Liquid Acrylics and India Ink

From Bold and Beautiful, to soft and subtle... using liquid color can give you a very unique element to your Art Journal pages. I personally like the Bold look better... but, play with your options and find what works for you.
To achieve a softer look try:
~ diluting a few drops into some water and apply with a brush or a spray bottle.
~ apply gesso to your page, let dry, then add your liquid color.
~ spray your page with water and apply the color with a dropper or paint brush.
~ apply color to the page and then spray with a water bottle.
Play around and see what effects you can create. You can also stamp, blot and stencil liquid color.

To achieve a dark, bold look:
~ stamp, paint, stencil, blot, drizzle, dab, etc the color directly onto a fresh, untreated page of your art journal.
~ you can also spray with water to give it a more water color effect.

But, above all else, Have FUN!
Here are two pages I did with India Ink.

I created the backgrounds together using the same colors to create unison and flow.
The left side I added Gesso ~ so it's a softer more washed out color. On the right I added it directly to the paper for a bolder look.
I love both looks.

 The softer color palette was perfect for me to embellish with words and art. I wanted to just play with the, "I am..." prompt which I had seen the day before, after all that is one of the main purposes of keeping an Art Journal - Positive Affirmation
~ I added more color to the words and banner at the top
~ Played with a package of ephemera that I had laying around until I achieved the right dynamic.
~ Before gluing them down I edged them with pigment ink stamp pads in bright colors then in black.
~ Lastly I grunged the edges and the whole page.

I actually did quite a bit more to this page after the initial liquid ink application.
~ To start, Black stamping and writing in white gel pens over the bold color added contrast.
~ Washi tape and ribbon help to create motion and lines.
~ Messy circles in pen and marker around my bright, bold dots enhance and emphasize the shapes.
~ Added ephemera creates interest and a three-D element. As with the other side I added color to the edges with pigment ink stamp pads then again in black.
~ Because all my ephemera is game pieces I thought it fitting to  use the phrase, "Life is NOT a GAME" in  my heart.
~ I also finished this page by grunging the edges and the whole page.
Smile ~ Laugh ~ Create Art

Bountiful Beauties

If you're new to my blog, Welcome, come join me for a cup of coffee/tea. If you've been here a while thank you for coming back, the pot is always on. New friend, acquaintance or long time cherished friend, I hope my blog inspires you to find your own creative path and perhaps to begin your own art journal. The options for Art Journaling are endless, I can only share my styles, tips, tricks and techniques with you... My hope is that you fall in love with Art Journaling, search up other styles as well as mine and then find your own style.

I've been working on a series of women who express pure femininity. The theme I've chosen for these women is Bountiful Beauties; strong beautiful women, powerful affirmations, bold colors and of course sexy, stylized portraitures.

Steps 1-3

The methods are pretty simple and standard.

1) Prep your background with interesting ephemera.

2) Choose your colors and begin playing, adding layers and interest upon the page.

3) Sketch your Beauty in carbon, lightly, so you can still make corrections if needed.
4) Paint face, hair and body. My eyes are a combination of marker, pencil

Steps 4-5

crayon and acrylics.

5) Stamp, Stencil or paint in some big bold flowers or other interesting items to compliment                         your beauty.

Steps 6-8

6)Continue adding layers of color to hair, background and your beauty until you have the desired effect.
7) Stencil or write in your Affirmation.
8) Finish with bold black marker, white highlights and any other detail that captures your fancy.

You're AMAZING!
Keep practicing and pouring your heart into your Art Journals.
Remember it's your journal, if you want to journal in the background, in your beauties hair or underneath the paint in the early stages, DO IT! It adds interest and helps to add to the therapeutic part of Art and Art Journaling.

*Color
I simply love playing with different color combinations. I find it refreshing and exciting to put new and unconventional colors together...the end result always surprises me.

*Cheep Thrills
Buying a new bold color palate to me is such a rush.
The possibilities and fun to be had in those little paint tubes is a big thrill... I know, it's such an artsy thing to say. Sigh

*Journals
I use heavy weight Art Journals, but you can use lighter weight paper just gesso/mod podge two pages together. OR use old books~up-cycling is fun & thrifty.

*Affirmations
What speaks to you? What inspires you? What motivates you?

*Ooooops,
I realized after I had written the word "Soar" that there was a bunch of room underneath and the spacing didn't quite work... so I wrote the word, "High". But, amusingly I had already added the exclamation mark... so, it looks like I'm encouraging ppl to do drugs. NOT!
I amuse myself sometimes.

As always, it was so nice to see you and thank you again for stopping by.
Please share your work with me.
All the work on this blog is the sole property of Danine Mroz of Prairie Mroz Art and may NOT be used without the written permission of Ms. Mroz. Thank you.

Be Bold

I have always been BOLD and different, it's just the way I am. My whole life I have swam up stream, cut my own path through the forest and danced to the beat of my own drum. For a long time I thought being BOLD and different meant you were just being strange and weird. It wasn't until much later in my life that I began embracing my differences and realized that those were the things that made me special. So now for me,  being BOLD is about taking chances, trying new things and stepping outside of my comfort zone. It's about living the life you have always dreamed about and not feeling guilty for doing so. When you're BOLD you listen to your heart and intuition to find out who your authentic self really is and then you let her shine through. This is the intent of my latest art journal entries and a whole new venture I've begun.

It is to all the BOLD and fearless women out there who dare to be different and live their authentic lives that I dedicate, "BE BOLD", my new line of art. With strong - BOLD colors, chunky - BOLD shapes, and heart felt phrases that reflect the inner beauty of these strong, vivacious women.
I look forward to sharing them with you.
Hugz,
Danine
Prairie Mroz

Trust Your Heart

In my life I have found that I tend to listen to my heart far more than I listen to my head. In some cases this has lead me to make a some bad relationship and financial choices...and ending up with a battered and beaten heart. But, I get out the duct tape (cause duct tape fixes everything) and do the best fix-it job I can and carry on. In art though, I find that the heart is never wrong, in fact some of my best mistakes in art have been my heart screaming at me to put some color here or there and what I initially thought would be a huge flop turned out to be quite the Happy Mistake. As it was with my latest painting... I had been working on a piece for a while and though the colors were pretty, the girl was lovely... she had no character. So I started throwing big, bold colors at her and to my surprise, it not only worked, I loved it.
So, listen to your heart and be open to new and bold enterprises... You might just surprise yourself!

This is a little peek at my painting, "Trust Your Heart"