Dynamic Storytelling with Collage - Class 7: 100 Days of Collage (Day 43-49)

1. Introduction: I invite you on a journey of creative Discovery, 100 days of college. Welcome to the studio. It's Foyle here. I'm a mixed media artist, and I've been painting and exhibiting for over three decades. Now, I'm passionate about two things. One is creating my own beautiful, opulent, amazing, mixed media, collage and acrylic paintings. And number two is to inspire and encourage you to develop your creativity, to allow yourself to really express who you are and how you want to create with mixed media techniques. This is class seven, and we're crafting dynamic story telling with collage. In this class, we will use the art of storytelling to create dynamic collage within our art journals. What I love about using an art journal is the total freedom of expression it allows. Your art can be personal, expressive, without the fear of other people's judgments, criticism, or expectations. I love this art class because it's about you and me creating together in the beautiful intimacy of an art journaling experience with an absolute abundance of mixed media techniques. Starting with a particular moment in time to begin our storytelling process, and then we'll be using words and wisdom for inspiring our deepest beliefs. In the next lesson, we're being challenged with a monochromatic collage, telling the story of a one color composition, and then we'll be on to the excitement of an urban adventure. We'll explore the energy of abstract expressionism with soundscapes in collage, and then you can dig deep into your own story. We'll finish the class with a combination of techniques with the full story, and I know you're going to really enjoy this inspiring chapter. What stories have you got to tell? And how are you going to create them with our fabulous jelly printing and paint and ink and collage and mixed media techniques. You'll be inspired by these new techniques and encouraged to create art that you may not have considered before. Every project you undertake will reflect your own individual style and personal interpretation. The prompts are a stepping off point, a jumping board into the abyss of possibilities, especially with collage. And you can be as inventive and creative as you allow yourself to be. I'll be encouraging and inspiring you every step of the way. This class is for anyone wanting to develop their creativity using mixed media techniques. It's really about you expressing from your own heart with a few tips and tricks and art supplies along the way that will help you create beautiful works in an art journal experience that I know You're going to treasure forever. This class is perfect for beginners because I will take you step by step through each lesson, each technique, and show you exactly the art supplies that I'm using. Or if you're a more advanced art maker, then I'm sure you're going to thrive in the creative environment that's going to push your boundaries and see you create beyond where you've been before. There's so much to learn and so much fun to have. So let's gather around materials, and let's make art. 2. Material List: Class seven, how exciting. Now, you're worth this could look a little something like mine. We'll be using all of the fabulous favorite art materials from the previous classes. Of course, our favorite acrylic paints. I love both the liquid text in the full body and the basics. I have my absolute favorite colors in both of these. Of course, there's always beautiful googless America golden paints. Love them too. And I was using some of the fabulous high flow acrylics and some of the fluid paint as well. I know I've got so many different types because I love it. So get into your cupboard and your drawers and your art space and pull everything out, especially if it's been sitting in there a while because it's not going to last forever. Of course, I've got some fabulous liquid texts, inks. I love these. They're very highly pigmented. Recently, I bought some Amsterdam in Bronze and some PBO in gold, and I'm loving both of these at the moment. But remember, you don't have to use the same paints and mediums that I'm using. You don't even have to use the same colors. Use what you have and what you like the most and create your beautiful art journal pages, exactly how you want them to be. Now, I also have the fabulous sprays. I really like the Dan the Weekly gloss sprays because they are a fabulous acrylic paint. And I have a few of the other sprays as well, a Tim Holt spray, and some of Linda's gang. I also have my favorite inc bronze shimmer. Oh. Everything's better with a bit of bronze a We are splashing around with a little bit of these beautiful FW inks, making some fabulous collage paper. How could we not? It's so much fun? Oh, and I'm also using some of the acrylic markers. This one here, which is a different brand that I found on Amazon. It's got some metallic colors in it, and the Posca pens, as well. Of course, I even pull out the big moa posca. And splash that onto the paper. It's got to be fun or I don't want to play. So if you have some of those, pull those out as well. Now, the only thing really different that I've added to the materialist of this class is the spray paint. I've got some liquid tex, ridecent, antique gold. What's special about this spray paint? It's an acrylic spray paint. It's not an enamel, and it says compatible with acrylics. So we put that to the test. See how well it works with the other acrylic mediums, and we're adding this to the mix. You know, the only thing is, once you get a can of spray paint, you tend to spray a lot of things. But we can add it into our fabulous artistic toolbelt. You might want to use it again next time, and you're going to love how easy it is to create with the stencils. So, of course, we need some stancils, lots and lots of stencils, all different patterns and textures and designs. I also have some of my beautiful stamps loving these they're absolutely glorious from PMR to Studio. You probably have a whole heap of your own stencils that you absolutely love and have to use. Pull them out, get them ready, because this is going to be a whole lot of fun. Oh, I also have the deco foil. This beautiful mixed in one of the gold leaf mirror mirror brand, I particularly like the best. I find it works really well, really easy. It's stunning, especially with the gold. Oh, yes, I had to have some of that. Although I brought that into the art materialist with the last class, so you should still have some. Have we used the jackard before? This paints quite different in that it's really, really stringy. It's like the string gel that we tried in class four. But it's not. It's a paint. So it's a really different kind of texture. We use this to create some beautiful sound and some abstract expressionism. You see how much fun this is going to be? I don't think there's too many other different paints or inks that I haven't thrown on the table here. Have a look what you've got in your cupboards. Pull them out, get them ready, 'cause we're going to have a lot of fun. Of course, we're going to be jelly printing. I love jelly printing. We make so many beautiful, fascinating prints with the gel plate. Lots of glorious colors and textures. We're also going to be using some craft paper and a few layer copy prints, as well, creating some fabulous geometric designs. You are going to have to do a little rummage through your cupboard to pull out some personal items because we're creating beautiful collage of our own stories, using things that mean a lot to us, symbolic colors and textures that tell our tale of who we are, where we come from, and how we want the world to perceive us. So have a little dig through your own drawers and cupboards and see what you come up with all. And don't forget The scrap bag, we always need the scrap bag full of beautiful treasures and bits and pieces for just that right spot, the cherry on top. Now, when it comes to the art journal, I'm still using my fabulous dilutions creative art journal. 20 by 20. Center Meters is holding up fairly well. It does get really fat by the end, and I did buy three when I started this journey of 100 days of collage. But it is handling the pages pretty well. I do like to use Mat Gel medium to glue my collages into the pages. Now, you don't have to use this. You can use any other medium that you prefer or even a glue stick. So I have a full extensive materialist on your class notes, but remember, I'll say it again. Don't have to use all of the items that I'm using, and you don't even need to use the same colors. Use what you have in the art supplies that you've already got and the colors you prefer. Right. Now that we've got everything out on the table, Time to make a big mess. Let's get going, and let's make art. 3. Day 43: Crafting Dynamic Storytelling: Day 43 crafting dynamic storytelling. How incredibly exciting to be studying the next class. I just absolutely love it. This class is going to be all about the narrative and storytelling and writing, and there's so many different papers we can use and so many different techniques to play with. Right, so we're going to create a collage that tells a story or depicts a different moment in time. Explore how layering different elements in a collage can convey depth and complexity in a story. Begin by choosing a theme or story you want to tell. Use a combination of images, texts, and textures to build layers that reveal different aspects of the narrative. You could use book, texts, words, magazine, images, and even your own writing. It could be real or imagined or even nostalgic. There's so many possibilities. Now, when I start a project, especially a new class, I really like to make some new papers, do some jelly prints, because what it does, besides creating fabulous papers to use a new collage, it gets the creativity flowing. It gets you moving, it gets you touching your supplies, and it gets you thinking about what it is you might want to do. So beginning by jelly printing, using stencils or stamps or creating different textured papers is such a good way to start and make sure you keep all your papers, because even if you don't use them in this lesson, you might want to use them in the next one or the one after that. Because all of the lessons are going to have a writing theme. So, to start, I pulled out my fabulous dance moves stencils. I love it. This is my own original, unique designs. It does have a secret code, and it can have messages. I started with jelly printing these stencils onto some beautiful, soft, and very luxurious rice paper. The pats just get sucked up into the shape, and it just looks beautiful in these colors. So a few of these prints got me going. Of course, I had to use my favorite ridscent bronze find, and I was also using some Amsterdam bronze, which is a new paint that I bought recently. Then I pulled out my palm stencil. Now, if you've been following along in the order of the classes, you're going to know what my palm stencil is and what it means. But just in case you've forgotten, pretty sure I should share it with you again. Dream big. There's nobody like you. You are unique, one of a kind, irreplaceable, Beautiful. Cherish who you are. Love out loud and allow yourself to shine, be kind, generous, and know that you are loved. Darling, you are a work of art. So this is my own poem. It's in a fabulous sencil. It's more of a mask actually, and Jelly printing with this on the plate creates fabulous textured backgrounds, and then the ghost print is what looks really beautiful, and you have all of that script writing. So not only are my papers fabulous and textured. They also have deep and meaningful significance, but you can't quite read that in the print, and that's what I really like about it. So, I created a few of these pages, some with colors, some on the rice paper, and some on just white tissue. Because what I like about pulling the ghost print on white tissue is you can put the text writing into the collage, and it will dissolve into the background because it's on the white tissue. It's really good. It works really well. So if you've got some written script stencils or stamps or anything that's in the writing format, pull them out, pull them out, get going, get your paint ready, get your colors out. Jelly print like a crazy person. And make some fabulous papers. Of course, you don't have to use the gel plate. I pulled out some acrylic spray gloss, and I started spraying on the stencils. It doesn't create the most crisp or clean marks, but that's what I like. I like the flowy kind of fluid looking pattern that it creates. And if one print doesn't work, you can just grab another sencil and spray over it again and create multiple layers on that paper. I also flipped the sencil over and wiped it on the back so I could use up all of that wet acrylic spray that was all over the stencil. That creates another texture on the paper. It's just a whole lot of fun. See, it's the best way to start a class. Jump in, get messy, create papers, and have a whole lot of fun. Then I pulled out my stamp. This has the same text as my palm stencil, absolutely fabulous. A lot smaller writing, of course. And then I was stabbing like a crazy person all over the paper because what I'm creating is some background texture. I want to just be able to have that texture in my collage in different areas. So I stamped it on a few different colors cause I'm not sure what I might use. But remember, you want to keep these papers for the next lesson, or the lesson after that. Nothing goes to waste, put it in a box, and you'll have more papers for the next time you're looking for them. Now, I did this stamping on white tissue ordinary dollor tissue and recycled tissue. Stamp all over it with the beautiful iridescent bronze fine, because again, the white tissue dissolves into the background, and you just have that fabulous texture of writing. Because our things all about writing in this class, See how many different ways you can create some marks using writing scripts, and then you'll have so many different options when you're putting your collage together. Once some of the prints were dry, I took some of them and added some stencil butter through the fabulous dance moves stencil, right over the top, it looks fabulous. I love layering prints. I also put some stencil butter onto this gel print. Doesn't it look beautiful? I think this combination is one of my absolute favorites. The benefit of the stamping is that it can go over any of the prints that you didn't think really worked out that well. This one I'm stamping on here was actually a ghost print. I was cleaning off the gel plate after doing all that stamping. And then I added some more layers. You can always add more layers, especially