52 Playdates: week 1

As part of my commitment to myself to make time for art this year, I have joined year-long art play at http://janfoxdesigns-52playdates.blogspot.com.au Jan is guiding the group with weekly prompts and techniques. I am really behind but will soldier on! This is my exercise from week 1: Blending technique for collage. I loved this technique. Got to use pastels for the first time. They were surprisingly fun to use and using them with gesso in this way I did not find them to be messy at all. Didn't even need to use the sealing spray that I bought.

I have dedicated my long-desired treasure to this project - my first Moleskine (watercolour) that my hubby gave me for my recent birthday. Still not sure how far I will go beyond the technique of the week ie. whether to keep it to the technique only or complete a journal page with the weekly technique as a foundation....Yes I think too much ;) Promised myself I will go with the flow and not set any rigid rules.

For this week's exercise, I was focused on picking a magazine image of a suitable size (big enough to be a focal point on an A4 page) and for it to be suitable for extending the background. Having found an image, I was looking through my file of magazine words, with no clue as to what 'she' was going to be about. Again, I was mainly looking for colour and font style. Lo and behold! Art journal magic, yet again. Perfect words for the situation. A new start, an opportunity for play for a new year.

I did some light journalling to complete the page, not wanting to obscure the technique for myself. The answer to the question above re: how far to take the page? For this week, it's somewhere in between ;)