Fireflies and Rusty Stars

Shhhhhhhhh ..... don't be afraid ..... but yes, I am finally doing a long overdue blog post!!! The last few months have been kind of odd for me creatively, as I really haven't been able to stick to anything for long and have been going from mixed media on canvas to scrapbooking to crocheting to art journaling and back to something else.

But yesterday I was really in the mood to do something different, so I got out my Dyan Reaveley 'Dylusions' Art Journal, and got started.  First, I put a long strip of masking tape along the center (helps strengthen the binding and keeps paint or inks from going down between pages) and added a good coat of gesso over the whole thing.  While that was drying I started thinking about what I wanted to do ... and I was a total blank, but the bottle of olive green was calling my name, so I got that out and set it in front of me so I wouldn't forget.  Once the gesso was dried I squirted the paint onto my journal pages and, using my brayer, rolled it all over the two pages ... vertically and then horizontally. As I rolled side to side, I thought the pattern made by the brayer looked like old barn boards, and then came the idea to paint a part of a barn wall, and from there, flowed more ideas until I got this ...

Once the olive paint was dried, I brushed on some brown paint to bring out the look of 'boards', and even make a knot in the wood.  Then I used a mixture of paints (who KNOWS what all colors!  But they were all Anita's All Purpose Craft Paints.) to make a grey, and after pencil drawing the shelf, painted it on.  Next I used oil pastels to add shading and definition.  Next up I did a pencil drawing of an aqua canning jar, and painted it using a blend of turquoise, metallic white and some other colors of paints to get the nice light aqua color.  I did a couple of coats of the aqua, and while it dried, added the rusty nail on the left page.

The nail was pencil drawn and colored using the oil pastels.  Have I told you I am in LOVE with oil pastels???  Seriously!!!  Anyway, by then the jar was dry so I added a lid, using metallic silver paint and grey and black pastels.  Then I penciled in some fireflies and painted them up using bright yellow, metallic white and black paint.

 

The 'object' to the left of the jar is supposed to be an old birds nest, and was colored using the pastels.  Did I say I love pastels???

Next up was something to hang from the nail, and last night when I went to bed I had NO idea what that would be, but this morning when I looked at it, I thought ... 'rusty stars!' ... and knew that was what I would add.  I did a pencil drawing, then painted them with gesso to get a clean slate on which to paint them.  Then I used the rich brown paint for the base, and colored and shaded them using pastels.  The wire was drawn on using a black marker.

 

I also added an old 'dirt dauber' nest in the upper right hand corner ... you can't have an old building without a dirt dauber nest!  And I used the same techniques for that as I did for the rusty stars, using gesso, paint and oil pastels.

I have to tell you, this is one of my favorite projects EVER, and I am so proud of it because it truly represents a special part of my childhood memories.  I also hope that you have enjoyed your visit today.

Blessings,  Becky