IMITATION IS THE SINCEREST .....

I've been poring over the latest edition of the Somerset Art Journalling magazine - so full of inspiration you hardly know where to start! Anyway, I wanted to challenge myself to try some new things, or techniques I hardly ever use. I took inspiration from Joanne Sharpe and her use of black line on sections of vivid colour.

But first I did this ..... I stuck down a sheet of torn text, then gessoed over it , before adding patches of paint colour. I knew I'd want to draw around the colour panels so thought about the shapes I was laying down. Some of the colours were deeper than I really wanted, so I experimented with lifting some of it off, sort of blotting it with a baby wipe. It seemed to work.
Then I set to with a really fine pen to doodle around - this part was fun! I am conscious that this owes a lot to Joanne's style, but I like this technique and hope to make it my own on future pages.
And this is what I finished up with - rather more space than I usually leave, but that's what Joanne's pages are like and I wanted to make myself do it! It was a struggle but ....
While I like the finished result it isn't quite "me" somehow, but I learned a lot doing it that I'm sure I'll take on into future pages. That's the whole point of trying out something new isn't it, and why I never ever mind if people are inspired to use my pages in their own journals - we all take from one another and a variety of sources don't we? Still, if you do, a mention is always nice ....

By the way - thank you so much to all of you who responded to my last post! You've let me know that what I always hoped is true - that the things I do in my journals resonate for you also, both the ideas I write about and sometimes the techniques I use. If I am ever able to inspire or encourage someone else's art journey, that's what I do it for.