Evolution of a Page - A little Art Journaling today

Friday, August 13, 2010
Some days I just have to get my hands dirty and do a little Art Journaling... well.. digi hands that is! LOL
I decided to journal a quote by Thoreau that I admire and believe... and honestly needed to just SEE in front of me.
And since I was asked how I paint in digi... I thought I would give a little step by step of my thought process.  Remember!  There is no right or wrong way to paint or express!  

I started with a blank canvas of an off white color.  Gathered some paint brushes I created in Illustrator and a few brushes from Amanda Rockwell I had purchased a while back.  Picked 3 colors of yellow, burnt orange and a dark fern green and added them to my color pallet.

There it is... this blank canvas... why did I come here?  To Dream!  That was the focus of my page.  So the word Dream had to be big, bold and stand out to me.  
I used the text tool and choose a nice sweeping font "Mutla" and changed the orientation to be vertical.  I typed my word, high lighted the text and squished it together so the letters overlapped using character panel and just played with the settings until I got something I liked.  I then sized it very large to fill the page and offset it to 1/3 over.  That looked good to me! :)

I wanted it to "divide" my page somehow not just with the word itself.... I used my magic wand and clicked the blank space to the right of the text and inverted it so it picked the left side and all the space below the letters.  
I created a new layer below the text and picked a paint brush of a nice watercolor splash.  Played with the brush settings for color and shape dynamics, clicked wet edges (cause I just have to have wet paint that bleeds a little on the edges),  and a little scattering and using two of the colors, spaced them out some, and just started placing.  I changed my colors, reversed them, picked more brushes even did a duel brush and added white here and there to brighten up the colors some (cause I'm told I need to get out of my box and use more brighter colors LOL).   I added new layers as I changed my colors and brushes and just kept "painting" until I got something I liked. All within the selection area I started with.
 I created a new layer under them all and picked the yellow and white colors and painted the canvas to the right... added a hint of the orange in with the flow set low.
I'm liking it now.

I took a longer stroked brush and on a new layer (can you tell I have LOTS of layers now?!?), and painted a white streak vertically almost center, but slightly off cause it looked better... I used the transform tool to stretch it and squish it a little and then duplicated so I had two from top to bottom.
This is where I wanted my quote in a subtle form.  One light green and one white (Because I'm STILL keeping in mind to use lighter colors Kathleen, Lynda, Dar, Marcie... LOL).

I turned them vertical, played again with the transform... can you also tell besides LOTS of layers I hardly ever leave anything the way it starts as a shape?  

Then I finished it off with the whole quote placed in a word art (and of course played with in size, spacing etc. cause I can't have it just normal), on the right side of the page with a little swoosh of green for accent.  

I step back and sigh... yes... this needs to be printed and put up on my wall in front of me.  I smile and have a renewed sense about my day.  THIS is why I draw and paint.  


4 comments:

  1. Tamara said...:

    very pretty, Cilenia! THanks for writing out some of your process in creating as well!

  1. Cilenia... this is my most favourite of all quotes. I'm a patchwork designer but I'm just getting starting on my journey into art journalling with the traditional format of scrapbooking... the dirty, messy, inky style... LOL!. I love your inspiration and creativity using digital scrapbooking... another form I love to use when I find some moments. Thank you for sharing your though prcocesses...

    take care - have a gorgeous day filled with creativity & inspiration

  1. grange75 said...:

    I love this - beautiful work!

  1. Margo said...:

    Very creative - love the colors, text arrangement and everything else about it!

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