ArtyStart Monday – Mermie in the Journal ;)

It’s Monday! It’s Snowing in Maryland! Say wha? Yep, I said SNOW. Crazysauce, I know. So, things are closed because that’s how Maryland rolls. My spring flowers are now covered in SNOW. Jack Frost is definitely messin’ with the Easter Bunny! Ha!

So, it’s an ArtyStart Monday! You can read about my new Art Journal Journey HERE. New Week. Fresh Start. Startin’ with Art. Today I’m sharing this:

I’ve been working on faces and features. AND… lately what’s been leaping off the pages are mermies. Fun stuff! She was created with watercolor, acrylic paint, colored pencil, aquamarkers and pastels.

Insert Art Supply Geek here: PH Martin’s Hydrus Watercolors, Ranger Adirondack Paint Daubers, The Three P’s for colored pencils: Prisma, Polychromo and Pablo, and Inktense, Letraset Aquamarkers and Faber Castel Pit Pastels.

Here’s a pic of the mixed media journal I’m working in. It’s my absolute FAV. I use the 9 x 12 book. Just luscious! Love it so much. It takes a beating with all kinds of color media and wet thrown at it.

I’m testing out this one right now, TOO! So far, so good. I’ll post a new project with this one next week.

Originally, she was illustrated in my sketchbook, then I took her to the computer to touch her up and prepare her for a Copic Marker class. And, I ended up drawing her the other way 🙂 I decided to print her out and do an image transfer into my art journal: a: to practice image transferring, and b: to save a bit of time in re-drawing her. I just wanted to bring her to life with color and FAST.

I didn’t take the best pics for the image transfer and I’ll work on a new tutorial for that. Here’s a few quick snapshots.

Printed out the original illustration

Adhered her to the journal using GEL MATTE MEDIUM. The journal page was prepared with GESSO. I applied water and started peeling the paper from the page to leave the image. I left chunks of paper to help create the final texture.

Plunked down some acrylic paint and started in on the face. Area by area, she started to come to life. This week… HOPEFULLY… I’m planning on creating her on a  12 x 24 canvas for a middle school girlies room. It will be a blast to see her come to life that big. I’ll have to re-draw her at this size,so she may come out a bit different. Different is good! Enjoy your Monday and Get your Art ON! Have some fun and get messy!