"Art Is......" Journal Page- Chrissi Mannix

Hi Lovelies,

Chrissi back today, to share an Art Journal page with you.

 I probably art journal more than anything else. It is my favourite creative outlet. I love experimenting in my journal. Whenever I get new mediums, the first thing I will do is open my journal and just play. I like to see how the mediums and colours work together, and most of the time, I end up with a page I really like.

Today, I really want to experiment with my Gel Plate, and Colour Sprays!!! I've used paint before, many times, but never colour sprays and I was very curious how it would turn out, and I have to say, I love it!

I started out by playing with, what would be my focal image- I HAVE to have a focal image on my pages, its a me thing lol. I used Colour Sprays in the colour's Saffron and Carribean- (which I'm almost out of, its totally my fave). I sprayed these liberally over my gel plate.  

Then I just got some good old copy paper and pulled up the ink. I replaced the paper in different sections of the gel plate, and reapplied more colour spray when I wanted more colour. I continued doing this until I was happy with the coverage. 

When I was happy, I then dried the page off with my heat gun. I wanted to add some interest to the paper, so I grabbed a collection of background stamps, and randomly stamped these over my page. 

I drew out my shape and then cut it out. Simple.
So using my mixed media supplies I made my own personalised paper, and focal image. Now to move on to my page.

While I had my Gel Plate out, I decided to use it to make my backround aswell. I did the same thing, using a different colour palette. I applied Saffron, Sunset and a small amount of Bubblegum Colour Sprays.

I applied the Gel Plate directly to my journal. Again, I reapplied the colour and gel plate untill I was happy with the coverage.

So this is what I like to call the Hot Mess stage of an Art Journal page. This is the point where it looks like a hot mess, and I would probably not be very happy. BUT, I have learnt too work past this stage. Very important, and remember that it is just a background.

Now this is where things start to come together. I start adding my layers. I'm using some Black Heavy Gesso to add some stenciling, and some splatters around my page. I also use a makeup sponge to randomly go around my page.

Now its starting to look a bit better, and I'm much happier. Now to add my focal image. 

Before I added my heart, I wanted to give it a mat of some kind. So I decided to use one of my favorite textures- cheesecloth. I dyed it by spraying it with Road base colour spray. 

To finish off my page, I layered the cheesecloth and my heart, using gel medium to adhere. I then added staples, once it was all dry, just to add some grunge.  I went with a contrasting colour to really make this pop. I then outlined it using a water reactive pencil and bled the lines with some water. And that's my art journal page. I hope you enjoyed my play with gel plates and colour inks, I sure did. I love finding new ways to use my tools, other then the way they were originally intended. 

Chrissi xxx