Lastpage Clown

 

The very last page of my Large Dylusions Creative Journal! Now, I need to decide what to do with the  cover.  

As mentioned in a previous post, I did remove quite a bit of pages from the original Dylusions Jourbnal, because I was scared that once full it would bulge to much, but I think I took out more then I needed.  Anyway, doesn't matter, I'm on the last empty page.  And to fill it I decided to use a design I made in my #100daychallenge (day #39). I should do that challenge again btw. Or at least fill up the little booklet (60 pages left).  

For now I'll start with finishing this journal. 

It's become my go to, to start with some stencilling, stamping and toning it down with acrylic washes. That's what I did here too, I started with some purple acrylic stencilling followed with stamping a stamp from "Classic Flourish Filigree" and "Petals" from the stamping gear collection, both by Inkadinkado, with purple Archival Ink. This layer was followed by an aqua and white wash. I decided to make it more fun by adding different colors balloons. I just painted them on and added a last acrylic wash with zinkwhite . 

So  I decided to remake a clown face that I made on day 39 of the #100daychallenge but this tine bigger and colored with Copic markers and some details with Faber Castell Polychromos and  a  white posca pen. 

I glued it  down with a simple glue stick and added a little shadow border with a dark Grey Tombow  Marker N45.

Like the first page that I did last time, I used a quote on the other side of the page. "Starting Strong is GOOD, Finishing Strong is EPIC". I wrote it with a Pilot Sigma pen in a purple color, I added some shading in a lighter purple color with a Mildliner  and on  some of the letters I added a white border with a Posca pen. 

TO finish the page I added a border with rainbow colored posca's and the  black  is done with an Edding  pen (the oneI used on my coffee tables :)

Frontpage Girl

When I start a new journal, sketchbook or notebook I always skip the first page.  It's intimidating to find something and do it well enough for the first page, you do not want to mess it up, but once you already have some pages filled it doesn't matter that much anymore.  Now that only the last page is left, it's time to tackle the first one!

I worked on this page's background together with the background for the last page. 

So first I added a blue acrylic wash to the top part of the page and stencilled some white circles on top. On the bottom part I added dark green stencilled ovals and a yellow green wash layer I also stencilled some dark purple butterflies, mostly on the top part of the page. They  belong in the sky after all :) On  the bottom part I stencilled some flowers (Classic Flourish Filigree and Stamping gear petals both  from Inkadinkado) with Archival inks. 

I made a bigger version of a simple girl face that I drew on day 10 of the #100dayproject. 

I colored her with copic sketch markers and added some finishing touches with Faber Castell polychromos and a white posca pen. She is glued down with a simple glue stick and the surround shadow is done with a tombow dual brush pen in the color grey (N45).

The quote is written with (the not waterproof) Pilot  V-Signpen And to spice it up I added a shadow with posca pens. 

For  the border I  used a bright pink posca pen and a pink Gelly roll stardust pen. 

Kitty Gaze

 

This is page #44 in my big  Dylusions Artjournal, it'd the last full double page IN the Journal, I still have the first and last page blank, but from the inside, this is the last page. (I did take  some pages out about 2 years ago because I knew it was going to be a hefty book, and didn't want it to bulge to much. 

I've had the idea of having an animal stare in a girls eyes for some time, but didn't look forward to drawing/painting an animal. 

This page started with stencilled music notes with leftover black acrylic paint. I added some dark purple butterflies and dark green tiger stripes. To add a little more texture I also stamped some flowers from the stampset "Meadow" from Inkadinkado with Archival Ink in the color plum. At the top I added a light blue wash, at the bottom a green yellow one. Since this was a little bright I toned it down with a white wash. 

I added even more texture by blending some memento Paris Dusk and Danube Blue over different widths tape that are positioned diagonally.   

To frame my two characters I blended a border around 2 squares with memento ink grape jelly and elderberry.

I decided to try and paint the cat with gouache paints.  I got some Schmincke Academie gouache tubes for Christmas and  I've been scared to use them. Time to get over it. And I think it worked out ok. The girl I colored with my trusty Copics and some details with polychromos  pencils.  

Finally I finished the page with Edding black markers and some Poasca pens.  

Upcycling our Coffee Tables

 

Our 3 coffee tables had seen better times, especially the smallest one, that's the one my husband uses ;)  It get's daily coffee stains, scratched from laptops and other devices. Anyway, after 8 years I thought I could spiff them up a bit. 