once they're dried. You can sencil over them, stamp on them, jelly print over them again. It's absolutely endless. So don't be afraid to have another go at one of your prints and add some more colors or a little bit more texture. Right. So I think I have enough beautiful papers. I'm going to grab the art journal. Now, what am I gonna use for my focal point? What story do I want to tell? Now, besides all of the fabulous jelly print, of course, I have a heap of texture papers. And always weigh more than I need. Then there's always the scrap bag with little pieces of treasures that I can also draw from. So Where are we gonna start? What's going to be my story? I've got this fabulous scrapbooking book from Alfren Mucha, his designs. I love his designs. They're very ornate. They're art nouveau. And I love art deco, as well. So the whole theme and the beauty and the opulence of the pictures really inspire me. I think I'm going to use one of these today for my heroine of my story. Now, if you want to join me in this, I'll put the link in your class notes for where I got this from Amazon. Also, if you don't want to buy this particular scrapbooking book, then you can go on to the public domain site with all of Alpro Mucous images, and you can download them free. And there's nothing more affordable than free. So I'll put that link also into your notes in case you're inspired by these beautiful images, and you just might want to add some into really any of the lessons of your class. Aren't they absolutely glorious? I love the images. She's pretty nice. What's her story? That's what we're going to be making up. I don't mind that one. That one could work really well. Mm. That one looks like she's praying. That one looks like she's about to cast a spell. Maybe not. Oh, she looks a bit sad, doesn't she? Yes. That one looks pretty nice. I'm liking the colors. It's really gonna come down to the colors and the design that I'm feeling like I want to do today. And you know every day is always different when we're creating. Today, I want something from here with my glorious colors and textures. Which one is the question? I'm thinking Or maybe her. She looks alright. She's kind of dreamy. What's her story? Is she waiting for her lover to arrive or has he abandoned her? I don't know, man. But we're gonna be making up something. That one or this one back here, I'm thinking. Probably this one. Yeah, I'm liking this one. And because this is a scrapbooking book, it has a blank page on the other side, so you don't have to worry about ripping out one and losing another. Pretty fun, really. Pretty easy. There's my image, ta, ta. That's my heroine for the story. Now, what is she going to be doing? What will we put with her? I'm thinking I'm liking some of my poem script. I like this color. That's working well with that. These are really nice. These textured papers could definitely sit on top in another layer. Definitely. That could work. I like my stamp on this color. Yes, I think that would work with her. We could put that behind her. I could cut that out. On a roll now, here we go. I definitely want to add some of the gold or. I could add some of this my palm script on the black. That's pretty dramatic. Maybe the purple, not sure now. Now I've got too many options. Oh. What about some of my dance move shapes? Yes, I'm loving this color. That color works really well. That one works well as well. So either of those or both, I don't mind, and some of that. And then there's the texture paper in the scrap bag. Oh, we should add some deco foil. I think that would work really well. Actually, I've got some prints I already deco filed. So I think I might go and hunt them up and find them because she definitely needs a little bit of bling. She's not too sad and lonely, so her story is not tragic, but she's definitely waiting for someone. So the question is, is he gonna turn up? Isn't that always the question? She's waiting for her lover to turn up, but she's not totally sad, so he hasn't abandoned her, which is very nice. That's my story today, and this is a pieces and beautiful papers that we're going to put together. Right. So now I've got this side sorted. She's looking rather beautiful. What are we going to do over this side? I really like the color of this with my fabulous dance moves. I also like that one. So I'm going to put some of both of those papers on there. And then I'm going to have to find something for a focal point of some sorts. Maybe some of this color, perhaps, all the color works really well, but we don't want any more dance moves. So maybe I'll pull out something from the scrap bag. Oh, man, that's so totally possible. So, I pulled this page out of a stampero scrap balking pad. I was using this pad in the previous class at the class before that, I think, so. I'll put the link in your notes where I got it from Amazon. I like these pads 'cause they're really big. They're really interesting. They've got fabulous textures and colors and images, and I have used them over and over. So I think it's well worth buying them, and they're not too expensive. So what I'm loving about, this one is all of this texture here and the imagery. And of course, the writing. You can use book pages into the collage. Easy, peasy. I just have so many fabulous papers to use. So I'm going to add some of this because this is going to contribute to my story. She's waiting for her lover to arrive. He hasn't abandoned her because she doesn't look too sad. So let's put in maybe this section here where it says desire or some of this writing or maybe some of that. Han't quite decided what shape, or something with a curve. I think I might started on that edge there and cut a semicircle like that onto there. Because then it mirrors that shape there, and I think right there would work really well. That's my theory. Then I'm going to put some other of these beautiful textured papers, the ones that you can see through. Onto here, just to add a little bit of texture, a little bit more layering pool. And I forgot my deco foil one. I have to pull that one out, too. So, I've got this piece of jelly print with the deco foil already on it. Easy, Paz. I just have to decide now, what shape I want to add. Do I want to add a strip or across that way or a circle? Or do I want to add some over here? Oh, man, it's not easy. Trying to decide which way to put it is a bit of a challenge because there's so many options. But I love it. It has to go on. I've used a piece before, clearly, and it's a beautiful color, the textures glorious, and we have to add deco foil. So I could put a strip down there, or I could put a section on there. So I'll try and decide, cut out a shape and stick those pieces on. I think I'm adding my final piece, but You know how these things go. It's quite possible I could add another piece on tomorrow when it's all dry. But I'm figuring that for today, that's the final piece. I'm adding some of the beautiful texture Lacy paper from a fabulous Coso. I do really like the texture of it. I like the additional layer of the collage, and it's looking rather beautiful. Now, I added the fabulous deco foil piece there. But then I thought, Hmm. I'm going to add a clock face onto it because it's contributing to my narrative. She's waiting for somebody. Is he going to come? The question. There's the desire. I love it. It's just so much fun. And then I put a little bit of the black script over on this side, same poem script because she is hopeful, but there's always that little seed of doubt in the back of your mind. Is he going to show up? Is the question? Also, compositionally, it actually just balances out the black from that side. It's looking rather good and glamorous, and the story is a whole lot of fun. I'm going to let it dry. I don't think I'm adding any more to it. So have a lot of fun with this first lesson. It's all about the narrative, what story are you going to create? What little bits and pieces can you put together to create that story. Make some jelly prints or some texture papers or pull out some book pages or magazines or really any to create your beautiful art journal page. I really hope you have a great time doing it, and I can't wait to see what stories you come up with. Oh. 4. Day 44: Words and Wisdom: Day 44 words and wisdom. So we're getting a little bit deeper now into our fabulous class. Looking at what makes you giving you an opportunity to really express yourself. So what's your favorite quote? Do you have a personal mantra? Today we're going to be delving a little bit deeper as we integrate meaningful or phrases into your co. We're going to be using a variety of textures and layers to create interesting patterns and dimensions in our artwork. So why is your quote your favorite? What does it mean to you? Well, I always have a few, depending on how I'm feeling. And today, this one is what I'm all about. Just be yourself. Let people see the real, imperfect, flawed, quirky, weird, beautiful and magical person that you are. I love this quote because it cuts to the quick on who we are as a person. Not even just as an artist, but of course, as a creative person, we can really express ourselves. So freely. And I do think in today's society with social media, we get really pressure to have to create according to other people's perceptions or beliefs or the way other people like to do things. And sometimes we get a little stifled in the creativity of who we are and what we're about. So today, I'm going to express to myself. What does it really mean to just be yourself? That's really quite a good question. If you stop and think about it, what do you like to create just for you? Today, I want to create some new papers, and I'm going to pull out the bottles that have a little bit of paint left in them and the ink bottles that are almost finished. I absolutely love creating collage papers this way. It's one of my favorites. I think because I get to use up all the paint in the bottles, it also makes me scrounge around through my drawers and my cupboards and find what needs to be used up. That increases your creativity. That makes you stretch more. It definitely makes you grab for things you wouldn't normally think about. I started with this beautiful red fluid paint. It's a golden paint. There's a little bit of pigment left in the bottom. So the thing is you want to spray lots of water in it and fill it up. Give it a really good shape because you want to get all that pigment out. I splashed it on the paper. I'm using wet strength, tissue because I want it to hold up under my copious amounts of layers. Pushed it around with one of my catalyst tools. I then splashed on some beautiful bronze ink. Now, everything that I'm pulling out needs to be emptied out, so I'm filling them with lots and lots of water. You can use ordinary dollar store tissue, and I've used it quite often. It works perfectly well. You just have to make sure you leave it entirely to dry before you try and move it. So I've splashed on more inks, and then I put water in this little black fluid paint bottle and scribbled all over the paper. Then at the last minute, I pull out one of the Lindis gang powdered pigments shakers. They're tiny little shakers. It's like putting salt or pepper on your dinner. I love them. It's an absolutely fabulous invention. Anyway, sprinkled it all over the paper. I just wanted to see what it would do. Gave it an extra spritzer of water and left it to dry. And look how absolutely fabulous the beautiful paper has dried up. It's got quite marble a fft on it, and that's because I poured so much water on it that you can see a little bit of the powdered pigment. See the wet strength tissue handles things really well. If you get it in the light, you can see that the powdered pigment has a little bit of a metallic shine to it. I like the textured element of it. I like creating the multiple layers, and I just like the way it's got the movement and the texture. It looks really good. Now, you need to leave these papers on your table to dry before you move them, or they'll tear to pieces. Oh, and I forgot to add, I had plastic tablecloth down first. This was a bit of a spontaneous idea. I didn't quite realize that I would end up in quite a creative frenzy when I started. I had the thought, and I just wanted to use up all these inks and bottles of almost finished paint. And I always start with my favorite color. Now, you don't have to use these colors, but I do encourage you to use this technique. Pull out of your cupboard, all of your inks or paint or bottles, or something that's got a little bit left in it. You know how it gets annoying when it gets to the end, and you can't be bothered Pulling it out. So fill it with water, give it a really good shake, and then splash it on the paper. Now, this second one, I started with nickel zo gold. It's the end of that bottle, and you just may know that they're not making that anymore. So I tried really hard to get all of that big made. I'm still using up some of the red bottle, splash that around, pushed it about, sprayed it with some water, and then I pulled out this beautiful gold. Now, if you look as I'm swirling it on the paper, it's a lot thicker. It had a lot more paint left in the bottle, so it ended up holding its form and its shape. Then I sprinkled it with some of the beautiful powdered pigment. Have a look at how it's dried. It still has the fabulous swirly swell shapes that I put on it, and you can see the glorious powdered pigment in little textured areas. I'm really liking it. It's a beautiful rich color, and I love being able to use up both of the paints in those bottles. Now, this next one, I continued on my warm theme pulling out the reds and the oranges and some of the sprayings, as well. Because when I start doing this and throwing all of the beautiful paint and sprays onto the paper. I like to pull out of my drawers, bits and pieces that I might not have used for a while. All that just needs to be used up. So I've covered this piece of paper in the beautiful paint, but then I pulled out a liquitex spray paint. Now, this spray paint that I'm using is this one here the iridescent antique gold. It's a liquidx spray paint, and it's an acrylic spray paint, not an enamel paint and acrylic. Spray paint, and they do boast, if you can read that writing on the back that you can use it with other acrylic products. So of course, once I pulled out the spray can, We then continue with a few more papers using this fabulous tool. I threw some of the pounded pigment onto this one out of one of those little shakers. It looks like I'm adding pepper. And look how it's dried. Not too bad. It's really interesting. Now, this paper is a Chinese rice paper, and it was a leftover piece of paper that I had used for something else that didn't really work out. So now