Slow but steady, every week, I make sure I get something added to my personal art journal, mostly because I can play along with Art Journal Every Day.  I would probably work in my journal on my own, but Julie Balzer's posts and a chance to share definitely keep me on track. This week I tried painting my pages with white gesso and then spraying the page with various inks on top of the gesso while it was still wet.

I started my work in my art journal today by deciding it might be fun to work with gesso as a base this time. After painting it on both pages I thought, what if I did not let the gesso dry before doing something else? To let it dry was my original thought. Grabbing a new Ranger dylusions ink spray (pure sunshine) and also a Adirondack Color Wash (Denim) I started spraying on top of the wet gesso. 

Then, I sprayed more plain water on top of the ink to see what would happen.

I liked the effect! Next I sprayed with the Denim ink . . . 

I sprayed on both sides of the spread with more plain water sprayed on top.

I also used the brush I had applied the gesso with to blend the ink and gesso in places.

There was a bit of Lumiere (Halo blue green) on the edge of the left page, which was carried over from the previous spread and I liked it. This prompted me to add more of that paint to the edge of the page and a bit diagonally across the middle. 

I used my heat gun to dry the gesso and ink, but not too close. I love some of the patterns that were made through my experimenting!

It looked almost like a beach scene to me… I see sunshine, sand & waves. 

I’d chosen an affirmation from my list before I started and thought this time I would handwrite the quote directly on the page with a thin tipped Micron marker. I have been including a positive affirmation on every page spread in this art journal in a variety of ways: Rubber stamped, computer generated & printed on paper or a transparency sheet, handwritten, magazine letters, painted . . . it is fun to choose a different option and gives me a bit of a theme.

The collage image I chose is one of many I’ve collected from ARTchix Studio.

Art Journal Every Day

Perfectionism is the voice of the oppressor, the enemy of the people.

It will keep you cramped and insane your whole life.

  ~ Anne Lamott