My Gratitude Practice:
This is my morning gratitude practice.
Tonight I will add some art with a plain black ballpoint pen (the same one I journaled in the morning with). I start by doodling on top of my “free writing”. Then I fill in the blank spaces on my guided journaling.
Now it is time to color. I love my Prisma colored pencils. I have so much to learn but I love the gorgeous color and shading!! I loved how the Winged Heart turned out.
That was fun. And very relaxing.
See you soon!
After my last post, I got sick. REALLY sick. I got the never ending flu. For weeks. I think I am finally getting over it but I am still stuffy. It was the kind of sick where I was completely wiped out. I was out from work and all I did was sleep. I was so exhausted I couldn't read or pretty much anything. The third round of medication finally kicked in late last week. So, no more coughing up a lung and my head is a lot clearer.
What does that mean. It means I finally got back to a regular journaling routine. I am working in one of my older journals now that had remained unfinished. It is a smaller journal but has lots of cool stuff in the portion that is finished. It gives me a bit of incentive to get back to it. Even if just a bit.
One of my new supplies… colored pencils. Actually, I never really liked colored pencils. I didn't like the “white” in between strokes. So for all these years, I have not wanted to use them.
In my “new”, old journal, I wanted to have something simple to color my doodles. Kind of like an Adult coloring book of my own making. Markers don't really give shading… and you have to worry about them bleeding through the paper. Chameleon Markers could solve the shading issue but not the bleeding issues (besides they are expensive). So I searched through YouTube and found some Adult Coloring videos to get some ideas.
I saw some beautiful work with colored pencils… and I decided to give them a try. I had some old Crayola pencils that had mainly remained unused so I tried them out. They were okay but didn't go down smoothly leaving some scratchy strokes. I saw the possibilities that colored pencils could have but wanted to find an option that gave a bit nicer result. So I got a pack of Prisma colored pencils.
This is my first try. My journaling routine is to Write a Gratitude Practice in my journal in the am. It includes answering a few prompts and then a page of free writing. Then tonight I doodled in the empty spaces and on top of my free writing. I got to try my pencils and I have to say they are fantastic!!! I am not so good at shading but they did a wonderful job. The color went on easy and smoothly. I really love the results.
Hopefully, tomorrow I can have more of a step by step.
Happy Tuesday!
I finished up my art journal page today. Well, at least I think I have. It was all about the elements I want in my life. I chose the images by how they made me feel, design, color. So today I added the words.
If I ever need a reminder of what I want out of life, I can always turn to this page.
Happy Friday!
This weekend, I found a new love. It has been under my nose for a long, long time. I am talking about the Flipboard app. I had tried it ages ago, I think on my Android tablet. I wanted a way to keep track of all my blogs. At that time there wasn’t very good instruction on how to add items other than the “choices” Flipboard gave you. I had fooled with this app for a couple of days and still couldn’t find a way to list all the blogs “I” wanted to follow.
These days I have been mainly working on an IPad (although in ways I still miss my Android). Flipboard just came out with an update of their IPad app and I received some information about in in my email. The new version looked intriguing. I downloaded the IPad app and gave it a try. For some reason it doesn’t seem like I received the updated version. The layout doesn’t seem to match the video I watched of the new Flipboard version.
I can’t say that whatever Flipboard version I have is so much easier to use than last time I tried it. I can say that just getting it to work on a few of my blog sites and a Tumbler feed had me seeing its awesome possibilities. And its awesomeness is all because of “flipage”. Being able to flip through your blogs to find something interesting is quick, easy, and what is more, it is very relaxing. Each item from your blog/feed comes up as an “article box”. Usually there are three to four article boxes on a two page spread. For me the coolest feature is that each article box has a photo identifier (if there is/are photo/s for the article). Its like an amazing picture book.
But it gets better. I can make my own magazines on my own topics. Flipboard will add things it thinks I like. I can add things I like. Others can read/follow my magazine and add articles too. It is kind of what my hope was for this blog: a place to keep all my Art Journaling contacts and information; except it is visually stunning. And… so quick and easy to navigate. Just flip.
Now I have a new routine for looking at any new information from by blogs, feeds, Youtube, Facebook … After work, when I am winding down and watching television, I often am not in the mood to really focus on new material… but it is a perfect time to look for interesting bits and flip it into one of my own magazines. When I have a bit of time when I can focus, read for a bit or watch a video I go to one of my magazines and flip through to find something interesting. As I flip through the magazine, I get to skim over what I have. So I get an idea of what is new. Then I can easily pick what I want to dig in to.
This app really fanned the flame of my imagination. I actually spent many hours learning how to set things up and make my magazines. I had focus… I had desire. I actually wanted to blog again. So I could tell you about this. I feel like the wings I didn’t realize I still had, from lack of use, are unfurling. I am doing more and more… instead of sleeping. I anticipate what I will work on in the next day, instead of dread what may come.
My hope is that if you have different internet sources that you like to keep track of that you will give Flipboard a try. Also, if you are interested in a look, I have included the link to my Flipboard magazine, “Art Journaling Bodacious Bits…” My hope is that you will find it intriguing.I know that for me, I have to be mindful not to burn myself out. I haven’t felt like this in such a long time. I feel hopeful, energetic and inspired.
