Keep facing the sunshine and the shadows will fall behind you ~ Walt Whitman
(In my video I accidentally attribute this quote to Audrey Hepburn.)
I think this a lovely, positive encouragement and I wanted to illustrate it in a bold way. After sketching a few ideas I decided on one that showed the visual metaphor most clearly. I just knew that working graphically with mosaics was going to be great way of depicting the sunshine versus the shadows.
Art Journaling with Mosaics Technique
As well as being a striking and eye catching visual technique mosaics are very therapeutic to do … and they are great for exercising your maths brain! Maybe the two go together as counting sheep is known to help you unwind…. Start by deciding on the colours you want to use then choose papers with predominantly those colours. Cut your papers into strips and then squares or triangles and sort through these squares so you are happy with their colours. This video has another way of using mosaics in your art journal. Get ready to have fun art journaling with mosaics . . .
Constructing My Art Journal Mosaic Page
I start off with a quick division of the page into sky and ‘land’ in 2/3 to 1/3 proportions. Then I add guidelines with an Inktense white pencil. This is a really cool way of marking up your art before painting as the pencil marks can easily be removed with a baby wipe and, being white, they simply disappear on being painted over. I block in some background colour for my sun rays and then chop up some patterned papers and repurposed art for the mosaic tiles. I use a print out of one of my favourite pieces, Sassy Seaside Centaury. This is a great way to reuse printouts that have not gone to plan like this one which had the wrong dimensions for my frame. The tiles are stuck down with gel medium in a fairly regular pattern – I am careful to organise my colours before hand to get the contrast effects I am going for. Next the girl is blocked in with matt acrylic in a skin tone. I use matt acrylic here so that I can use Inktense colouring on top. The nice thing about Inktense is they are semi-opaque and adding layers adds to this. I have used Inktense here and in the following art:
You wouldn’t get this benefit with ordinary watercolours (although I would like to try Kuratake Gansi Tambi watercolours as they are supposed to be more opaque and might work well here). I use black and white Inktense pencils to add shadow and highlight to the form of my girl. I am not considering bounced light or colour temperature here just some really simple shading. I see my art journal work more as an exploration of techniques and I am keen to encourage my students to experiment in their art journals. In my opinion that’s part of the process or journey that leads to greater confidence in your art.
Art Journaling with Mosaics Process Video
Below is a video, edited by my son, of my process. I’m really pleased with how he has selected and used footage to show the process so that you don’t have to watch hours of gluing and cutting. I’d love to know your thoughts on what you’d like to see in videos 🙂
I hope this post has inspired you to look for the good things in life and maybe try mosaics in your art journal or art. Hugs, Ceri xx
