Black acrylic background and popping colors

Paint some pages in your Art Journal black and come over to the dark side with me!

Gee, my black paint was starting to dry in the tube, it was about time I got around to using some black. But what to do with the page now, it’s so… dark… You dig through your stash of art materials and papers to see what would show up on such a black background.

These are my favorite finds in my own stash of pens, plus that white lace tape, some glitter glue and shiny stickers stars that “pop” against all thtat black. Journaling on black is difficult without “the right kind” of pens. When I started doing black backgrounds after Michelle Ward’s prompt Come over to the Dark Side in Crusade #34 I didn’t think I would have any pens that would work on black, but after some digging I found out I had quite a few. Gelly roll pens from Sakura for journaling, white and metallic colors are great! I did a page that was kind of a test page for all the pens but also a celebration of Dia de los Muertos:

Art Journal spread with black background: Dia de los Muertos 2009 by iHanna.

View some close ups below and read the details…

Got a really cool stamp from my friend Marica. It’s a Teesha figure with a pointy hat, here stamped with gold colored acrylics so that it looks almost embossed (but this method doesn’t give the best print, it’s a bit smudgy). I also stamped quite a few flowers with my hand carved stamp from crusade #18 Cut it out. I chose to forget those stamps because I wasn’t really happy with my carving, but with acrylic paint they work well and I love how the the two different flowers look in gold on black! Mmm!

Writing on black, trying out different pens on black acrylic paint. They just pop no matter what you write. The skull sticker is from a sticker sheet I bought because it had both skulls, flames and guitars. I’ve been using them a lot this autumn, they just feel appropriate in some way right now. Sometimes you’re drawn to certain imagery, right?

I love circles. These are made with my beloved Neocolor II crayons.

I found this well known and beautiful image La Catrina in the newspaper and glued into the Art Journal. This image is called La Calavera Catrina, it’s a zinc etching from 1913 by Mexican printmaker Jos? Guadalupe Posada. You might have seen this image before because it has since become a staple of Mexican imagery, and often is incorporated into artistic manifestations of the Day of the Dead in November. I was happy and quite surprised to find it in a Swedish newspaper!

Sticker with an appropriate message for the page (it’s a quote from Virginia Woolf);
– Against you I will fling myself, unvanquished and unyielding, O Death!