Collaging with Steph

Hiya folks!

 This month Anna shows us, her patrons, how to give our sketchy girls their individual facial expressions. She makes it look so easy as, before our very eyes, a variety of characters take shape and pop out of the page. As usual Anna manages to both inspire and encourage participation. See for yourself and visit the Mrs Brimbles Patreon page here.

I
 have been getting into mixed media art lately and losing myself in the therapeutic layering of backgrounds in my art journals. The other day I was stencilling with a couple of sponge dobbers in a journal - as you do - when I remembered I had some space to fill in my memory keeping traveller's notebook insert. I finished the layer I was working on and switched to the TN where I dobbed some splodges of the remaining acrylic paint I was using into the gaps on the pages. On half of them I absentmindedly doodled little patterns and symbols and then - stopped myself with a new idea - I could turn the remaining splodges into characters! Being a great believer in art as a good mood booster, I thought I would have some fun and not think too much about the end result, so I grabbed a few trusty pens and doodled away using the techniques learned from Anna's workshop. I thoroughly enjoyed this activity and the results are quirky and satisfying, particularly due to the spontaneity.
 


In addition to the video content, another beautiful set of digital collage sheets have been made available for us to download and print out as many times as we like. I am feeling thoroughly spoilt as I have only just begun playing with the July pages. Speaking of which, here is my latest creation using one of July's sketchy girls:

 

The August images are absolutely stunning and as soon as I saw them on the computer screen I was desperate to get them in my traveller's notebook. I would have loved to be a fly on the wall when Anna was creating these - I’m curious about the inspiration and the process... Anyway, here is a flavour of some of my favourite elements this month:

 

I decided to make a couple of art journal inserts for my regular Midori TN and cover them with two of the absolutely gorgeous collage sheets just as they as they are. Anna's journal page reproduction on the left is dreamy and I love the monochrome floral on the right, contrasted with the pop of the bright coral thread on the spine.

 


Then I got busy creating inside one of the inserts. First I sprayed some ink and used a wet brush to cover the entire double page spread. I love using this as a base upon which to add paint or collage elements and I am in love with this shade of blue.

 

I went on to use my die cutting machine to cut lots of little hexagon shapes from a few different collage sheets. Tessellated hexagons really rock my world and together with the adorable higgledy piggledy buildings and the purple plant, now tree, I am a big fan of how it looks.

 

Thanks for reading everyone. Until next time... Steph x x x

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