Brushing up

This month, Michelle Ward's GPP Street Team Crusaders are getting funky with their art supplies and playing with paint.

There's a bit of ennui here at the station as cold weather and chillier economic climate have conspired to put this commuter's creativity into the deep freeze. As a result, I've been joining the Team late, if at all. But this month I have many examples of backgrounds I've created using brush techniques. They're not new, and forgive me if you've seen them before, but this time I want to share early, rather than late.

Here are a few examples. I have a bad tendency to become enamored of my painted pages and not want to obscure them with other stuff, which why I have so many of these. Although I will share another great tip from Michelle -- scan your work and use them in your graphics. 

There's a lot going on in these pages, including reversing the stencil to make monoprints. I adore doing this -- I think the negative space is even more interesting than the stencil. In fact, whenever I stencil, I make sure I have at least two blank pages ready. Then I flip the stencil and use my brayer to get every last bit of goodness. A lot of my pages start just that way.

Another technique I love is pouncing. My most important art tools are my chip brushes. I love the streaky, messy, imperfect marks they leave and I don't have to fret over them like I do my precious watercolor sables. In fact, my favorite brush is the one I've abused the most and it's frayed to perfection. I use it for a faux spray paint technique -- perfect for someone who can't use spray paints. I think the results are even more interesting than spray paint since they aren't as uniform.

So why not hop on over to the party at Michelle's and get some more ideas of where a cheap brush and a little paint can take you. Click HERE; it's your train ticket to Crusaderville.