Art Journal Challenge - July 15, 2023.

In the last art journal on July 1, I gave you a line drawing and requested you to do what you would with it. In the meantime, I attempted to give color to my version...while riding in a car. Needless to say, my choices were limited...I used colored pencils and markers. Now suffice it to say I have no experience with colored pencils whatsoever. Looking at my finished page I so want to go in and use acrylic paint and totally start over. That doesn't help me to learn anything new. So in the spirit of experimenting here we go...

I used some General's® Watercolor Pencils and some Sargent Art® colored pencils. I grabbed these randomly on my way out the door for the road trip I went on. The colors I used were reds, blues, white, a bit of peach, and some pinks. One thing I noticed, they reacted differently on the coarse paper which is my journal. I think on a smoother paper the color could have been more vibrant. I used a plaid stencil from Tim Holtz for the bottom of the Santa. I attempted some shading but once again, the paper texture made it awkward.

After I had decided I had 'colored' enough I outlined with the Black Sharpie® Fine Point and the Metallic Sharpies® in Silver, Gold, and Bronze. The lettering was done with Metallic markers. I wanted fireworks but when I tried a stencil I had the Galaxy Glitter did not work. So instead I pounced the glitter for the fireworks using my stencil brush.

To be honest, I am less than happy with the overall results. I would much rather blow up or enlarge the Santa himself and use it on a plaque or canvas and paint it with acrylic paints.

What did you do with the design? I really want to see how others tackled this challenge. Please share! pwmblogeditor@gmail.com