David Bowie tribute art journal page

I finally did it!! I decided to make a youtube video. For those of you who are already amazing youtubers, I stand and applaud you.  Oh my goodness, it takes a LOT of work to edit a you tube video. This one being my first is a bit rough, but I learned so much. I know how to make the next one even better. :) I must admit that there were times during the process that I thought to myself, Is it worth all this? Now that I have one completed and learned the ins and outs of the program, I can say oh heck yes!!

Here is the video:















I look forward to any constructive advice you wish to share with me.



 I wanted to include a list of the materials I used:
Arylic paint I just used the Apple Barrel brand in the following colors: Sunshine yellow, Tuscan orange, laguna, china blue
In the Lindey's I used Toto's Tornado black flat fabio
In the Prima color blooms I used : Sunshine, summer sky, iris, pressed petal, gilded, teal
In the Maya mists I used antique silver (not shaken)
In the Shimmerz  colorings a shade of gray
I used 13 arts splash multipurpose inks in the color gold, turquoise, and pink
I used Silks paints in the colors persimmon, teal zircon, black ice, and ice
I used my Sakura white gel pen and my Signo white gel pen to doodle the lyrics around the page.

Here is the same type of technique using gesso on the page before adding any sprays. I like it a lot. It was just not what I was going for that day.

Here is a close up of the texture you can achieve by using the silks paints.

Thank you so much for stopping by and I hope you will subscribe to my youtube page.
Have a great day!!
Haley G.

What to do with all those vintage books you collected.

Must collect hymnals, vintage books, old encyclopedias, ect., ect., AAAANNNNDDD suddenly you have a huge pile of them. You knew what you were going to do with them when you started collecting them. Maybe  you saw and amazing project on Pinterest, or maybe a Youtube video about junk journals,but now that you have them you either have more than anticipated (since there can never be to many LOL) and are looking for ideas with what to with them.  Well, me too.

Got a  large box of Hymnals for 25 bucks!! I have probably 50 or so.

 Turn them into sketch books.
 How afraid are you of ruining a book that well, frankly you either got for free or are contemplating getting rid of?  I love to practice drawing, I am not very good at it, hence the practicing, but I surly do not feel bad messing up in a book I got for free or for nearly nothing. In my crazy thought pattern "sketch" books are for people who draw well and are artists. If I spend money on one I better only put "worthy" things in it. Am I the only one?? Well, anyway if I use a book I got for free or nearly free I feel like it is ok to have more bad pages then good ones. Here is one I am working on right now: This one is my faces journal/sketch book.

Here is the finished page. I used Neocolor watersoluable crayons to add color and a Sakura white ink pen for the highlights in the eyes.

I glue two pages together and viola, I can draw, paint or watercolor on them. Here I used a Stabilo water pencil and Gesso. I will say that you do have to consider how thin your paper is. This book is over 100 years old so, I have to be very careful with how much I erase and it needs to be dried between wet applications.

As you can see the very fragile pages become very sturdy and workable when you glue two together and then cover the pages you want to draw on with a light coat of gesso.  I have a bunch more of these books, so I will post as I come up with more uses for them.  Thank's for stoping by my blog. I really love feed back and suggestions. Feel free to leave a comment.
Have a creative day!!

Lovely lady of the page

I just wanted to take a quick minute to tell anyone who reads this, that you can be brave!! You can draw what ever you want. You can like it or not. You can put it out there for others to see. Will some people have a bad attitude and criticize it?? Yes, in truth there will be some. Will others be inspired to be brave and post their own?? Yup!!  I created this whimsical art journal page painting of a woman. Are the proportions of her face correct? Nope! I am happy and proud of her? Heck yeah I am. I used techniques that I usually shy away from. I hope that if you have a desire to create please create. Please don't worry about what others think. Most importantly please, please, don't compare your work to others. Compare you work to your older work. You can feel free to learn from others. Learn techniques that are willing to teach. If you learn a technique or the inspire you, tell them and please make sure to let others know. Chances are if they like what you created due to their influence, they will too. If we as a community build each other up we will show others to afraid to enter the courage to do so.  Ok, enough blather here she is.

