Poetry - You are Phenomenal with Trena Brannon

Hello Beautiful!

When I was thinking about what I wanted to do for this post, I thought about the poems that have influenced my life - words that are encouraging and real. Maya Angelou’s Phenomenal Woman jumped out.  In a story about Maya, one of the things she said that resonated with me is “there’s nothing I don’t love about my life, it’s a struggle, but that’s life."  Life is not perfect - we are not perfect, however, each of us brings our uniqueness everywhere we go. 

From talking with my family and friends and my own experiences, I know that many of us feel full with commitments, requests, criticism, information coming at us fast and furious, and then there's the voice in our heads that's not always kind to us. All the noise can sometimes just wear us out. I just want to remind you that you are phenomenal!   

phenomenal synonyms: exceptional, extraordinary, remarkable, outstanding, amazing, astonishing, astounding, stunning, staggering, marvelous, magnificent, wonderful, sensational, breathtaking, miraculous, singular; incredible, unbelievable, inconceivable, unimaginable, uncommon...
you are!

I created a page in my homemade (10x11 inches) journal that captures phenomenal.

Step 1:

Background - I started with a page that already had some paint on it. Many of my pages do have some kind of markings, as I clean my brush, sponges and pallet knife off in whatever journal I can find at the time the need arises. I laid down more color with an open stencil - using a little gesso in my paint to soften the color and increase the opacity.

Step 2:

Next, I added more layers of color with a couple more open stencils - not thinking about what colors I was using where- just enjoying the process.

Step 3:

I warmed up the page a bit with the secret ingredient I learned from Mary Beth, Golden Quinacridone / Nickel Azo Gold.  I used the first open stencil for a repeat design in a different color.

Step 4:

I painted a big heart to hold my words.  Another very cool feature about stencils is that you can "audition" where you want the design on your page.  I moved the words and my phenomenal woman around on the page to see where I wanted to place them. Because the woman is larger than my page, I thought about what part of her I wanted to be sure to place on the page. Let me just say for the record, I don't always pre-think in this way.  Most of the time, I'm caught up in the coloring and fun. :) It just works out or I come up with a design to make it work. That's what I love about creating!

Before adding the words and woman, I added a touch of the hearts' color to the background.

Step 5:

I verified word placement again, auditioning with my phenomenal woman.  I added her into the scene and painted her.

Step 6:

Lastly, I added the words and details. 

Notes/Tips/other ideas:

• write down the words you want to include in the page - that way you can consider how much room you will need, which impact the size of the letters. 
• write slowly with white pens
• to gets tips on using alphabet/word stencils, you can see my video here.
• make a page showing a phenomenal man

Supplies I used:

• Substrate: hot press watercolor paper 140 lbs.
• Paints/Gesso: Jane Davenport, Liquitex, Golden, DecoArt
• Other Stuff: tulip dauber, paintbrushes, Sharpie white paint pens, Molotow, Pentel milky, Faber-Castell Big Brush, Tombow Dual Brush Pen
• StencilGirl® stencils:  My Mind S641, Scribble Scratch Handwriting Stencil L266, Hamilton L661, These Jeans L647
• StencilClub sets: Loose Woman SC-07-13, Lost Languages SC-September-2015, Fragmented SC-11-2017

I hope this post inspires you to create something fun that makes your heart smile!

Thank you so much for reading.

Take care and STAY POSITIVE!

Trena