I get to recycle it into this. That's another point, too. Pull out your papers. A. You might have some jelly prints that didn't really work out the first time. Pull them out and splash some paint over them, get your sprays out and your acrylic inks and see what else you can create with another layer. This paper is much better for all the attention it got. And the textured elements of the powdered pigment, I really like the look of it. Okay, so, of course, you know what happened. I've got the spray can bottle in my hand. So So I've pulled out this beautiful senil slash mask from P Marta Studio. It's a Mandela one, and had a look at the fabulous pattern that has created. Yes, I love it. It's in the beautiful antique gold, and it looks glorious. Look at the texture on this paper since I've added it over something else. Clearly, Recycling the paper, using up the paint, and having a little splash around with some spray paint. I had so much fun. Of course, now I'm going crazy with the spray paint. I pulled out my dance move stencil, which I love. I put it on this piece of paper. Now, the paper was very wet because I already sprayed it with paint, splashed water around, added all the other bits and pieces that I was already doing. Yes, I was in the frenzy. So when I put the stencil on and sprayed it, it's a little more smogy, You can't see it entirely clear, but I really like it, because when you look at it on an angle, that's when you can actually see the gold shapes of the dance move. So it makes a really good background. It'll make a fabulous piece for collage because I can always add over the top. I could ride over the top or add some stencils or anything. I could put my clot over the top. It's a fabulous background, piece. So remember, if you're using stencils and the spray paint with dry paper, it's going to make a much clearer and crispy mark. If your paper is wet, because you've just saturated it with water and inks and sprays, it's going to have less of a distinct mark, but a fabulous background texture. Oh, there's so many possibilities. So the next one, I pulled out some of the turquoise colors, and then I started pulling out some of the blues, spraying them on the paper. And yes, I did go a little crazy then with the fabulous mandel shape. But isn't it beautiful? Hasn't it got fabulous colors? I think this one is also a piece of the Chinese rice paper. It feels very textured. It looks glorious with the beautiful antique gold spray on it. I think this is the medium of my moment today is my liquid tex bra paint. I'll put the info in your class notes if you want to find out more about it. I had so much fun with it. But I'll warn you it's a little addictive and you end up spraying everything. The next one has the beautiful blues with the glorious dance moves. You can see them more on this one because the paper must have been just a little bit drier. I absolutely love it. The colors are glorious. I was having so much fun. After I sprayed the dance move stencil on this one, I flipped it over and put it onto this piece of paper. Basically just wiping off the spray paint that was on the sencil. And look at the marks that it's made. I absolutely love it. I also added one of the beautiful mandela shapes there as well. The fabulous circles with the dot. I really like this. That turned out so well. So this piece is actually one of my favorites. I love the texture of that, and it's just basically the overspray. On the paper, It worked really, really well, so don't forget to do that if you're spraying your sencil, flip it over, wipe it on your paper, 'cause it might just make absolutely fabulous texture. Now, these papers here are my absolute favorite. Besides my other favorites. This is one of my favorite ways to make collage paper. I'm using the wet strength tissue, but of course, You can definitely use ordinary tissue. First of all, I started by pulling out the posca pens. I'm putting a little bit of the bronze onto the paper. They weren't working as well as I wanted. It wasn't flowing as fast as I needed it to flow. So then I pulled out the mopper posca pen. You know, the really big one that has all that flowing pate, and I put that on my paper. I threw on the bronze that I had already been using. I just kept spraying the bottles with more water so that I kept flowing, pulled out the inks, and I finished off a few of these bottles, actually. I'm using deep violet with muted gray and a whole lot of water. What I love about this technique is you put it on the tissue, you spray it, and then you just let it run. And because I had the poscapens underneath the ink was really interesting how the colors merged together. And have a look at how glorious the beautiful papers are when they're soaking wet. They're absolutely fabulous. Look at all the rich lush colors, and then they've dried up really beautiful, I'm really happy with the colors. And also, what's really interesting about these ones, if you look at the back, you can see the posca pen marks on the back. It's quite fascinating. The way the colors come through and how they respond. Have a look at this one. You can see all the marks of the posca pen, the white that's underneath all of those beautiful inks. So if this side is too strong or you don't like the color, Have a look, turn it over, and you might find something else on the back that you even like more. It's a two for one deal. What I love about these particular papers is they're so free flowing. And the shapes and the lines are so organic, and the colors are so beautiful the way they merge together. So, you have to stop the video right now. Go to your cupboards and your art drawers, pull everything out. And find the bottoms of your bottles, or your paint bottles, or your inks, or your posca pens, powdered pigments, or spray paint. Have you got any spray paint? I also used the acrylic spray loss as well. Bring it all out, get armfuls of it, set it up on your table, and just have an incredibly beautiful, creative time. Remember, your colors don't have to look the same as mine, because depending on what you've got in your cbd and what you need to use up. It's a really fun way to start. It makes incredibly creative, beautiful papers, and then you'll have a whole heap to choose from as we put our collage together. Now, I have to go and get my way to small journal, decide which of these beautiful papers am I going to start with? I think I might start with this one because I'm really loving these colors, and why make one piece when you can make two? Remember, you can use ordinary dollar store tissue or the wet strength tissue or leftover paper or leftover prints or recycled paper. It's so endless and anything is possible. Today is the day to really allow yourself to create, freely, to express who you are, to have a lot of fun and just enjoy yourself. Right, so I've got my art journal, and I've got my quote. What I love about creating this course in an art journal is nobody else has to see it. You can create exactly how you want to be, how you want to express yourself. You don't have to show anybody. I mean, I do love seeing what you create, but you don't have to show me if you don't want to. So it's really a very free and liberating way to create and express yourself. I absolutely love it. I also love that we end up with such a fabulous collection. Of beautiful collages that we can flick through and think, Oh, I remember when I did that or I loved that technique. Oh, that was such a great prompt. I might try it again. It's a fabulous tool. It's like a treasure chest of ideas, techniques, and also days when you're creating something. Because when you're looking at your artwork on another day, you might remember how today was all about you just being you. And that's a really beautiful and valuable thing. So I've got my quote, but I'm not going to stick it on my page because basically it'll take up my whole page. And we can't have that. But it is going to be my inspiration. Just be yourself. Let people see the real Imperfect. Yes. Floord. Definitely. Quirky. Mmm. Weird, absolutely. Beautiful and magical person that you are. That's my quote. That's what I'm sharing with you. Maybe you might like to take on my quote. You can absolutely, or you might have something of your own quote that's really inspiring you today. So I've got my quote. I've got some jelly prints. I've got some fabulous coso paper. I've definitely got Me scrapbag. And I'm starting with one of these beautiful papers. I really like this section here. It's quite fascinating to me how the posca pen came through. You can actually see it here underneath the ink. That's the first time I've tried putting the posca pen on first. Although you probably want wet strength tissue to do the posca pen because it would tear on ordinary tissue. But if you're just wanting to throw the inks and the colors on, then you can use ordinary tissue. I'm loving this section. It tears really well. It's definitely one of my absolute favorite ways of creating collage paper. Where will I put it? I'm thinking I'm gonna start on this side. O on this side. I don't know. Maybe we'll start over there on that side. It's just so beautiful. I don't want to cover it. Can I just like stick it on I've also got this one. This is another painted tissue piece. It's a recycled tissue. I get a lot of things that arrive in the posts, especially as I order them from different places. And they often come wrapped in tissue. I like to recycle the tissue. You can hear how crinkly this one is. That's a recycled tissue. I think I'll put it on here just as the background color. And then I'm going to think about what else I want to add to it. I've got some fabulous jelly prints around me, and, of course, my scrap bag. I might put some of this print here, which is from my stencil that I designed. That would be really good seeing as, you know, it's all about me. Oh. I'm thinking some of that on it because that colors going to match well. But then I would really like a bit of because I'm so like that. Definitely gonna have a little bit of. Maybe Czo paper. It's so beautiful. But then I've also got some really nice jelly prints as well. How am I going to fit this all on? I really don't know. I think I'll just start and then see how far I get with this plan. Thank. So, what do you think of my collage? I love the colors. I love the textures. It's definitely real. Imperfect. Floored, quirky. Weird, beautiful, and magical. I think the collage is embodying all of those fabulous words today from my inspirational Loving the bling. This is actually part of an image transfer from a photo that I took when I was in Venice. Ah. Beautiful, Venice. Love these shapes. They're from one of my stencils, and they're in the fabulous stardus gold of the stencil butter. Loving these colors and my print here, little sneaky peeks of all of these little things that mean so much to me. Love the deco foil. It's just pretty. And on this sign, I've got the beautiful gold, the glittery paper. I put this over here that I tore off there because I like the balance of the composition. Loving these papers, textures, the glorious colors, all of it makes me really, really happy. So I've got to let it dry, trim off the side. I'm thinking about maybe writing some of the words on there, but I'm not sure I haven't decided. So We'll let it dry. I'll decide then. I'll give you a close up, and you'll be able to see if I added the words or not. Now, I can't wait to see what you're creating. I really hope you enjoy this lesson. I hope you really let yourself express freely who you are and what you want to create because it's in an art journal, your in as space. What have you got to lose? We'll see whether or not I add any more when I give you the close up. 5. Day 45: Monochromatic Collage : Day 45, On color conversation monochromatic collage. Have you ever created a collage with one color? I can honestly say I never have. So today, we're going to create a collage using one color family and see what impact it has on the artwork. What can you say or express with one color? Which color will you choose? And how many ways can you express this color with tints and shades? It's a really exciting exercise because of the boundaries that you set, it's one color, you have to get really creative. We're going to add white to that color to create lighter shades, and you can always use another color to create deeper shades, but you have to stick to the same color family. Sometimes I think doing exercises with such serious restrictions can really makes you stretch your creativity. Right. So for me today, I'm going to use the color turquoise. So I've pulled out all of my turquoise paints, and I have liquitex in bright aqua turquoise blue, and then I have some antila paints in thalo turquoise and a pastor aquamarine. I also have a liquitex in the muted turquoise, and this one's going to be the darkest color. And then I've got some fluid paint in cobalt teal. And thalo turquoise as well. I'm pulling in some white so I can create those tints and shades and tones of this color, and I think it's going to be really fun. So I pulled out my color palette, put down the white and the turquoise and started mixing. It's very easy to create tints of the color, just adding a little bit of white. So I'm putting down some swatches on the paper to see how many different shades of thethalo turquoise I can create. And of course, that turquoise is a really deep one, so it can create whole heap of lighter tones and mid tones, and it really was a lot of fun. Then I used the other turquoise paints in those colors and brands I just showed you and mixed those with each other and some of the turquoise and created some more beautiful little swatches. Now I have a whole palette full of beautiful tints and shades of glorious turquoise. Look how many varieties there are. So, of course, first of all, I'm pulling out the gel plate, doing a few prints on that because it's fun, and I love using the jelly plate. I'm starting with some dark plain color background pieces in the deeper tones because then I'm going to want to add some stencils and some second layers on top. So I pulled a few of the prints, the darker one, mid tone one. I didn't clean my brayer off, and I didn't clean the plate because I was letting all of the bits and pieces and the mixes of the turquoise stay there because it creates a really beautiful abstract pattern on the next print. I'm loving this one with the really light shades. Pulled a fabulous abstract mark on that print because it's now building up on the plate, and we've got all sorts of little leftovers and bits and pieces. I did have to wait a bit longer for the prints to sit on the plate to actually pull up all of the ghost prints because as you start printing and you start building up that paint on