I love working on toned paper!

I just had to see if I could copy one of my art tips to share, here!  It appears to have worked...sort of!

You can see all my original art tips on my blog, here: http://cathyjohnson.info/tips.html --we're up to 133 now.

Playing with the new Strathmore toned paper journal

I have a journal I use almost exclusively for writing, and decided I needed to try the new Strathmore hardbound journal when I ran out of my faves.

It's nice! Smooth surface, a pleasure to write in, tempting mid-tan color, and fun to do some art in, taking advantage of that middleground tone.

This is a Prismacolor dark grey pencil with touches of white...

Whee, more colored pencil and ink!

Pilot Penmanship pen with water-soluble ink, plus white Prismacolor and gouache.

And a female bluebird in gouache.  The paper really buckles VERY little, and it's just plain fun!

It was just a very quick pencil sketch...the gouache brings her to life!

I'd definitely recommend these...I'm having a ball trying out different mediums in addition to my daily journaling!

GOOD NEWS!

As I've noted before, I use my journal in about all circumstances, including dealing with life's ups and downs.  Yesterday we were delighted to get GOOD news, a definite upper, and though my pen ran out of ink before I could sketch either Joseph or his doctor,  I caught the other patients in the waiting room and the distant Kansas City skyline, out the window.

PSA zero, he's cancer-free!

Working on Toned Paper

Have you tried toned paper in your journal?  All those in the montage above are from various of my own journals, and as you can see, it is an interesting and very dimensional effect!  I bind my own journals so I can have paper I enjoy working on, but you can buy toned paper sketchbooks or journals too.  (Fabriano makes one that has REALLY bright colors in it!)

Gouache works well on toned paper, of course...I have a small kit I carry with me that lets me work on the spot.  This is a wild geranium in our local park (I can never see the detail from a photo as I can in person.)

This is Prismacolor colored pencil on black...my spoiled kitty Merlin!

Watercolor pencil makes an interesting effect on toned paper too...it's a bit translucent, but nice...

I used a bit more color on this fountain sketch, but not much...again, this was colored pencil, with a bit of white gouache for the water.

You can use only two sketching tools, a dark and a light, to make your images pop!  These were just quick sketches at a family birthday party.  That's what I used on the sketch of my husband, wearing glasses in the montage--a dark colored pencil and a white one, from Prismacolor--and on the little parking-lot people at lower left in that same image.

And of course, you can tone your own paper, with watercolor, ink, or acrylics, if you're working in an existing journal!  You've got even more freedom in that case...

A very quick way to bring your journal sketches to life!  Give it a try...




*Note:  By the way that bottom sketch was from a live concert we attended, Acoustic Eidolon!  Here's the link to their webpage, with a bit of their music...wonderful.