I made a new art journal to paint portraits and use some of my new stamps in. It’s made from red rosin paper which I’ve used before here, here & here. It comes from the hardware store in a humongous 500ft roll for around $12. Mostly I use it to protect my table and floor when I’m being messy, but it’s even more fun to paint on and use it as canvas.
I cut eight big sheets of it, 18×10 inches, and folded them in half to make a booklet of 32 front and back pages. Each sheet was painted with a thin layer of gesso, with more colorful layers of acrylic paint added on top, for strength and durability. Then I used the Coptic stitch to bind all the pages together.
Now, I have loads of pages ready to go when I want to practice painting more faces and people. It’s much less pressure to practice in a journal, than on a fresh canvas or wood panel.
Books & Journals :: ECO Books :: re-bound
I also picked up some books at the library for more journal making inspiration. Fun, fun!
i love this!! i have never heard of that paper before. i want to do this too! thank you for sharing. carlanda
Love the pages, I have a roll of red rosin paper and I think I will prepare some pages for my bookbinding class at ArtFest. How have you been? Take care and be blessed.
Your papers all look so fantastic! Love all those gorgeous colors. I kept hearing about that red rosin paper; the other day I stopped in at Home Depot for something, and caught sight of big rolls of it at the end of one of the aisles. I didn’t buy any right then, but it’s in the back of my mind. Even to let my little girls make huge drawings–what a great deal it is!
This is a beautiful thing! But now I’ve got to go and find some of that paper! I made a similar book out of watercolor paper, but this red rosin paper sounds sturdier and more economical. Thanks for sharing.
Wow. I’m always at awe with the things you create. It seems so unfair that one person can have so much talent and creativity.
I’ve used rosin paper in a Lynn Perella workshop. We applied gesso, generously and then used bubblewrap and combs and stencils and more before the gesso dried. Once it was dry, we used Portfolio pastels and covered the entire sheet. Then lots of elbow grease to blend the pastels. The end result was seeing the texture we applied through the colors and the paper had a wonderful leather-like feel to it. It’s a great product!
I love this paper and what you made!! I have been looking everywhere for this paper…and nobody has heard of it. Any idea if there is a different name for red rosin paper??
I love these pages!! Is there any name other than red rosin paper for this paper?? I have been looking all day for it here in Victoria and I cannot find it anywhere and nobody has heard of it!
Love the idea of the rosin paper, can’t wait to try it!
Do you think using mod podge would be a bad idea instead of gesso?
I just found your blog thru pinterest. These pages are beautiful! Is this the brown roll of paper that kinda looks like parcel paper?
This week I’m going to make one of these journals for the Expressions class. I, too, have an enormous roll of red-rosin paper in my studio. I’ll post photos in the flickr group. 🙂 Thanks for the inspiration!
Ok, my hubby already had the Rosin paper. I cut it into the size I wanted to work with, I gave the sheets a good layer of Gesso, which really was more like a bottle as this paper sucks it up like the sand in the Sahara. Then I painted my pages usig good quality Acrylics, and did some Gelli prints on them. Mine look nothing like your luscious, bright, colorful, beautiful pages. What did I di or not do??? I also noticed when I look at your pics there looks to be pieces of paper glued to the Rosin paper. Help, what do I need to do to salvage my paper without having to chuck them. I have lots of time and a tad bit of money invested now. I can’t afford to go throuh that kind of Gesso if I use this paper. Can you offer me advice??? Pretty Please?? Thanks so much.
Blessings,
Kim
*The application of color can be tricky because 1) using too many colors at once can dull or muddy them up, 2) not allowing them to dry thoroughly between coats of color can also make them dull or muddied and 3)not sticking to 2-3 colors from the same side of the spectrum for the initial base coat (ie, using only 0range, yellow and or red first then a touch of color from the other side –blue, green or purple)
*I use a small squirt of gesso to prime the sheets and then scrape it on with a credit card. You will be surprised to see how well and how quickly you can cover a page with very little gesso. The page doesn’t have to be pure white, just a very thin coat.
*I wouldn’t worry too much about the base layers. Often times, you don’t see very much of it in the final journal page.
*Yes, on the cover and back page, I used bits of collage paper to add more sturdiness to the outside of my journal.
Hope that helps some 🙂
Wonderful idea!! I love the bright colors of your pages. I wonder, what was your method for achieving this? Did you gesso as a first layer then what about the paint? Did you use a brush or a brayer to achieve that kinda rusty effect? Please let us know, would love to hear how you did it!!
We cannot get red rosin paper in Australia…. one website will supply me with the product (which will ship from America) ….the prices quoted range from $40+ to $70+. Tad too expensive for me.
My query is…. does anyone reading this have any to spare that they would sell to me in say A4 sheet sizes at a reasonable cost (plus postage of course) ….if so please let me know
Cheers
De
De White,
I will have my hands on some by tomorrow. I will be happy to sell you and ship you red rosin paper. Let me know if you are still looking for it.
Hi everyone
I know this is an oldish thread, but I was wondering if anyone would also have some red rosin paper that I would be happy to purchase and freight over to Australia.
Thanks
Susan
I’m sure they sell it in B&Q diy stores. So what ever they call it in Australia try there.