Laura Fraedrich: Art Journaling Tutorial

Hi, everyone! Laura Fraedrich here! I’m so excited to be back as a guest blogger for StencilGirl Talk! This time is especially exciting because the projects I’m showing were made with my very own stencil designs…George, Poopie, and Sebastian. I can’t tell you how thrilled I am that my designs are part of this amazing line. It is really a dream come true!

Most people know me as a ceramic artist, but a lesser known fact about me is that I have a huge passion for art journaling. I travel a lot for work and my journaling supplies always come with me. It makes airport layovers and boring nights in hotels much more exciting. My favorite supplies are ones that are portable. On the top of my list are Peerless Watercolors and an Aqua Flo Water Brush, BIC Mark-It Markers, a Uni-ball Signo White Gel Pen or a white waterbased Sharpie Paint Marker and Staedtler Triplus Fineliners. I usually work in a Moleskine Watercolor Journal, but I recently decided that I wanted to try going bigger so I got a Strathmore 8.5 x 11 Sewn Bound Watercolor Art Journal. Go big or go home, right?

Here are the three pages I did with my stencils…

I used the George Stencil for this page, which was designed after my own big, goofy pit bull. He always has to be the center of attention, so he was very happy to know he was going to be famous through a stencil design.

I used the Poopie Stencil for this page. This is my personal favorite since it is designed after my feline soulmate Poopie, who crossed over the Rainbow Bridge in December of 2013. I still miss him every day and I am thrilled that his legacy will live on through his stencil.

I used the Sebastian Stencil for this one. Since it has recently come to my attention that not everybody has big, blockhead dogs like George, I used my friend Erika’s dog Sebastian as a model for this one. Sebastian is famous in his own right and is the spokesperson and fashion model for Erika’s blog SewDoggy Style, where she posts DIY projects for dog clothing and accessories.

Now, I’ll take you through a quick tutorial of how I made these pages.

Step 1: I used a black Staedtler Triplus Fineliner to color in through the stencil.

Step 2: I drew some a few random lines around George so that I could write some text. I also used the bone part of the stencil to make the border around the text.

Step 3: I used BIC Mark-It Markers to color in some of the areas of the stencil design. At home I have Copics that I like to use, but when I’m traveling it is easier to bring these. Plus I never have a problem with them bleeding through my paper. I’m still on the lookout for a journal that doesn’t allow the Copics to bleed.

This is what it looked like after I colored in with the Mark-Its:

Step 4: I used Peerless Watercolors to color in the rest of the page. Peerless Watercolors are my absolute favorite art supply of all time…next to StencilGirl stencils, of course! Usually I do this with an Aqua Flo Water Brush but I didn’t have it with me (the horror!). Luckily, usually when I travel for work it is to teach ceramics so I had a stash of regular brushes with me.

Step 5: I added some highlights with a white waterbased Sharpie Paint Marker. I think this is like putting the icing on the cake. It really adds depth to the page.

I hope you enjoyed learning about my art journaling process! I certainly enjoyed showing you. I look forward to sharing more with you in a future StencilGirl Talk blog post! Contact me through my blog/website HERE or through Facebook HERE if you have any questions. Until next time!