Tuesday, May 17, 2022

Creanouk (Anouk) - Sketches and Mixed Media


Hello you beautiful artist,

I don’t know about you, but after a while less creating I always feel a bit rusty when it comes to my art journaling practise. Right now, while I’m writing this blogpost, I’m 28 weeks pregnant. And for the past six months my head has been filled with… babies! Now that the end is near and we are all set for our baby boy to arrive, I finally feel more space in my head to create again. 

To prevent the fear of the blank page I grabbed a journal from my shelf of unfinished journals that has a mix of floral drawings with mixed media in it. I came across a floral drawing that I sketched in my first trimester and I decided to use it as my starting point.

My drawing is inspired by the book: How to draw modern flowers by Alli Koch. I like to draw my flowers with a waterproof fineliner by Strathmore, but you can always sketch it out with pencil first. The paper in this journal isn’t the best quality, so I applied a thin layer of Amsterdam Clear Gesso on top of the drawing so that I work on it with wet mediums later on.




The journal that I’m working in has a specific theme going on. I used it last summer to sketch flowers while I was outside or resting on the couch. Another thing that occur to me while I was flipping through the pages, was that I used a lot of messy collages next to a stenciled book page. So I grabbed Dripping Spanish Moss and my beloved Amsterdam Modeling paste and stenciled it on an old book page.

I usually have a few of these papers ready to go in my stash. I hate waiting for modeling paste to dry, so having a few papers of these lying around always saves a lot of time.

At this stage I wasn’t sure if I wanted to colour my flowers in. So I used a small brush and some Amsterdam Sky Blue Light mixed with a tiny bit of white to colour outside the lines of my drawing and to create a base for the right and messy side of my page. I only painted a small part of the page, because I knew I wanted to collage and use the stenciled book paper that I just made.

Once everything was dry I glued down the book paper and the rest of the collage pieces with Mod Podge Matt. I always find collaging with tiny scraps super satisfying and relaxing! I think this tiny piece took me half an hour just because I was listening to some lo-fi beats and enjoyed the moment with my art journal.

To make my collage ready for my ‘messy’ stage I used a little bit of white gesso and applied it randomly with a pallet knife. If you feel like you’ve applied too much gesso, you can always use a baby wipe to soften it up.

Next I used Tangled Beach Grass with Amsterdam Titan Buff Dark on top of my collage and blue background to make it blend in with each other a little more.

I’m absolutely in LOVE with this stencil! I saw it on Laura Horn's Instagram and I’ve been in love with it ever since! The whole range of Trish MicKinney stencils are just absolutely beautiful I highly recommend checking them out.

It’s time to get messy! If you’ve been following my blogposts you know that I love using ecoline when I want to make an intuitive and messy spread. To be honest I was a little bit nervous using it at first. It has been awhile since I got so messy and I was afraid to literally mess it up. But I’ve learned that it can’t go wrong if you have a baby wipe and a cup of water beside you!

My initial thoughts were to combine the Prussian Blue ecoline with Burned Sienna, but in the end I thought it would be a bit too much. Thankfully instant coffee is always there to help! I sprinkled some directly on to the page and then sprayed it with a little bit of water.

At this point I decided to leave my drawing just as it is. I just love the look of the messy and colourful side combined with the more minimal black and white sketch. 

I always like to fancy up my pages by gluing or stapling down pieces of fabric. I think it’s just that piece of extra that can make your page really good!

Okay, so I hear you thinking! No modeling paste as the final layer?

Let me introduce you to a new product that I’ve been using. It’s called Stencil Butter and it literally feels like butter! And it’s gold! Okay, I need to contain my excitement and not use it on every single page that I make. I used this utterly gold piece of medium with the Lacy Spanish Moss stencil placing it randomly across the page.

As always I finished off the page with some ink splatters and a cheesy quote sticker from my Tim Holtz sticker book because I didn’t feel like journaling on my own. Sometimes the process of making a page is enough. 

And just like that there’s a page that’s the perfect mix of mixed media art journaling and a minimalistic flower drawing! What I like the most about this combination is that you can use your sketches in your art journal without drawing them on separate paper. You can just take your journal with you, sketch whenever you want to and take it back to your desk whenever you want to play!



Product List:
Handmade Journal
Amsterdam - Modeling Paste Matt
Vintage Music and Book Paper
Dried Tea Bags and Fabrics
Mod Podge - Matt
Amsterdam - White Gesso
Amsterdam - Clear Gesso
Amsterdam - Sky Blue Light
Amsterdam - Titan Buff Dark
Amsterdam - Ecoline Prussian Blue
Instant Coffee
Ranger - Spray Ink White
Faber Castell - Art Grip Aquarelle
Strathmore - Waterproof Fineliners
TCW - Stencil Butter Champagne Gold
TIm Holtz - Sticker Book

Stencils:



Thank you so much for reading my blog post. I hope that I have inspired you to create today! My name is Anouk or Creanouk on social media, and I'm an all-round creative from the Netherlands. I love art journaling because I can put my heart and soul into it. You can find my work on Instagram and Youtube.
 

2 comments:

  1. Great to watch/read the process.
    Love the page and the stencil choices! 💗💗💗

    ReplyDelete

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