When your art tells you what it wants to be...

My family and I had a relaxing and fun Spring Break that was spent with extended family and included visits with friends. It was so nice that I had a verrrrry difficult time coming back to "real" life and the daily chores I wish I could avoid. With this laid back attitude I decided to create a few simple abstract compositions using the Sacred Geo 2 stencils. The designs are inspiring and have so many great elements to them. I didn't want to worry about a deeper meaning or what I wanted to communicate. I just wanted to make something cool and not have to give it a purpose. It was a perfect project to do relaxing on the couch with a favorite tv show on.

I scrounged up a few small sheets of mixed media paper that had random marks on them from when I was playing around with watercolor. It was the perfect first layer. For the second layer on a few of them I placed the stencil and lightly brushed water color paint on top of it. This ends up giving a imperfect, grungy look.

Grabbing a fine tip waterproof pigment ink pen (like a Faber Castell Pitt pen) I placed the stencil back into place and began to trace along the design. I paid attention to what sections I traced and purposely left out others so that it would not come across too obviously that I was tracing a stencil.

I was strictly looking at it as an abstract composition and making sure I had a good visual balance, some repetition, and interesting positive and negative space. (Basically all the things I have been trying to teach my little K -2nd graders at school. Ha!)

Once the ink lines were dry (which isn't too long because it is a thin line) I went back into my watercolors to add another layer and started defining the space in my composition by adding complementary colors. The texture watercolors make is oh so dreamy. If you don't have watercolors then go ahead and use a nice acrylic paint you've thinned out with either a fluid medium or water. 

Finally I grabbed my fine line pen again and added small decorative elements. Lines, dots, short phrases. Basically anything to give it some more interest. And after looking at them now I can see their purpose! They will become cards to send to a few dear friends. So interesting that even though I started off without a purpose I made art anyways and the art let me know what they needed to be.

I hope you try a few of these techniques in your art journal and have a creative week!