Poppies and bubbles

Gosh, it's been almost 2 weeks since I've been able to sit down and work on some art.  Where does the time go?   So today was my day to take a time out and do a bit of playing.  I only had two more double pages to do in my book and then I'll have completed my very first art journal book!  I'm so proud of myself, for this has been the first time in a very long time that I have committed to myself to do something that is just for me!  The past couple of years have been a real growing period for me and my inner self.  And honestly, when I started this book last year I really wasn't sure if I would ever do it long enough to finish it.  I did!!!  And I'm ready to start on my new book.  :)

My first page is so simple!  LOL  Honestly, it really was an easy page.  Have you ever been into a dollar store and see all of those gorgeous cheap napkins?  Yup, I love them napkins.  Multi purposed, because I save some for my art and I use the rest.  :)  So, I buy up bunches of packs of napkins.  It really has become somewhat of an addiction.  How can they not though?  They are so cheap!  ;)

This is the package of poppies that I got.  I love poppies.  I love the colors of these napkins but I decided to change it up a bit by coloring over top of them.  First of though, I seperate the very top tissue from the other layers and I seal it down onto the journal pages using a multi matte medium.  

Since there is a gap at the top and bottom of the page I needed to color in that space.  So I grabbed my Dylusions paints and a sponge and painted in those spaces.  

                 

 Next, I grabbed my Stabilio Woody crayones to color over top of the images and change them a bit.  I wanted red poppies on my page so I made the yellow and the green ones red.  

I used my charcoal pencil to add some shading below a few of the flowers.  I then took my Inktense pencils to color the stems and softly color in the background a bit as well.  

The bottom portion of the page needed something, a quote, a stamp.  I googled poppy sayings and found a quote from a poem by John Keats that I really liked.  I used my sketch and wash pencil to hand write it in and then my Fuseball gel pen over top.  

I felt it still needed a little some else on the page.  I decided to add a bit more blue into the background along the sky line and painted in some rain and dew drops onto the page.

The rest of my afternoon was a mix of my phone ringing off the hook and my trying so hard to finish this last page in my book.  I really wanted to get this last page done so I can be onto a new book.  It was a huge deal for me to accomplish finishing this one.  :)

There really is nothing super special about this page.  It is simply a page of bubbles.  LOL  However, it did take me several different layers and changing directions before I called it done.   The first thing I did was cut out a bunch of circles out of a page I tore from a novel.  I gesso'd the page and then took some of my Izinks to create a background using my finger tips like I had learnt in a previous class.

Let's color around them circles...

No clue what to do next.  It was like I hit a brick wall and couldn't think of what to do next.  All those darn phones call was getting in the way of my creativity.  So, I grabbed some white acrylic paint to finger paint over top of the neocolors and blend them together.  

Oh boy... now what?  More circles?  Why not... let's just run with it.

 Still not feeling it.   I really don't like how the yellow and reds from the Izinks are showing.  OyVey... Ok, lets mix some water, Neocolors and acrylic white together and do a wash over the background.

 Better.  Still needs more circles.  Purple... why not!  I also then added some charcoal pencil for shading around the circles.

    
Alrighty then... have you ever had one of those pages that you just weren't feeling until the very end.  Yup... that's this one.  So, I decided that since I have outlined the circles in black I would do the same with the page and smudge black around the edges with a black Gelato and bring that shading down into the page.

I was about to walk away and call it a day with this page when I spotted my gold Gelato looking at me and it gave me that wink and said... hey,,, how about me?  Sure why not... it couldn't make it any worse could it?  LOL

My battery was about to die and so it came out a bit blurry.  And the lighting was getting darker in the house and so you can't really see the gold but I think I kind of like it.  Not my favorite page by any stretch but it might grow on me.  LOL

Well..... I'm done!!!!!  Whoohoo.... now I can start on my next book at my next opportunity!  I hope you have enjoyed my experimenting and growth over the past year.  I look forward to growing some more and my art is really the perfect outlet for me to release and express myself.  Thank you to all of you who have taken the time to follow me and leave me some love along the way!  xoxo