Distress Paint in My Daily Journal

For the first week of the Summer of Color 2015, I used Distress Paints on a single piece of paper. That is probably the best way to do this technique because it is so messy. It takes a lot of paint and a lot of water.

Should you try this in your art journal? Maybe, after you have practiced on single sheets and see how messy this really is. (Oh, but so much fun!!!!) Will it leak to other pages? Yes. Will it get on the underpaper and get on your cover? Yes, probably. If you have a wire-bound journal, absolutely not, unless you want the Distress Paint on every page in your journal. It will leak through those holes in a heartbeat.

Have I every used the Distress Paints in my journal? Yes, occasionally. It leaked every time. But I have found some ways to make it less messy and less destructive to my finished work.

Below is a journal page I did with Distress Paints about a month ago.

You probably noticed that when I rotated the paper to make the drips, I tried not to let the drips go all the way to the edge. It didn't always work because they move quickly, but for the most part, I succeeded. There were some other things I did to keep this leaky project from messing up pages I had already completed.

The first thing is my journal, a Strathmore Hardback 500 Series Mixed Media Art Journal. The Strathmore Mixed Media products have been my go-to papers for several years now because they stand up well to the watery media I love to use. I rarely use gesso. Color never soaks through, including Dylusions Ink Sprays. The only other type of paper that works well with this much water is watercolor paper.

(Michaels here in the US carry some of the Strathmore Mixed Media papers.)

The hardbound journal is made of stitched signatures. The usual place were I get a leak is around the outside edges because I like my paint to go all the way to the edge. The other place where things sometimes leak is the middle page of the signature. Watery liquids will leak through the stitching holes, so I save them for another page.

But the Distress Paints are so messy that I go over to the next signature from where I am working. In that signature I choose the last page. 

The middle page has the stitching holes and thread. The page below that also has easier access to the holes. By the third page, the holes are less available. The pink lines show where I apply the paint. Notice that some of the paint leaks under the fold of the signature. But because paint doesn't soak through the Strathmore paper, the pages in the other signatures are protected.

I place newsprint between my working pages and the next page on each side. I have the Distress Paints poured out into recycled jar lids because I will be using a 1 inch brush for each color. You have to get the paint onto the page quickly so it will not dry out before you can spray water on it.

I first paint across the center of the spread with a background color, only going about an inch onto the left page. I do this thinly which means it is going to dry quickly, but that is okay. I won't be spraying water there. I am just trying to get rid of the white of the paper. I also continue this around the outside edge of the right side of the spread since I will try not to run my dripping paint over the edge.

Next I quickly apply the colors of Distress that I want to activate with water. Then I spray water heavily, avoiding the area near the center of the spread. I rotate the page in all directions getting the paint moving horizontally, vertically, and diagonally. Because I am working in the journal, I watch for drips that are getting close to the edge and rotate to send them another way. I might add additional paint and/or water, but not as much as I would if I were working on a single page.

After the Distress Paint is completely dry, I add some color to the rest of the left page. I make any notes regarding the art work, but I will not do daily journaling until I reach this spread as I go through my journal chronologically. I am just now getting to the daily journaling on this spread where the art was finished weeks ago.

As I worked my way into the signature where I used the Distress Paints, I found the leaks. A bit of gesso covers up the mess.

On the page I showed you above, Mustard Seed and Mermaid Lagoon were the colors used. They formed the green as they mixed. Later, while the paint was still wet, I used a pipette to drop in some Distress Black Soot and PIcket Fence (white). I often do this to add an accent color. If the Distress Paint is still wet, the drops will activate and spread. If the paint has already dried, the drops look like any paint spatter you might add to a project.

After I finished, I left my journal open on my art table. When I came back a bit later, a lot of the paint had moved to the right side of the paper. There was just a small curve to the paper, but that and gravity were enough. A lot of the paint was still wet and would be for some time since it was so thick there. I decided to see if I could still move it. It moved very slowly, but did get there. You can see how far it moved by the wash of color that was left behind.

If you work with Distress Paints on a large surface, I would enjoy seeing your results and learning about your process. I have never come across anyone else who does this.