Suzanneiam

This is my collage at the week two stage from the Strathmore online visual journal workshop with Pam Carriker. The focus of the workshop is to reuse art work from previous journals and change and re-purpose it as a new journal page.
This week was a real challenge for me, and that was the whole point of the workshop – to try something new.
So this week’s task was to add under journaling in pencil, depth with charcoal, then add new color with oil pastel, all of which got blended into the page with a gesso wash.
I have to say, when I began the page I was not really happy with the result, I wished I had journaled on the gridded paper instead of the open paper and the page was oddly gray, rather than shaded from blending charcoal into the matte medium used as glue, but I continued. After I added the color with the oil pastels, I was really not happy. I felt like I had made several bad color choices and the entire page was ruined, not to mention completely garish. I continued on with the next step, however, and added the gesso wash.
When I checked back after the gesso had dried I was pleasantly surprised with the page, it was not as bad as I though it was going to be. I added a little bit of ink with a brush pen to get back a few details and re colored a bit of the face. I still am not sure how I feel about the page and I know for sure I have more time invested in it than any other page in my journal.
The next step is to add a texture element in the negative space with found objects and acrylic paint, which I should get to in the next day or two, then we will see what it looks like again.