I  started with sanding the tables down, it took a while, but I wanted to start with a some what smooth surface. 

The table is made from MDF,  so I primed it with a water based acrylic primer and then painted it with  a satin acrylic paint in the color Light Grey (RAL 7005) to match our wall-to-wall-floor-to-ceiling TV-cabinet. It's painted in the RAL colors 7005 (Mouse Grey) and 7035 (Light Grey) So I decided I would use one of those colors as the base of the tables and then Tangle on them. 

I also spray painted the legs with a bottle of satin Acrylic spray in the color Pigeon Blue color (Ral 5014) so they looked fresh too. 

Before I started to tangle on the tables, I tested some markers on a painted wood board, to make sure the varnish  would not make the markers streak and find out what marker would work the easiest on a painted surface. 

I  tried Posca (top left), Marabu Deco (top right) and Edding markers (bottom)

I decided to go with Edding Glass, Metal, Plastic markers in  0.8mm and 1-2mm. For the very fine lines I sacrificed some micron markers 0.2 and 0.5 (the tips don't hold up great on the rough painted surface) for the shading I used Derwent Inktense Charcoal Grey that I blended out with a stump and very little water. Since the surface is not absorbent at all, to much water made everything pool. For the white  highlights I used White Posca pens. 

It took me a while to get the courage to put marker to table. Correcting wouldn't be easy, although  I could always repaint and start over. Unlike Tangles on paper, I did prep a little bit, I roughly sketched the 3 designs that I wanted, although I didn't decide in advance what tangles I would use. 

I started with the medium table first. I tangled mostly organic tangles like: Aquafleur, Flormoeba, Dragonair, Zinger, Pflandi,... on both sides and connected the two with a tangle called Zander

I sprayed a layer of varnish from a can for the first layer of protection and to prevent the inks to move when brushing the next layers of varnish. 

Then I started on the second  table,  the smallest  one. 

For  this table I wanted a kind of ribbons, so I used the tangles: Footlites, Annee, Coil, Flormoeba, Intwine, Shattuck, Shneck, Sonnenband and some random ones. 

Lastly I started on the biggest table. I did sketch 2 circles with a compass, because I wanted at least a little guidance to make them. All other shapes are freehanded. On the left  side I started with more graphic tangles (Reticulated, Paradox, ...) in lines and once through the circle I transferred to more organic tangles (Intwine,  Annee, Shattuck, Potterbee, Prasima, Intwine, Henna Drum, Cat-Kin, Angle Fish,...)

With all three tables done, I gave them another coat of varnish with a spray can,  and added  4 coats of Satin Acrylic Varnish and let them dry for a couple of days before take them downstairs ready to  use. 

#100dayProject

 

On March 4th 2023 I decided to start a #100daychallenge.

why? just so I would create "something" E.V.E.R.Y. day.

I regularly practice/sketch something in my sketchbook, but 99% stays in a practice/sketch stage, I keep practicing and mostly faces over and over. So I decided I would draw and finish something every day for a hundred days. Nothing big, nothing complicated, but something new and finished.

And, I had the perfect little book laying around a Talens Art Creation 80 pages of 140 gsm 9x14cm portret cream colored paper. I decorated the front with a beautiful sticker of Cosmic spectrum.

The last page I already used to test some markers and pens. So I had 79 pages. I numbered them with a small stamp. I only used the right side, and when I came to the end I used the left sides starting from the back.

Some of the images are with black liner and colored with highlighter, and some are colored with colored pencils, with or without black Liner.

After a couple of weeks I found it easier to draw some images within a theme a couple of days in a row.

for example:

After getting to the end of the sketchbook I starting going back and doing the left side of the pages. Three pages in, I decided that it would look nicer if I coordinated the styles left and right on the page.

At some point I forgot to stamp a page, I only saw it when I had already finished the image on that page, so I decided to number that page (#59) so I had two #59's, one with an image and one that I left empty. I wasn't sure what to do with the second #59 page, but I decided to just leave it blank. Afterwards, it turned out to be a GREAT decision! Tuns out that going to 79 and then starting on the other side from the back bring me to that empty #59 page as the #100 page!! So I made a double sided drawing as a last drawing on June 11the 2023.

I will continue to finish the sketchbook, it's another 58 page: maybe I can do 3x 20 day challenges, but don't hold your breath, it might take a while :)

Here are 2 slideshows that show all the drawings.