Art Journal: My First REAL Pages (Yay Spring in Missouri!)

This day is delicious. It is warm and sunny, really feels almost like summer. It was winter here just a couple of days ago. Seriously.

I decided to start my “real” art journal today. My two previous “attempts” were following some prompts from an online class about doodling. This one today is me, just an expression of how I feel today (or at least as close as an art journal page can express…).

For my jounaling (art and otherwise), the page needs to reflect something about the meaning of the day, to me.

For the background, I used my new Dylusional Spray Inks (five of them). On the pages you also see Faber Castell Markers, acrylic ink, stencils, oil pastels, water color crayons, and Hero Arts stamps. The book text represents the first time I have ever in my life intentionally “harmed” a real book. I have an old (as in my gifted teaching years, 1980’s) paperback of Lion, Witch and the Wardrobe. It is yellowed and in very bad condition. I like the idea of using book text, but it needs to (again) have meaning. I rationalized that recycling this book into art journal pages would really not be harming it, but rather would actually be bringing it back to life. Sounds good to me anyway.

Yes, I am out of my comfort zone. For one thing, this whole art journaling thing is very messy. I make a huge mess. And cleaning up the mess is not nearly as much fun as making it. But I must clean it up so that I can get to the table to make my next pages (I’m caught up with scrapbooking for now, you see).

Art Journal Doodles-Trial #2

This is my second attempt at a project, as I learn some techniques for art journaling from a free online class by Strathmore. This second week class was all about doodling with water color. Although I’m not thrilled with the output, I am learning some things about what will likely become “my style.” For example, I’m not so much about the spraying water everywhere. I do love water color crayons and love dipping the tip in water and then coloring. I’ll use that more.

I also like using my Faber Castell stamp markers. I still need to perfect the use of stencils, and I have some ideas to make that better next time (you can’t really see the attempts at stenciling here). I like stamping, so will use that more. I want to use words more, because I am basically a word person. I’m terrible with the India ink nibs but do pretty well with the “splatters”… ‘-)

Right now I am working on art paper, practicing as it were, for when I actually start the art journal.

Artistic Expression

It’s downright funny to use that term (“artistic expression”) in reference to ME. In fact, if this post is being visited by a family member or close friend, they are double-checking the address for this link, as we speak. If there ever was anyone NOT artistic, that would be me.

But I am a journal-er. In previous posts I have shared about how many journals I have in progress at any given time. So when I heard the term “art journal” being discussed among some of my crafting friends, it was intriguing. As a result of some research into the idea, I am taking a free online class on art doodling, as I start to learn some techniques that I can use in an art journal.

This is my first ever “art” project. When I was almost finished with the piece, I received a phone call that my mother-in-law had passed away (not unexpectedly). That’s when I added “The Lord is my shepherd” to the painting, to mark the significance of this piece.

On the work, I used various media: water color spray, oil pastels, acrylics, several kinds of markers, India ink, white gel pen, and more.

It is fun. I am a realist; I will never be good at this, but I can see how I can use this as a means of “artistic expression,”….yes, that COULD even be me!

2012 Tags--March Tag

Making do with what I have—that was my theme for this tag, inspired by Tim’s March tag. I cut the butterflies on grunge paper on my Cricut (one from Paper Lace and one from Kate’s ABC’s). I ran them through the xyron and embossed them with American Crafts pewter powder.

The background stamp and the sentiment are from Wendy Vecchi’s Sentimental Art. I started with a manila tag and inked with Shabby Shutters, Tumbled Glass and Dusty Concord Distress Inks, using the same colors to dye all the lace and trimmings.

The mosaic technique taught by Tim is quite lovely, I think, but it is very painstaking, clipping all those tiny snippets and then applying Glossy Accents over each one.

The butterflies reminded me of one of my favorite classical pieces from my piano lessons, Edward Grieg’s “Butterfly.” My International Library of Music, Book 3, always falls open to that page. I used it for the background for the photo.