fun – Selena Stevens Art

Wise Owls for Off the Rails Scrapbooking

22 August 20

This months Off The Rails Scrapbooking moodboard challenge featured birds and feathers. I had some images of owls on my desk waiting for something to use them with and thought this was a great opportunity.

1Background

To start this art journal page in my Dina Wakley “Blue Edition” Journal I began with a quick background. Using the Kingart Tempera Paint Sticks I scribbled them on, smudged them with my finger and overplayed them on the colour next to them.

I had a stencil from The Crafters Workshop that fit the moodboard with feathers. I punched Atelier Liquid Gesso Primer through the stencil, which toned down the background and added feathers.

3InkedFeathers

To keep going with the feather theme I used an old feather stamp which I have had for years and don’t know where it came from. I stamped with Rangers Archival Ink Jet Black.

I had some images that I had from printed from The Graphics Fairy. After fussy cutting the owls and sorting out the placement, black gesso was applied under where the owls were going to help them stand out. The owls were then glued on.

Final

To finish it off I used a quote from a StencilGirl stencil which had black gesso scraped through it.

A quick, easy, colourful and fun art journal page. To see the process video of this page go here.

Detail2

If you are looking for inspiration go and have a look at the Off the Rails Scrapbooking monthly mood boards.

Selena

What Art Supplies I Travelled With Recently

28 January 20

I recently got back from an overseas trip to New Zealand. I was there for a week to see family. I couldn’t be away from my art supplies and not create something for that long. I am going to unpack and show you what I took with me. It all fit in my bag and was easy to carry and clean up and didn’t take up too much room either.

I took several small journals which was bound in a Dylusions Dialog Cover. the Midori size journals and smaller that I took included Dylusions Dyalog Insert Book, Jane Davenport MM Watercolour Paper and a ProArt Sketch Journal which I didn’t use.

The journals were a good size as it could fit on the table on the plane and didn’t take up too much room and didn’t take long to finish a page or wait for it to dry.

I recently purchased an Etchr Field Case to carry my art supplies. Again it was a convenient size and I was able to fit everything in it that I wanted to take and still had some pockets left over. It was sturdy with no difficulties in zipping it up. It would have held my journals but I took too many and it became too chunky!

In the Etchr Field Case I had (clockwise),

a small UHU glue stick (which I didn’t use)
a sharpener
a kiwi stamp (purchased in NZ)
Brevillier Cretacolor water-soluble blocks of colour
a set of 12 Faber Castell coloured pencils
a Uniball Insight black pen
a Uniball Unieye white pen
two water brushes,
Faber Castell Grip Neon pencils (which I bought in NZ).

I also took some Jane Davenport watercolours which I didn’t use as it was in my check in luggage but Miss 7 did use this pallette in NZ as she also took her own journal.

This would be the first time that I have gone away and not missed a particular art supply.

I tried my hand at plain air watercolour painting while the kids were playing in the rock pools (yes, they were also supervised by their father).

No problems using this set up on the plane. Master Almost 4 even did a little bit of “drawing” as well.

It was very easy to sit out on the back porch and do a little painting with Master Almost 4 and Miss 7 in between watching them play.

This is a set up that I would use again and definitely love the Etchr Field Case and the smaller journals for travel. Hopefully you find this helpful on your travels to your next destination.

Selena

Colour Challenge for Off The Rails Scrapbooking

21 September 19

As a Guest Designer for Off the Rails Scrapbooking I took inspiration from the September 2019 moodboard to inspire an art journal page.

I loved the colour from the above moodboard so decided that I was going to definitely incorporate that. The other part that kept grabbing my attention was the eye. So I put together the colours and the black and white eye and came up with my art journal page. Stay with me while I take you through the steps to create this page.

I began by collecting some bright, colourful, fun pieces to use as collage in the background. I glued them on with Liquitex Gel Medium. This is a great way to use up a lot of those scrap pieces that we all have lying around and we never use.

Colour with Paint.jpg

Then I chose a few colours from the collage and applied some paint to try to make it a little bit more cohesive. I used Ceramcoats Acrylic Paint in 9 different colours and randomly applied it with a paintbrush. I left this to dry.

Doodle with pens.jpg

Then I grabbed some of my pens in similar colours to what I had already used and started doodling. I would start doodling on colours with the similar colour to my pen and then let it overlap onto colours next to it.

The last part was creating the face. I used an Inktense pencil, activated it with water and applied a thin layer of gel medium over the top just to make sure that it stayed put for the next few layers. A light skin colour acrylic paint was applied to where the lighter areas would be. I repeated these steps until I was happy. Lastly I used the Colour Blast White Heavy Gesso to add in the white highlights. I love how part of the background peeks through her face.

I hope you enjoyed this and give it a try or look at a moodboard and see how that can inspire your work.

To watch the video on my YouTube channel, Selena Stevens Art, click here.

Til next time

Selena