the plate, you're going to need to let one of the prints stay there longer to grab all of that ghost print. And then I was using one of my absolute favorite PM artist, studio, stencils. I love this one. It's a really nice pattern, and it works so well for what I wanted. Roll some of the lighter shades of the turquoise on, put the stencil on and pulled it on of my darker pieces of paper that I just printed. They're only just drying. But they're dry enough to pull a second print with the stencil. It looks fabulous. I love this pattern. Then I used another favorite stencil of mine with the circles circle circle. They are PM artist studio stencils. Now, don't forget in your notes, you'll find that there's a discount code if you want to go to the PM artist website and have a look at stencils. They've got hundreds. So discount code, don't forget in your notes. Of course, I had to keep printing, because once you start jolly printing, it's a little obsessive. So I made another print with another stencil, and then I pulled up all of the ghost prints, and they created really nice texture marks on some wet strength tissue. The first paper I was using was the Japanese rice paper pad. And then the wet strength tissue I find is absolutely fabulous for pulling up that ghost print because it's got a lot stronger resistance, and it pulls all that paint off the plate. Also, I find if you leave the Japanese rice paper longer on the plate, once you've finished your printing session and then pull up the ghost print. It pulls up all of the paint, and it leaves your plate nice and clean, which I love doing. So Once I finished, jelly printing, I decided I wanted to create some more papers. So I pulled out some inks with the fabulous turquoise color and some of the coso paper. Man, this paper is beautiful, gave it a spray. The coso paper is so absorbent and soft. It sucks up all of that beautiful color. And it's so quick and easy. I used a whole range of different inks in my drawer, whatever I had that was in the turquoise tone, came out onto the table to be used, put some more water in them, splashed them around. I was spraying the cosot paper on top of one of the Japanese rice paper pad because the cosot paper is going to bleed through entirely, and I wanted to catch all of that glorious ink on the paper underneath. And yes, my idea worked beautiful cause when I pulled up the cosot paper, there's another beautiful pattern on the paper underneath It just needed another little bit of a spritzer and a spray. So I had two beautiful prints, two for one. Because it absorbs all of that glorious ink. Also, you can spray it with a little bit of water, and that will bleed through also to create more patterns on the underneath paper. Now, this one is so fun. It's a jackar paint in turquoise, started up with the back of my paint brush and drizzled it onto a paper that I already sprayed. It's quite an interesting paint because it dries quite glossy. And as the beautiful stringed line hits that wet paper, it kind of spreads out some more. It turned out beautiful. It's a fabulous pattern, and it worked really well. So you need to experiment, pull out whatever you have in your chosen color, and splash it around on some different types of paper and see what you can come up with. I sprayed some more of the beautiful coso paper. This is one of the brand new coso papers. Oh, don't forget there's a discount code for coso paper as well. Make sure you read your notes. There's lots there. So this one looked fabulous, I sprayed it, I threw some of the ink on it, and then I sprayed some white because I'm thinking if I put the turquoise ink on first and then spray some white, it will absorb, and it will blend more into the paper, cause this paper is very absorbent. I'm pretty sure my idea worked really well. It looked spotty to start with when I sprayed it, but it did get absorbed into that ink, and the paper looks stunning. The piece of paper underneath this print looked spotty from the ink coming through. I loved it. But my bottle was nearly empty. So I filled it with some water, gave it a good shake, sprayed it on. I love it. The techniques are so easy, so quick. They're a little messy. I had covered my table in brown paper. I love paper packaging because it just means you've got it free. You can make a mess, splash your paint and ink all over it, and then roll it up and throw it in the bin. You can't keep it if you created something fabulous on your paper packaging underneath papers. Because that makes good collage paper as well. So I sprayed the water on, then I added some more white ink to the piece because I just wanted to create different textures and different layers of the turquoise color. These papers were turning out absolutely beautiful. Now my floor is completely covered in turquoise, wet turquoise papers. W all over the place in different shades. So to finish up my creative frenzy, I decided to spread my work table with white tissue. Now, this is paper packaging, recycled tissue. I love it. You can't get more affordable than free. Love paper packaging. Spread it out on the table, pulled out all of the inks that I had in the turquoise color. And splash them on. What I love about this particular technique for creating collage papers is that you get to use up all the little bits and pieces that's in the ends of the bottles. All the spray bottles and the ink bottles. Sometimes the spray bottles get stuck and they don't work, which is so annoying. So when they get down a bit, I fill them with water, splash them on the tissue, spray water on top of them, so they all spread out. I absolutely love it. These different shades of turquoise look fabulous. This one I'm using is an acrylic gloss spray. It's just beautiful. So I decided to push it around a little with a paint brush. You can't get too rough with it because this is recycled tissue, so it's not as strong as the wet strength tissue. But Handled it pretty well. I was pretty happy with how it turned out. Then I gave it a spritz with some white. I'm loving the way the whites of getting absorbed into the turquoise and creating different tints and tones within the one piece of paper. They're looking rather beautiful. So now my floor is completely covered in turquoise papers, and my table is saturated as well. I have to tiptoe out of my studio space, stepping over all of the beautiful papers covering every flat surface. But it sure is so much fun. I love using the paper packaging, recycled papers, using up all the bits and pieces of the inks and the sprays. So Pull them out of a drawer, pull them out of a cupboard. What color are you going to use? Oh, I can't wait to see what color you're going to use. I'm really happy that I chose turquoise because I ended up with so many different shades and beautiful papers. And the ones with the inks and the sprays have a different texture and layering to the jelly prints. So that's so much fun. All of the same color yet incredibly different papers. You could use all sorts of different papers. You could pull out, even covering some craft papers or some music sheets, or some dressmaking paper. Really, it's endless what you can do, because the different papers are going to have a different response, and they'll give you different textures. So I absolutely loved my printing and painting and spraying frenzy. Now I'm literally drowning in turquoise covered page papers. What am I going to do with it next? I'm going to pull out the art journal, and I'm going to have to decide, 'cause clearly I've got way more than I need. Hmm. Think I'll just have to pick out my absolutely favorite pieces that I can't live without. Turquoise is a real blue, green mix of color, and that's what I absolutely love about it. So depending on which brand or which paint or which spray or which ink I was using, I have quite a variety of beautiful shades of turquoise. Have a look at this one. It's quite a lot. Blue one, because this was the mutant turquoise. Oh, love that color. It's absolutely one of my favorites. This one here, the print was pulled with the halo turquoise. So it's got more green in it. But have a look at this one. This is the glorious cosot paper that I sprayed, and it's got a little bit of sparkle to it. It was a turquoise spray, but it's so different to the other shades of turquoise in these prints, which is really fun, I think. And it means that I could use little pieces of these prints to create a really beautiful collage. I'm loving this one. I also love some of these fabulous ghost prints. That's a beautiful ghost print. And this one I just loved by itself. Once I pulled this print just left it. I didn't put another stencil over it because as an abstract painting, I think it's beautiful. And I wanted to use it, but I don't think I will because I'm likely to cover it. And I really like it. I like the subtlety of the different shades of the turquoise in the paint layer. Oh, man, I'm just gonna leave that for another day because if I put it on this page, as you can see, there isn't a lot of space, and I'll end up covering it. Oh, I really like this Coso one, as well. That spray are beautiful. And then there's the ghost print of this one, which looks really fascinating. So I'm just going to have to decide. Loving this one with the ghost print, it's a real soft, pale turquoise tone, and it looks beautiful, also. Some of the beautiful tissue that I sprayed. Look how glorious this came up. It's just beautiful. It's got all sorts of patterns from the water and the spray. And there's different tints and tones of the turquoise. Oh. No two pieces look the same. That's what I love about it. And it's all on, Yes, recycled tissue. Now, I did have to wait a whole day for the tissue to dry. And don't forget if you're doing this technique to make sure you're putting it on plastic tablecloth, so you can peel it off really easy. The gel prints, I did pretty quickly, they dry really fast, but, of course, when you're drowning paper in water, it does take that little bit longer. Be patient. Don't move it until it's completely dry, or it will tear to strength, especially being on ordinary tissue, doll store tissue, or recycled tissue. You don't want it, tearing. Don't move it. Right. So, I have to decide. Oh, this piece. That was the under piece. That was the piece of paper under the print when I've sprayed it and picked it up because I wanted to catch all of that absorbent, beautiful ink. That's a really nice, subtle background. Mmm. I could maybe start with that one. I no, man. There's so many choices. Oh, that's the scribbly paint that I put on when the ink was wet. Look, how fabulous that looks. It's a really interesting paint that one. And it always is kind of really stringy like that. Like the string gel that we've used before, this particular brand and paint has this tendency to do that, which is really fun. So that is that, Oh, man. Rho, I'm gonna have to make some hard decisions. I really like the Coso paper, and I love this decel one of my favorites besides my other favorite circle decels. So that one or that one, or that one, or maybe some of this with the circles on it. Perhaps I just have to decide. And the fa and the and the fa. So, what do you think of my choices? I picked out my favorite collage pieces. I had to have this one. I just loved it. And this particular stencil design. I absolutely loved it when I was printing with it. This one's my favorite. That one's my favorite. They're all my favorites. And I put a piece of white cos paper over it because the white paper goes quite transparent when it's dry. So I knew I'd be able to see the different beautiful layers underneath. Is that cheating, adding white paper? I don't think so. I think that's allowed. It's still monochromatic. That's for sure. It didn't add any other colors, and it does highlight some beautiful textures underneath. Now, the beautiful turquoise, handmade roses looks fabulous. Now, if you are spraying any of the zo papers with dye based inks, then you have to remember it's going to come off in your hands. So when you're putting your papers on, you might just need to be mindful that perhaps some of the dye based inks might bleed. I didn't have any problems with these ones. These jelly prints, of course, they're not going to bleed, that's acrylic paint. I did spray the zo papers, but they haven't really bled too badly. So I'm pretty happy with that. But it is something to remember. You can always spray it with the spray gloss varnish in a can, spray your papers, if you want to seal them, if you're worried about them bleeding onto your other papers. I'm thinking it's all turquoise, baby. It's all good. I can't wait to see what color you chose for your collage. Pretty happy with it. It's my favorite patterns, so you can't complain. I still have a ton of paper here to use, and I'm definitely going to put something in the middle here. But I think I'm happy with this one. I love this textured paper. Well, look, there's a little psis there. Not to worry. It's an art journal after all. I actually really enjoyed the exercise more than I thought I would. I thought it might be too limiting because usually I like lots and lots of colors and lots of contrast. And I don't even have any gold or bling on it. But but I've been very pleasantly surprised that you can create quite a lot of papers with one single color family, different styles, different types, different textures. Can't wait to see what you're going to choose. I could have kept printing quite happily. And especially printing the dark turquoise and then putting a stencil over it with something really pale or vice versa. All are putting a few different shades of the turquoise on the gel plate. That pulled up beautiful. Yes, I could have kept printing all day and all tomorrow as well. But I do have quite a few. The spraying I really enjoy, always enjoy spraying the papers and splashing the inks around. They always come up really good. And also, they're great for putting in the art journal because they're nice and thin. Right, so I'm going to let this dry trim the edges, and then I'm going to find something for the centerpiece. Now, I had a little rummage, and I've pulled out one of these beautiful acrylic skins in the glass beads medium. We created these skins in class four, and I have a nice folder full. That's what I love about this class. I I love that it compounds, and you keep all your papers and you bits and pieces, and we can use them again in another class. It's so much fun. I have a folder full of the skins ready to go when I need something for a focal point in a collage like now. So that's not adding any colors to it, which is part of the monochromatic deal. And I'm putting it on with some of the mat medium that I like to use. It's going in the center there of my fabulous Coso