Watercolor and Acrylic Background Tutorial

Today we are going to be focusing in on another tutorial. This was actually scheduled for yesterday, and yesterday's was for today, but I decided to switch it up a little. Normally it's going to be "Tutorial Tuesday", but I guess today it's going to be a Tutorial Wednesday. That's not too bad. Anyways. The tutorial that I'm going to be showing you guys today is how to mix different mediums to create one cohesive piece. That's one of my favorite things to do. Mix different kinds of materials in one thing. That's why they call it mixed media after all. Okay. So first things first. What we're going to be making. You can obviously do this technique anywhere that you want, but the easiest way for me to do it in a tutorial format would be to show you on plain pieces of copy paper. You could do it on cardstock, mixed media paper, in a journal or sketchbook; anywhere that you would normally use any other technique that you find floating throughout the internet. Let's get started.

The first thing that you're going to do here is prepare a pallet. You've seen me doing this on multiple occasions, so you're probably pretty used to this by now. Now let me give you a really quick run through of the supplies that you are most likely to use. You're going to want a little bit a tube watercolors. This forms the background, and is used in many layers throughout the technique. Next, you're going to want an acrylic paint in a similar, but NOT identical color. If it's identical in shade, then, in my opinion, it will not have enough variation to make an interesting piece. You could try it though; I haven't yet. The last type of paint that you're going to be using is just a plain white acrylic. I am using a poster paint, but you could use any kind of acrylic that you like. You're also going to need some paper (or whatever surface that you are going to use), and a paintbrush. The paintbrush that you use for this technique NEEDS to be one with the natural bristles. The roughness of them gives the right texture that we need for this technique. A softer brush will not work.

The next thing that you are going to do is mix a little bit of your tube watercolor with water, and spread it all over the page. Make sure that you are very haphazard with where you are placing your marks, and don't over think it. Just play with moving the color around on the page. I cover almost the entire background in this first layer, but you can certainly do a lot less if you wish. This is just this particular page. I first came up with this technique when I was just playing around with a bunch of supplies, so it's a very experimental technique that is very open to suggestions.

The next step is going to be to add some white acrylic paint to the page. Again, be very spontaneous, and don't worry about what comes next. I added some layers of the watercolor on top of this, and then alternated back and forth, blending a bunch, and just trying to come up with an effect that I enjoyed.

To finish off the technique, just work with the supplies you have. I added the acrylic paint, and mixed that with a little bit of the white paint. Then I took a paper towel and lifted some of the paint up off of the page, and then dipped it in watercolor and dabbed it over the page. I also added some more layers over top of that, and finished off the page by putting some little rectangle splotches of watercolor over the page. This technique will be very different each and every time you try it, so be prepared for that when you do it. As you can see, this blue page is a lot different than the pink one that I showed at the beginning of this post.

I don't really know what's up with me lately and making big batches of colorful papers, spreading them out on the floor, and taking pics of them to share with you guys, but I guess I just love the way they look. These are all pages that I did today in about a 45 minute time slot. As you can see, you don't have to have a lot of time to create a bunch of quality backgrounds.

This is just another angle of a couple of the pages, and a few others. Some of these were done with this technique, and others just used portions of it. Some used none at all, and were just made because of the fact that I had leftover paint on my pallet that I wanted to use up. That's another thing that I tend to do. I hate being wasteful, so I'll make tons of other papers to make up for the paint that I would otherwise just throw away. That's what I've got for you guys today, and check back tomorrow for yet another post.

Collage Unleashed - Color Scraping

So today I started my run through of Traci Bautista's "Collage Unleashed" book where I left off. Color scraped pages. I love the way her pages look, but I took a break from all of my series I had going. But, I'm trying to start some of them back up. This is one of them. Something that Traci does with her pages is use a lot of color through color scraping papers that she then uses to create unique, one of kind journals. I thought that it might be fun to work on some of these pages. I've tried them before in the past, but they have never really turned out right. Anything I do that's inspired by her either ends up too light or too dark. But this time, for some strange reason, these turned out great! I love them so much, and I'm glad. I guess, like they say, practice makes perfect. Though these certainly aren't perfect, I'm really happy with them never the less. I used a lot of acrylic paints, stencils and stamps on these pages, as well as scraped some stuff around on the page.

