Negative Space

It reached 40 degrees again today....so all the snow has fallen or melted off the trees and fences.  There's still a lot on the ground....but it's melting! When Paul and I were walking this morning....noticed that

"It was one of those March days when the sun shines hot and the wind blows cold: when it is summer in the light and winter in the shade " Great Expectations

And boy...was it windy today!

Here's a few photos I took yesterday....the day after the storm.

Now that I have a place for my hand lettering practice to land....I'm more motivated than ever.  One of my favorite techniques so far is filling in the negative space....and there are so many ways to do it.

I did this one late last evening....and since I was working on my lap...I used colored pencils to fill it in rather than watercolor.  I strung together random quotes....and tried to be so careful. But STILL....I left out a letter.  I spy where I had to squeeze in a "j"?  

I sewed it in opposite this watercolor page that was already in the book....and I'll be thinking about something for the middle....and to accent the watercolor page.  Maybe I'll shop my snippets!

When I started this book a couple years ago...the most important aspect of the book was that it was flexible.  You have to do a little maneuvering to get it under the presser foot....but so worth it.  Stitching changes everything!

This was actually one of my first handwriting spreads in this journal.....another experiment with Roseanne's artist tape.  I don't really like it...but I thought I would share it anyway.  I've painted on this artist tape with watercolor....so I wanted to try acrylic.  

I sliced up the tape on my cutting mat just like I did before. After I transferred it to the release paper I used this little circle stencil and a couple colors of fluid acrylics and a makeup sponge to make some dots.  Because the stencil was small I had to move the it around a lot so it was kind of messy....but I didn't mind that imperfect look.  In some places....I got a little messy on purpose.

I was pleased with the result...this was the perfect page for it in the journal alongside this gelli print.  

BUT......it looked the best at THIS point before I added the practice letting. But that's what practicing is all about.....not being afraid to make mistakes.

Don't love the spread.....in hindsight I should have stuck with just blues.

 But I'm trying to "embrace" who I am.  I don't always make the best decisions....I love color....I'm often a bit messy....and I don't always know when to stop.