Art Journaling with StencilGirl® Stencils

I’m continuing to illustrate the words of a poem by Ben Okri, as you will have seen on various of my previous projects here (just put my name in the Search section of this blog, and you will find them all). We have arrived at the words: “We ought to use time like emperors of the mind”. As luck would have it I had some vintage images of emperor like images although Caesar (featured on the left hand page) was strictly speaking not an emperor. Marcus Aurelius (on the other page) was.

Here is how this spread came to be:

1.      Gesso 2 facing pages from the ArtbyMarlene large art journal or any journal of your choice.

2.      With a glue stick (I used UHU) add elements to the pages as shown. I added vintage text, text and images printed on tissue paper, and torn circles from an Italian handmade paper.

3.      Gesso the pages again, this time with very watered down gesso.

4.      Add color to the pages with Distress Markers and remove it through the large stencil from Mary Beth Shaw's Private Collection 20.1, using a baby wipe. I used the following colors: Turquoise, Brushed Corduroy, Candied Apple and Walnut Stain.

5.      Using a variety of Golden Fluid Acrylic Paints (I used Greengold, Turquoise, and Quinacridone Magenta), repeat step 4, but this time using the small stencil from Mary Beth Shaw's Private Collection 20.1.

6.      Using black acrylic spray paint (I used Liquitex) and Greek Key Small stencil, spray onto deli paper and also use the sprayed stencil to stamp a mirror image on another sheet of deli paper.

7.      Tear out pieces of the deli paper made in step 6 and glue onto the pages together with vintage images of “emperors” as shown.

8.      Using a black permanent marker and the small stencil from Carolyn Dube's Ideas StencilClub set and Seth Apter's Timeless stencil (for the word TIME), add the words from the quotation by Ben Okri to vintage paper, tear out, edge with a permanent black stamp pad and glue onto the pages as shown.

9.      Add some white acrylic ink splatters to the pages.

10.  Spray on some sparkle through Greek Key Small stencil using blue mica spray.

11.  Glue on postage stamps as shown.

12.  Edge the pages with a permanent dark blue ink pad.

© Frieda Oxenham 2020. To see more of Frieda's work, please visit her BLOG.