I’ve made these pages during the UK Corona
Virus lock down and it was a very good diversion from everything that’s going
on. We live in a very rural area of the Scottish Borders so living in isolation
is almost an everyday thing even in normal times. Hopefully by the time you
read this post things will be better and I hope you all stay safe as best you
can. I have found Ben Okri’s poem that I have been illustrating over the past
few months a great solace. Today we have reached the words: “We could change our life today, and seek out
a higher way.” Appropriate, don’t you think!
Here is what I did to make this spread:
1. Using the stencil Map with Roundabouts and 2 facing pages of the large ArtbyMarlene art
journal, mark out the lines of the stencil on one page, then turn the stencil
over and mark the other page in mirror image, using a pencil.
2. Color
in the pages as shown with permanent color, a different one for each page. I
used orange and red Faber-Castell Pitt Artist pens.
3. Using
copy paper and an 8 x 10” gel plate with acrylic paints, brayer on 2 or 3
different colors onto the plate and take prints. Make a good collection of
painted papers this one. I made a total of 15 papers which is more than enough
and give you plenty of choice.
4. Using
the gel plate again with titanium white paint, brayer on the white, put Crackle stencil on top, take a print on one of the pages from step 3, remove
the stencil, and take another print on one of the other pages from step 3. Do
this till all the pages from step 3 have been used.
5. Using
the pages from step 4 and Circles Layer Me with your gel plate, add contrasting circles to your
pages. Have extra paper on standby to clean your plate when changing colors.
6. Using
some of your papers and black acrylic paint repeat step 5 with the stencil Tokyo.
7. Gather
your papers together with the stencil Map with Roundabouts, and cut out the shapes of the stencil from your
papers. Mark each shape on the paper using a pencil and cut out with either small
scissors or a craft knife. Remember to use the reverse of the stencil for your
mirror image page. Glue onto the pages made in step 1 using a glue stick. You
may have to use tweezers for the smaller shapes.
8. Outline
the shapes with permanent black, white and gold markers.
9. With
a permanent black marker, add small black arrows as shown using the stencil Text and Texture Transform. Outline the arrows with a white marker.
10. Write
the words in black as shown for this part of Ben Okri’s poem. They read: We could change our life today, and seek out
a higher way. Fill in open spaces in the letters with white.
11. Spray
the pages randomly with Perfect Pearl Mist Sunflower Sparkle using the stencil Crackle.
12. Edge
the pages with a permanent black ink pad.
Fabulous tutorial! I really enjoyed reading how Frieda accomplished this beautiful journal spread.
ReplyDeleteWow - what a lot of detail work! Beautiful results!
ReplyDeleteWow - so impressed with your attention to detail to provide a wonderful affect. Thanks for sharing
ReplyDelete