I don’t often name my journal pages, but given Teesha Moore’s status in the art journaling world, it seemed only proper to name today’s “Paying Homage To Teesha Moore”. With an immediately recognizable style, Teesha opened doors and inspired many folks to try art journaling. I have never created a page in this style, using a magazine cutout figure, but figured what the heck… it was worth a try. I’m happy with the results and will probably try this again at some point since I had fun with it!
Here’s how I created this page spread…
I’m loving the Liquitex Basics Paint and for this spread I used Light Blue Violet and Brilliant Purple. If you’re recently new to the 2016 Art Journal Adventure, I’m using Dyan Reaveley’s Square Kraft Journal which has just under 52 page spreads. At some point I’ll either use one side of the spread for one week and the other the following one. Or will add pages – stay tuned!
Starting with Light Blue Violet and a baby wipe…
I lightly scrubbed some color across both pages. Don’t worry about the first color being dry. Since these are colors that are near to one another on the color wheel, you’re not going to make mud.
A new baby wipe and Brilliant Purple…
And my background is nearly finished.
I added a little more of both colors and ended up with a reasonably solid background, but one that showed marks from the baby wipe. There will be a lot of stuff on the background, so I’m not worried about solid coverage.
These figures actually are from a catalog, but either that or a magazine is a great place to find interesting figures. The “high fashion” ones tend to have models with what I think of as fiercer facial features. These were fine for my purposes. I didn’t need anyone who looked like they ate puppies for lunch! No glue yet, just placing them on the spread to see if I like the scale. Yup, I do.
Tasha’s pages often feature borders and of course mine needed them too. I pulled out a bunch of my 6″ x 6″ scrapbook paper pads and selected several with colors I wanted to use in addition the purples on the background.
I cut strips 1″ wide, then decided that was a bit too much and didn’t leave enough space to work in. A new batch, cut at 3/4″, worked perfectly. Lay them out around the perimeter of a page using various lengths to keep things interesting, then glue them in place.
At this point I knew I wanted a little something in the background so used Black Marble Dylusions Paint and one of the Mini Ink Blending Tools…
to make big black circles.
Use scrap paper as a mask to get the half circles along the border.
Put the girls back on the page to see how to place and what to trim off.
You can see from the backside that I trimmed off most of her legs to she’d fit properly. After experimenting a little, I decided using Dina’s Gel Medium was the best adhesive for the thin catalog paper.
Scrape a reasonably liberal coat on the back using her Palette Knife.
And apply the figure to the page. See the wrinkles and little tears that happen from trying to smooth and flatten the figure and immediately regret not backing her with some printer paper.
Prove that even an old dog can learn new tricks… adhere the second figure to some inexpensive printer paper and let her dry. For whatever reason, applying her to the white paper went far better than trying to adhere the other directly to the page. Once the second figure it dry, cut her out but do not apply her to the page yet.
It’s time to think about adding clothing and other bits to the figures. I used papers from the scrapbook pads to cut a hat you see here and the skirt you’ll see in a moment. You’ll see that both of my girls has a single eye that I drew on 90# Watercolor Paper. Don’t fret and say you can’t draw… it’s a football shape with 2 smaller circles inside! And you only need one per figure.
The “skirt” for this figure isn’t symmetrical, but it doesn’t matter. Just use a pencil and sketch the shape on scrapbook paper and cut it out. One of the papers I used had numbers on it so I cut out two to add to the shirt.
I decided to try and dress this one before she was glued to the page, so in Marie Antoinette fashion… I cut off her head. Carefully. I wanted to have the shape of her neckline and shoulders to make her garment from.
Lay the body on another piece of scrapbook paper and trace the outline of the neck and shoulders.
It’s difficult to see (sorry), but you can just make out neckline and shoulders, plus some faint lines where I drew arms and the body.
You can see I made her top far smaller than what she was wearing.
Put her head with the top and lay them out till you’re satisfied. I sketched hands, but you can cut out ones from a magazine or catalog. Same thing here with the single eye, which I think is pretty funny. I cut out elements from the scrapbook paper to embellish her top. Eventually I decided it was too plain and added some circles which you’ll see in a moment.
She needs a headpiece too. I started with our Leaf #3 (on the left) and added color and glittered the center. Plopped it on her head and decided it wasn’t the look she needed, so I stamped three of Leaf #2 and colored them. Arrange them so they cascade toward one side, try again on her head, and yes… this is better! With the arrangement settled on, I glued them together.