Here is the link for Art Journaling Bodacious Bits; A Flipboard Magazine : http://flip.it/ok3U5E
Happy Flipping!
=)
Today, instead of working on yesterday’s page, I wanted to do another gelato background. Today I am going to use gelatos and water. The water can really dissolve and mix the color making the gelatos look like water colors. I am NOT using paper that is designed for watercolor… or very much water at all. That never stops me (I use what I have)… just know that a paper that is designed for wet media will probably give a much nicer result and be easier to work with.
Happy Wednesday!
Today I am starting a new page. I wanted to put down a fun background… so I grabbed a handful of gelatos. What are gelatos? They are similar to water-soluble pastels… but softer and come in a tube (similar to Chapstick). They also come in lots of yummy colors and you can find kid sets that are pretty inexpensive!
What I love about gelatos is that they go on like a crayon and can be blended.
Today I will demonstrate blending the colors with a liquid gel medium. Why did I choose a liquid gel medium? I am thinking of doodling over the top of this background. Like water-soluble oil pastels, crayons, and any waxy medium it can be difficult… if not impossible to write over the top of them with regular pens (there are very few I have found that will work… and even then sometimes they don’t go down smoothly. So, in order to make penwork easier I like to use gel medium because it sets up a barrier that makes it easier to write on. Also, once the gel has dried, I don’t have to worry about the gelato moving around when I add other “wet” medium to it… maybe brushwork or even penwork from a juicy pen can cause the gelatos to mix and move. The gel isn’t as juicy as water so it doesn’t dissolve and move the color quite so much. (I would also like to try using a wet wipe and see how that moves, dissolves, and mixes color.)
I used a large flat brush and brushed the mixed gel and gelato color into the page.
That’s it for today! Happy Tuesday!
I wasn’t able to do anything in my work area today, so I grabbed my pen cases and decided to do some pen work. I will work on more of the shading of my main image tomorrow.
I added the Vacation lettering in black and really did not like how it was too bold and dark for the page. So I grabbed my Office Max Metallic pens (Now that Office Depot bought Office Max out I haven’t been able to find them… which is sad because they are my favorite) and went to work on all that bold black lettering. With just the “Vacation” lettering I did not like how the page looked. I felt like I had ruined the page. It wasn’t an artistic page anymore. But I knew I needed to persevere. I had been going for a “Dawn Devries Sokol” kind of page. It is a look I did a lot last year and I had made that style part of my own. When I changed journals, I kind of moved away from a more “doodle” like page and started doing more artistic types of pages. I like doing both but when it comes to documenting day-to-day life, I do prefer a “doodle” type of page. I intended for this page to reflect my week. So I added some doodles with the metallic markers, then added journaling with a small lined black marker.
I still didn’t capture my “old” doodle style to my liking. I guess I am out of practice. I know that the result isn’t the point but right now… the page isn’t bad… but I keep thinking maybe it would have been better if I would have done a more artistic type of page. It is too late now. I just have to move forward with what I have.
I hope to work on making a Midori-style journal in the last few days of my vacation. I found out that Effy Wild has a class called Radiant that has a tutorial on how to make an Effydori. I have signed up and will take a look. I think I would like to fool around with a hard covered journal to start with. I cut out some cardboard from a shoe box. I am worried that because one side is corrugated that the cardboard may not hold up and bend at a corrugation line. I was going to try to find an old book the size I want and use the covers but I was afraid the covers might be too thick. I look over the class and see what I can see about the Effydori and then see what I can come up with.
Went in to work on my page and what did I find? A completely waterlogged art journal. It seems my cat knocked over a quart jar of water all over my work area where my journal with the painting from yesterday was drying. My journal sucked up a great deal of the water… to my distress. I am trying to dry it out now… but I am really concerned about the finished pages sticking together… and all the blank pages ending up being water warped. But I will have to be patient… and wait and see.
So I have no entry for today. I hope that my page will be okay to be worked on tomorrow.
Happy Wednesday.
I grabbed a pencil and started sketching in how I wanted to change the image. I actually did a few different changes but didn’t like what I came up with… long hair and a dress… a top and skirt…. In the end I think I will stick with this. A tutu is something I really wanted to add… no clue why. Maybe it was because the white reminded me of a leotard I use to have (for exercise… but no I have never had a tutu).
I used a stabilo pencil and could use water to make it look like a painting… or I could use it as a guide to a paint over project. Tomorrow we will see.
So, it’s the start of a new month. I have decided to be brave and throw caution to the wind… and white wash my focal image. The thing is, once it is done it is done. There is no going back. Some things that you do in your journal can be recovered from… but the image will never be the same after I white wash it. It also means, I will have to do something with it. Me. I will have to make the image my own and make it back into a focal image.
The white wash didn’t go down so smoothly. I painted it down and it started to bubble after a second or two. Even as I brushed over it to smooth it out it would re-bubble up. I decided to white wash over the tissue then used a crumpled up paper towel to pat off some of the white wash on the tissue. It is hard to see but it makes a nice kind of textural design.
My plan was to draw/paint over the image… but then I think of Teesha Moore… and I think about cutting out new and different eyes and glueing the right as left and left as right… Maybe a funny hat? Am I in that funky kind of mood?
No, not today. Tomorrow, I will decide.
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