Old drawings – new pages

Although most of the time I start from scratch with a new page, sometimes I find myself “browsing” old journals that never come completed. And that’s fine because we all need “art diversity” and that’s what all these journals bring to the table. They are all different with all kinds of paper types and grains. I have a bunch to choose from, and that’s so much fun. This art journal was made out of a book I bought precisely for this purpose: to transform it into an art journal.

I remember how I altered this red-golden iridescence tissue cover using liquid paper glue, which worked well at giving the cover some good texture.

It was back in 2014 when I altered this book into a journal (6 years ago!! 😮) and since then I added just a few faces on it. This journal is small, it only has 22 pages, out of which 12 are almost completed (with little exceptions), and the rest of the pages don’t even have the gesso base I’m using to be able to draw and paint with acrylics on the paper. I kind of love it because of the size: it’s not too big but also not too small, so my faces are fitting just lovely on the page.

And do you know how it’s like when you find a face that simply invites you to add colors and finish it? The other night, when my little one was asleep, I grabbed this journal and found this face. I immediately decided she needs some color. And as the watercolor pencils were the only supply at hand, I colored her face using some Koh-i-noor watercolor pencils. But not before I added an acrylic paint base to be able to cover the background in the face area. 🌈

You can see the photos with the main steps I followed to get this gorgeous look.

I like the paper of this book, it is thick enough to take water, but I’m not mad about the glossy finish of it. It’s great though that the white gesso adhere nicely to the paper so I can work on top of it.

I love how the stencil I applied long ago on this page incorporated so beautifully on her face. At first I thought about covering the stencil, but because it was “accidentally” centered on her face, I chose to let it show and… Look at the color! There are no coincidences for sure!

Love and light,

Cristina