puzzle technique

Hello, my friends.  I'm not so sure that I like this new format that blogger has.  What was wrong with the other one?

I have a new art journal spread that I've been working on.  It's for a challenge on OWSE Yahoo group.  The background was made using the puzzle technique. Ha!  Is it any surprise that mine looks more like a quilt than a puzzle?

The technique is basically easy.  You start by lightly (I was a bit heavy handed) drawing with a pencil all over your spread to look like puzzle pieces.  Then go over it with a coat of gesso.  The pencils marks will show through, giving you guidelines on where to paint the different sections with your acrylic paints.

I thought mine was way too bold and bright, since I tend to like my background to be just that - a background.  I want my focal image(s) to stand out.  So I watered down some gesso and brushed a wash over the whole thing.  I like it this way much better, although it's still kinda busy.

I decided to add some quilting lines along the color separations with white gel pen - subtle, so it doesn't stand out.

The words and arrows are computer generated.  The arrows are from a wingding font, printed in size 96 and then cut out and glued down.  I sponged cool caribbean ink on the edges of the words and then added an edging with a black marker.

I thought the spread needed a little bit more, so I used swiss dots stencil from Crafter's Workshop and sponged some white paint randomly here and there. 

Thanks so much for stopping by today.  I hope you have a wonderful weekend.