A Weekend of Backgrounds

Hey everyone! Let's talk backgrounds. I could spend hours working on backgrounds and last weekend I did! Creating backgrounds is a great way to try out new supplies and techniques and to get over the dreaded blank page. I started working in two new journals for these five pages. The first two are in a Dylusion Creative Journal and the last three where made in a Moleskine. I've had these journals just sitting around for months and decided to finally get them dirty. 

I started this page by using the mint and peach acrylic that turned out to be a lot thinner than I was expecting and very transparent. It's a consistency that I'm not very used to with acrylic paint but I kind of like it.  I've been loving circles recently so I stamped through a stencil and then collaged grid paper on top. The blue of this grid paper runs when you add gel medium to it, so the grid lines gently blurred. 

For this page I wanted to work with some watercolor. It ended up being a great way to see the variety of ways that color bleeds from one to another. You can see a detailed image of this on my Instagram. And again, circles!

 I just started using black gesso, so I was super excited to use this journal. Since the paper is dark I thought it would be a great opportunity to use my iridescent watercolors. I started with shades of gold and silver and then layered brighter colors on top. I don't know yet if this will be my formula for all the pages, but I do want some consistency in this journal.  

Watercolor creates it's own unique texture but I wanted some dimension as well. So I took out some stencils and added modeling paste. The white is a bit stark, so I'm going to go over it with more watercolor or acrylic ink, like you see in the yellow page. 

I think this journal will be great for recording quotes that I've held onto. I have a stack of book quotes, song lyrics or random thoughts that need to go somewhere and I think this will be perfect for them.