Out of the Journal Challenge Week 2

As a talkative, inquisitive person by nature I have been told for as long as I can remember to please not talk so much. To be careful because words can hurt. To please lower my hand in class (as a very young child) so that others can answer the questions too. Now that I am an adult I find that too many people don’t talk. They sit in a business meeting and don’t speak out, see an injustice and don’t speak out. What does this mean? This natural bent towards speaking and curiosity that as a child was often frowned upon has become a sought after commodity now that I am an adult.


How did this happen? Why did this happen? Then I realized it’s because talking to talk…is just talk. Speaking is the ability to combine what you SEE around you, what you FEEL inside and to SPEAK out to persuade and share with others. This week for the challenge I created this art journal page on canvas to remind me that it is always ok to talk as long as I remember to SEE, SPEAK and FEEL.


To complete the canvas background I first added a layer of gesso to the canvas background because we are adding a lot of water! Once the gesso dried I mixed scarlet red, titanium white and pink glaze to mix a bright pink for the background. While the bright pink was wet I cut circles out of various scrapbooking and magazine paper and applied to the canvas using the wet paint to hold in place. When the bright pink was almost dry I used gesso and water to lighten the color and add dimension.


When dry I added charcoal markings, light blue and yellow accents, journaling and the magazine cut outs. Once applied I added hand painted accents, black ink journaling and details.


To get the drip look for your ink add a little water to the background prior to applying the ink with a paint brush.


The final touch was feathers, silver accents and cute little skirt from a cupcake liner! Did you notice that it uses elements from the last two Monday Inspirations? Pink and papers from a Studio Calico kit? I love displaying this canvas in my house to always remind me to speak out.