Art journal page - Look mum, I am a street artist

Hello everyone,

you won't find a fancy stamping technique in this post. Today I'm taking you on a little excursion about composition. With this art journal page I want to show you that you can stage your small stamps on larger projects. I didn't initially plan to showcase this page here on the blog, but I'm sure there are a lot of stampers that are struggeling with composition and are afraid that their images might get lost if they're too small compared to the whole project's size.
 

The background was an intuitive play with asemic writing, some acrylic paints and sprays as well as some stencils. The Buddha statue is a printed out image blended into the page with some more acrylic spray. If you print out things for using in your journals make sure its royality-free.

The page didn't look like street art to me at first sight, but a part of me wanted to add a Banksy stamp to it by all means. And while browsing through my stamps I came across the spraypainter and thought it would look great there, even if it is so small compared to the rest of the page. The quote that I stamped on my clean-up paper from the previous process was a perfect match.

Remember, there is no right or wrong in art. I'm just sharing a few tips that helped me making this page work:
- Play with contrasts. Not only regarding colors, but also with light and dark or contrasting shapes. This does not only refer to focal images, but also to the background itself. Here I used a black and white image (an uncolored stamp) against a colorful background.
- Decide where your focal point should be. I find it easier to place main elements near the edges of the page. Connecting them with the egdes helps them not to get lost, especially when you use smaller images on a larger page. I'm rarely creating a project that is completely focused to the center just because it is more difficult for me. Did you notice that on my page even the stenciled areas are touching the edges?
- Create a visual path. I'd bet the first thing that came to your eyes was the Buddha statue, just because it's heavily dominating the page. Then you recognize the spraypainter in the corner and move over to the quote and the rest of the page. The order in which you discover elements on this page is essential for my storytelling. You can influence this with contrast, size and placement of the elements you use.

Composition is not always easy and needs a little practice. You want to get a feel for that? Look at your older projects and focus on contrasts, where you placed elements and follow the visual path. Find out what you like and what makes you happy and remember those elements when you're creating something new.

Stamps used:
Banksy Spraypainter Boy (20452)
Banksy Look Mum I Am (19946)

Other material:
- Art Journal (Dina Wakley vlue edition)
- Acrylic paint Lukas (naples yellow, raw sienna, Indian yellow, titanium white, iron oxide black)
- Dina Wakley Gloss sprays (eggplant, night)
- Stencils (Finnabair - iris tapestry; TCW - woven)
- Printed image
- Versafine ink (nocturne)
- Posca paint pen (gold)

See you soon!