Guardian Wolf's Mission

After observing my in-process art journal spread for the past week, I was still unsure exactly what to do to finish it. But there were a few obvious things to work on, so that’s where I started. Sadly, I didn’t take photos along the way. All I have is views of the finished piece. Here’s the whole thing.

The finished Wolf Guardian art journal spread

The Guardian Wolf’s Mission

I added some writing to the lower left quadrant with black pen. First, I modified the area by adding several random layers of tissue paper to get a better base to write on. The writing describes the guardian wolf’s mission. I also added more alcohol ink blobs and splatters. But that’s all I did in this area.

For the rest, let’s take a closer look at the different parts one by one.

The Distant Woods

detail of my aft journal spread showing the distant woods and howling wolf

Oddly, I think this may be my favorite part of the spread. The wolf in the sky and the wolf in the shelter are more ‘spectacular,’ but this part really appeals to me.

The overlapping collage pieces from my photos of bare trees give the impression of a hilly landscape. And one of those hills provided the perfect vantage point for the howling wolf.

I added a few branches at the lower left of this area, and they became a fine place for perched and landing blackbirds. And then those two suggested the flock in the upper right.

In this area, as in others, I added more alcohol ink, some of it simply in blobs as earlier. But I also dropped some onto my palette and added it with a brush. I had to work quickly, because the ink dries so fast. But I was able to use this technique to deepen some of the areas. You can see a few just above the ‘crest’ of the hill on which the howling wolf is standing. This helped the look of hills in front of and behind each other.

Most of my time working on this piece, I regretted the area that became, in my mind, too light. This is the clump of trees you see at the left of this image. But now, finally, I really like them and think they add greatly to the overall effect. It’s contrast, after all!

By the way, the very round, tiny, slightly ivory colored circles are actually the bits of glitter embedded in the tissue paper I mentioned earlier.

The Sheltered Wolf

the young wolf in a 'den'

Here’s the young wolf sheltering in the ‘den’ formed by arching branches. The darker blue-violet you see to the very right and the warmer blue around the wolf are examples of applying alcohol ink with a brush.

Originally, I didn’t like the sharp vertical edge of the left side of the tree clump at the left of the ‘den,’ so I added more branches to correct this. I used a Staedtler waterproof pen, as I did for adding the handwriting and emphasizing some parts—especially the features—of this wolf.

The Guardian Wolf

detail of my art journal spread showing the Guardian Wolf

I didn’t do much with the wolf in the sky. As for the wolf in the den, I emphasized some features with pen and also added a little more pencil work.

I’d wanted to add a full moon, but with the sky so light, it was clear that wouldn’t work. So, I added a circular blob of alcohol ink and once it was dry, added the white bit on the inside. To do that, I used a flat brush side-loaded with white gesso and, with the loaded side of the brush towards the center of the circle, pulled the brush in a circular motion. This gave me the uneven circular shape with the hole in the middle. Not exactly a moon, but at least a circular something.

I thought she deserved a halo of stars and fortunately I had some small metal ones which I glued on.

A Few Final Words

This next photo is simply a crop of the whole piece that I especially like.

a detail of the piece which I particularly like

I didn’t add a visual frame to my spread, at least not one that you can see in a photo. I scribbled vaguely branch-like motifs all around the edge with a silver glitter pen.

I’m not completely satisfied that it’s finished, but I don’t know what else to do. I did consider adding realistic color to the wolf in the den, but decided not to. I thought it would compromise the mystical effect I was aiming for.

So, I’m leaving the spread as is. I like it, so that’s fine.

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