Hello art journalers, it has been quiet here for a while, I have been really busy with my daughter’s dance rehearsals, photos, performances on 5 nights and my son’s graduation from primary school. But things have settled down and I finally had time to create a video tutorial for you.

Today I show you how create great contrast with minimal supplies and colours. Of course there is lots of texture, too. It took me about an hour to complete plus drying time.

I started by adding masking tape but I could have skipped that because I then decided to add collage in the form of dictionary pages to both pages. After that I applied white gesso with a dry brush to knock back the text. Using Finnabair’s art basics heavy gesso in white and Jo Sonja’s black gesso I added texture and stark contrast. More contrast has been added with Ceramcoat acrylic paint in yellow and orange.

Look at the texture, isn’t it scrumptious? And I love the texture of the gesso and paint.

With the help of a compass, a set square and free-hand I drew a dreamcatcher, which I coloured with black/coloured markers and paint. Again I am playing with contrast – this time using cold colours on top of the previous warm colours.

With a pencil I wrote out my quote and traced it with my black pen, thickening the down strokes.

Materials used:

  • masking tape
  • Liquitex matte medium
  • old dictionary pages
  •  Catalyst wedge W-06
  • Liquitex gesso, white
  •  Jo Sonja’s gesso black
  • art basics heavy gesso, white
  • dry brush
  • old plastic card
  • palette knife
  • Ceramcoat acrylic paint
  • Posca marker, black
  • Fude ball, black
  • Pilot Permaball, black
  • Uniball Signo, white
  • various paint markers
  • compass
  • set square

Check out my video for the full tutorial, I hope you enjoy!

A dream will always be a dream until you make it happen.

I think every one of us has one or more dreams and we think for some reason, we cannot make it happen for whatever reason. But what if we can? I give you an example: Since I was a little girl, I have loved horses and wanted to learn to ride. For various reasons it never happened until… the beginning of this year. A friend of mine owns a horse and she asked my kids and me to come with her and have a little ride on her horse. The kids were hooked and begged for lessons. Long story short: I signed them up for lessons and… decided to join them! It isn’t as easy as it would be when you are younger but I thoroughly enjoy it!

Do you have a dream? Have you made it happen? Tell me about it!