At some point, I stuck my hand in black paint and smudged it to the right of this figure. There was no way the doodling I was planning would cover it, so wings to the rescue! I cut them from 90# Watercolor Paper and not only did they cover the smudge, I like the overall look.
My doodled background was just circles drawn with a black Sharpie, but I wanted the rows to be reasonably straight. If I hadn’t used the Omnigrid 1″ x 6″ Ruler and marked lines every half inch, from top to the bottom of the page, they would have wobbled all over the place. If you use a pencil with a hard lead, the lines are light and easy to erase. Fill in the background with circles or your choice of doodles.
Here’s the finished figure on the right side of the page spread. Her head piece is in place and you can see the extra doodles I added to her top, outlining it and adding the fancy neckline, and the dots all over.
For the background I sketched in the black wavy lines with pencil, added the loopy doodles with a PITT Pen, then used the black Sharpie to trace over the pencil lines. See the white dots on the wavy lines? Simple dots with an Extra Fine White Sharpie Water Based Paint Pen. I used the same one to dot the circles on the other side…
Which I think really perked up the doodles.
With a nod and thanks to Teesha, I’ll call this week’s page spread finished!
22 Comments
Awesome Barb….I love this one…may even try a version of it myself.
Barb, you are amazing! Everything ties together so beautifully in these fun spreads. I’ll be adding this style in my journal this week. Thanks!
Your art journaling has been a great inspiration to my techniques and opened up new avenues for imagination. It has opened new vistas to my box.
I got an email to go see your blog post today and I was really warmed that you mentioned my name. I love what you did and fun to see your interpretation of my style. Thank you so much for spreading the creative love through your tutorials. It’s always fun to see someone work. http://www.teeshamoore.com
Hi Teesha,
You’re welcome. :+)
I’m glad you like the page. I had a good time creating in “your” style and appreciate all that you’ve contributed to art journaling.
Barb
your journal demos are the greatest ever.
I love, love your pages, Barb. I have seen Teesha Moore’s work throughout the blog world and have always enjoyed this type of journal page. However, I have not tried this and am looking forward to it. I just finished last week’s pages and am current again and will give this a try. Thanks for sharing.
Well…….you had fun!! Thanks for this!!
This was so far out of my style and comfort zone but I had to give it a shot. This is an adventure after all. I have the background and border finished and my people cut out so now to dress and embellish them. It’s really quite fun once you get going.
Thanks everyone!
I will admit the style was outside of my “norm”, but once I got into it… yup, it was fun!
Barb
So much fun! I love your step by step process and will be doing one soon! Thank you.
LOL@ “…ate puppies for lunch!” Barb, you have quite a way with words as well as images. Thanks for the chuckle.
Incidentally, I just purchased the watercolor paper so I can try a Teesha -style journal myself.
Love your page. This is a very different style for me so really struggled with the colors, etc. Had the perfect background and then made a mistake when trying to add to it so wound up having to paint over and start again. So annoying, but am finally satisfied with the page. Didn’t want to try adding to the background again so just left it plain! Thanks for sharing that you make mistakes too, it really helped me continue when I just wanted to scream!
love it.
i have to add i am so behind on the journal is not funny. my fur baby has a collapsed trachea and it is getting very bad. i am so busy taking care of her i am drained.
i will catch up one day.
i also want to say thanks for the inspiration and challenge miss barb. i am very happy i found your blog.
When I read, ” I didn’t need anyone who looked like they ate puppies for lunch.” I thought I would die laughing!!! I love your sense of humor!
Your pages came out great. The backgrounds have lots of elements without being busy and your images are a lot of fun.
I looked up Teesha Moore online before tackling this page spread! My goodness! What color! What imagination! Makes me wonder how her brain works! I’m not sure mine will actually work that way, lol! But, I gave it a try…..
This is fabulous! Your colors are so bright and the macaroni skirt is brilliant!
Faye – fabulous and I’d never know the background was such a source of frustration! I make a metric boatload of mistakes – you just aren’t privy to them!
Terri – Teesha is amazing, as you discovered. You page spread is fabulous! Love the macaroni skirt!
I haven’t stopped by the Facebook AJA group yet this morning, but if you haven’t, can you please share the photos there? Everyone should see your work
Barbara – you too please! There’s a link to the Facebook AJA group in the blog sidebar – over on the right, toward the top o the page. :+)
Barb
What fun and colorful pages. They make me smile.
Hi ladies…just adding my spread…such fun making this!
Wrong week sorry?
Ok..here we go…