Monday 3 February 2020

A Misty Morning Notebok - DecoArt Media Team

A Misty Morning Journal/Notebook - mixed media style

This is a project I made for the DecoArt Media blog last autumn.

The process steps of this project were an experiment in creating that overcast look of the early autumnal mornings that have that blurred and more nebulous feel to them. 


1. Cut two pieces of greyboard 11 x 22½  cms and seal with a coat of gesso on both sides.


2. Use a medium size brush and wet the surface all over with water and let it pool in places. With the wet brush pick up a small amount of raw umber and dabble it in a couple of places around the edges. Whilst still wet repeat that step with medium grey, quinacridone gold and titan buff keeping it lighter and more watery in the middle. Dry with a heat gun after each layer. Repeat this a couple of times more to get some nice layering effects of the watery colours. Finish with some light splattering of the same colours used and lightly distress the edges with a sanding block and brown distress ink.


3. Mix some white modeling paste with a little tinting base and apply through a stencil with a palette knife. Leave to dry.



4. Start creating a misty background effect. Spray over and around the stencilled flowers with water and use a paint brush to blend in some medium grey media acrylic paint. Spritz with more water, let it drip and flow around the flowers and dry. Repeat process with another layer of the medium grey mixed with dioxazine purple, a third layer using dark grey and then a fourth using titanium white. Splatter some of the medium and dark grey as a watery wash.






5.  Choose a small, fine paintbrush and using sap green, burnt umber, quinacridone burnt orange and titan buff, mix colours and water to paint in a background colour to the stencilled wildflowers.



6. Add in some of the dioxazine purple and dark grey to add more detail to the flowers and leaves and also some levels of lower background foliage.



7. Having given the flowers some depth we're now going to knock them back a bit by wiping some white antiquing cream down the flowers, drying it with a heat gun and then using the fine brush and clean water to pull back random parts of the flowers as if they are peeking through the mist.


8. Finally I used my stabilo black water pencil to create some dark shadows and more murkiness and also added a little wash of the quinacridone burnt orange to bring back some faint colour. I loved the use of the watercolour pencil so much I added some shiraz red to the flowers too. I hope I've not overdone it!!!



To finish the booklet I re-sanded the edges and inked them and added a computer generated title and ......




.... I made holes to add rings to hold it together and filled it with some papers.






Supplies

DecoArt Media Fluid Acrylic Paints - raw umber, dark grey value 3, quinacridone gold, titan buff,  medium grey value 6, dioxazine purple, titanium white, sap green, burnt umber, quinacridone burnt orange and titan buff. 
DecoArt Mediums - modeling paste, tinting base,titanium white antiquing cream