Artist Letha Richardson - Art Journal Pages Online 2010 Day 20 - Butterflies

by Letha Richardson
(Cody, WY USA)

Art Journal Online - Art Journaling by Artist Letha Richardson


~ Art Supplies used


Art Supplies:

Scrapbook paper scraps
gesso
StazOn ink
charcoal pencil
Twinkling H2Os
Micron fine line pen
Silver Liquitex ink

First off, I want to say that this page was a huge disaster, and did not start out very well. I had these great ideas in my head, and not one of them came out on paper correctly. I started with the scraps of paper background, and then a very light coat of gesso. My intention was to use an opaque StazOn to stamp the butterflies, then blend around them with a charcoal pencil but it didn't show up at all. So I then tried colored StazOn, but I did not like the starkness of the brown, so I attempted to paint them with Twinkling H2Os, but that was not very successful, and they looked really weird colored that way, so I decided to cover them with gesso. I was thinking about starting all over, but as I started to coat them with gesso, the butterflies started to soften, and I was beginning to think they weren't so bad after all. So I blotted on the gesso, and then when it was dry, I traced around them with a charcoal pencil and blended with a smudge stick. The gesso ended up covering most of the background paper, but it was ok, since it just softened the colors and prints. I then added the lettering words with a fine line Micron pen, and then added some streaks of silver ink to give it a little pizazz.
I guess it goes to show that even the worst mess of a mistake can be worked into something nice.

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Thank you for submitting your art journal page


~ ahh perserverance...its like peeling layers and layers away from your muse until she is happy with her colors.... well done for sticking with it ... the soft hues of your butterflies look beautiful


thanks for sharing, happy art journaling


♥ milliande
Art Journaling January 2010