paper handmade roses. That's going to look beautiful. When it dries. It does take a bit to dry with the glass beads. It probably won't be dry until tomorrow. So I'll give you a close up when it's dry. It's just going to add a little circle, Another element, something sparkly when the light catches it. Just beautiful. Finishes my page off really well, and I'm really happy with how they look. Right. That has to drive till tomorrow. Now I'll start thinking about the next class. It's pretty exciting. We're moving on to an urban story. That's gonna be a whole lot of fun. 6. Day 46: Urban Story: Day 46 urban story. I love using the influence of architecture to create art because there's so many possibilities. There's fabulous graphic shapes and lines and curves, and there's so much inspiration to draw from. So today, we're going to develop a featuring urban landscapes and architecture. This can be real imagined or even an abstract design. You can draw your own or find interesting shapes and architecture from magazines and photos. So first of all, I started with fabulous unsplash. It's my go to Royalty Free website. You don't have to use that one. You might have your own personal royalty free website that you like. I am just particularly drawn to the images on that one. So I've pulled out these ones. I printed them off, and they're looking absolutely fabulous. I'm loving the curves of the shapes and also the strong angular directions of this architecture here. Look at this one. It's got both curves and straight. I've also pulled out one of my favorite photos from Naples. You can use your own photos, your own architectural shots, or any design element that you find really inspiring. Now, what are we going to do? Of course, I would lean straight away towards an image transfer because these prints are fabulous, and I'd really love to see how these lines are going to print up on the gel plate. So yes, let's start with the gel plate. Do some image transfers, have a look at the prints, and see how we might want to embellish them or what we can add. So, Hmm. I'm going to start with my favorite Naple shot first, and I'm using beautiful rich gold, putting it on the plate and pulling it onto ordinary black tissue. Now, Dollar store tissue doesn't like to have a lot of paint on it 'cause it will tear to pieces. So make sure you pull that print off straight away. But look how fabulous it looks, especially in the rich gold. So I had the beautiful print, and I'm looking at the copy, and I'm thinking, I wonder if I could do that again. So I tried it. It was just an experiment. I used the same print copy on the plate, and it pulled a print. Okay, it's not a perfect print. It is a little smogy, but it worked. So if you are doing image transfers with your print copies, have another go with them. See if you can get a second image. Even if it's blurry or smogy. It really doesn't matter because we're using the lines and the architectural elements. So if it's a little grungy, well, you might like that anyway, and it might contribute to the print. I'm pretty excited about that second print idea. I'm going to have to try it again. Now, this one is looking absolutely stunning. I'm printing it with the liquitex Muted violet. I'm also going to be using the muted pink and the muted gray. I love them. They're beautiful colors. They always work for my transfers. And then I pulled it with the Amsterdam in Bronze. Look how beautiful it is. I love the clean graphic lines of it. Actually, I think I pulled this one in the rich gold. I don't know, man. But these were the colors I was using and I was having an amazing time, and they came out absolutely fabulous. Now, you can do touch ups on the print. Of course. When you've pulled up the print copy on the plate and your transfers on there, you can always touch it up with a wet wipe or a damp cloth to clean out some of the areas that you might not want to have the paint on. It works really well, especially for these graphic lines. Some of the prints I left the grungy marks on because I thought it would create more texture on the print. That works really well too. It depends on each print and it depends on your preference on how you want it to look. But don't be afraid to do some touches or change some things or even to add some more paint. Oh, Awesome stamps, Awesome stamps or Really, with jelly printing. The possibilities are so endless. I was only going to pull a couple of prints, but, yes, I did get a little carried away, and I just kept printing. Now, this one, I used the muted gray. Look how graphic these lines are. It transferred absolutely fabulous. It looks great. I'm just loving it. I could cut up pieces of that print. Or I could add another layer to the print. Oh, man. And then I ended up pulling it in a metallic silver. Looks beautiful. I'm loving it. I wasn't sure about this image transfer because it was a lot darker. It didn't have that strong contrast of dark and light areas. So it might have been a little more blurry. But it printed quite well. I'm quite happy with it. And I used paints gray for this one, and then I pulled it in the Amsterdam bronze, and it's quite a nice print. The thing is with these prints, we can add to them later. So I ended up pulling out this chrome pen. It looks fabulous. It's a mirror effect. Pen. Well, that's what it says, anyway, 'cause I decided I wanted to highlight the lines of the print and create stronger shapes with the chrome pen. It looks great. It was actually really therapeutic, and I had a lot of fun putting in the lines. This print has a lot more grungy texture on it because I didn't clean out the areas, but I really like it. I think it really contributes texture to then adding the chrome lines on it. It's pretty nice, pretty happy with it. Now, this print with the fabulous curve shapes. I was really getting dramatic with it. I pulled out the carbon black. Oh, yes. It looks fantastic. It printed really well. And then I pulled it with a new color. It's a liquitex. Same brand. It's iridescent rose, gold. Look how beautiful it is. Oh. Anything that's iridescent or medallic, and I'm in. The print looks fabulous. I love it. I'm thinking with this one. I could even cut sections of it out and put some other different colors underneath. This is what I'm thinking about as I'm printing. I'm thinking about how am I gonna use these prints for the collage. Hm. And then I just spurs me on to create another print. So, this one here, I also pulled with the iridescent silver. Look how good it looks. It's so graphic and sharp. Telling you, these images made fantastic transfers. But what's really fascinating as well is the second print copy. I mean, I never really thought about it before. I don't know why. This one here is a second print copy. And, yes, it is very blurry and very smogy. But does that really matter? I can still see the fabulous graphic mark on it. And I think it printed really well. Considering it's a second print off the one laser print copy, which is pretty cool. This one I pulled onto the black ordinary tissue. Also is a second print copy. And then this one, yes, I did get a little carried away with this one. I did a second print with the lather copy on the gel plate in gold, and you could barely see it. So I thought, why not we add some numbers? It's graphic after all. Pulled out my number stamp, stamped all over the plane. Completely covered it. I pulled it with a beautiful red violet color, which looks glorious, but you've kind of lost the gold of the initial second print. It is there slightly, but it was a really interesting exercise, and I like trying new things. So that was quite fascinating. You can always add more layers to these prints. Try some ideas, experiment. Push the boundaries of where you've been before. Especially if fugeli printing. There's so much more to discover. There's so many more ideas to try. So don't be limited by just putting your print copy on once. Try it again. And see how it prints. Of course, I couldn't stop there. I decided I wanted some more numbers because the numbers one got me all excited about the graphic of numbers. So I pulled out some coso paper, beautiful, brand new coso paper, this one, in the numbers. And it's very absorbent and thick and beautiful. So I pulled out my gold, spray, the liquitex one, gave it a spray with the antique gold, looking rather glamorous, but you know I couldn't stop. I pulled out some black tissue and one of PM artist's new stencils that I had because it's also quite graphic. It's got numbers and hash tags and and symbols on it. Put it on some black tissue, gave it a spray. Look how good it looks. I'm rather liking this one as well. Look how chunky these numbers are. You could probably use it to print on the gel flame. But I think I'll probably keep it in the glorious gold. This is just fun, spraying it on the black tissue really quick, really easy. And then, of course, I've got the spray can out, so I decided to pull out the white. And I had a little spray on some pieces of craft paper because I'm really liking the symbols. I'm thinking I could use some of these in my collage because they just look fabulous. They spray it up really well. And it just adds another texture and another mark. Something I may or may not use today. But you've seen the size of my art journal so clearly. They're not all going to fit. And I was also thinking about using some of the actual prints. Had two copies done when I printed them out at warehouse stationery, which is my favorite place to go. Because I'm thinking you could use some of the actual prints, the photos. You could cut some sections of those out and add them in the collage or add them into the collage next to the chansfers. That could work really well. So lots of options, lots to think about. What am I going to use today? Let's get out the art journal. Right. So tough decisions are going to have to be made. So this is what I was talking about. Using your original images if you've printed something out. I could actually cut shapes out of this image and use that in the collage. I could put that down. I love this. I think it's so cool, and I love this shape here. Very tempted to do that. I could then put some of the prints under the piece of paper, and you could see them through the areas that you've cut out. That'd be pretty cool. This one's pretty nice. You could cut a whole section of it and maybe just have a part of it. Yeah, I'm really tempted with this idea. Or this one. I absolutely love this one with its curved shape. I could put it on this side, cut out that shape there and put another color or pattern or print or something underneath it. So it's just going to be a matter of deciding, which is not easy because I have all of these beautiful prints as well. Look, how good this looks with the chrome lines on it. I just love it. But then I love anything shiny. That would go really well with that print there. This one looks fabulous. This is actually the image transfer print of that one. Oh, man, how am I gonna decide? And these look really cool? I really liked them. They were so easy to spray up just on craft paper. Easy, easy. Right. What are we gonna do? Where are we gonna start? That's the question. I have so many amazing papers. And don't get me started on this one. Look how cool this looks. Dolls sort tissue. I'm telling you it mags fabulous collage paper. You can also do that onto recycled white tissue that comes wrapped around your packages. So I get lots of them, may turn up on my doorstep. I also have some coso paper, I have my scrap bag, and I have some jelly prints as well that I was thinking about using. So it's going to just be a matter of deciding. I'm thinking I'm going to go with the idea of using one of these original prints, cutting some sections out and putting maybe some of the other print or some jelly prints, or some coso paper behind it. I love them both, actually. They're pretty cool. They're very graphic. And I'm really feeling that today, so maybe I'll start with that. Baby or that one. Well, that really was a bit of a jigsaw puzzle. I absolutely love my pages. I loved putting the printed laser copy image amongst the jelly print image transfers. I think that's really fun. I repeated some of the shapes like in here. I had this piece of paper of art deco paper looks beautiful. And that shape there, which is the same jelly print transfer as my original copy love it. You might have noticed I did a little psies. I was really sure I had the piece in exactly the right place. I held it in position and put the glube under it and put it down. But when it comes to putting my main piece on, Oh, man, it wasn't in the right place. H. And then it was too late. The piece was already stuck. I couldn't rip it off. So I just added another little piece on top of it. Which doesn't look too bad because it does mirror this piece, color and pattern from this side over to there. It's not too bad. So if something goes wrong or your collage doesn't go exactly how you want, or you stick a piece in the wrong spot. Don't panic. Don't worry about it. Don't get all flustered. Just change direction. You can pivot. You can add something else. I added that little piece in there on top because I could have moved that one, and I think it looks pretty good. It connects with the other side, pretty happy with it. I think my Matt gel medium has made my chrome lines a little less chromy, which is sad. But that's how it goes. That's okay. It's all stuff down really nicely. I'm loving the repetition of these curves on this side, and I do like that it's only got a couple of little pieces. Now, I want to add something there, and I'm thinking of pulling out these. I created these in class four, we were doing acrylic skins. And this was the gold mica flake. And I basically just put the gold mica paste through a piece of paper or mesh or whatever you would call this. I don't know, man. Think I got it in a taperology box. But I put this on a piece of plastic. Make sure you use plastic. Put that on, put the gold mica flakes through it, and when it was completely dry, pulled it off, and then I have all of these fabulous little gold buttons. I think they look like gold buttons. So I'm going to put someone here. We had a fabulous time in class four making acrylic skins. And because we keep everything, don't we from each class and each lesson in a box where you can find them, then you can add them further on down the track to something. Gals. Yes, I'm definitely adding my gold mica flake buttons. I think they look fabulous. How many do I want heaps. I want heaps. So, I'm going to put them on here. I think. That finishes it off really nicely. Also, it's mirroring the shape from over there, the circle shape. That's going to work. That one is a bit wonky. Let's get a better one. Let's put on