Tuesday Tips and Techniques: Journal on Canvas!

That's right!  You've been hiding in your journal long enough.  Why don't you try the very same materials and techniques that you're using in your journal on a canvas?  You know can do it - what's stopping you?

I was fortunate to receive a rather large stack of canvases from my musician friend, Scott. (As a side note, check out his music here.)  His grandmother was an artist and when she died, Scott inherited a lot of unfinished canvases that he passed along to me.  I've been reluctant to do anything with them, ( I felt weird about painting over her work), but I've managed to overcome that block.  I think hope Grandma would approve.

Well, we all know that covered bridges just aren't "my thing", but it will continue to live on beneath lots of juicy layers of ink and paint.  I decided on beginning with these three 8"x 10" canvas boards.

It's much easier to work on multiple projects simultaneously when you're working with canvas.  It's pretty difficult to flip back and forth between wet pages when they're in a journaling book!

Painting wet -into-wet in an intuitive fashion is where my muse is these days.  Isn't this a wonderful, colorful mess?  Do you see any images yet?

Did someone say "Day of the Dead"?  What's with all of these skeleton/skull images I see?  I'm going to keep layering and playing.

Another advantage in using canvas is that you can flip it around in every direction and look for new images.  Now, one could certainly do that in a journal, but NOT ME!  I would be horrified to have a page that wasn't facing in the "right" direction, but I would be the loudest cheerleader for you if that's your thing!

Hmmmmmmm.....flipping it horizontally, I see a fish.  Looking at the canvases today, the fish has vanished under new layers of paint and waits for my scrutinizing gaze.  I wonder what images I'll find when I look at them again later.

I was feeling a little cramped for space on the 8" x 10"s, so I decided it was time to "go big or go home".  Since I was already at home, the next best thing was to pull out a 16" x 20" canvas board.  The cherub underpainting was lovely but not me.   Here is what it looks like now.  I've got a long way to go before completion.

I was on a mad rampage, canvases scattered around me in every direction.  I pulled out two more canvas boards - this time 9" x 12"s.  I was in creative flurry.  It felt great!

This 9" x 12" is about 95% completed.  I just need to add a few more details.  The first image in this post is one of the 8" x 10"s I started out with and is also completed to about the same degree.  

Can you tell how much fun I'm having outside the journal?  I have some pages started there, too, but nothing compares to the freedom of expression that a canvas can bring to one's creativity.  Go ahead - pull some old canvases or get some new.  Either way, I promise you - you're going to have FUN!

CELEBRATE * LOVE * CREATE