Easy Cut & Paste Collage Art in my Junk Journal

Hello everyone!

In one of my recent private workshops we made a fun little collage with leftover scraps of paper and simple tools. My motto is always use what you have, recycle and upcycle. I created the left page as a demo and I thought, why not share my technique with my fellow bloggers :)

Below are the steps to create a similar page. I worked in my handmade junk journal, but any journal or even a loose sheet of paper will do.

In the first step I gathered my supplies, which consisted of my basket with paper scraps as well as a box of crayons, my favorite stamps and a couple of paint pens as well as some basic supplies like scissors and a glue stick. I like tearing my papers, but cutting them works fine, too.

I chose papers with interesting markings, usually gelli prints or painted papers. In the next step I added stamps in random areas and made some marks with a purple crayon to harmonize with the purple already present on the collage. I also swiped some black paint on the page with my finger.

While I left the page to dry, I prepared my focal image. First I stamped a text stamp on a piece of regular white paper. Then I placed a leaf stencil on top and dabbed black paint all around it. Once dry, I carefully cut around the image, leaving a narrow black edge.

Finally, I adhered the cut out leaf image along with a sentiment to my collaged page.

I hope you enjoyed this beginner-friendly tutorial. You can easily change things up by choosing different collage papers, making a variety of marks, adding more stamps and a different focal image (my workshop participant's pages all looked unique!)

Thanks for visiting!

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Painting Portraits

Hi lovelies!

I was de-cluttering my studio when I came across two unused canvas panels. Quite spontaneously I popped them onto my work surface and decided to paint portraits. Now, if you follow me on my socials you'll know that I like to paint, draw, sketch in whatever style I currently fancy! While many others go on a quest to find their signature style (and there's nothing wrong with that), I have made peace with the fact that I paint where my mood takes me. One of my favorite quotes by Edward Hopper describes this perfectly:

" If you could say it in words, there would be no reason to paint. "

40 x 50 cm

In the above painting I leaned into Pop Art, a style originating in the mid 50s that communicates through bright and sometimes cartoon-like imagery. I wanted something fun and unusual. This stylized portrait is done with acrylic paint as well as paint pens. I did not work from a reference, I simply painted what came into my mind. As of yet this portrait remains untitled - suggestions welcome!

"Silvia" 40 x 50 cm

The second example is an expressive acrylic painting touching on realism. Looking at it on my screen I can immediately see where adjustments should have been made, and I will keep this in mind for my next portrait. The above painting took me several days to complete. I have been a creative person my entire life, but please keep in mind that I have no formal training as an artist :) 

The question I naturally get asked the most is who the person is in the portrait. The simple answer is: I don't know! I rarely work from a reference photo and I guess my approach to these types of paintings is unconventional (you should have seen the underpainting!). But once I push back the layers with lots of white I kind of "see" a face emerging in my mind's eye. And while I'm painting, the features also transform. I originally meant to paint long, dark brown hair, but as I was painting the eyes, I realized this lady needed a shorter length hairstyle in a light brown color. It's quite possible, that there is someone somewhere that looks similar to my portrait - if so, it is entirely coincidental. I titled this painting Silvia, as I felt the name suited her. What do you think?

And lastly, I leave you with an abstract expressive portrait that was part of an exercise that I took part in right at the beginning of my art journey five years ago. As I recall, I was supposed to lay down shadow areas with a big brush, then add in highlights and finally details with a black watercolor pencil. All while using a minimal color palette. I enjoyed this experiment!

Thank you for reading along and have a wonderful weekend!