This is fun. Really.

I thought this was done, but took this pic and sent it to Klara. 

Used only 3 colors but blended them while still wet. Bright blue, purple, and a light green

The exercise in symmetry from Dina's first book

Connected the circles with more paint circles and yes, Klara was right!

The exercise in repetition from Dina's book

Stabilo All pencil was used around the squares

Story below

Another exercise in white space and contrast

When you have an actual plan to sit down and create, the work is much faster. Biggest delay is drying time. Which is why I have 9, yes count them, 9 working journals sitting on my desk. I am currently only working in 4, but they are there.

Huge difference in when you use a thin layer of gesso on the paper vs. not using it. The 3 color background above where I blended bright blue (Apple Barrel paint) and purple, then wiped off the design thru a stencil would not have turned out as it did without gesso. The light yellow/green was added immediately after the first stencil removal. I absolutely love this background. You can achieve variance in colors and get some unexpected results with this method. I wasn't meticulous about applying the gesso with an old credit card, so where the paper is bare, the paint grabbed differently. Little bits and areas like that make me smile. This is why I work in art journals. Too much fun.

The page with two silhouettes was done with an old Donna Downey stencil that is no longer available. But the single woman with her hands on her hips? Yeah, that was an ad I cut out from Vanity Fair magazine. Used mat medium to glue her to a piece of cardstock, and let that dry. Then cut out the shape, and used that shape to trace the outline on the page. I am now going thru old magazines looking for interesting figures to repeat this process. Once you make the mask, it's yours to reuse over and over.

I have about 7 different shades of gray in craft paint, and starting to use them all. When you are looking for subtle markings in a background, it's hard to screw it up with a shade of gray paint. I knew I wanted the horizontal stenciling to be bold in the last journal page, so that was done with an Apple Barrel color called Pavement. Dark charcoal, but not quite black. The lighter gray vertical stenciling is Wet Cement.

Stay safe. Go play. And have some fun. We all deserve it.
Linda