Sketchbook Pages: Love More

I've gotten my groove back! I'm well on my way to crossing off my longstanding goal of filling up this Amber altered book. Here's my latest page:

Since this is an old novel, the pages are quite thin and fragile. Over the course of working in it, some of the pages have torn - as was the case with one of the pages for this spread. So, to start, I covered a good part of both sides with masking tape before painting. I mixed gesso with naphthol red medium and a bit of azo orange for a pretty sunrise effect.

Since I'm back in the mixed-media groove, I'm rediscovering some of my favourite supplies. In this case, I took out some of my stamps and added in a few layers of arrows and chevron in black ink.

The page sat in this state for about a week before I had a chance to get back to it. I decided to add to the stamped areas: I journalled messily with a black Sharpie and doodled with black, orange, pink and red oil pastels. Without stopping for photos, I collaged in a few small pieces of patterned paper that just happened to be the perfect shade of pinky-red. Then I pushed everything back with another layer of orange and red paint:

To finish the page, I felt it needed a bit more doodling. This time, I started out with a white Sharpie and drew in a flower. Then I added a few more with a red Prismacolor. I added flowers and circles with a gold Sharpie before finishing off with a few "love" phrases in the red. Lastly, I felt this page needed a bit of splatter - seems I can't finish a page without it! Droplets of black India ink and white gesso just tie everything together so nicely! 

This page makes me especially happy because I used a few techniques and supplies I haven't used very often lately. I have Easter Monday off and I hope to get one last page in before packing all my things away. One more week before our big move! I'm SO excited!