I added a frame. How cool are are phones now a days?? Man, I remember using a payphone.

it reads:" the only time you truly can't do something is when you stop trying. Keep going till you succeed."

I normally am not pleased with faces and hair. I decided it was time to stop worrying and enjoy my creations.

I don't know about you, but eyes are hard. I am getting better at them. I used past pictures that I created to figure out how much better I have gotten. :)

shadowing on her neck made me happy. The part in her hair made me VERY happy!!

Here it is again, this time no frame. Which do you think looks better?

Thank you for take a few mins to read what I had to say and look at my pics.
Please feel free to leave critiques that I can learn from.
Have a great day!!
Haley

#PASC116 Art Journaling ... a challenge... I am there!!

I am totally loving working in my art journal. Are you an art journaler?? It is so popular right now. There have been people who have art journaled before it was even called that. They are wonderful inspirations and examples to us all.
What I personally LOVE about art journaling is that I am not afraid to make mistakes and take chances. If I mess it up no problem. It is only a piece of paper in a book, right??  I definatly try and attempt new techniques and crazy ideas in mine. Some of them do not work out so well, others however find their way into my go to technique mental tool box. :)
I usually art journal just what ever pops into my crazy brain box. Some times I roam the lonely internet looking for an art journal idea fix. :) There are tons of amazing prompts out there. In fact, there are entire pinterest  boards devoted to them. One such prompt group that I recently joined on Face book is called The Pic a Stick Challenge group HERE .  This month's prompts were:

• Create a title in YOUR OWN font
• use gears
• add a verse from a song
• build texture with a palette knife using any medium you choose
• create boarders/elements with scrapbook paper
• use sparkles
• add paint with a palette knife or card
• journal so that no-one can read it
• add a picture
• write on masking tape in a pen or pencil and add it to the page

Use the hashtag : #PASC116  if you make an art journal page or project using the prompts.
I actually made two projects using the prompts.  The first project, I will honest, I really am not sure how I feel about it. I like parts of it and other parts I really dislike.  The second project I used the same prompts, but I used them slightly out of order.

Project one:

Here is the complete two page spread. I am pretty pleased with the iceberg, but the other side, blech.

Here is a close up of the iceberg. I used the prompt about adding texture with a palette knife.

not really happy with this .

Here is the wet crackle paste. I just had such a hard time trying to incorporate scrapbook paper into my journal.

I was so much happier with the iceberg one it dried.

Now for project 2:  I unashamedly totally like this one better. It is so much more me.

I am so much happier. I even used a black backround!! Pretty new for me.

started out with a gesso(ed) page.

Guess who got the set of Dylusions paints for Christmas??

Sorry about the glare. That there is a seriously black page. GULP, I have never worked on such a dark background.

Yuppers, those are in fact the lyrics to There's a light at the Frankenstein place.

Drawing my focal image on scrapbook paper. I had thought about painting over the paper, but it just seemed to take on a life of its own.

Here is where I used the card to apply paint. I love the way the drag made the light glow.

I used the MT tape, my bestie got me when she was living in Japan. I wanted to blend it into the page.

I love these paints. Here up close the base of the lightbulb really looks copper or metallic.

Luminarte Silks Acrylic Glaze  in chestnut brown.

Prima color blooms  Empress gold. Oh yeah look at the sparkle.

Sparkle you say, here lets add more.

Adding the dreaded picture. HMMMM how can I hide this??

tada!! Hidden.

I added a little doodling at this point AAAAAAANNNNNDDDDD done. :)  I am happy that I did the challenge, I really am. I think this will work best for me to follow the integrity of the Challenge each month on one page and then do a second page  right next to it in my own order. Then write about what the challenge made me find out about my self and my creativity.