Here are the two pages that I did that I really liked. On the right, the base of the page was a little bit dark for my liking, so I ended up just lightening it up with the paints I used on top of it for the stamping and the stenciling. Using light colors on a dark background makes it look better, especially if you don't enjoy the way the background is looking. On the other side, I really liked the color scraping below the stamping, so I had to be very careful that I didn't ruin it with the excess layers and stuff. I used a foam flower stamp with a brown paint and a piece of bubble wrap with some white paint.

The rest of the pages that I have made are just basically made from the leftovers from the other pages. Take these two for example. I laid these pieces of paper behind the originals to catch the paint that I was scraping off the edges. That way I didn't get paint all over my desk. That was just the solid color that you see in the background. The redish/pinkish color that you see over top of that is a wash that I did when I had some red paint leftover on my brush from doing some of the original painting. I dipped my brush into my water and just spread it all over the top of my papers.

And here are another two. These were done pretty much the same way as the ones above, but they don't have full washes on them. The one on the left actually doesn't have one at all, and the one on the right is only partial. I'll probably work on these gradually as I do other art journal related activities. Because that's the way I roll. ANYWAYS, that's all that I have for you guys today, but I have something really cool planned for tomorrow. I hope you come and check it out!

Beginner Art Journaling Supplies

Hey everybody! Jordan here, with yet another post to share with all of you. I know that I've been doing pretty short posts lately, so I thought that I might make it up to you by giving you more of an extra long post today. It is Saturday after all, so I can deal with it. As you have probably seen from the title, today's post is about the basic supplies that you can use to art journal. I'll probably have a separate list some other time, about all of the advanced supplies, which I also like for art journaling. I'm not going to go in depth in each supply. But I promise you, I will do them separately as well and link back to here. So let's get started shall we?

Journal: One of the first things that you're going to want to have is, most definitely a journal. I love composition books, as you followers of my blog know. I think that it's the cheap aspect of them that really attracts me, but there are other reasons too. They are very highly customizable, and you don't feel BAD decorating them. Say you buy a really expensive moleskin. It will almost feel like you're defacing it to put stuff on the cover. Or even on the inside. That's another reason for me buying composition books. Since they are so cheap, you don't feel like you need to be perfect while playing around, and you won't be AS scared of the blank page, since there are already lines on there. Of course, you can easily get rid of those by painting over it. Plus, I just love that there are so many pages. 100 sheets, 200 pages. Of course, you CAN choose other types. It's your journal. Do as you wish.    

Paint: Next up on my list, we're going to go with paint. Now, not everyone uses paint in their journals. But I'm making this list to go with the supplies that I find myself using on almost, if not every, art journal page that I make. If you just go to the art supply store and look around, you will probably be intimidated by all of the kinds of paint that you will find there. But don't be overwhelmed. Paint is one of the most fun supplies to search for and buy. There are so many different colors and shades of those colors, that just simply browsing them makes my head go ablaze with ideas, and just makes me HAPPY. I don't know why. But I'll have another post on this for sure. I might have to do a post on each kind of paint. I know. It's sad that I'm so obsessed. But at least I won't run out of blog ideas... ANYWAYS. Back to the subject at hand. There are so many different kinds of paint; craft acrylic, tempera, fresco tempera, oil, watercolor pans, watercolor TUBES, acrylic tubes, student acrylics, ARTIST acrylics, artist watercolor tubes, poster paints, gouache, and so, SO much more! Paint is the ultimate craft supply.    

Pens and Markers: Next up, we have our pens and markers. Now this is a bit of an interesting aspect of the art journaling world. Obviously there are many, many, MANY different kinds of pens to use. And lots of different colors too. It's easy to get lost. But, when you are just starting, I recommend holding off on the colored pens. YES they can be fun to use. Most definitely. But so are black and white. And they have many more uses than the colored ones. In this picture here, I have Sharpie Paint Markers, Sharpies, a ZIG calligraphy marker, a Sakura glaze pen in white, and a black Sakura GellyRoll. These are the ones that I find myself coming to most often. Of course, feel free to explore the vast world of pens and markers. They're out there, that's for sure. 

Glue: Next up, we have glue. There are many different kinds of glue as well, but this topic is much more scarce than the others. I left a couple kinds out of this purpose on accident, but I'll mention them here. One, we have Mod Podge. This brand is very commonly known, and has many different uses. There is Allene's Tacky Glue. Most crafters have at least heard of it, if not bought a bottle or two. If you haven't, it isn't a big deal. This glue does come in handy quite often however. You also have HOMEMADE Mod Podge, school glue, glue sticks, and scrapbooking tape runners and glue dots. All of these have come in handy to me at one time or another.     

