When Good Owls Go Bad

A new issue of Cloth Paper Scissors had a technique for making owls, where you draw the shape with water, then use the dropper of a bottle of acrylic ink to put the color in the water.  The technique for last week's DLP journal was acrylics, so I thought I would try this. 

One of the main adjustments for this journal for me is that it is such a large size.  So I wanted to practice making a large owl in another journal.  I did pretty much everything wrong.  I didn't use enough water, so when I dropped in the color, it didn't do much of anything.  Plus, I forgot to draw in the owl ears with water, so I had to go back and put some in. 

The whole thing ended up looking pretty bizarre.  I can't decide if this looks like Eddie Munster, or a Russian orthodox priest.  Either way, every time I walk by it, it cracks me up.  It's so large, I can't avoid looking at it.  So I guess it wasn't wasted effort after all!!

DLP Week 14

It's always exciting when a new month rolls around, to find out what the monthly theme is for the Documented Life Project journal.  For April, the theme is Color Safari, Exploring Inks and Paints.  Week 14 (last week) explores Watercolors.

I had a rough idea in mind for what I wanted to do.  I wanted to write with markers that I knew would run when water was sprayed on them.  I  had very mixed results and markers that I expected to run didn't.  I was working outside my journal on separate pieces of art paper.

 

I wanted the words at the bottom of the page, because the journal prompt was "It's water under the bridge."  I was going to have runny blue ink at the bottom of the page.  But I really liked the pattern on my first attempt.  No reason the "bridge" couldn't be at the top of the page.  Of course, then the words were upside down, so I ended up cutting off most of them.  I used the other trial pages to punch out circles to use for the dates on my calendar page.

For the top of the journal page on the left, I sprayed water through a circle stencil, then took the spray stem out of a bottle of Dylusions spray and just touched it to the circles of water.  Really liked that, but there weren't enough circles and the page needed more.  So I used the spray stem to make scribble marks in the same area.

The rest of the page was done by drawing out the calendar with water color pencil then activating the color with water; putting washi tape across the top of one page; gluing tissue paper fish to the page; and stamping out some lines for writing about the theme and techniques I used.

When I started this page, I didn't know how messy my watercolor was going to get (not much as it turned out), but I didn't want it bleeding to the page before it because that page has a very simple white background.  So I put masking tape around the page borders before I started working on the page spread.  When I removed the masking tape, it tore bits of paper from the page.  I hadn't planned to put anything around the border, but decided to use my No Blot pencil to scribble all around the edges and activate it with water to turn it blue. 

This is a pretty simple page, and I may not be done with it yet, but I'm happy with it for now.

Still Here...

Guess I'd better post something here, huh?  I am still playing in my DLP journal.  Mostly working on different pages all at once, so there are parts in progress.  The March theme was Doodles and Mark Making, which I expected to be the easiest month for me.  For some reason, it has been the hardest for me to connect with.  Not sure why, since I am such a doodler and mark maker.

Nevertheless, anytime I work in the DLP journal, I always smear the leftover paint in my play journal.  The play journal is also where I test out new paints and stencils, etc.   Sometimes I am happier with that than the other journal!

This spread was where I had tested new paint on the left side.  The tubes of paint were different companies, and looked almost the same in the tube, but definitely different on the page.

On the right is where I tested some new stencils, adding tapes and papers to the border.  The big flower was on the cover of the postal service catalog and is a Victorian rose which is featured on a new postal stamp.  The page already had leftover paint on it when I started, and it was lots of fun.  I sponged on Archival ink with the stencils and really like how those inks work so well over acrylic paint with no problem.

Going to try to work more on the March pages now that April is here!