Art Journal Page – Journey Together

Today’s art journal page is an exercise in using up some of my mounting ephemera from my ever growing collection. I decided to have a rummage through to see if I could put together a little bundle of items with a similar theme, then make an art journal page out of the bits I’d found.

I also decided to use up some of my Dylusions sprays which have been gathering dust for a few months!

I have filmed to process once again from start to finish if you’d like to see how the page came together, simply click the YouTube image below.

This is one of those pages that even after it’s complete I’ll have to keep looking at to see if I like it any better. I like it, but I’m not sure about the Dylusions spray colours, the melted chocolate is quite muddy and dark and I think dominates the page too much.

Mixed Media Wall Art – Square Peg

I’ve recently redecorated a room in the house and taken down some old poster style art that no longer fits in with the new decor. This has left me with a hole to fill. A gap that needs some new art to make it whole again. I looked around for something that would fit, but couldn’t find anything that I liked, so, instead decided to create my own!

I’ve mainly used Dylusions acrylic paints and a variety of household implements and items for mark making. I’m quite pleased with the end result.

 

Art Journal Page – Perfect Wonder

I’ve been wanting to try out and compare all my white pens in my black Dylusions journal for some time now, but never seemed to have the right motivation or inspiration to do it. That all changed recently when we had a complete dumping of snow a couple of inches thick in a very short space of time!

It’s funny how you get a visit from your creative muse when you least expect it!

So, from this I was able to determine that the best pen for working in this type of journal is the Uni Paint Marker which is available in different nib sizes. I still like my Signo white Uni Ball opaque rollerball gel pen for normal journal work, but the Uni Paint is a very close second! Time to stock up!

Art Journal Page – This City Never Sleeps

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!

Journal 52 – Spring Clean

Not a happy bunny with this page I’m afraid. It didn’t quite turn out the way I had imagined it in my head..but you win some, you lose some! I’ve used my large Dylusions journal.

The page is in response to the Journal 52 weekly prompt challenge which is “Spring Clean” for WK13. In my head I immediately saw pictures of 1950’s adverts with ladies grinning at shiny pots and pans as though they were demented. So I went for the flip side!

For me this page was too dark and grungy as I’d used the wrong ingredients in some places and then I had to compensate for balance and before I knew it, the whole page was just plain icky! Well to me at least. You may get something out of the start to finish video, so here it is…

Remember if  you like the video, please give it a”thumbs up” and “subscribe” to my YouTube channel and if you’ve never visited the Journal 52 website just click here, you never know,you might just get addicted like me…

Have a creative day!

Mike