I want it - and I want it now!!!

Da er vi jammen klar for å presentere vår aller første ARTgjest i vårt

Og det er ingen ringere enn Kate Crane!

Ta et dykk i hennes magiske verden inne i bloggen hennes; www.thekathrynwheel.blogspot.com

crane.kate@yahoo.com

Kate har svart på noen faste spørsmål vi stiller våre kunstnere i ARTelieret. God lesing folkens!!

Why art journaling?

I have always had a desire to make and create, and have dabbled in many arts and crafts since I was a young girl. Before I took up art journaling I was making and trading a lot of Artist Trading Cards, which led to an interest in altered art. Around this time I also discovered an on-line community of mixed media artists (and bloggers) which opened up a whole new world to me. I began working in an art journal after taking a class with Dyan Reaveley back in 2008 and immediately I was hooked. Art journaling fulfills my constant need to create and gives me a sense of purpose. It is a place to play and experiment, and also a way of capturing every day moments. I love the fact that there are no rules in art journaling - anything goes! 

What art journalers are your faves? Other artists you look to for inspiration?

The artist who inspired me to start art journaling in the first place was Dyan Reaveley from Art from the Heart in the UK. Dyan is now a signature designer for Ranger and continues to inspire many of us on our artistic journeys. I also love the vibrant and colourful work of Dina Wakley, and I have been lucky enough to do a few classes with Dina. Another artist whose work I admire immensley is Katie Kendrick.

What mediums do you like to use?

When playing in my art journal I will use almost any medium I can get my hands on! When putting down my first layer of colour on a page I will use acrylic paints (Dylusions or Goldens) or ink sprays (with and without added mica), and very often a combination of both. I love to use stencils for adding extra texture and pattern to the page, and I find that I can build up a lot more layers using stencils.

For a bit of extra colour I like to use Neocolor II water soluble crayons or Portfolio Oil Pastels. I'm always looking for the perfect pen for journaling and my current favourite is a Faber Castell PIT pen in ultrafine, but if that fails I'll turn to my old-fashioned dip pen and calligraphy ink.

What important bit of advice can you give to those wanting to start art journaling?

Just start. Try not to plan or over-think your pages, but just begin and go with your instincts. Be prepared to play and experiment and don't be scared of getting it 'wrong'!

Kate har laget denne artikkelen for oss, og vi føler oss virkelig heldig! 

Denne dama har litt av hvert å henge fingrene i!! 

Og hun er en virkelig flott kunstner!!!

Journal page: I want it and I want it now!

By Kate Crane

I have dabbled in many forms of crafting over the years, from knitting to card-making, scrapbooking to making ATCs, but without doubt art journaling is my all-time favourite. Art journaling fulfills my constant desire to create and gives me a sense of purpose. My journal is a place to play and experiment, a home for some of my favourite stamped images, and a place where I can just get things off my chest. I love the no-rules approach to art journaling and I truly believe that there are no mistakes in art. There will always be pages that I am less happy with than others but to learn you must be prepared to play and allow yourself to experiment and occasionally get things ‘wrong’.

I will use any medium at all in my journal as long as I can build up layers of colour. I adore rubber stamps but I also love stamping with everyday items and junk which would otherwise be thrown away.  I keep a large collection of bottle lids in various sizes as well as old credit cards, pen lids etc. I have also been known to search through my children’s toy collection when they are not looking just in case there is anything that might come in useful!

I always keep a ‘mop-up’ journal on my desk to mop up any ink spills, and to pick up any leftover ink on a stencil. This page began life as an ink spillage! I added a little extra colour with an ink spray and a stencil, and I also sprayed water through a stencil and blotted to remove some of the colour.

  

Next I scraped some white acrylic paint randomly over the background using an old gift card as a scraper. This helps to break up the solid areas of colour in the background.

I find if I stick to similar colours in the background I can keep building up layers so that it becomes busy but not too cluttered. I chose an inkpad in red to stamp some random letters. 

I don’t use an acrylic block, but prefer to roll the stamp to achieve a more random look.

A child’s building block makes a great texture stamp and adds another layer to the page.

I love to add touches of black to a bright background as it really makes the other colours pop.  

I added a few large bottle lid stamps, and then mixed a little water to the acrylic paint and added a few splats with a fine paintbrush.

At this point I like to stand back and look at the page and see where there may be any gaps that need filling. To do this I chose another similar coloured ink pad, this time in orange, and added a barcode stamp.

I find that when using a figure as part of a journal page it is useful to give them something to stand on to avoid the ‘floating’ look. I used an Abstract Foliage stamp to create a border along the bottom edge, which I stamped in orange and then black.

I stamped my figure onto paper, cut her out and then coloured her with Distress Inks. If I cut the figure out first and then colour, I can eliminate any white edges. I also stamped the Large Bee onto acetate and cut the wings out.

At this point I like to lay everything on the page and see how it’s looking so far. Vintage text is always a useful addition to a journal page and can be used in so many different ways. I tore a strip to go along the lower border and three smaller strips to add at the top.

I can’t resist a bit of stitching and I love to be a little untidy with it, sewing in uneven lines and leaving long threads dangling.

At this point I like to stand back and look at the page and see what may be missing. I decided to add a few more bottle lid and mesh stamps with a touch of metallic gold paint. Overlapping the image with these stamps helps to make the page look a little more cohesive.

And now for the journaling! I used a fine black marker to journal around the image. My words read ‘Who do you think you are? The Queen bee?’! I was often asked this as a child if I got a bit too bossy, or demanding, or a bit too big for my boots!

Back to the vintage text again! I journaled my words onto a scrap of old text and then cut them out and added to the page. I love the aged colour of vintage text and there are always plenty of empty spaces to write. Journaling and then cutting out like this takes away the fear of getting it ‘wrong’ on the page.

To finish I doodled around the edge with a fine black marker, and stamped with a date stamp.

 The journaling on my pages makes perfect sense to me and often has a deeper meaning than may be apparent to an onlooker. This page is about our ‘want it now’ society. As a child I had to wait until it was Christmas or my birthday if I wanted it something and sometimes the wait was unbearable. But the reward was so sweet! When you have waited and waited for something and you finally get it, it seems so much more precious. It seems that now we are becoming more and more impatient as a society. See it, want it, get it.  If I behave like this or see others behaving like this, my Mother’s words ring loudly in my ears ‘Who do you think you are? The Queen Bee?!’

Materials used

Stamps:

Background stamps by Dylusions (Ranger)

Barcode and numbers by Ma Vinci’s Reliquary

Abstract Foliage (lower border) by Stampotique Originals

Mink (girl) by Stampotique Originals

Large Bee (wings) by Stampotique Originals

Inks:

Dylusions ink sprays by Ranger

Ranger Archival inkpads in Monarch Orange, Vermillion, Jet Black and Venetian Orange

Paints:

Acrylic Paints in white, red, black and metallic gold.

Distress Inks:

Various

Gel Medium (for adhering images to the page)

Thank you so much Kate!!!

Dette har virkelig vært inspirerende!!! 

Eller hva synes du?