Monochomatic Markmaking with Willowing Arts

Recently I joined Willowing Arts' Life Book 2023 Taster Sessions. Alas I was only able to catch a few of the video demonstrations before the session expired, but I especially enjoyed the lesson put together by Mixed Media Teacher, Eulalia Mejia aka @happychinchilla I couldn't wait to play with a variety of paints and markers to create some monochromatic fodder!

The first step involved sorting out all the various acrylic paints and inks by color. This proved to be a valuable exercise on its own as I could quickly gauge my favorite colors and where there were gaps to fill. Once the paints were sorted, it was time to cover your page with that one color range. I used an assortment of brushes, rubber scrapers, gift cards, etc to apply the paint to create a variety of textures. Of course, it was only a matter of time until I started to jump ahead into the mark-making!

While all my pages were drying, it was time to sort out out all the pens, markers, and inks into their color groupings for a bit of doodle embellishments. 

This was my first time using my Posca markers and wow did I love how the bullet tips created bold marks on top of the painted backgrounds. Some of my other favorite pens included Uniball Signo and some glittery pens!!

I confess that I loved most of my background papers as they were, but the doodles were a total transformation! Many of the patterns were inspired by free-motion quilting motifs. For several of the pages, I found myself inspired by the color to evoke a range of doodles ie. watery waves, spirals, and bubbles for blue or leaves and grass for green. For some of the colors that were short on markers/pens in that colorway, I supplemented with metallic gold, silver, and copper! On at least one occasion a Posca marker leaked and I simply embraced the blob. See that large purple circle along the left edge? I was mulling over what to doodle in that area and totally panicked when a puddle of purple paint flowed out of the marker. Guess what--the circle totally worked so I addded a few more to that area!

Creating these pages nudged me to play with all the colors while exploring a few new-to-me mediums! I definitely added a few new favorite tools to create marks and thoroughly enjoyed the Zen of creating these pages. I shall pet them for a bit before cutting into them to use in my mixed media art!

Thanks to Tam of Willowing Arts for hosting Life Book 2023 and to Eulalia Mejia for these fantastic color exercises!!