Spray Bottle Filled With Water: Ah yes. Even though many people do NOT consider this a necessity, I in fact, do. I love my spray bottle, and used my old one so much that I wore out the spraying tip so much that I broke it. We went through a lot together, so I held onto it, and put something else in it to spray, while I got a new, bigger spray bottle in the travel isle of Target for a buck. I'm sure I'll go through quite a bit with this one as well.

Scissors: Scissors, of course, are important to the creative process. No matter how much you love the raw edge of a torn piece of paper, you will always come to the point when you want a nice clean edge to a piece of paper, or a shape. For instance, a circle. It's not easy to tear a perfect circle. Not that it's easy to cut one either...     

Paper and Fabrics: Next come papers and fabrics. Or any sort of collage material to tell you the absolute truth. I left out a lot of my collage papers and fabrics in this photo; I just wanted you to sort of see what some of the pieces that I use look like. I'll save leftover papers from projects, wrapping paper, greeting cards, pages from books, pictures from magazines, fabrics from clothing I've outgrown, receipts; any piece of paper or fabric that I find in my everyday life. There are many more kinds than this obviously; there are so many different kinds that it would literally be impossible to list all of the different kinds out there. I'll definitely have to do a separate post for all of you guys about papers and collage materials; that would be really fun!

Paintbrushes and Painting Tools: The next thing then would be paintbrushes and other painting tools. When you first hear the phrase "painting tools", I am almost positive that the first thing that comes to your mind would be paintbrushes. And while those are, in fact, one of the most COMMON painting tools, that doesn't necessarily meant that they are the only ones. But let me focus on them first anyways. I use approximately six different brushes; seven if you include the foam brush. But I have a 1" flat brush, a 5/8" flat brush, two 1/2" shaders/angular brushes, a 1/2" flat brush, and a glue brush that doesn't have a size; it came with a kid's paint set. There are also pallet knives, which you can buy fairly cheaply at Michaels, and an old toothbrush can also be used to spread paint. The last thing that I'm going to share in this subject is an old credit card. These have practically endless uses, and I have used mine so much that it's literally about to break in half from so much use.

Stamps: Last, but certainly not least, we have stamps. I know that a lot of people would argue with me about stamps being a necessity, but I'm going to stick with my facts that I've found, and that would be that they most definitely are. There are many different kinds of stamps to use, of course, and a lot of mine are either homemade or found. But I do buy some too. The ones that I buy are normally one of two kinds. The $1.00 stamp sets that you can find at Michaels. Or the cheap foam stamps. I can't make those, so that's why I buy them. But there are other, cheaper alternatives as well. Or rather, about the same price. But they're more custom. I make eraser stamps using cheap erasers and an exacto knife, and  cheap, sticky-back foam that I adhere to cardboard from cereal boxes. Of course, you can also use bubble wrap and other pieces as stamps as well.

Yeah. That was a pretty long post today, and I thought that I had lost the whole thing really close to the end. But luckily, I found it pasted into the search bar of my computer (it does that when text is highlighted). So yeah. Anyways, that's all for today, and I'll see all of you guys tomorrow! See ya!

Art Journal Layers

Hey guys! I'm back with a few more art journal pages that I've been adding onto lately. It seems like the more that I work in this journal (the big, fat one that I started first), the more i start to skip around. I'll flip to a random page, and, if it is unfinished, I'll see if I want to add something to it. Maybe some doodles or some paint, or a few pieces of paper as a layer. On this page right here I used some new oil pastels that I bought at Michaels (Cray-Pas) to do some doodling. I used the light blue to do the circles around the punched out papers, and the red lines with the half circles.

This is just a more close up picture of this same page spread. You can see the doodles that I did.

And this pages right here is just another page that I've been working on lately. I had the background here for a while, and then I added int the blue paint, the black crayon swirls, the clock printout, and some sumo ink mixed with water that I sprayed over the page. That's a bit of a new technique that I've been trying to experiment with a little bit. It's still in progress, but I'm starting to try and perfect it. :) Well, that's all that I've got for you guys today, and I guess I'll see you guys tomorrow. Bye!