Art Journaling with Gelatos

I've been doing a lot of art journaling lately, so I've been trying to expand my horizons with some new products. I've had this set of Quartet Alphacolor Water Crayons for awhile now, but they are not my favorite. You have to wet your paper pretty good to get them to blend and get a nice water color effect. They are good for some things though, like outlining or shadowing.

I just discovered Faber-Castel's Gelatos and I've fallen in love! They are mess free, easy to use, and you can create a variety of effects. Plus, they are like drawing with a tube of lip stick-how much fun is that! I thought I'd take you through a journal page I've started using only Gelatos, Water Crayons and gesso.

For Valentine's Day we made these Pintrest inspired heart shaped crayons, and this color combo was my favorite. It was the inspiration for my journal page.

I started by drawing some random shapes with the Gelatos (pinks and reds) and Watercrayons (green and yellow)

I started blending the colors with a very wet brush with firm bristles. 

Next, I added some white gesso and blended more. This toned down the colors a bit, and gave it a more creamy texture.

I added some stencils prints with thin white gesso. I stenciled over the color blocks to soften the edges.

More drips, stamps and details...

Some shading...

Lettering with white gesso.

And shading on the letters.

I outlined my letters with a thin black sharpie marker. I'm still looking for a good liner pen if anyone has any suggestions.

I'm not done yet, but this was my stopping point. The best part is, I did this all at my kitchen table with very little mess to clean up. The Gelato sticks are so convenient! I purchased the red Gelatos set at Michaels. I went back today and purchased the blue set. Unfortunately, at my Michaels, they don't have a big selection of these. I have a feeling I will be find a place online where I can order a set with more colors.

I will be posting more journal pages in the upcoming weeks.