"Strength Of Purpose" Simple Art Journal Page - Part 6

Today's post is another in my series of simple art journal pages that can be done quickly and with minimal fuss or supplies.  Again, I am using one of my Gelli Plate printed papers that I didn't like very much and didn't really know what to do with for the base of the collage.  I am working in my Strathmore Bristol/Vellum Art Journal (5.5" X 8")

The base piece of Gelli plate printed paper was pinky-coppery-gold with a bit of black from a stencil ghost print.  Pretty bland, so I glued it into the journal and once the page was dry, I dragged a palette knife loaded with lime green acrylic paint vertically down the page.  When the green paint had dried, I did some stacked journaling on top of it in white Gelly Roll pen.  Then I used my 1.5" diameter sponge spouncer to blob on some purple circles, which were overlaid with rings of neon orange (which barely show up in the photos), and then scribbly white outlines .  Now the page is looking a little more interesting!  But, I am still not that happy with it.

So, my next step was to take some India Ink in an eye dropper and drip it down the page from the top edge, allowing the drips to end at different lengths and then set it aside to dry once again.

Now what??  As with other journal pages, here is where the page sat for a couple of months.  I had NO idea where to go from here.  I'd see the page every now and then when I came to work in this journal.  I'd sit and look at it for a few minutes and inspiration would NOT come so I'd go do something else.  Until, that is, a few nights ago when I was rummaging around in my hoarder's pile of images and stuff and found this awesome vintage image of a woman warrior.  I love it when I discover treasures like this among all the crap I refuse to part with!  Isn't she awesome?  She looks kinda pissed at someone and I sure wouldn't mess with that big-ass sword of hers!

I ripped the edges of the image to give it a battered, vintage-y look and then ran a black ink pad around it so no white edges showed.  I find that really helps when you are going for a vintage or grungy look.  Then I fiddled with placement of the image on the page and when I liked where she would live, glued her down.  Once she was in place, I realized that I didn't like how the black drips were cut off by the image.  They no longer looked as random as I wanted.

So the final step was to take my India Ink marker (Faber Castell Pitt Pen) and embellish those drips a bit so they looked better.  First, I tried India Ink in the eye dropper again, but it would not adhere to the smooth paper the image was printed on, so the marker was the next best option.

And there you have it!  I opted to leave this page simple because it has lots of power in it as it is.  It did not strike me as the kind of page that needed to be too fussy.  And the title of it, "Strength Of Purpose," came to me in a flash as soon as it was done.  When the names come to me that fast, I know I am tuned in what the piece is saying to me.

Hope you enjoyed this lesson.  See you again soon, my friends!

Joanna