Feeling in the mood for some subtle autumnal shades today with this abstract floral art journal page. The inspiration for the flowers was taken from an old 1970s wallpaper design I spotted online. The wallpaper was blue and brown, but I prefer an orangey combo!
As always my start to finish process can be watched by clicking the YouTube link below!
After I discovered a patch or grass covered with buttercups while out walking Bentley, I realised although I’d painted sunflowers and daisies before, I’d never attempted to paint buttercups.
I’ve also been thinking that I haven’t used my Distress Crayons much and wondered just how easy it would be to use the crayons to create a watercolour painting of the buttercups. This is the result of my experiment. Click the image below to watch my process.
I’ve never had a lesson in watercolour painting so I know my attempt is naive but I enjoyed the process, even if the Distress Crayons aren’t the best medium for the job.
The folks at Chalk-Ola reached out to me earlier in the year via my YouTube channel and asked whether I’d consider doing a review of their new chalk marker pens. They offered to send me a full set free of charge to play with. I was flattered, who wouldn’t, and said yes.
So I’ve had them for a while but haven’t gotten around to playing with them as I was waiting for my black Dylusions journal to arrive, so that I could use the pens on the rich black pages of the new 8×8 journal.
Well the journal is now here and so is my review!
The Chalk Ola pens have a liquid chalk ink, which when applied to a non porous surface such as glass, plastic or a mirror write on pretty darn good. The bonus is that even when dry you can clean off the pen by using a wet cloth or wet wipe. Perfect for menus or shop windows or even home decor for mirrors and such. However, and there always has to be one! I’m a mixed media artist and would rather use the pens in an art journal, so I wanted to see how they’d hold up on the pages of my (new black) journal.
As you can see from the video above and the close up photos below, the pens hold up pretty well. There is no residue when you wipe over with your hands when dry and they don’t smudge. Bonus!
If someone where to ask my opinion on buying these pens for art journaling, I’d say yes, but with a caveat that some of the colours work better on lighter coloured pages, which could be true of most coloured pens!
I hope you’ve enjoyed this art journal page and my brief product review, as I always say, actions speak louder than words, so if you haven’t watched the video and want to see them working in a real situation, then click that play button!
Mike Deakin Art 