that one. And Maybe that one. Baby, loving that, giving it a three dimensional element, Loving everything about these pages. It was really fun. A little tell ding. But fun. So I think that side's done as well. Do I want to add any over here? Maybe I do. Maybe I want some micro flake buttons over on that sign? Yeah, How about just there? Okay. Let's add some there. And then I think I'm pretty done. One, two, three. You know, we have to have three. Okay, which is the better one. Some of these buttons are better than others. So It was a really fun way to create these acrylic skins. I loved it. And then you've got them, right? For future brilliant ideas, easy. Right. So I think I'll stick those there like that. And those on there. Pretty happy. It's looking beautiful. I've finished it off. Let it try. Give you a close up. And then. What are we on to next? Oh. You'll just have to wait and see. Oh. 7. Day 47: Soundscapes in Collage: Day 47 soundscapes in collage. I love using music themed in my artworks and for textures or images. It's so much fun. So today, we're going to create a music theme collage using pages of sheet music or instrument images. And there's so many ways to create this. You need to go into your cupboard and into your drawers and pull out all the bits and pieces that you might have. Know I've got some music books from the thrift store. The second hand shop is always a great place to find music books. They sell them very cheaply, and the pages can sometimes be old. But you can spray them, which is what I did first. I pulled out my music book, tore out some pages, and pulled out the springs. I pulled out ones that I wanted to use up. I wanted to experiment with some colors. And first of all, I started with this beautiful deep purple. Now, this was a particular dye based spray ink. So I find rubbing it with a wet one or a cloth gets it into the paper. The music pages here seemed to have a bit of a coating on them, and that was repelling my water based dye inks. But if you give it a bit of a rub, it embeds the color more into the pages. And it also actually creates an interesting texture because when I sprayed on some more of the acrylic inks, it kind of made a really good water remark that I actually liked. Course, you can't just do this once. I pulled out some beautiful blue dye spray in, sprayed up the pages, and then added some white. I think it was a dilusions ink, which sat nicely on top. Now, I ended up covering my pages, so you couldn't really see the music notes. I know. I always do get a little carried away, but easy to fix, you just dab it with a tissue, wipe some of the spray ink off. And tra ta you can see the music notation again. Really easy to change things or fix things as you're moving along. Little bit of a tissue here, a bit of a dab there. Pull out what you've got. Always use what you have first. So I did another round of these beautiful colors with some of the Dana weakly acrylic spray inks. I think I like these ones the best because they put more of an acrylic paint onto the paper and not so much of a die spray. But I did spray on some of the beautiful bronze in the sinks because a little bit of shimmer always looks amazing. So I've got these beautiful colored music pages, and then I'm thinking, Hm. I need some instruments. So I rammage through my stencil collection and pulled out this one of this guitar. It's a great shape, very contemporary looking, and I scraped out what I had left on my stencil butter. I put it onto a music page. I pulled these out of my jaw, and these music pages already had like a white kind of light coating. I think I must have been jelly printing with them on a different date. They looked perfect for adding the guitar on. So of course, I did it in black, and then I did it again in copper. Doesn't that look beautiful. I did the stencil one way, and then I flipped it over and did it the other way. Just so I've got variety. I always like to have a choice when I'm putting these collages together. So have a rummage through your drawer. Find your stencils with any kind of musical instruments. It's just so much fun. I love using a music theme. Now, when I was rummaging through my collection of stencils, I found these ones from P Mata studio that I had forgotten. I had. They're caught funky strings. They're actually a mask and not a stencil, and they're made out of upo paper. So instead of jelly printing with them, I thought I'm going to put some alcohol inks on these, color them up, and then use them as actual collage pieces into my page. So if you're going to do something like this, make sure you put it on like a piece of plastic. I was using a file folder to put them on because then you can drop the alcohol inks on them and just leave them, and they're not going to stick. If you do this on paper, it will stick to the paper, and then they tear when you pull them off. Ask me how I know. Oh, that's 'cause I've done it before. So any shapes that you have in the UPO paper, put them on plastic, drop some alcohol inks on them. It's really a lot of fun. A little experimental, hope for the best. Now, my alcohol inks weren't the best quality, and some of them had dried out in the cupboard. Some of them had leaked in the cupboard. Now, I know I've said this before, but use what you have, because truly, it's not going to last in your cupboard or in your drawer. Pull it out every chance you get for the techniques that we're working on and the ideas and the themes, pull out what you have and use it up. Some of these inks were really in a bad way, so I was happy to have a look at them, shake them, drop them, see how they're going, and some of them had to go to the bin. The instruments are all looking fabulous. I just dropped the color on the shapes really easy and then dropped this beautiful brass color on it. Of course, I had to have the metallic bling. I kind of separated with the inks. The colors are beautiful. I hope they dry really well because I'm definitely using one or maybe two of these in my collars today. And then I thought Mmm. I'd really like to use some of my own designs. I have some fabulous digital collage papers in the music theme because I love the music theme, and I've got some great celos. So I pulled that out of from my computer and decided I was going to print it onto white tissue. Because when you print onto the tissue, it's more transparent, and it sits as another layer in your collage. Looks fabulous. You could always put the music notes under the tissue, and it would come through because of the transparency. Now, if you're going to try this idea, make sure you tape the white tissue onto a carrier sheet. So I'm using a piece of card stock. I'm putting my tissue out, and I'm taping around the side. Actually, I was using a piece of tea bag paper because I have some, but ordinary dollar store tissue will work just as well. Make sure you tape it. Don't skimp on this part of it because it's really, really important. If you don't tape it, it can get jammed in your printer, and I'm not being responsible for your printer getting jammed. You only have to tape the three sides, not the top where you put it in, but you do have to tape it. I would have used narrower tape if I had some, but I didn't have any. I only had this stick wide tape, which was a bit of a drag, but it still works. Put it in the printer, push print, and out she comes looking beautiful. Now, you can be patient and peel off the low tech tape to get your print away from the carrier sheet or you can just cut it. I usually do both depending on how patient I'm feeling. So now I have a fabulous piece of printed tissue or t bag paper, which is very thin and transparent. I've got some beautiful colored music pages, some fabulous instruments, going to pull out the scrap bag, definitely some coso paper. And I'm so excited for the collage. Oh. Love using music theme. Now, I also have one more exercise for you. Which I'll be showing you at the end of the lesson. It's going to be so much fun. Right. So I have all my papers all dry and ready to go. Look how beautiful they are. You can still see the music notes through them. But, I am glad that I dabbed at some of this one because you wouldn't have been able to see it then. Oh, these ones are a lot lighter in color. You see the texture on this? It's like the page had some kind of coating on it. And when I sprayed it with the acrylic ink, it kind of got a watery effect, which is pretty fun. And I like the shiny quality of the acrylic inks. I think these ones are my particular favorite when it comes to the inks. Besides the bronze and the gold and the zinc, of course. These look fabulous, these wonderful looking instruments. I'm glad I did them each side because I'm not sure which way I want them to go. But I really like them, and I like that they the music notes as well. I think I might pull in some of the paper from lesson two. The colored tissue because the colors are going to work really well, and I just love it so much. And it's so easy to work with in the art journal. And, uh, Look at the fabulous instruments. They just look wonderful. Oh. Look at that. Look at the texture of it and the color from the alcohol inks. Aren't they great? The shapes of them are beautiful, but just the really interesting texture. Don't forget. You need to use up what you have. Oh, man. I was so surprised at how they had deteriorated and even leaked in the cupboard. So, these all look beautiful. I love the patterns and the texture on them, the colors. They just look great. I'm definitely using one or two of them, and my fabulous tissue printed he bag paper. Now you can use ordinary dollar store tissue to do exactly the same technique. It works really well. And you can also spray the print. Once it comes out of the printer, you can give it a little spray with the gloss varnish in case you're worried about the printer ink leaking, which it can do, it can bled when you're putting the matt medium on it. So a little spray, and we're done. This is one of my own collages that I love. I've created quite a few music themes both paintings and collages in my time. It's been one of my absolute favorite themes. And this one here, one of my favorite paintings. So then I turned it into a digital collage paper, and I just get to re use it. It's so good. If you want to use some of this as well, have a look in your class notes because the information will be there on where you can find them. So they are the pieces I'm going to use, trying to pull out the fabulous journal. Yeah. What are we gonna start with? So I'm definitely going to use some of my colored tissue because I think it's so beautiful. And maybe I'll start over here. On that side, I might even continue it onto there. Does that look good, too. Then, should we have the copper of the beautiful guitar shape or the black one. Mm. Copper. Yes, going with the copper. And I might just put it on the page like that. Right, right. That means that this side of the page is going to have one of these instruments, the guitar or the bigger electric guitar, or that shape, which is very cool, indeed. And I definitely think we need that little shape as well. Okay. So one of them, maybe not that one because we've got that one over there. That one, mainly that one 'cause it's a really different shape. That's fun. It's getting lost behind there, so I think I'll have to find some pozo paper. Let's get the coso paper in the beautiful rice paper, put it behind these instruments, so they stand out more. That's going on there. I really like that idea on there. I think it's beautiful. It just loses the top bit. Oh, well. That's how it goes. And this one, I think we have to put in somewhere because it's one of my favorite all time paintings. So I'm not sure how that's going to work, actually, but But it has to go on. And I'm not sure. But all of that's going on. I've got the fabulous Matt Gill medium and my brush. Find some scissors. Y. Now, music has been used to tell stories since the beginning of time. So many different cultures around the world have such a strong emphasis of storytelling through the music. I absolutely love it. What's your favorite music? I can still remember musical lyrics from songs I listen to as a teenager, like in the 80s. Lyrics are so easy to remember. It's why we put them to rhymes. When we're young, we learn how to remember different sequences through musical application. It just seems to stick in our brain a lot better. It's the movement and the melody, and it's just such an incredible way to express your emotions and to really illustrate movement. Have a lot of fun with this idea. You don't have to do it exactly like my collage. You can come up with all sorts of ways of being able to express music or storytell through music, using the beautiful rhythm and movement. Besides the notation and the instruments, there's so many ways to really express this medium and theme. So I changed my mind about the shape I wanted to use because I do think that this standard looking acoustic guitar will work better for my page. So that's the thing. You can start in a direction of where you think you're going to go with your page, put some papers on, move things around. But ultimately, you have to really work with the composition and with how you're feeling on the day and what you want to create. And if it changes, then allow yourself to make the changes. Because this kind of creative collage application really does come together in the process. It's the journey of creating the art that determines the outcome, and that's when I particularly love about this style of creating. You start in a general direction, but you might change your mind as you go along. You might find different elements to add, or you might not even put on the first pieces that you thought you might put. All of it's right. There's no wrong. It's just the creative process. So allow yourself to experiment, to try different ideas, to try different elements, to push things around. I put a piece of music paper underneath there. It was from the same jelly printing batch that I had created that one with. And I know that it was because I had them all together in a file in my drawers, and that makes them easy to find. So that worked really well for underneath, but I don't know about the color. I might even change the color. I might wipe on some other color, haven't really decided Exactly. But the guitar is now on, and I just love the shape of it. I love the color that it is, and it works really well for my beautiful music theme. Right, so the guitar is stuck down. All the elements are in place. I'm pretty happy with my beautiful instruments. And the music note paper. Now, I might give it a little spray with my favorite bronze shimmer, just for a little bit of shine. It came out a bit much. And that's why we