Art Journal - First Page

Having made the front cover a while back, I finally got round to making my first page. I decided I was going to start with some scriptures that I would like to learn off by heart - and since I have a visual memory, I thought what better way than to make them in technicolour.

I have a few questions and observations and would love feedback and help from those who are ahead of the game.

I Gesso'd the page first as that is what I've seen on videos. I decided to use the Hero Arts Daubers and the Distress Stains. I used the Neon yellow and pink daubers to draw the sun freehand. As it was SOOO neon, I toned it down by swiping Distress Stains picket fence over the top - as you can see it pooled. May be I need to buy some Distress Paints?

I used a mixture of Hero Arts Field Greens dauber and the Distress Stains Mowed Lawn to draw in the hills. If this gets wet (even after drying) it will just wipe off! (The Dylusions Spray inks I used on the cover also come off if made wet - was going to add a layer of modge podge / varnish, but I could see that my paint strokes would mess up the effects I had created)

I tried to sponge on blue Distress ink for the sky, and it would just not take - slides right off. I then stamped on some text, but it would wipe right off if wet. All rather precarious.

Even stamping the flowers in Memento Black Tuxedo ... gets wiped right off! But as I was paper piecing it, it wasn't so critical. Went over the stems with black pen.

So when I had to stamp father I decided it best to emboss it to fix it as I wanted to colour it. Used copics to make sure it couldn't be wiped off.

You will notice that the embossing paste seemed to draw in the colour of the ink below. How come others seem to do this, but it stays white? I ended up painting over the clouds with white acrylic.

 The finished page

I would appreciate all observations, comments, advice and suggestions.