No ordinary life

Art journal spread in its best form. 
Colours + stencils makes perfect combination.
Anai will tell you how to add layer after layer and have so much fun while journaling!

This year is very special to me in many ways. And that is also a reason why my art-journal is growing :) It's the best way to try new techniques but also the best way to express emotion. Many of my art-journal are private and I'm not going to show them public... but some - some I may show with great pleasure :)
Last week I spend some amazing time with my creative friends - mostly sitting on a floor with a brush in my hand. It was a time to share and a time to absorb inspirations. I've created many pages in my journal, but this one is my most favourite. Maybe because I've spent half a day creating it layer by layer.
I try to keep my art-journal flat, so I've used mostly paints and stencils to create layers. Can you see how much is going on here?

I started with incredible Dylusions Spray Inks. I love them! They're vibrant watercolour sprays with amazing colors. Then I started adding layers of acrylic paints and black gesso with stencils.
My trick was to tone down black gesso a little with another layers of acrylic paints... and then adding next layers of black gesso - over and over again. I wanted to create very complex background - with some vibrant colors and very delicate and soft patterns. My tools - brushes, sponges, fingers. A lot of fun!

Stencils are perfect if you want to add some interest to the pages. You can create many interesting patterns overlapping each other. You can use them with paint (or gesso) and sponge, or for example just draw the contours with a marker.
Then you can always use a soft pencil to add some shadows and make it even more interesting.

My last step was to add small photos and a quote from some magazine. "There's no such thing like ordinary life" matches my mood perfectly. There are always ups and downs in my life... and sometimes I wonder - wouldn't it be just so much easier to have some normal "ordinary" life? But I guess there's really no such thing. Especially if you're creative and full of emotions :)
I've used black and silver gelatos to add shadow to my pictures and "blend" them into the pages. Gelatos can be easily smudged with fingers which creates amazing effect.

 
I hope you like my pages. And I really encourage you to try layering with stencils. You can be surprised how many different effects you can achieve!

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