have wet wipes. I love having these on hand, because if you do that kind of thing, or it comes out too much, too fast, easy, easy, hit it with a wet wipe, and it's all fixed up. I don't mind that one. I think I'll put a little bit of spray over here. I just want to warm up the pages a little. The beautiful rich tones of these instruments, look so beautiful. I just want to add a little bit of shimmery texture. Yeah. Right. So that's looking beautiful, pretty happy with my pages. I love painting music. I know I've said it a few times today. What can I say? Right. So, the other thing I wanted doctor to lead that one. I like that bit of splatter there. Because music has movement and texture and line and passion and sound. So, we have to have a little bit of spray and a little bit of movement. Oh, let's create some notes. Okay. Let's do that. Now, have you tried this particular paint? It's called Jackar. No Plaque. A, no man. It's pretty. Well, it's old for me in the cupboard, but What I like about this particular paint brand is it's very stringy. It's like the string gel that we used in class four when we were doing the textures and the mediums. Look at that. It's just crazy. How stringy that is. Just by itself. Without any texture medium. I actually love using this particular pat for creating fabulous music shaped scribbly marks on the paper. Now, if it does get a little thick in the jar because it's been sitting in your cupboard too long, then spray some water in it and get it moving so you get a beautiful flow like that. Much better. String. Here we come. And then flick it on the paper. I love it. I don't know why this paint does that, but it does. Look how fabulous it looks. It's great for creating notation marks, creating textures. Yeah. Right. So that's the paint that does this. The neo plaque. And I think I might add some to my page, but maybe not in white. White's a little stark, so I think I'm going to find a warmer color. This one is the russet. Oh, it's brand new. Oh, look at that color. Oh, man. That's just beautiful. Definitely rust looking. So, it's a bit thick, too. Oh, look at that, baby. Look at that. Look at the way. It's so stringy. Yes, that'll be fine. Now, maybe a little bit, not too much. I do tend to get a little carried away. Let's put a little here. Yes. That's so fun. And then we'll bring that line down this side here. We're creating notes. We're not just scribbling. Okay. There's a note. Maybe I'll make it a little clearer. There you go. Then we could take it across to there and put one at the bottom of that page. Now, if you don't like it or you did an psis or it's not going the way you want. We wipes. A your best friend. You could just wipe it off straight away. You want to be quick before it gets hard. Right, I? I think that's enough because the page looks beautiful. But now I've got that flowy kind of movement happening, maybe a little bit up there, and that makes me a lot happier. Yeah, we just add one little man up here. One little middle movement scribble, like the sound. It's traveling across. Oh, yes, I love that. Alright, putting it away from me. So I'm going to give you a close up when this beautiful page is dry. And then you have to keep watching because after the close up, I've got another exercise for you to do. I want you to experience painting the sound. Oh, it's incredible. It's so much fun. So get out a really big piece of paper. I was using a big piece of watercolor paper. Pull out your favorite colors, get a palette knife, squeeze on some paint, and just allow yourself to create like an abstract expressionist. Turn the music up really loud and just feel the sound and move in the painting with the beautiful texture and the colors in response to the sound. Oh, it's so fabulous. It's so liberating, and it's so much fun. And then put on your s marks, and you'll have incredible, beautiful papers to use in this collage or another collage. Or the next collage, it really doesn't matter. Close up of this page, and then the final exercise of abstract expressionism, painting the sound, and then we move on to the next lesson. What does it feel like to paint music? Well, why don't you try it? Pull out a collection of your favorite colors. That is always a good place to start. Put on your favorite music and turn it up loud. Put the paint on and allow yourself to feel the sound. Stop thinking. What does it feel like? That's what it's all about. It's all about how it makes you feel. Feel the colors and flow with the music. 8. Day 48: Your Story: Day 48, your story. Today we're going to create a collage that tells our own story, and it can be as personal or as simple as you want it to be. You can keep it for yourself very personal in the art journal or you can show the whole world. How do you want the world to perceive you? What do you want them to know? Where do you come from? Who are you? And how are you going to create your narrative in the collage today. It can be realistic, symbolic, or even abstract. You can't get it wrong. It's your personal story. It's completely up to you and how you want to tell it. So, of course, for me, I started with Jelly printing. It's always a good place to start. It gets me flowing. It gets my creativity moving. I love touching the paint, and I'm using my own personal stencils. Such a pleasure to design your own scels and to see those patterns there on the plate and then pulling the print. Now, these dencils are actually in three parts, and they're called the journey home. I created these sencils with PM artist studio, and they were so fabulous to deal with and helped me get the designs right. Now, the stencils come from this painting here. It's quite a long painting, and that's why they're in three different parts. Of course, I wanted to use all the different parts to create my prints. So I printed a few out. In some of my favorite colors, so I would have them today for my colors. I'm loving these colors. They're absolutely beautiful. Of course, of course. They printed up absolutely fabulous. And then after I was finished pulling them on the plate, I thought, Mmm. How about we get out that fabulous liquid tex gold spray and give them a little spray. So, these are the ones here that I sprayed with the liquid text. This is on the Coso beautiful handmade rice paper. It's absolutely glorious. It soaks up the paint really well. And I gave the stencil a total saturation with the paint because I wanted to then use it for a collage element. Have a look at this, sprayed up with the paint. Isn't it fantastic? Mariah sent me some extra stencils when she sent me them, and she said they were imperfect. I can't see any imperfections in them. So I get to use them for collage. I sprayed it up, and I could cut some pieces out of it and then stick it in my collage because these tencils are actually made of UPO paper. I did the same with the black spray. It's the liquitex spray again in black. I sprayed the sencil. Look how fabulous it looks. I'm loving the black. It actually went Matt, which was quite a surprise. My paper turned out all right, but I was more excited about spraying my senil. So I've got the beautiful jelly prints. I've got some fabulously sprayed up prints, and some sprayed up sencils, which look absolutely perfect. And I'm really keen to cut out some elements and use them in the collage. I also have my fabulous stamping. Does this look wonderful. Now, this stamp is exactly the same design as the stencils, smaller, of course. So I stamp it all over the black tissue dovetl tissue. Easy, peasy. And now I've got a beautiful piece of that. I might put that in as well. Can't really decide. Just yet, what I might want to put in. Now, these patterns and swirls and designs are really significant to me because I only found out where I came from seven years ago. My best friend harassed me into finding my birth family. I was adopted at two weeks old to the m that I have now that helps me with the inspiration packs every month for Patriot. She's absolutely wonderful. And all my life, I had grown up with an abandonment issue being an adopted person. I didn't know where I came from or who I was, and it really messed with my identity. So my girlfriend decided it was time for me to find where I came from, who I was and what tribe I belonged to. My mother was White, New Zealander, or Pakeha, and my father was Mali. So we actually found my birth mother a few public records, and then I had to meet her. Yes, it was terrifying so that she could give me the name and photo of my birth father. Long story short. We found his side of the family. He had died a long time ago, but I did find out where I come from, what tribe I belong to, who I am. It impacted my life so much. It just changed everything. I had been living in Australia up to then, and I Ed up the lot, moved over to New Zealand, and I wanted to find out more about this identity and culture. So I crossed the seas and I have a whole different sense of identity. It has empowered me as a person, just the knowledge to know who I am and where I come from. It's really important, deeply satisfying and validating just the information. Whether or not my biological family want to meet me is irrelevant to the knowledge and the power of that knowledge that I've gained. So that's the significance of my story in a nutshell. Of course, it's a lot more involved than that. Today, I'm looking at my fabulous densels, deeply satisfied for the journey that I've been on. Where I am now, I feel the most comfortable I have ever been in my own skin. So, I have a few more bits and bobs to put together for my collage. I've got some of the beautiful power shell. When I was a kid and I returned to New Zealand every few years to visit my dad, I would always go home with power shell. I absolutely love the color. The beautiful, iridescent and pescent colors. So I have to put a piece of this in my collage today. I've picked up a feather along the way. It's quite significant in molt culture. And that's a whole other story. I'm going to put that in. I also have some cards that I've picked up from around the place at different galleries. Aohart, which in Mali means love, isn't that a beautiful design? I'm really liking that. I'm not sure which I'm going to use because I've got so many pieces. This is a flyer from an exhibition that I had not long after when I arrived. Six years ago, this wasn't And if you'll notice, it's actually got the Kuru symbol in here, which is the same symbol that's in my stencil. Of course, it is when I met my brother, he actually gave me a pendant that he had carved himself. He also gave me my ****** popper, which is the genealogy of our family that travels right back through Multiculture to the first Walker that arrived on New Zealand Shores. So I told you it's a story. So that symbol there is quite significant of me finding my history and validation and identity as a person and who I am. So that was in my exhibition. I did a whole heap of beautiful paintings based on the theme of the journey home. I know. It was fun. So that could possibly go in it. I also have this beautiful card that I picked up from the Gallery Museum. That's a beautiful Mau woman from years back. And I just like the significance. I liked the honor that she has, the huia feather. That's in her hair, there is a symbol of status and honor. And we won't go into the club. The tiki and the uku that's on her chin there. They're all symbolic and they're all status of value and identity. So I'm going to put some of these symbols, some of the beautiful jelly prints. Definitely some of the stencil that I sprayed. I really like that. Haven't quite decided which color scheme I want to go with. Do I want to go with the turquoise and blues or with the orange and the warm tones? But I really do like this piece that I sprayed up the other day with the turquoise. That was really fun in that class when we did the mono prints, and I was totally in turquoise zone. Maybe her or maybe just the symbol in itself, or how about a bit of love. Okay. So go and get the art journal. I'll have to decide, finally, which ones are going to fit on my space. And I hope you're thinking about your story, how much do you want to share? Are you gonna tell me? I hope so. And I hope that this is a really beautiful time for you where you can celebrate your own sense of self worth, your own identity, and really empower yourself. Self acceptance really is the best gift that only you can give yourself. Right, Let's get the art journal. So I'm thinking, maybe I could do warm colors on this side. Maybe with that one. Mm perhaps some of this one, and the cool colors on this side, that one or some of that one. But I really do like that one as well and just a little bit of stamping. So. So besides that, do I want to cut a piece of the gold? Or? Do I want to be dramatic and cut a piece of the black? Or I could just use that from my exhibition. Oh, man. So many questions, so many options. Now, we're going to have to narrow it down. I'm liking the black. I'm thinking. Maybe the black on top of that orange could look nice, and do I want to put my beautiful Wahini in there? I'm actually thinking that perhaps I could. Maybe I could cut her round her and put her on this background. That could look really nice. She would suit that. Loving this portrait of the beautiful Multi woman from Gottfried Linda, 18 78. Now, that's a while ago. I absolutely love the portrait. He's very famous artists did a lot of beautiful portraits of Mali from that time. So we might put her on there, although I do like this piece, too. And I was thinking I could put this piece on and some of the beautiful parlor shells. I think that could work, yes, I'm really liking that idea, so that's got to go on that side. But what else do we want? Which one of these prints? Oh, man, they're all beautiful. I'm thinking this one could work well with this one on that side. So I think I shall start in that direction, maybe put this on Somehow with some of these. Maybe, baby, that's where I'm going to hit. Now, it's a really good idea when you're putting on a thick piece like this is quite thick this card. To keep it just away a little bit from the edge because as your art journal gets bigger and f, it tends to really mound in the middle. So if you can keep the thicker pieces just a bit, it helps the pages to be able to open and just a tiny bit ei. Now, I do really like the shape of this because this shape reminds me of the Mai or the meeting house. And the Maori Mai is where I actually was so inspired by their artwork and saw all these beautiful shapes and fi fi designs. So I think that this is making me happy, and it's working really well. It just has to stick. I'll have to give it a few minutes so it can stick down on that page before I decide, what else am I going to