Here is another inspiring post from artist Tracy Hickman aka @anonymous.palette on Instagram.
These journal pages were inspired by the Quatrefoil Repeat Pattern Stencil (11″x11″) from Stencil1, one of my favorite motifs. I used a few different soft pastels and mixed them with clear and white gesso on a taupe textured handmade Indian paper. When dried, I used the stencil to trace and cut out the design to make paper “tiles”.
The color palette from these tiles led me to select one of my favorite PaperArtsy colors, mushroom mixed with a smidge of moonlight toward the bottom, I painted both pages and collaged some vintage tickets and ration stamps and then used several contrasting washi tapes and ran them randomly and horizontally across the pages.
I then placed Stencil1’s Dragon Scales Stencil – Small (5.75″x6″) over the washi in random places and sponged PaperArtsy Truffle and Moonlight to marry the background and add a tonal subtle pattern. A Seth Apter stamp #EM55 was used with Distress Ink in scattered straw and vintage photos.
I next used the Damask Full Repeat Stencil – Small (5.75″ x 6″) over 3 of the collage shapes and mixed lavender pastels into modeling paste to color and spread through the stencil with a palette knife. The collaged shapes that were now patterned were glued down with a glue stick and shaded with pencil and sepia high flow acrylic paint from Golden.
I found a vintage fortune, some hand made paper, and an old keyhole and glued onto the elements along with an address and sentiment on an old library card. This spread needed a bit of contrast still so I mixed some agean and turquoise pastels, again mixed into modeling paste and spread through a fourth Stencil-Bubbles Up Stencil – Small (5.75″ x 6″) to lead your eye across the pages. I smudged Distress Ink in shaded lilac and black around the edges of all the pages and used Baked Texture Embossing Powders in rustic indigo and Desert subtly in some spots around the pages.
