost lastly, I ripped up some fun pink polka dot washi tape, and applied it to the edges and a bit over the stamped flowers.
12. Lastly, I wrote the Shelley quote (who, by the way, wrote the famous classic, Frankenstein) directly on the girl.
Whew! I did it! That was long! On to the next prompt please! :)
GORGEOUS!!
ReplyDeleteLove your details of the page and how an oops can be an opportunity :-)
ReplyDelete