Wednesday, March 4, 2009

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.

22 comments:

michelle ward said...

SA-WOON. That's swoon, said with two syllables. JeriAnn, these are fabulous! So glad you popped in early as you will get everyone excited to play with brushes to get juicy textures and layers like these. Thanks for sharing the enthusiasm for this crusade!

Kim Mailhot said...

I can see why you get so enamoured with your background, JeriAnn, when they are as lovely and rrich as these ! I love the first piece with the eye and hands (hands were my shape of your the last little shile as you may remember !)- it has a beautiful lightness to it than fills me up today.

May the warmth they are annoucning for the North East this weekend get rid of your chill !
Cheers, Crusader !

oxox

Unknown said...

Great pages...I just love the layers and layers. Since I cannot FIND any of my supplies, fingers crossed that in another couple of weeks I can actually paint and play you have inspired me to dig through stashes and share what I have.

x..x

jgr said...

These are beautiful!! I especially like your pouncing idea since I have issues using spray paint, too. They are all rich and complex and . . . yummy! Thank you for sharing.

-Jane

Anonymous said...

WOW WOW WOW These are gorgeous! All the rich yummy textures. Your journal page is just FAB! I love the hands and the eye!

Anonymous said...

I love the orange piece and the lastone, the soft blues and greens. I love the ways that you managed the layers. Great inspirations to work towards.

Anonymous said...

Oh yes..I have my ticket alright.. Well done, JeriAnn! Love your brush work!

Anonymous said...

Great background pages Jeri Ann - can't wait to see what you do with them.

debi lynn mattingly said...

GOREGOUS! I can see why you don't want to cover your "backgrounds" up with anything else....I wouldn't either. Since, I am an abstract artist...these are finished as far as I am concerned! Thanks for sharing....xo...deb

Anonymous said...

Well, my fav might be the second to last, but it's hard to tell - they have all come out great. I can understand why you would want to leave them as is and not cover your work up. Thanks for sharing them with us.

Maj said...

Delicious! I especially enjoy the colours and the pattern on the last one.

Anonymous said...

Jeri Ann,

Your pages are beautiful as they are. I agree with you: why put more on them? But then I also think Julie has a point, it might be a good idea for a future crusade, as for me it could also be a kind of not knowing how, not knowing what, I tend to keep those beautiful words and phrases all inside my head...
Thanks for sharing your work,
Regina Dwarkasing
St. Maarten, DWI

Chris said...

LOOK at all the different colors and textures and shapes. I love what you've shared, here. This is not only background material, either. thanks for the inspiration.

Judy said...

GREAT stuff! I love the layers in these. I'd have a hard time covering up these backgrounds too. You've definitely inspired me to try some new things.

Thanks for sharing.

Anonymous said...

beautiful JeriAnn - you have inspired me...

xox - eb.

Regina said...

While all are lovely, my absolute fav is the last one.
I just started crusading in January, so these are new to me.

iHanna said...

Wow your pages are so so YUMMY! I had to google chip brushes, but I know what you mean now. I need one of those! Now.

Thanks for cruising along with us!

Christy said...

These are fabulous. I am forever trying to develop pages to use with my portraits and wish I was more like you making these pages so effortlessly and so beautiful.

Anonymous said...

Beautiful pages JeriAnn!! You are a master at this :)
Cheers,
Gaye

Marlynn said...

Ditto to what everyone else has said. Beautiful beautiful pages. Marlynn

Mescrap said...

Those pages are fabulous !!
So beautiful for art-journal spread.

Kim Tedrow said...

These are to die for -- especially the green w/ leaves. Nice work, you're inspiring me. :)