'Luminous Beings' - art journal page

Howdy and Welcome,

This is another page 'Luminous Beings' from my 2009 art journal #2 'Never Give up - Never Surrender!'
Also almost entered in the Lots To Do Challenge. but too late...

'We are Luminous Beings, not this crude matter...'
- Yoda, from Star Wars 5: 'The Empire Strikes Back'

partial view

partial view showing layered paint textures

close up - top of page

extreme close up

ingredients:

tinted gesso, acrylic paint, highlighters, black sharpie, gel pens. mesh tape (from hardware store), pencil, tissue tape (tim holtz), calligraphy marker (zig), matte medium (liquitex), soft gel gloss medium (golden), pinking shears, chipboard tag of fairy (unknown), gem brad, acrylic paint, deli sandwich wrap, found paper (a piece of a page from my maternal grandfather's art journal! He was an opera singer and an English teacher. Very fragile and brittle paper - I had to gesso it and handle carefully. The #2 - JOY is from my  list of favorite affirmations).

techniques:

art letering, calligraphy, collage, decoupage, assemblage

This page was a long time coming.

The tag came after a long period because I knew this page was not complete - just did not know what it wanted there. One day while organizing some chipboard I found a bunch of forgotten fairies. I painted her with a toothpick using a brown acyrlic paint so she'd be darker. But then I thought the tag was still too vibrant and too bright for the page. So I decoupaged a small piece of deli wrap over her. Which did the trick - she's just sort of peeking through a layer that looks a bit like vellum.

What do you think of her? Isn't she dreamy?

Thanks for stopping by - and please don't forget to comment!

Peace,

LuLu

P.S. Yes I am a HUGE STAR WARS fanatic. I saw the first film of the first trilogy (Star Wars Episode IV) 19 times at the movie theatre! I still watch it, but now on DVD - yippee!

Checkout new poll, Theme Thursday challenge, and 'No Fear' art journal page!

'No Fear'
 -  page from art journal #2
'Never Give Up - Never Surrender!'
ingredients: Masking tape,
pencil, sepia pen, 
acrylic dabber paints, 
soft gel medium,
Sharpie paint pens,
gray and black markers,
matte medium, gessos,
and gel pens on
sketchpaper -
technique: layers of
art tettering

Howdy and Welcome,

Thanks to all of you who have found my blog!

I've been getting positive, encouraging comments on my art blog posts. I've won some contests!

So I'm wondering if I could join someone's Dream Team. I'm putting my wish out there. It would be fabulous to work full time on art! Ultimately, my art would be published in mags like Somerset Studio, Artful Blogging, CPS, travelling worldwide to teach workshops and retreats (in France and Italy) and to  host DVD's for Interweave using my own mixed-media techniques!

Wouldn't that be super-calli - fragi?!

Poll closes Sep 26 2010 at midnight. Please vote. All are welcome to vote - you do not need to be a follower to vote. And if someone wants ME to come on board right now, yippee! and please contact me pronto!

This image 'No Fear' is entered in the Theme Thursday challenge, WORDS, too! What great timing.
(Note: This is a found saying, not my own.  I read voraciously. Don't recall where I saw it.)

Thanks for stopping by to visit. Please become my follower while you're here, won't you?

Peace,
LuLu
http://www.lulu-too-beaucoup.blogspot.com/

'When all the Spotted Cows are gone...' - Art journal page

Howdy and Welcome,
Glad you could come by!
Here's another art journal page from journal #2 'Never Give Up - Never Surrender!'with some calligraphy (italic font).

'Spotted Cows saying' -

Collage of views below

Partial page 'Spotted Cows saying'

Extreme closeup ' Spotted Cows saying'

'When all the spotted cows are gone

the buffalo will cover

the world again'

- American Indian saying

I really enjoy art lettering. The textures and shapes that evolve just from writing words and letters never ceases to amaze me. This closeup seems to GLOW!

What do you think of the lettering and calligraphy on this page? Have you ever tried art lettering?

Thanks for visiting. Please come by again - and don't forget to leave a comment.

Peace,
LuLu

'iPod and privacy' - Art Journal page

Howdy and Welcome,
Glad you could stop by for a minute or 2.

Here's another page from my Art Journal #2 'Never Give Up - Never Surrender!', started exactly one year ago this month!

Collage 'iPod and privacy' - of all views below,
collage created with MS DIE

Full view of journal page 'iPod and privacy' - showing

mesh tape, my handwriting, printing and

my new tissue  paper tape (love it!)

Close up 'iPod and privacy' - showing

the tapes (tissue paper tape and masking tape)

over a page from a vintage cookbook.

Don't you just love the way the text peeks through the gesso?

Extreme close up 'iPod and privacy'-  showing
mesh tape (from hardware store) and my hadwriting
with a little bit of gesso dry brushed over it

Close up 'iPod and privacy'
You can really see the tape pieces, white and tinted gesso here

Extreme close up - showing
the spot where I'll add a focal point

I love the subtle colors and all the textures. I might even add some modeling paste for even more texture! Really enjoy how the tape layer creates a translucency over other images in the backgrounds! The masking tape also adds a nice dimensional line, too. (Picked up this technique from a magazine).What do you think of this page? Do you ever use masking tape as a base over your ephemera texts or images?



 
Thanks for stopping by - and please don't forget to leave a comment!

Peace,
LuLu

Diane's 100th Post giveaway!

