TEESHA STYLE ...

 

Teesha Moore was one of my earliest influences in my art journalling, and I still LOVE her work even though her style is very different to my own.  I'm a member of her Artstronauts Club, and have been watching videos of her putting pages together.  I'm always trying to challenge myself to work in different ways and try out new techniques, and this is the page that resulted from spending so much online time with Teesha!

The background is pretty much my usual - Caran D'Ache Neocolour II crayons, still my most favourite thing to use.  What was different for me was going to my stash of magazine cut outs and rather than looking for images or words, just looking at colour and patterns, and pulling out things I liked.  That was how I ended up with this corner piece, and the "tombstone" or possibly "teeth" fragments along the bottom!

I did like working in that way and will probably do it again, because it fitted with my sense of intuition, just going with the flow and see what turns up.  So then I pulled out more scraps I just happened to like and this was the result - not typical of my style but I liked it.  My only regret is that these shiny magazine pages are difficult to photograph because they catch the light.  I'm wondering if I should make a collage sheet out of fragments I really like, then I can print them myself on matte paper and lose the shine?

Another thing I like about Teesha's work is that she makes the art first, and then fits the lettering into whatever space happens to be left over.  I like that - and it challenges my besetting sin of always trying to write in straight lines!  It can be a pain in the neck being instinctively neat and tidy ... a good quality in many areas of life, but NOT when it comes to art journalling.  However, in my defence I would say that I have genuinely worked at learning to let go and splodge paint about with something approaching abandon .... sometimes.

So here is the finished article and I love it!  I love how bright it is, how random and yet connected (I couldn't totally let go of colours that matched/toned) and it felt good to work in this way.  I often say to people just starting out on this journey - don't be afraid to use other people's ideas and techniques, or even to outright copy!  Its all part of exploring and finding your style.  Some things are fun to try out but won't find their way into "your" way of doing things, and others will become part of you.  Feel free to copy anything I do outrageously, but don't forget whenever you do this to credit the original artist and their influence (as I have done here) and to only do so as a way to finding out what works for you.  And above all, HAVE FUN!