Don't Toss That Page You Hate

I made permanent spray ink using Dr. Martin's India Ink.  I'm not so great with spray ink yet so mine ended up going under the stencil. I think I was too close to the paper. This technique seems to be a learning curve. The orange swirl in the top right corner of first picture is my best spray. 

Next I added the three ladies using homemade stencils my friend Lori made me. I wanted to make the girl on the left darker and that is where things went down hill. I used a paint marker and made a mess of her.  Her head looks like a dog with one ear in the top right photo. I thought the page was ruined.

Instead of being upset, I got up and walked away from the piece until this morning.  I decide I could paint over the whole thing with gesso or just play with texture and paint. I did paint over part of it and then I wiped the gesso away. I began adding pieces of drywall tape to give it texture. Then I began to finger paint.  I painted circles using several different kinds of paint: craft paint, student grade acrylic, Liquitex Heavy Body Acrylic as well as Liquitex fluid acrylics.  Finally I added white gesso circles and black craft paint circles. 

I intentionally took pictures of this piece when I was unhappy with it because I often hear new art journalers complain about pieces they hate. I wanted to show that if you keep working at a piece it's very possible to end up with something that makes you happy.  I really like how my page ended up looking.  It's busier and different that most of my work and I think that is what I like about it.  If I'm not careful all my pages will look the same because I tend to work in the ways that make me most comfortable. This piece made me stretch.

I'm very glad I made the choice not to rip this page out of my altered journal.

Link to:   Artist Play Room, Creative Every Day