Soul Journaling Days 3 and 4: Soul Armor

Soul Journaling Days 3 and 4 over at Caspiana was about creating our own "Soul Armor" to protect ourselves from "our critics both from the "inside" and the "outside"". To illustrate the theme she suggested using a Medieval suit of armor from a clip art site and filling it with words and phrases. I used this armor from a Dover Medieval Illustration CD I have.



I cut out the image and glued it on the page with matte medium. I used Gesso to paint over a small area on the chest and then let the whole thing dry overnight. I tinted it with watercolor and used acrylics to make that blue mass representing creative spirit and the top of the hill the knight is standing on. (Or if you want, look at it as a tiny planet like in The Little Prince.) When I got done it looked like it was sitting on top of the page rather than being part of it. Originally I was going to use black acrylic and give it a solid matte background then I realized the knight would still be on the surface of the page so I watercolored the background and stamped silver stars. This gave it the depth it needed. Then I did the words in calligraphy: Open Mind, Creative Spirit, Perseverence, Community. I made a few mistakes and covered them up but I was pleased with the overall effect of the page when I got done.