"Listen Within"

I'm trying to focus more on myself. I discovered the practice of mindfulness as a way to help combat my anxiety and while it can be hit and miss for me, I know that I'll never get better at it if I don't try. Pretty much everything in life is that way. I ended up working a bit of mindfulness into my art journal.

Something else that I've been working on is faces. A few months ago, I was sketching and coloring a face at least once a week. Then something happened. I stopped doing faces and took a break. My first face in quite a few months is the purpose of this blog post.

It started out rough. The background is craft paint over stenciled gesso. A second stencil is visible above the first layer with Apple Barrel's "Too Blue." Then we come to the face. I started out by sketching the shape of the face. I added the neck after that and I have to admit that this guy's neck looks way too thick.

I used a black Stabilo All pencil to outline the face, facial details, and the neck. I love how this pencil blends in with paint when Dina Wakley uses it and I attempted to mimic her technique.

This is how the face looked with the second layer of paint (slightly lighter than the first). I still struggle with highlights and shadows and the Stabilo All pencil kind of helps you fake it. Still, it's far from perfect. I was going to go over it a third time but I decided that even though it has imperfections, there's something simplistic and calming about it.

This is the final result of the page.

Other than the baby blue stenciled dots, not much changed to the face. I rebuilt the structure of the chin with the Stabilo All pencil and avoided going back into the facial details because I like how they look. Is it perfect? No. Am I happy with it. Absolutely.

"An Artist's Life" - An Art Journal Page

 I was looking for some fun stickers that I could implement into my art journal pages a couple of months ago and I found quite a few that caught my eye. One of the stickers that I purchased worked great for the page I created.

© Leslie Evans       [to purchase]

To begin the page, I decided to use the 5.5" x 8.5" Canson Mixed Media journal that I've been working in. The paper weight is 98 pounds and it can take quite a few layers of paint, gesso, and texture paste. The smaller size makes it ideal for pages that you want to dry quickly between layers without the need for a heat gun (I don't like the fumes).

I started with a layer of Apple Barrel's New Shamrock (21479). Once dry, I applied a few 1" lines of Art Basics white gesso and used a shaped Catalyst palette blade (C-64) to spread it around. The result was the boxed/lined texture that almost looks like tire tracks. The hardest part was waiting for the gesso to dry because it was still in clumps in some areas and I wanted to make sure that it was thoroughly dry before I added another layer.

I covered up the background and gesso with a bit of Yellow Flame (21474). I used a brush to spread the paint evenly and placed down one of Patti Tolley Parrish's round stencils (Dot Maze Round) before the paint had even started to dry. Using a baby wipe, I lifted the yellow out of the stencil areas to create a contrast between the two colors. My next step was to apply a thin coat of Liquitex Airbrush Medium over the page to give it a little bit of a shine while also binding the three layers together.

Once that dried, I used Apple Barrel's Black (20504E) paint and applied it with a makeup wedge through Tim Holtz's arrows stencil. I used a couple of them and once dry, I lined inside of the arrows with a white Uni-Ball Signo pen. I was trying to go for a haphazard look without going outside of the line.

I found some matching washi tape that shared the black and white theme with the arrows and I used a couple of pieces in strategic locations. Then it came time to add the sticker, but it didn't pop off the page as much as I wanted it to. The solution was simple. All I had to do was outline it with a black Pigma Micron pen.











I'm really happy with the outcome. I like how all of the elements are cohesive together and yet the focus is still on the great sticker I found on Redbubble. If you haven't taken a look at all of the amazing art that people sell on that website, I encourage you to check it out.

Youtubing Takes Effort, Man.

I will never be the person that uploads videos every day. Or every week.

Chances are, you'll be lucky if you get monthly videos from me. I like YouTube and the fun that it provides, but I can't think of it like a task that I have to mark off of my calendar or the fun will be sucked away faster than a rocket takes off. The same thing goes for this blog.

I'm not posting and creating videos to show off my products or online classes, and there is nothing wrong with doing that. For me, art is a hobby. I'm not saying it will always be this way, but it is for the time being.

That doesn't mean that I can't make creating videos easier. A new camera mount is being shipped to me, as are a couple of lights, and I think that will make creating videos easier which will directly correlate to how many videos you all will see. Fingers crossed that everything works the way I'm hoping and that the past few sentences I've written will be moot.

With all that being said, you should mosey on over to YouTube right now and check out the long overdue video that I just uploaded. CLICK HERE TO SEE IT.

(Please like and subscribe if you like and want to subscribe.)

Stencil Madness

I've recently come to the conclusion that my supply of stencils is greatly lacking. I'm intrigued by the idea of making my own stencils and have even experimented with using old packaging to create a couple of designs, but I knew I needed to put those ideas on the back burner for the time being. It is for this reason that I decided to procure some of the stencils already on the market.

There are a lot of good stencil manufacturers on the internet these days and I've been keeping a wish list for the past few months as I've tried to locate stencils that I can use over and over again without all of my creations becoming repetitive. I think I succeeded in finding some top notch stencils from a variety of creators.

A lot of my newly purchased stencils have been featured on live streams over on ustream.tv. Some of the ones I selected were specifically made for using the Gelli Arts Gelli Printing Plate, but that doesn't mean that they are only to be used for that purpose. Stencils are such a versatile tool that come in a variety of shapes and sizes, and they can be used with a variety of mediums.

I'm still waiting on a couple of my purchases to arrive in the mail. I'll post a haul video as soon as they are all in my hands and ready to be played with.

---

***** COOL NEWS *****

One of my favorite ustreamers is Paula Phillips, AKA Journal Artista. Her live streams are how I've come to see many of the stencils on my wish list, and she uses a variety of them to get cool effects on her numerous projects. It was recently announced that she has become a new StencilGirl artist.

She has come out with 3 stencil designs so far and they are fantastic! I'm eagerly waiting for their arrival so I can start using them. 

Check out the announcement and her stencils ASAP. You won't regret it!

---