Art Journal Inside Cover

I just love surprises, so I'm forever exploring and trying new things.  And I thrive on heavy texture.

Here I started with a pink mix that one of my students had left over.  I just applied a wash all over the gesso'd page.  Then I found an unused dollop of gel medium on another student's palette.  I used a palette knife to layer it on top of the pink page.  I used the opportunity to demonstrate what a combing tool could do.  I combed through the gel both horizontally and then vertically.

Hhhmmmm...now what?  Let it dry until the next day and ponder what the heck am I going to do on top of that heavy texture?

While I was cleaning up the studio the next day, I began to collage some bits and pieces of vintage newspapers and other documents.  Because the paper is so thin, Mod Podge was just fine.  Then I got the idea to cut up some yellow paint chip cards.  I glued those down with the Mod Podge.  Later that day, I found that the paint chip cards had curled at the edges.  The card stock was too heavy for the Podge.

However, this pleased me a great deal.  Call me crazy.  I back-filled the gap between the page and the curled cards with gel medium.  So the little rectangles of colour literally float on the page!

The next thing I did was to drip some gesso here and there, leaving the journal standing up overnight to encourage long drips.

Today, as I walked past the studio on my way to the laundry room, I paused.  I came to the journal and decided to cover the whole thing with a mix of Payne's Grey, Sepia and Sap Green.  I just obliterated the whole page.  Then I wiped the paint off where I felt I wanted colour to peek through.

The circles were added with gesso and while wet I dragged the combing tool through them horizontally.