Art journal inspiration!

(Materials list below!)

Good morning and happy spring brake! I have some free time and this 

morning finally can share some inspiration, I hope you enjoy!

I am very intuitive about choosing what I will do, I hardly plan my

results, I love the excitement of not being sure what the ending result will be

and I think that is important to me for I get bored easily so this keeps me alert!

The first step is a free hand drawing and let me tell you this step is very 

important and truly liberating!  Of course, you have to learn to let go of 

expectations first and this is not easy but I also have to tell you this is a step 

I am gaining after many years of practice and understanding the shapes and 

the figures I like for my work, I´m sure this never stops evolving and it shows 

a lot of my style I have developed by doing it, just keep drawing and daring 

to step outside the usual ways you tend to do your drawings.

The coloring was made with some pastels and a charcoal,

I allow to show the pen marks and blend a little of the pastels here and there,

It´s all about enjoying the process and letting your self express!

I also enjoy having breakfast on the side, put some music on and

even dance! Your feelings show in your work so depending on how you

feel, add to it, the music, the environment, all you need!

To finish, I use the charcoal to add extra contrast and lately I´ve been using this

last lines as a writing process and I love it!, you can see more of how I´ve applied

this step in other drawing in my Instagram even on faces this looks very appealing 

to me and I´ve incorporated it more and more, you may try it too!  Finding ways to 

journal in different ways is really amazing, I feel I keep stretching and expanding,

and I love sharing it with everyone who wishes the same!

I am planning some future classes, if you are interested, I would like to hear what you want to learn from me, what you like, what you have been struggling with and all you want so I can share this things better with you! You may write me to monicatlink@hotmail.com or you can send me a messenger chat from facebook, I´ll be happy to hear from you! 

I hope you try this and have lots of fun, it is easy and fast so you can do a bunch

of pages in one hour but I´m sure you will try many more!

Thank you for visiting and sharing with me!

Enjoy!

Materials used in this page:

Art journal book I used a small one 7" x 10" Mixed media Canson

black pen I used a waterproof uni-ball micro deluxe

pastels I use Rembrant soft pastels  

Color sticks firm  I use Nupastel from Prismacolor 

Pastel pencils I use Derwent

My choice of colors was

Yellow ochre

Blue 

Aqua

pink

A charcoal bar

cleaning cloth

Christmas ornaments recycling the TPR

Hello sweets!!  As promised, here is a new tutorial using the

toilet paper rolls, from now on, TPR!  This time we will create 

some Christmas ornaments but they can be easily changed into 

any season just by changing colors and embellishments!

If you haven´t yet read the post about how to save your TPR, please 

 read about it and join the fun of recycling and making art here!

I decided since I was making houses, why not use the same idea

again but this time you will need two house shapes for each ornament, 

I choose the best sides of each to face outwards, then glue them 

with gel medium or you can use glue of course!

Then I cut the opening, the size depends on the image you will

put inside and how much you want to see of it...

the remains will be used for some cute tags in my presents!

Then add a coat of guesso...

And paint them in your favorite Christmas colors! 

One is gonna be the front and the other the back, then sandwich

the image between them and glue everything, I used heavy gel

medium for it had to be a stronger glue!

The let them dry under a heavy object, I used some glass so they

dry flat...

When they dry is time to embellish!  I used medium as my glue, 

then attached a ribbon, then some stars, glitter and words...

the medium or white glue will dry clear!

In the top you can add a bigger star or other adornment, I love gold

so I mixed up two kinds of stars!

To end, use some heavy gel medium for the string to hang it, 

it will take a while to dry so let them sit facing down in a way 

that you don´t ruin the front and that´s it, you can make as 

many as your inner artists desires!  Invite friends to do this 

with you in a party were you can exchange them and enjoy 

the fun of making these together! ;)

The table will be a mess for sure but there will be hours of fun! 

I hope you enjoyed the process and that your hands and heart are happy

creators of fabulous ornaments this Christmas! 

I love you!

The elements of a dream/ Art journal tutorial recycling

I am used to save my toilet rolls since I discovered that I can do many things

with them!  If you haven´t read my tutorial on how to make them usable, here

it is for you!  I had to change my mind from thinking about it as garbage into

a wonderful material I was wasting! I have a wood box were I keep those already

flattened for that times when inspiration strikes!   

As you can see I have made some little books with them binding 

them only with masking tape!!  The easiest book I made and

 they can be gorgeous after your creativity is put into them but lets go

into what we are going to cover now, an art journal page inspired on Christmas!

I´ll go back to the little books later on a new post for you! ;)

Materials used:

Flattened toilet paper

guesso

acrylic paints, 

I used ochre, white, 

dark aqua, dark red, brown

heavy gel medium

brushes, 

bottle spray 

scrap papers

vintage image, 

choose one here, print and use!

scissors 

words from an old book

journal

I used one flat toilet paper and drew a house design...

With a bone folder, I marked were the folding is gonna take place,

use a ruler! :)

Then cut until the mark and open the door folding it...

Give it a hand of guesso and let it dry...

then paint with dark red and use some brown to make the corners

darker and the door, (no photo for that, sorry)

In the mean time, cover your page with some ochre paint and don´t forget

about those marks you can make around!

Measure the image you will be using and check were you want it on your page...

Add a coat of white but don´t cover the ochre completely, let it show...

if you use a journal like mine, please check on the center so it´s nice too... 

Now add your favorite color for the sky, I used some dark aqua,

adding ochre on top in some areas again...

Then glue the image and the painted house...

Add details to the house and paint some snow in the floor, 

see the path to the house?

To end, sprinkle some watery white paint for the snow

and you are done!!  You can add words in the other page if you want, for me

I will let it like this and added some words in the heart in the front of the 

house, that´s enough for me but be creative or use the same place as I did!!

I think this page is very easy and I hope you enjoyed the tutorial and try it,

then think how else you can use this idea and add new colors and other

feel for new works in the future!

This season is lovely and what keeps us warm comes from what we give 

and share with our loved ones and you are my loved ones too!

In the next post I´ll be sharing how I created some ornaments using 

the toilet paper roll again so if you haven´t, please start saving them!

Merry Christmas!!