Creative Building Blocks: Squares, Circles and Letters and the Action to Put Them Together

Cover

Art Journal Cover

Working in a 9x12 multimedia paper journal by Canson.

 

The Composition

The diagonal creates energy and a way to organize the shapes.

 

Watercolor Rusty Effect

For the gear,  I painted on a separate sheet with metallic watercolor straight and mixed with a darker red-brown watercolor (brown madder) to get the rusted look, and cut it out. This cover was my first try with gesso through a stencil. The background texture is stamped with a rubber non-slip pad. 

The surprise: the way the center of the gear creates a mini-frame to highlight a chunk of the background.