Tuesday, June 4, 2013

Stencil Magic

"All art requires courage." Anne Tucker

Today I was in the mood to play with color and a stencil. I decided to break in my new Dyan Reaveley creative journal. It's not really new - I've had it for a few months, but was nervous to actually use it for fear of messing up and having to tear the page out. Anyone else have those irrational kinds of fears? Here's a picture of my final piece so that you can see what I'm talking about as I explain my process.


I pulled out my Dylusions ink sprays since that's what the journal was really made for, and The Crafters Workshop stencil called Spirographica. Feeling a little unsure of where this was headed, I forged on. Using a couple of tiny pieces of tape to hold the stencil in place, I chose a few delicious Dylusions colors, and spritzed away. 

Challenge #1 - When I pulled up the stencil, I saw that a little of the spray had seeped underneath since the stencil lines are so thin. So of course my first reaction was, "Oh no, now I'll have to rip the page out!" What I tried, and was relieved when it worked, was to go over the stencil lines with my white pen which covered up where the spray had gone underneath. White lines filled in, I was ready to begin tangling. 

Challenge #2 - Some of the color seemed a little dark and I was afraid the micron pen lines wouldn't show up real well. I got around that obstacle by using patterns that had a little more black in them for the darker sections. My pen glided smoothly over the inked page.

Challenge #3 - The journal is  9" x 12" (so 18" x 12" when open) and one inch thick, which made it interesting trying to turn it as I worked, like I would turn my Zentangle tile. It was a little awkward positioning my hands and arms, but I managed.  I'm posting a couple of pictures here showing closeup views so you can see some of the detail.


Overall, I'm happy with the finished piece, although a couple of small sections not so much. I will not need to rip out the page - yay! And now that I've broken in the journal, next time maybe I won't be so scared to use it.

8 comments:

  1. This is wonderful. I love how you used your stencil 'string'. Sometimes you followed it and other times you didn't. the colors make me happy too!

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    1. Thanks Sue. It was something fun and different to do.

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  2. Yup, Caren, I am the same way about journal pages. Even at CZT training, I started my notetaking in my utilitarian black dickblick spiral sketchbook instead of the beautiful journal they'd given us and told us not to be afraid to write in! It didn't take long for me to conquer my hesitance and start notetaking in the the nice journal, though. Later I went back and transferred the notes I'd previously taken, laughing at myself for having had that fear. But I am still very often that way. I love the limitless potential of a new journal...but the responsibility of putting marks in it indeed causes me angst.

    I love what you did with this technique! And I really love the close-up cropped views. Maybe you WILL want to take it out to cut up and utilize in pieces! Or maybe just use that same technique to create a similar look on paper that you can cut up, so your journal can remain intact. :-)

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    1. Thanks Amy. I know what you mean about the journal from CZT training. Sometimes I'm even afraid to start on a tile!

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  3. this turned out beautiful. I love the Dylusions journal and the sprays, they are so vibrant. I've been wanting to try the tangling with a stencil idea for awhile now, so I just need to get going on it.

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