Mr B goes to Sea

When my daughter was little I used to read a series of Mr McGee books to her (by Pamela Allen). Two of her favourites were Mr McGee and the Flea and Mr McGee Goes to Sea. When my son Benjamin was born, we would call him Mr B. Naturally my daughter would say Mr B Goes Sea. Well, Mr B is now three, and the name has stuck. It was the inspiration for this journal page.

I really like many of the pages I have seen online, that use a diamond stamp pattern. So I quickly cut one from an old eraser and using Vintage Photo Distress Ink, stamped up a border.

 

Because the Distress Inks are water soluble, I painted over the images with Acrylic Gel Medium. That way I could keep adding layers, without the ink running. I added a shadow using Red Tinted Graphite Paint.

 I added a twisted frame  - technique taught by Pam Carriker

I then drew my image using an HB pencil. I was recently watching a video by Suzi Blu (Self Guided Portraits) where she shows a technique using gesso over a drawn image. Well I adapted this technique and used my favourite staple: white gouache.

 I then coloured the background using a mix of gouache paint, and water soluble crayons.

 

 I used Derwent Graphitint pencils to create a "moody" sea and coloured the person with coloured pencils. The title was done using Collections Tiny Tiles.

Finally I added some journalling, and launched Mr B out to Sea.