Session 3 of Creative Writing Journal 101 part 1

1. I finished adding the gesso around the edges of the cover and spreading it loosely and scribing into the surface with again the skrewer.  Let this dry really well before bring any other material to the surface...Now you can use white acrylic paints if you don't have gesso, works just as well. 

2. I mix fluid acrylics and glazing together on a plate or palette as some would say.  If you don't have fluid acrylics, dilute the acrylics with a little water first before adding in the glazing.. I say this just in case you have tube or jar acrylics your using... The glazing is add only for the purpose of slow drying, which gives one the time to play with it..as of wiping off and not having it dried already in one place..now if you don't have glazing you can add a bit of medium to it and a bit of water too, to make a nice smooth easy flowing mixture.

3. You can see the one side wiped off and the other side with a layer of the acrylic/glazing ready to be wipe off.. You could make the choice to leave it that way...the beauty of making art is the freedom to make your personal choices.. And you can always add a layer back on again if you don't like how it looks, "wiping off or some call this substracting from the surface."

4. Experiment with the materials you use to subtract the acrylic/glazing...try a paper towel or rag which is dry or a baby wipe that is moist...again you can always add the glazing mixture back on and rub off..Play with it a bit to see how you like it or not.

5. Choices again, I decided to add a different color to the glazing mixture and lighten it up a bit...Please note I have no Idea what I'm doing I'm just really playing and exploring the surface with the different mediums of art supplies.

6. I have a deck of Rook cards I've been picking at for a few years and with my crow obsession I have to put an image of a crow on the front of this journal as It's my CWJ and I need to leave that mark on there...don't I?  Yes I do... here I'm  sanding the shinny surface so it will take a soft rub of color..being the playing cards have a protective surface coat on them I choose to add color and need it to adhere to the surface better...I love the character it gives.

7. I've glued the cards to the surface of the front cover(using a acrylic medium) and if you notice the difference from step 5. I've gone and added some of the turquoise blue on the book cover I  rubbed the surface with an onion bag that had a paper towel in it...crazy as that sounds it just added the color and rubbed it roughly off...had fun holding that in my hand and doing it...no cares..or worries...

8. As you can see the darker shadow around the cards, that was done with a special tool...I applied the brown acrylic paints with a small brush and then I used that tool...".my fingers"...I like to pullout the color a bit and really lend into the character of the moment..

9. I'm showing you the cover...I wasn't able to continue each step at this point, mainly cause I was in a moment of letting it happen and forgot to take the snap shots..but you can see that again it really doesn't matter as long as your pleased with it..you see I'm going to have this one for a good couple of months, I hope going into the new years so it's where I'm at now with everything...Laura loves her crow's and she's for the ARTS!!   I put the stencil there on the back cover only to show you what I used to make the number four. which I stamped/blotted in with a piece of paper towel first and then came back in with a small paint brush adding more detail on the edges.

10. Resting on the Glazing bottle for a nicer shot the cover is finished and I gave it a final coat of a gloss polymer medium, if you don't have that, coat it with a mat medium of some kind...you need to protect it a little bit as you will be carrying and handling this CWJ alot.. which again is all part of the charm and character.



I"m not going to much into to detail about composition as I would in a collage class, really I need this as much as some of you to loosen up and let it go...to tensed up and tight these days...I feel kind of like I'm at a party and I don't have to clean up, if you know what I mean.. Have fun any questions let me know...