The last Art Journal class I taught was the "Textured Gesso" technique. As many already know gesso is one of my favourite products to work with. The texture that can be created with gesso and a heat gun is fabulous.
To start with I take a piece of cardstock or water colour paper and put a few generous dollops of gesso on. Then I take an old credit card and move the gesso around the page, dabbing into the gesso with both the face of the card and the side of the card until I get a look I am happy with. Then I take a heat gun and heat the gesso one small area a time. The heat will actually cause the gesso to bubble slightly - that's a good thing, it helps create the texture. I prefer to use gesso than a texture paste for this technique. Texture paste is too thick and I prefer to let that dry naturally. Gesso heated in this way gives a much lighter texture, which is perfect for a page in a journal as it isn't too heavy for the paper.
Here is a page once it is gessoed and then heated:
For an art journal page I like to leave an area with no texture, which is where I will journal later.
To colour I simply spray with Glimmer Mist and dry it off with a heat gun again. It is tremendous fun mucking around with all the different colours available in the mists, layering colours to get different effects.
The page above is sprayed with Tattered Leather glimmer mist a few times, drying in between each applicaiton. I have then gone over slightly with Golden Iridescent Gold acrylic to highlight some of the texture.
Here are a few unfinished pages using this background technique:
Frost Glimmer Mist with Golden Iridescent Gold acrylic over the top ...
I love this colour combination - Spanish Moss followed by Black Magic glimmer mists ... yum!
For a more subtle look you can create texture in the gesso just by stippling with a paint brush and using distress inks to colour the dried gesso:
This one has book paper adhered to the base cardstock prior to putting the gesso down. The gesso is only around the edges and just textured with a stippling of the paint brush. It's then coloured with Victorian Velvet distress ink.
The next Art Journal class is "Clear Crackle" ...... check our website for dates and time .... www.scraptivate.com.au.
Take care of each other, especially with these bushfires at the moment.
xxx
