A few posts back I recommended the "Art Journal Freedom" book by Dina Wakley - it's full of good stuff about mixing colours and composition with lots of suggestions for journal page design, challenges and techniques. I was taken especially with one particular technique for an "artsy bird" design, so decided to have a go. This is the result and I tentatively gave it to Lindsay for her birthday last Friday - she seemed to like it a lot and has hung it on her wall anyway, so I guess it's okay - it's so hard to judge your own stuff objectively! - but I did enjoy making it and that's what counts.
I used an 8" x 8" canvas, gessoed and then painted with acrylic paints. The trio of birds were a copyright-free image from The Graphics Fairy, traced onto the canvas, then outlined again with a Stabilo All black pencil, some of the lines wet-brushed over and painted. Various stencils added with Dylusions Ink Sprays. A little quote written onto the bird bodies - "Wherever There are Birds There is Hope" - and embellishments added to the top left-hand corner.
"Life is the Flower for which Love is the Honey"
Feeling ambitious - hmm - I had a go at another smaller 5" x 7" canvas using the same technique. I'd been really drawn to this vintage bee image, again on The Graphics Fairy website, and knew I wanted to use it. I used a flower stencil in the background, then rather overdid adding painty details to them, so I'm not very happy with the result. But I may well use the bee image again on another canvas.
Love them both Heather but the Bee is my favourite. Well done and thanks for sharing them :)
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