Chili Cook Off

It’s been awhile since my last post, lots of busy weekends. I have been playing around with a few new mediums and tools. I picked up some Dylusions Paint and inks along with some Distressed crayons, both are from the Ranger brand. I also got a Brayer tool and a Gellie Plate. I am having so much fun with these. I also picked up a new art journal, which I have a few pages started but not finished yet.

Anyways, my sweet Mother-in-Law is doing a Chili Cook off this weekend and asked if I could make her a little poster to put on her table. Of course I said yes. I wanted to do something a little different then just a basic drawing and either painting or coloring it in, so once I had my sketch done I used some scrapbook paper to make the poster come together.

First I started with the background, I used the Dylusions paint and the Gellie plate with the brayer for the brown background, in person it almost looks like leather, once I had everything cut out and glued down (using Distressed Collage Medium) I sealed it and did a bit of shadowing with the distressed crayons, sealed it one more time. I scanned it into the computer and added the lettering, I really wanted to either stencil or draw out the letters but I just didn’t have time.

I have seen a lot of art journaling done and I have always wondered how people got those perfect shapes and pictures, well I found out, they use stamps. Now, I am not against using stamps but that is not what I want my art journal to be about, I want it to be my artwork, my drawings even if they are not perfect, I do not want someone else’s artwork. However there is one thing I have picked up from doing a little research, the use of scrapbook paper, just like in the above photo, these are my sketches painstakingly cut out with an xacto knife and placed on the background. I have also found that some stencils can add some character to a background too but I refuse to use stencils of things I could draw myself, again that is just me. I take pride in my artwork and it would be hard for me personally to call something my artwork if it was not drawn by my hand. I still think the art journalist I have seen on you tube and pintrest have great work, most of them have beautiful finished products.

Here’s to more creating