Playing on my altered book/journal with art supplies

This are the latest art journaling pages I've done on my altered book. Here I have tried different mediums, without fear. I got the book at my local Goodwill for a $1 and started playing with it. The motivation to start an altered book/journal came from Jane Davenport's class, Supplies me. A wonderful class, where she shows how to use lots of art supplies. I got fearful and started trying all the supplies I have been piling and not using.

This girls was made over fiber paste with water-soluble oil pastels (Portfolio, from Crayola). I sketched her with india ink; trying not to worrying about mistakes, just letting my self loose and seeing what could happen. She is not perfect, and if I would have sketched her with pencil, I might have made a few changes for sure. However, my goal was to let it loose and have fun, instead of seeking perfection. I didn't have to apply much pigment since the surface was very textured. The pastels were blended  with a water brush, they reacted beautifully. The only thing I found out is that I should have used some fixative, because after a couple of days, the pink on her cheek moved to another areas; also the colors started transferring to the opposite page. It has never happened to me before, so I guess it is do to the textured surface.

The next girl, was made over absorbent ground. It is used over gessoed surfaces to prepared the surface for watercolors and acrylics as well. It is very absorbent, and for me, the watercolors did not behave as on normal watercolor paper. I tried wetting the surface but it dried quite fast, so I feel that basically it was more of a wet on dry technique. For this one, I used TCW stencil (mini time travel), distress stains, india ink, acrylics, homemade glitter mists and watercolors. On this page I was practicing drawing arms, for the supplies me lesson. I really like this one, she is looking at the horizon waiting, for what? who knows. But it look serene and calm.

I really enjoyed the process of making these pages, they helped me with the art block I have lately. Welcome back my art muse!!!

Playing with alcohol markers

"Lola" by L. Rios all copyrights reserved

Finally, I decided to be brave and try out alcohol markers. All thanks to Jane Davenport's class Supplies Me, it is a lovely class where she shows how to use almost every art supply out there. Since I new that we were going to learn how to use alcohol markers, I went crazy and bought a few (not really, I bought lots). My collection of markers is mainly composed of Promarkers, followed by the new kid in the block, the Spectrum Noir (very affordable); and last but not least a few (very few) Copics.

For the Copics, due to the fact that they are so expensive, I just bought a couple of skin tones. The Promarkers I have in a wide range of colors and also in skin tones. I also got the Spectrum Noirs in skin tones, but also earthy tones, cool and warm grey tone. So, yes I did expend a lot in a spam of 5 months, trying to get a sample of every alcohol marker I could. For the sake of clarifying, the Supplies Me class does not required you to have all the alcohol markers that are out there; it was my own decision to get at least a sample of most of them.

Alcohol markers are very blend-able, and all the brands mentioned above works together very well. As you can see on the portrait I made and called "Lola", they blend pretty good. Please, keep in mind this is the first time I play with them for real, so it is not flawless but not too bad either. It wasn't totally easy, and it took some time to get the feeling of it and start learning how the markers behave on the paper, and how they interact with each other. Coloring with alcohol markers, requires patience and time if you want to get decent results at the beginning of this journey. I realize how different the coloring technique is, in comparison to colored pencils (like Prismacolors). The building up of the shadows is quite different that what I am use to with the Prismacolors. Lola's face, arms and hair were colored with alcohol markers; while the background and dress were colored with watercolors and distress stain, respectively on Canson Fanboy paper. This shows, how alcohol markers are also a great addition to your mixed media supplies.

The process for making "Lola" was fun and instructive; and I will definitely keep practicing coloring with alcohol markers and use them more often on my mixed media journaling. Will you give it a try?