This week’s page spread (yep I’m back to using a full spread) was inspired by the supplies left on my work bench after filming the video you’ll see on Wednesday.  There are advantages to being lax about putting stuff from one project away before jumping headlong into the next.

The theme for today is “pick a word”.  I chose ‘kindness’.  Since the word is the focal point, I used really large letters to emblazon it across the span of the spread.  I think it will be interesting to see the variety of words selected by those of you participating in the AJA.  I’m looking forward to it and hope you’ll share your work here in the blog comments and/or on the Facebook group.

Yes!  There’s a Facebook group!  Click this link to get to it and request to join.  Everyone is welcome, so please come on over and play!

Today’s technique is not new, but I updated it by using Dina Wakley’s new Media Paint colors.  By the time I was finished filming Wednesday’s video, I knew how I wanted the background to look and had chosen my colors: Cheddar, Fuchsia, Turquoise (which is not a new color).  When you look at the photos it may seem as though there is another one present, but it’s where the Cheddar and Fuchsia blend (often on my finger) that the new color appears.  Turquoise is my accent color; you’ll see it applied very sparingly.  I only wanted to see little hints of it.

I’m going to include photos of the spread as I added the colors to the background, but will refer you to the original video for a thorough description of how to step through the process.  You’ll need Gesso, a Palette Knife, and your choice of colors of Media Paint.

Click here to see the video: it’s the original Art Cards one.  I begin demoing the background technique at the 2:20 mark.

After you watch the video, scroll down the page as there will be an additional explanation of what I did once the background was completed.

With the background finished… I as a little stumped about where to go next.  I liked it enough that I didn’t want to hide the colors with a lot of other stuff, so decided on a narrow border.

Done with a Superfine Black PITT Pen, it’s just two meandering lines that I allowed to cross at various places.  See those small areas between the two lines?  Fodder for doodles!!

I repeated this stylized single check pattern several times around the entire page spread.

There are patterns I use often, simply because I like the way they look and because I enjoy the process of drawing them.

Stare hard at that photo and you’ll see the baseline and some of the letters that I penciled in.  What you probably can’t see is that I misspelled ‘kindness’ when I wrote it on the page in pencil.  It wasn’t until I was letting with the PITT Pens that I realized I’d omitted the first n when I was blocking out the word.  It ended up as ‘kidness’.  Ooops.  I was just about the ink the ‘d’ when it occurred to me that something was missing.

That’s why the ‘n’ is kind of squished in there.  I wasn’t about to erase everything and start again, so said the hell with it and erased the ‘d’ and fit the ‘nd’ in its place.  With all of the letters inked I decided they looked a little bland, so brought in an extra fine white Sharpie Water Based Paint Pen and added some dots.

Yup, that’s more lively and I much prefer it.  I’m always amazed at what a group of black or white dots can do.

I added some small open circles made with the PITT Pen and added a dot of white inside each with the Sharpie Paint Pen.

Finished.  I love the colors and it’s really different from anything I’ve done lately.  Diversity is good!