Mixed media doodle - (aka practising techniques for project TLC)

The clearest idea I have for project TLC so far is the look and feel I want for the Journals cover. Many of Evelyns poems, mention some of the buildings of her time many of which are still being used today. I would like the cover to capture the ornate grandure of them.

In order to do that sucessufully There are a number of techniques, I'm going to have to learn and practise while I look for the perfect journal to work in.

Building Texture

I want picking up the new book to be a tactile experience so plan to add lots of detail and texture for this experiment I worked on a scrap of watercolour paper and used the following materials.

• Gesso
• Napkins
• Kitchen roll
• paper scraps
• weird butterfly craft tape pinched from Diva pixies stash
• water

I primed the paper with the gesso, then began building layers, ripping, soaking arranging then rearranging to add interst to the page. I then used more of the gesso to glue everything in place and prime for the next stage.

Colour Blending & Layering

One thing I've been struggling with since i started playing with acrylic paint is creating rich vibrant colour so I made it the main focus of this session spending a good 6 hours catching up on the steemit Talk Podcasts I've missed over the last few weeks while I painted, drew, scribbled, sprayed, dabbed and rubbed.
To achieve the final antique gold effect I used

• Acrylic Paints - metallic gold, metallic bronze, burnt umber, titanum white
• Hard pastel pencils - Browns
• Inks- pinks, reds, yellows, greens, browns, plum
• Graphite & charcoal pencil

Adding Details

Once I was happy with the final colour I started to add details highlighting some of the texture using pastel pencils and experimenting with my dip pen and ink to see how it would work/look over the metallic acrylics. I couldn't take progress pictures as Selkie decided she was spending the rest of the afternoon like this.

The end result

Overall I'm really pleased with how this turned out, The ink work didn't work for a number of reasons it didn't want to sit on top of the dry acrylic and having commited the ultimate dip pen sin by drawing on rough surfaces a lot I've damaged that particular nib.Knowing they would look pretty bad I added a few more doodles in a final goodbye to my favourite nib as the text had already done the damage ruining the overall look of the piece.

Unfortuntely by the time I had finished the light had changed and my camera is point blank refusing to pick up the a lot of the metallic tones so it looks more like a human skin monstrosity than a lovely antique gold, which is perfect for the halloween season I guess.