Royal: Art Journal Page

Hello everyone. I hope you're enjoying art journal week. Welcome to Day Three!

This is an interesting page in that I took a 'problem' and made it into something better than I think I could have thought up on my own.

As an unrepentant stencil-blotter, I often slam down the dripping plastic into my art journal with zero thought to how it's going to impact future crafting. Which can be marvelous, really, but towards the end of an art journal some of the pages can be a riot of orange/blue, green/red, purple/yellow. All lovely combinations in their own right but terribly muddy if you let them mingle.

And since my spray inks are water reactive they will blend if given the slightest chance. 

I decided to go with it, instead of fight it and hope that the brown would turn out to be a warm, graceful skin tone. And sure enough, it was. I had to take care in adding the water to my page with a wet brush. I saturated some areas; blending the stencil marks almost entirely away (left side and nose). And in other spots, like the right side of the face and the neck, I used an extremely light touch, bonding the different tones together but not losing the distinct colors and patterns.

I made the face using a Stabillo pencil and a stencil from Jane Davenport and I blocked out the background with a mix of Golden Payne's Gray fluid acrylic and Blick's Titanium White heavy body acrylic. For the crown, I let the stencil blot drive the design; the irregular shape is very pleasing to me. 

Usually I add a quote or some journaling but this image felt strong enough to express what I needed to express that day. And when you're happy with something, knowing when to stop can save you a lot of time and trouble.

Art Journal Week Posts:

Day One: Branch

Day Two: Merely to be Normal

Day Three: Royal (you are here)

Day Four: Home

Day Five: Our Devils

Day Six: Say Thank You and Grow

Day Seven: Respect Yourself