So often I used a stencil as part of something, where the shapes become a piece of a larger whole, rather than the focus of whatever I’m creating. For today’s page I decided that the stencil would be “more”, more the focus and less a layer in the background. So that’s this week’s prompt: Use a stencil, but in such a way that it’s the focus of the page.
I’ll be honest, the end result is not what I envisioned in my mind’s eye, but I’ll also say what I had floating in my head was pretty nebulous and not really fleshed out. I knew I wanted the stencil to be the dominant part of the design, but that was about all.
I think what leaves me less satisfied is that the doodling really took over and the stencil design kind of fell into the background, though I will admit to liking the overall effect.
I started the page by spraying on some colors, chosen at random from the bottles scattered over my work bench. I love this particular look; complimentary colors (as defined by the color wheel) are magical when carefully combined to avoid making a muddy mess.
One of my favorite color mixes is Dylusions Pomegranate Seed and Black Marble. It produces a deep pinkish red color that is just amazing. Adding more or less Black Marble completely changes the final color, and for this page I went very deep, so that the color looks very nearly black in places. Rather than scoop a little out and mix the color, I dabbed some of each on my Mini Ink Blending Tool and let it mix on the Blending Foam.
I chose Dylusions Paint because it dries to a very matt finish that allows doodling with nearly any kind of pen.
The stencil is our 9″ x 12″ Ancient Ruins one. I picked it because I like the blocky look and because I knew those areas would provide perfect fodder for doodles.
Fantastic! Now THIS is what I was looking for. Trouble was, I had no idea where I wanted to take it next. I knew I wanted to doodle, so for a change I grabbed Gelly Roll Pens rather than the Sharpies I tend to reach for automatically.
All of the blocks are outlined with a Medium White Gelly Roll Pen. Just white; no metallic or glitter. I saved those for the inside of the block doodles.
More doodles. More and more of them. None are particularly elaborate, but the effect of them as a whole is pretty interesting. Lots of the metallic Gelly Roll Pens and I threw in a few of the Stardust ones, which have glitter in the ink.
Getting there…
Finished! As I said, the page is not exactly what I had in mind, but it’s complete and I can say that I do like the overall effect, even if the doodles did take over and become the focus.
7 Comments
Love, love, love this! So many options for fillers.
Thanks Ann. It’s amazing what open up when you think about a stencil in an entirely different way!
This is so nice and has given me many ideas! Thank you so much.
Thanks! There are so many ways to go when using a stencil like this… lots and lots!
Woooowwww! I love this, and never would have thought to go dark through the stencil and then doodle in the white and metallic gellie roll pens. Just Super!
Thanks Sheila! I’m not sure what made me think of it either… but I’m glad I did. I like the results.
So simple and so creative. I can expect excellent guidance from you.