put on it? So what do you think of my beautiful pages? Everything's wet. And they're all a little thick as far as the elements go. So Yes, my art journal does never actually shut once I get through all of the fabulous classes. It doesn't really worry me. I have to have what I have to have. Choosing the power shell was rather difficult. I do have quite a few to go through, and they're all really beautiful pieces. I've used PVA to glue them down, and that will dry perfectly clear. Loving the colors of them, loving the shapes. They're still very wet, as you can see. This went down really well. The sprayed up stencil, and I'm really loving it on top of the jelly print underneath. It's all looking beautiful. I might add a few more of these pieces down here. I haven't actually decided if I'm totally finished yet, and you know what always happens. I tend to let things dry and then have a little fiddle and add some more to it. It's quite possible. I don't mind that piece there. I might have to put that on there. I was going to add some more to this side of the page, but at this stage, I'm thinking of leaving it alone. Oh, what about my feather? I did like this gold feather. Okay, we might put the gold feather on because I like the space and the shapes of my beautiful designs there with the fi fi. I like the shape that she's in, and I don't want to add any other colors to it. Maybe the feather, I haven't decided. It could be quite nice. So there it is without it and add it. What do you think? Add it? 00 in. Yeah, I'm thinking in, it looks pretty nice. So might add that and add that there. I'll have to let it door dry, and I'll give you a close up, so how you going with your story. I hope you're gonna share it with me. You know you don't have to. You can get really personal in your art journal. It's such a safe space, and it's such a great way to do an artwork that's really personal and meaningful and entirely symbolic and just for you. So I hope you enjoy this lesson. I really enjoyed sharing my story with you. And I'm absolutely loving my pages. So the next lesson is the last one for this class. And what I love about the last lesson is that we get to use all of the papers that we've already made. And I made a bunch of it. Every lesson for this class, I was making papers. So I can't wait to pull them all out and to see what I might feel like tomorrow when I'm creating that collage. What colors are we going to use? What shapes? Oh, It's just so much fun. Oh. 9. Day 49: The Full Story : Day 49, the full story. I absolutely love the last lesson of each class, because we get to use all of the previous papers and prints and trinkets and bits and pieces, and all of the fabulous props, any of the lessons that we've already done in the class, we can use again. So, which lesson did you like the best, Which prompt or theme were you really inspired by. Which one created the most amazing prints? That's the questions. And what story are you going to tell today? I've got a fabulous selection of beautiful prints and papers from the different lessons this week. Oh, man, I'm loving it, and it's going to be hard pressed to really choose a favorite. I loved my writing in the first class and stamping with my beautiful palm stamp. Love that so much. But then I also really enjoyed the musical themed one with soundscapes in collage, maybe I use one of these fabulous instruments today. And then I do have quite a copious amount of turquoise paper. Lots and lots of turquoise paper. And I really like this one. This one was the overspray of the stencil onto the paper. I just really like the texture of it. The bronze on the turquoise is beautiful. Although yesterday's spraying the stencil worked out much better than I expected, so I could use a piece of that. And then maybe maybe I should start with a little bit of love. I I'm really not sure. I absolutely loved the geometric patterns when I was doing these image transfers and cutting out the shapes. I really enjoyed that lesson. But I am a little tempted with purple today. So Oh, man, I'm gonna have to narrow it down, choose some of these beautiful papers, and see what I'm going to create. With so many options, it really doesn't matter. What you choose it always depends on how you feel on the day. I'm thinking today on feeling a little purple. So I'm loving this piece of beautiful Coso handmade rice paper with my fabulous stamping of my pom. I know what it means. It's significant to me. I'm feeling that is a good start. Now, I'm really liking this love idea. With Autoha. Perhaps we do something with that. Do I want it in a square Or I cut round it. That's the question, probably cut round it. But it's looking rather regal on the purple, don't you think? And then, I don't know, man, but I absolutely loved this lesson here with the geometric shapes way more than I thought I would. And I really did like cutting those shapes out of the papers and putting the extra pieces underneath. That was really fun. This could work in the coloring. Perhaps. Or this one, I really like this one, too. Maybe, maybe we put some of this one on there. This one could be a really nice contrast for the flowy side, which this side could get a little flowy with those patterns. Maybe we'll put this one over on the flowy side there, and this one there. And do we want to be dramatic? Yes. We do. So maybe some of that I'm there. This was when I sprayed the dance mouse, first of all, which, of course, if you spray a liquid acrylic spray through a stencil, it's just going to be Smoogy pattern, which I really like. And then I put the fabulous stencil butter in copper penny over the top. Loving that, that worked well. Maybe that could go with that. It is all looking a little contrasting. But I think I'm feeling like contrast today. Or what about the guitar? Oh, that's pretty nice, too. I don't mind that idea, but we need to separate these two colors. Do we have maybe some black? Maybe some of this black on it? No, that's not working. What about some of this one? See, that's why it's good to have so many options. This one might work on that and it might not, as well. H, man. I want something, but I don't know what I want. So I'll have to have a little rummage around. I do like the idea of putting this somehow. Although it is a bit big, I might have to cut it down. And then, no, I want this one. Oh. Or do I just want the black one? Oh, man. No, I want that one. I just want it to work. So I'm gonna find something to put it on that contrasts it with these two because I do like those two patterns, even though they are a little clashing, I'm liking it today, I'm feeling a little clashing, So that's where we're going with that. Or maybe some of that. This side, we're definitely starting with the purple, maybe some of my beautiful sencil or even perhaps some of it in the gold. That might work. That's a good place to start. T T T. Well, I'm off to a great start. I'm really loving how the page is coming together. I decided on the black with my fabulous stamping instead of the blue because it worked better with this particular coloring. And I ended up putting that beautiful piece of red violet with my pom sencil right underneath it. So it highlights a beautiful deep red in my center piece. But it's looking a little dull. I think I need a beautiful bling. So where else do we go about the scrap And I've got some of this fabulous textured. I don't know, man. You can't really call it paper 'cause it's kind of a meshing, but paper fish type actually get this one in a roll from Timo. It's really cheap. You get a nice roll full, and I just love the beautiful bling of the color. So I'm thinking that it needs a little bit of highlighting in my focal area. So I'm going to put that on there like that. And this one on there like that under that piece. Oh. See, I just comes alive. What you do that. A little bit of bling always works. It'll look absolutely fabulous, Brighten everything up. And then it just needs to dry 'cause it's a little dull here today in beautiful New Zealand. So it's going to take a little bit longer for my saturated pages to dry. Not to worry. Once they dry, I'll give them trim. Straight on. So easy, easy. Love this paper. That's going to look good, and then that's going to go in on like that. It's just gonna have a little bit more in. Right. Onto the next page, I think I'll start with those underneath papers. And then I have to decide on this guitar. I'm hesitant on this one because it's so big. So I may even tear out some of that. And then I found some beautiful pso paper because I want to add a little bit of dramatic black in between those two color tones. That's what I'm thinking until I start tearing and putting the papers down, and then I often change my mind. So we'll see, put the background layers down first, and then I'll decide on the guitar. Okay. Turn T Right, so the background is all stuck down my three beautiful colored textured papers that are a little clashing. But that's how I'm feeling today that we're going with the clashing. Oh, what story are you telling with your final, beautiful collage lesson for this class. I can't wait to see what it is that you're doing. So what do you think? Sho I put the big guitar on, which I really love it, but it is a little too big. Or I'd like to put the black guitar on or actually If you're looking at it like that, there is this one as well, but I'm not feeling that one today. So it's down to these two. I think what I like about this particular guitar shape is that this swirly line here is mirroring this beautiful swirly line here, and in here and the Blacks working well with that sign. So I'm thinking that, even though I really love this piece, and I'm busting to use it. It's going to have to be for Another day because this guitar is winning as far as suiting the overall composition with the textures and the colors can't have it all clashing entirely. Some things got to match a little bit. So the guitar is going to match. Okay, then, I really like the way I printed this on the note. Paper, how far do I want to go up? Well, not too far, because I don't want to cover all of my other papers. Do I want to put that piece on it? Maybe. So maybe we'll rip it like that, and then we can decide if we want to have that full extension of that piece or not. Not sure yet, I'll just have to keep ripping. Sometimes you just don't know what you want until you start putting it together or tearing it apart, or however it's going. Because you have an idea in your mind, and it doesn't always work. But once you start moving and getting those ideas on the paper and on your page, then you can work out pretty quick what's working and what's not working. Loving the black of the guitar, I love that it's mirroring that shape now. How do I want it to sit? I have a tendency to work in that kind of diagonal, but on my page at the moment, my diagonals going that way. So do I want to clash my composition as well as my colors? I Maybe not. Actually, it's not bad like that. That's an option. Don't know if I'm in love with that option. What about that way? That's never going to happen? It could happen like this. I don't mind that option. I think. So it's still slightly on that angle, but it's kidding though point there, and it's touching that point up there. I think I like that idea. And I do like the way it connects with that side of the page, right. I'm putting it on just like that. And I don't really think I want to add anything else to the pages. Pretty happy with how they're looking. They're a little intense. The colors are all a little deep. But after sharing my story yesterday, perhaps I'm feeling a little contemplative. I'm liking it. And that's what matters. A long as you're liking what you're creating, it's for you anyway. And it's in your art journal. So You know, you don't even have to show anybody. Right. I'm sticking that down like that cause I'm pretty happy with it sitting in that direction. Like that. With the black peeking through, the dance moves there. I love that print of the geometric line. And then this side's all very flowy and pretty and blingy. It's looking pretty good. I don't think I'll add anything to it, but I can't guarantee. I might find something else when I'm cleaning up or when the pages are dry. So have a look at the close up, and you'll see if I added anything else. And then the dense lesson is the bitter sweet. We get to celebrate the incredible class that we've had and the wonderful lessons. But then it all comes to an end until next time, which will be class eight. Absolutely love it. I'll give you a close up, and you can see if I added anything else. Oh. 10. Let's Celebrate: Class seven is now complete, and it's always such a bit of sweet moment. Congratulations to us around the floor? Invited to another ethic adventure. And I really hope you've enjoyed the class as much as I have. Thank you so much for joining me and being on this journey together. I absolutely love it. I can't wait to see what it is you've been creating and how you've responded to the different prompts and themes. So don't forget to show me. I want to see pictures. Which of the prompts did you like the best? Which techniques did you enjoy? I really loved the urban story. I was quite surprised at how much I enjoyed that. And I hadn't tried that technique before of cutting out the laser copy print and putting other papers underneath. That was a lot of fun. You can always show me your beautiful collage in my Facebook group. And don't forget to check the class notes for more information, supply lists, and discount codes. There's always discount codes. You'll also find the fabulous treasure map. I know it might be a little silly, but I really love making them. I think we could tick off the lessons that we've done, or you can actually highlight the ones that you really enjoyed and that you might want to return to and try again. I think we could do the prompts again, and we would create so many different responses to them. Mmm. We could do 200 days of collage. Now, if you're having any troubles, you can contact me directly with my e mail and have a look at my website for more amazing creative adventures. Don't forget to keep all of your prints and papers, and even the memorabilia, or the bits and pieces, or the fabulous found objects, because you might want to use them for the next class or even the class after that. Each class combines, and we keep using different techniques and papers from previous classes. I absolutely love that. I love that we're building up our creative and artistic toolbox. Right, so next we'll be on to Class eight transformative power of shapes in collage. That's going to be a whole lot of fun. I look forward to seeing you again in class number eight, Happy creating. Have a lot of fun, and don't forget to show me.