Hello friends!  I have been on a bit of an art journal journey lately and so I decided to continue this week!  Here is what I came up with! 

The Crafter’s Workshop provided me with some product to create this project.  The opinions I share are solely my own.

You can see all the mixed media and stencils I chose above and below. I adore the names of all the new acrylic paints…very clever!While my first layer of gesso dried, I mixed the blues, green and purple with white to lighten up the colors.
I did some very loose brushing in a criss cross pattern across the right page of the journal using the left side to basically “clean” my brush off adding a little color at the spine and the top left corner. I added another light layer of the white gesso to provide a base for the face stencil.I lightly traced over the details in the stencil with a pencil, knowing I would be using it as my guide.
I used a combination of watercolor types, pans and tubes, blocking out the stenciled pieces first to follow the basic layout of the girl.I kept adding layers and layers of watercolor over the original outline.  It really helped because the proportions and outline of the eyes and nose are already down for me.

Then I simply got to play and paint in the face, which is one of my favorite things to do!  I added some details with black and white gel pens for contrast.I finished up the spread by added the words from the 12×12 ‘Have Faith’ stencil on the left page.  I love the finished result, although it looks sad.  It’s not a self portrait, but it did help me work through some emotions by enhancing my portrait with the stencil and just being creative!

Thanks for stopping by the Blog today and I hope this inspires you to use one of the face stencils in whatever way you decide!

PRODUCTS used:

TCW9001 – White Gesso

TCW9016 – Heavy Body Acrylic – Spun Sugar

TCW9024 – Heavy Body Acrylic – Kale Smoothie

TCW9021 – Heavy Body Acrylic – Blueberry Pie

TCW9022 – Heavy Body Acrylic – Grape Jelly

TCW9023 – Heavy Body Acrylic – Blue Jellybean

TCW698 – 12×12 Dooddling Template – Emma

TCW701 – 12×12 Doodling Template – Have Faith