Hello friends!
This is the last spread in my board book experiment. I just have the cover to do and it’s finished 🙂 It’s been an interesting experiment: I started off with a child’s board book and stripped off the wipe-able shiny paper which left me with a plain cardboard book. I gessoed the pages and let that dry before painting the backgrounds with acrylic paint.
The background is quite rough and scratchy, not smooth like watercolour paper, and it’s not so easy to collage on, and always get a good fix. or to write on. On the other hand I like it because when it’s complete it’s going to be a good sturdy book. There are only 5 spreads in the book, so it has been quick to fill up (at least it would have been if it was the only project I was working on).
So, to be honest I didn’t reach any definite conclusion from the experiment. 🙂
I really like this spread, I think the colours work and, as I am sure I’ve said before, I really love underwater stuff. I recently found a book about tropical fish in a charity shop and it’s been great collage fodder.
For me the collage is really like a canvas. I like the collage because I can’t draw and collage gives me some shapes and structure to work with. My favourite bit is playing with pens – altering and embellishing what’s on the page. Sometimes I just get ‘in the zone’ and there is no thought about what I’m doing other than ‘playing with pens’, that’s when magic sometimes happens :-).
The quote is by Rumi (who always makes my heart sing)
The DIY project is progressing slowly, we’ve made some progress, but it’s not as easy as I thought it would be. The construction is no problem at all, but understanding the instructions is taking some working out, like when you are given two completely different sets of measurements to work to which should you go with!? Still it’s all cool, we’ll get there – eventually.
See you soon
Big love
AJ 🙂
© Janette Gregson and ajsartjournal, 2014 unless otherwise stated. Unauthorized use and/or duplication of this material without express and written permission from this blog’s author and/or owner is strictly prohibited. Excerpts and links may be used, provided that full and clear credit is given to Janette Gregson and ajsartjournal with appropriate and specific direction to the original content.
AJ's Art Journaling 
Beautful!!!!
AJ, that is a lovely piece, it is easy to see that is where your heart is! I particularly like Rumi quotes too but have not come across this one before. It is lovely!
Thanks Pauline, I misquoted slightly I think the actual quote is “Your heart is the size of an ocean. Go find yourself in its hidden depths.” oops!
🙂 I think we all sometimes misquote the greats – the meaning remains the same. Thanks though for the clarification. Still love it!!
I love the colours in these pages, especially the way you have the green blending into the blue, and all the textures and shapes.
the vibrancy of your work is just amazing, I love it. thanks for sharing.
Eliza
I am about to start a similar project and was looking at the pages last night wondering whether I should strip them of the shiny surface or just gesso them, do you think the later would work ok?
Hello! If you don’t want to strip the shiny surface off I think you would have to sand it, to give it some tooth, before applying the gesso. I have found that the books vary a lot sometimes you can just work away at a corner and peel it back a bit and then the whole page will come off in one go. Other times it’s really stubborn and then I use a flat blade to ‘shave’ the surface off. Of course I can’t recommend that you use the flat blade method because you might slip and cut yourself and I wouldn’t want to be responsible for you injuring yourself 😉
Thanks for dropping by.
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