A little artistic relief after Hurricane Irma

After all the Hurricane Irma drama during the past week and a half I needed a little TLC today.  It came in the form of the latest Art Journaling magazine, the fall issue.  Last year I posted some fun portraits I had created using Distress Crayons and stencils.  I ended up binding them together and sent them into Stampington for possible publication.  Well, guess what?  They were published in an article entitled "My Imaginary Friends" and I'm really delighted.  This is what the cover looks like, it  will be available on October 1, 2017.

The artwork of the amazing artist Pam Carriker is featured on the cover

My article is found on page 42.

Thanks for allowing me to share my joy with you even though all of us feel overwhelmed by all the sadness and despair not only in Florida but also Texas and the Caribbean right now.  My thoughts and prayers are with the thousands that have been displaced and suffered loss.

Sending big cyber hugs to you all and thank so many that checked up on me to make sure we were safe and sound here in South Carolina.  I want you to know I appreciated your concern!

xoxoxo - Renee

Using Pam Carriker stencils to draw faces

I'm the first to admit that I have an addiction to stencils.  For so many years I wanted to draw faces but just couldn't do it.  Then I discovered face stencils.  When people look at my drawings they think it is difficult to do but it really isn't hard at all.  I thought I'd give a short tutorial on drawing a face with a stencil, one of Pam Carriker's, and then coloring it in using Ranger's Distress Crayons by Tim Holtz.  Here is the finished result:

I started by making myself a small book measuring 11" by 7" (when it is folded shut), it is just several sheets of Bristol paper folded in half and sewn up the middle.  I applied a light coat of gesso and allowed it to dry.

This is the stencil I used and traced it using a pencil.  I used Pam's color wheel stencil on the opposite page and this will be where I lay down my Distress Crayon colors.  Usually I label the colors with a Fude pen so I remember which ones I used.  Then I start adding color to the face trying to stay within a limited palette for the face and complimentary colors for the background.

I pencil in the eyes and brows, then I using a heavy outline in Distress Crayon Rusty Hinge.  It's going to get uglier before it gets pretty.

Now I'm adding Fossilized Amber, Vintage Photo and Dried Marigold.

I start blending with a baby wipe, trying to leave some areas white.

I brought in some white highlights with a White Sharpie pen.  I apply the ink and then use my fingers to move it around the canvas.  I can keep dipping my fingers in the color wheel on the right, I just keep adding water to my finger tips and blending it on the face.  If I want some hard line dark areas I use my Stabilo All pencil which can be blended with water also.

I fine tune her face and add complimentary colors to the background, this is a combination of Seedless Preserves, Wilted Violet, Chipped Sapphire and I added some Spun Sugar to her face and lips.  I used that White Sharpie to add the catch lights in her eyes and other highlighted areas on the face.  Then I took Seth Apter's stencil and used a baby wipe to lift off more color around her face.  Dyan Reaveley's number stamp with some StazOn Black ink completed the project.

Here is a list of all my supplies:
Distress Crayons by Ranger:

• Squeezed Lemonade
• Mustard Seed
• Antique Linen
• Dried Marigold
• Fossilized Amber
• Rusty Hinge
• Vintage Photo
• Spun Sugar
• Picked Raspberry
• Seedless Preserves
• Wilted Violet
• Chipped Sapphire

Stabilo All pencil
Micron Pen 05
Pam Carriker Stencils
Seth Apter Stencil
Dyan Reaveley number stamp
Gesso, Bristol paper, Sharpie white pen, paint brushes, water brushes, baby wipes

If drawing faces has been one of your dreams I encourage you to give stencils a try.  Every face looks different depending on your color palette, no two are the same.  Next week I'll share some of my other faces in this small journal.

Thanks so much for stopping by, I'm sending hugs your way ~ Renee

CS Challenge for September::Stamping on Tissue Paper

This month's challenge from the Crafter Stamper magazine is Stamping on Tissue paper.  My project involves both tracing an image on the tissue paper and then stamping on it later.  I wanted to try the technique in my pursuit of drawing faces so I traced a photograph that I have of my daughter.  The portrait became an art journal for her.  If you'd like to see how this evolved you can read the tutorial below.

This did start out as an experiment.  I wanted to do a portrait based on a traced image from a photo.  Here is the photo I used.

I placed a piece of tissue paper on top of the photo and lightly traced it with an Aquaellable Stabilo pencil.

After the image was traced I used Pan Pastels to color it in.  Keep in mind these will be blended later.

After the colors were blended to my satisfaction I cut out the image and glued it onto a piece of what I call "junk paper".  I do most of my work on a sheet of 140# water color paper.  These papers sit in a pile when they are covered with paint, ink and stamping.  They don't look like much until I unify the colors with a stencil and some white gesso.  In this case I did additional stamping of some Dina Wakley grungy hearts and then glued the image onto the paper with Mod Podge.  I purposely scrunched the tissue paper so it wouldn't look perfectly smooth.

I sewed some additional texture onto the page with my sewing machine and let some of the threads dangle.  I also made some lines with a credit card and some black gesso.

When this was dry I folded it in half and simply sewed it together with some pages in the middle for my daughter, Holland, to draw on.  There are 6 pages inside with gesso on them, primed and ready to go.

Now I added the stamping on top of the tissue paper.

The outside of the art journal

More stamping on top of the tissue paper with StazOn Jet Black permanent ink and stamps from Dina Wakley and Stampers Anonymous.  Now the journal is finished, it just needs some artwork inside.

The back of the journal

I hope you will rise to the challenge this month at the Craft Stamper website.  It is easy to upload your projects and there are some really nice prizes to win!  I'll post another stamped tissue paper project next week in case you can stop by.  As always, thanks for the visit.  Please leave a comment if you have time I'd love to hear from you.  Hugs~ Renee xx

Artistcellar Black & White Challenge

The artists on the design team at Artistcellar have challenged each other to come up with a project that is only in black and white.  Whew!  That is quite a challenge for me as I have been using so much color for the past couple of years.  I decided to make an art journal with a black and white cover using two different stencils.

To begin I folded a large sheet of water color paper to make a small book and taped the open ends with black and white tissue tape.

  I stamped one of Dyan Reaveley's ladies on a separate piece of paper and cut it out.  I glued it to the front of the book with a strong adhesive.   Next I used one of Julie Fei-Fan Balzer's stencils called Blazonry.  I laid this across the top to begin with and used a dauber to pounce the Memento LUXE Espresso Truffle ink onto the paper.

When the ink was dry I chose one of the stencils from the Coral Series and spread gesso randomly all over the cover of the book.

I stamped a phrase from the Stampers Anonymous collection on a piece of scrap paper.  After tearing the edges I distressed them with the Espresso Truffle ink.  The black mat is cut from card stock a little larger than the phrase piece.  They are glued together and them mounted on the book with pop dots.  Three holes were punched on the fold and a piece of black waxed twine was threaded through the holes and tied in a bow.  The edges were distressed with the Espresso Truffle ink as well to frame it.

This was a quick art journal to make, it didn't take more than 20 minutes.  The key is to fold little books like this in advance and have them waiting for you to decorate.  Thanks for stopping by today and my thanks to my design team friends for thinking of this challenge.  It was definitely outside of my comfort zone!

Hugs~ Renee xx