Howdy and Welcome,
Checkout Diane's blog She's having a giveaway to celebrate her 100th post.

Thanks for visiting - and don't forget to leave me a comment!

Peace,
LuLu

'Happiness is...No Rules!' - art journal page

Howdy and Welcome!

What do you think of this art journal page?

Closeup

Closeup - Microsoft DIE negative

Full journal page - showing image transfer using gesso of my original zen-doodle and some printed text

Closeup - Microsoft DIE negative

Closeup

Closeup

Closeup - Microsoft DIE negative and diffuse glow

Closeup

Thanks for visiting - and don't forget to leave a comment.

Peace,

LuLu

'Anyone Who's Known...' excerpt from my original poem

Howdy and Welcome,
These images are from another page in my art journal #2.

Digital collage of images below - using MS DIE

Whole page from art journal #2 -

the calligraphy is an excerpt from my one of my original poems

Page portion from art journal #2 -

close-up showing journaling in foreign languages

(German, ancient Greek, French, my take on ancient Cuneiform).

Also I added a little bit of musical notation.

fyi in my dreams I speak French and I often wake up with original music playing in my head!

Page portion from art journal #2 -

close-up showing tile made from a TH clear plastic tile wrapped in a piece of aluminum repair tape (from hardware store) that I embossed (using texture plates and my Big Shot), painted with Ranger acrylic dabbers and a little light sanding when dry.  I prefer to use the acrylic paints rather than alcohol inks. There is also a strip of mesh tape (from the hardware store.)

The edges are bordered in scrapbook paper scraps - I save the strips when I trim scrapbook paper. I also organize and store scraps by length and type. But that's for a whole other blog post!

Note: before working on any of the pages in the sketchbook, I covered each page, front and back, with 2" masking tape - to give the substrate more strength in preparation of all the stuff I was hoping to do. If it had been watercolor paper I would not have used the tape all over, maybe on the sides as a border. Love those 'paper tapes' from 7gypsies and tissue tapes from TH.

P.S. You know in all the art journal magazines and articles, they never mention how MUCH PREP goes into making this type of art. I spend a lot of time organizing and prepping, before I even begin to paint!

What do you think of this page? Have you ever experimented with writing foreign languages or writing music notation in your journals?

Thanks for visiting - please stop by again when you have a moment or 2.

Peace,

LuLu

'Tonight' poem excerpt

Howdy and Welcome!

Here are closeups from some pages from my 'Art Journal #2 Never Give Up - Never Surrender!'.

Enjoy!

Closeups of pages from Art Journal #2 -

 'Never Give Up - Never surrender!'

The italics calligraphy text is an excerpt from 'Tonight', one of my original published poems.

Ingredients: each page of sketch paper covered in 2"wide masking tape both sides, white gesso, tinted gessos, various paints, mediums, techniques, watercolor, acrylic, pens, mesh tape (from hardware store), inks, ZIG calligrapy marker, gel pens, glitter, 14k gold paint.

What do you think of thses closeups? I love the abract quality of these pages. I specifically tried to turn off the analytical side of my brain and let the artwork create it self with little thought or design.

What do you think of the textures, and various layers peeking in and out?

The title of this journal 'Never give up, never surrender!' is a motto from the sci-fi movie 'GALAXY QUEST' with Tim Allen!

Thanks for stopping by. Please leave a comment if you have a moment or 2 - and visit again soon!

Peace,

LuLu

'Never give up - Never surrender!' Art Journal #2 - with ribbon fringes and texture!

Howdy and Welcome!

I'm back for a hot minute...
Been feverishly working on pieces for my September 2010 art show and haven't posted for a while.

Here are some pix of my first art journal. Started it a year ago in July 2009. It contains a mish-mash of pages. Tests of paints and image transfers, calligraphy, zendoodles, gel pens, Sharpie paint pens - just a lot of different things. The subsequent journals I've started have themes so I can focus on specific processes.

For example, I now have another  moleskine journal dedicated exclusviely to practicing my calligraphy. I love, love, love calligraphy - ever since I took penmanship class in grammar school, I've enjoyed writing, pens and stationery. I'm one of those throwbacks who enjoys writing long 10 page letters with a fountain pen and sending them off to friends in the post. Must be the poet in me!

Closeup of cover of journal #2.

Ingredients: white gesso, tinted gesso, gold and other colors of acrylic dabbers applied via monoprint from deli wrap paper, Golden fluid acrylic (Quinacridone Nickel Azo Gold), italics calligraphy font using purple ZIG calligrapy pen,  Ranger Distress Crackle 'Clear Rock Candy', various acrylic washes, diluted Liquitex matte medium between layers, diluted Modge Podge gloss to seal.

Cover of journal #2

Art Journal #2 - with ribbon fringes and texture!
Photo showing ribbons on coil binding of journal #2.

Really had fun adding the ribbons. Up until now, didn't think I was a ribbon lover - but they have grown on me.

Technique: cut ribbons in advance 6"-10". Tied ribbons mixing colors randomly. Fyi, I no longer keep ribbons on spools. While watching TV, I unravel the spools, cut to shorter strips and affix them to those little plastic ribbon cards. Spools take up too much space in my studio and crop bags...

What do you think of this cover. Aren't the textures yummy? That clear Rock Candy is an incredible crackle product. Have you ever used clear Rock Candy crackle paint?

Thanks for visiting - please leave a comment and stop by again soon!

Peace,
LuLu