light of some kind
Originally uploaded by lessherger
This piece was a little more involved than some of the others I've posted. So bear with me as I go through the steps. First I started with a gesso'd page. I wrote on it with G2 gel ink. I allowed the ink to fully dry. I then sketched in the face on the right side with a watersoluble ink pen. On the left side I added a heavy layer of blue watercolor crayon. I scribbled hard and pressed it into the recesses. I wet my brush and used gloss gel medium to mix it with the watercolor crayon. I kept my brush moving and mixed the gel medium with the crayon very well. I used the excess to add some color around the face on the right hand page, I used some of it to blur and seal the watersoluble ink.
I colored a circular die cut and put it around the left eye. It's a common motif in a lot of my art journals. From the center point of this circular die cut I used a ruler to create a radial ray pattern around the eye. I painted this in with a liquid yellow paint. Towards the ends I added some water to thin my paint and allow the color to fade out, like a flashlight beam. Over the parts of the face that were not sealed I worked quickly but deliberately blurred the features in the liquid paint.
It is important to note that between each layer I either allowed it to dry or dried it with my heat gun.
Around the die cut I used my watercolor crayon to add a red "glow." This was a tad too transparent so I added some prismacolor colored pencils. I felt the image needed something more so I added the trio of stars dangling from around the eye. I deliberately allowed the ink closest to the eye to blur a bit. I did this by moistening the image in that area with a damp brush.
I wanted to soften the edges a bit so with a large bristle brush I scrubbed a very thin layer of white paint into the edges of the painting. I allowed this to dry fully before I noticed that the pages were very sticky. Gloss gel medium sticks to itself when you use it. After it fully dried I coated the entire page with a very thin coat of bee's wax. After I coated the page I buffed it out with a soft rag. Sticking problem solved.
You can see the full sized image and get a lot of detail by clicking on
the thumbnail above and clicking the "see all sizes" button above the
image that comes up.