No 61 - Restraining Order

Last month, I posted my journal page for Michelle Ward's monthly challenge #60.  I decided to go for #61 this month as well - Restraining Order.  The challenge is to hold back, don't feel like you have to fill up the Entire Page.  Try to restrain your instinct to add more and more to the composition.

I figured this challenge would be a piece of cake for me.  After all, when I try those techniques of adding layer on layer on layer, I always stop after the first layer or two because I like the beginning part so much that I don't want to cover it up.  But I was wrong about this being easy this month.

I was feeling all festive and spring-like, so I started with some different greens to put background color on the double page spread.

I went through the pile of scraps nearby from my stenciling and spraying.  I knew I wanted to use some of the papers on the page, but I didn't want it to look like I was using "too much", so I used my left-over green paints to paint the white graph papers where I had blotted my stencils.  My reasoning was that if my page looked too busy, maybe the fact that most of the papers were painted with the same colors would tone it down a bit.

This is the double page spread I ended up with.  The meditating rabbit is from a sales ad for Pier One.  I've been saving him for something, but I didn't know what.  He just makes me smile.  On the right side are torn painted papers, plus words I lettered.  The cake words are from gift wrap paper.

The lettered words really got lost, so I did outline them to make them stand out a little.  I felt it really helped, and therefore didn't feel guilty about taking that extra step and not restraining myself.  But where I couldn't help myself is the dots in the upper left corner and the bottom right (made with a double ended dauber thing).  What I Really wanted to do was grab the punchinella and go crazy making patterns around the blank spaces.  But I did practice restraint and only made a few dots on each page. 

I was surprised just how hard it was to Not fill in the empty spaces.  But the way I look at it, if the pages had a lot more stuff on them, Mr. Rabbit wouldn't be able to meditate very well.

See Michelle's challenge here and see the sidebar on the left where she has posted links to the participants' responses.  Even though Michelle is going to take a break from the challenges, there are lots and lots of past challenges to glean ideas from if you are so inclined.  Lots of great artwork to absorb! 

 So go...  reflect...  ponder...  eat cake.