Making An Art Journal

Art journaling.   Where have you been all these years???   Such a simple way to stay creative and I am so excited to start one!  I’ve done some basic research a lot of which has involved Pinterest which in turn has pointed me in the direction of some amazing blogs.  My favorite videos to watch have been by Christy Tomlinson for collaging but I think my favorite art journaling blog right now has to be Junelle Jacobsen’s Blog called  Yes and Amen.  She is so generous in what she shares and she also offers workshops and tutorials.  And on top of that her website and blog are absolutely charming with the way she sprinkles in photos of the sheep and baby lambs that I am guessing her family raises.   Adorable!  And her creativity will amaze you…it did me.

Art journaling is a way to create, express, practice, and experiment in one place. Not everything needs to be placed on a canvas!  Sometimes you just want to try out a new idea or play around with a new combination of colors or experiment with some new papers or stamps.   I like the idea of having a book that I can do anything I want in.   In it I can draw, sketch, paint, doodle, decoupage, play with watercolors, papercraft, stamp, add photographs or make smaller versions of my favorite right now….collage.  I’ve even started a Mixed Media Board on Pinterest if you would like to take a peek. 

         

So just the other night I found another website called Art Journalist which has all kinds of advice, ideas and how-tos for art journaling.  I followed their advice and found myself in a Goodwill looking for a suitable book that I could convert into and art journal.  And for a $1.25 I found what I think might make the perfect book.   (Click on the photo above “How to Prepare An Old Book to be used for Art Journaling” and be taken directly to that post.)

It’s an Office XP Basics Manual that someone donated and the great thing about it is it’s spiral bound, nice and big but not too big and I don’t feel guilty for gluing it’s pages together, gesso-ing the heck out of it and drawing and painting in it among other things.  Here it is with a coat of gesso.  I’ll add more gesso if needed when I use that page for a project.  It just depends on what I am going to do with the page.  I glued three pages together and then added a coat of white gesso.  The nice thing I  have learned is that the gesso is like a primer and makes the paper suitable for even watercolor painting.  It gives it something for your medium to hang on to and absorbs the water from watercolor paints as well.

 

Here is my first page. I picked up a set of new watercolors the other day and really wanted to see what the colors would look like on paper I made a watercolor chart and turned it into a journal page that I can reference anytime I want to help me select the right colors when I am painting with them.  Not sure what I am going to do on the opposite side just yet.

 

Love these colors!!  Something about a fresh new pallet of paints!

And here is my 2nd art journal page.  Ha!  Believe me when I say I am cringing about showing you this page.

Let’s just say I learned a lot from this little piece of what I want to do in the future and what I don’t! 

Here are a few things I learned from this today: 

1.  I like her hair.  It’s a bit spiky and a also a bit more modern.

2. I like her dress.  I cut it out of some scrap paper. 

3.  Hate her arms!  Ha!  And the heart hands were poorly executed!  Ha again!  And don’t outline legs with a hot pink felt marker. 

4.  Not too happy with the use of the color brown for the honeycomb background pattern.   I need to establish a color palette before I begin and stick to it!!

5.  The flowers were paper punched out of some brown and black paper.  Talk about a color clash.   So I then painted them over with the aqua blue and added the white center.         That saved them but I am still not wild about them. 

6.  I tried a new face with a heart mouth.  It’s okay…but not crazy about it either. 

7.  I love the technique of using regular Scotch Tape and lifting text out of magazines and then decoupage-ing the bits of text to the piece.

8.  I used my Gelatos by Faber-Castell  for the first time and did the pink and yellow vertical border with them.  They are fun to use.  Like a soft creamy crayon that I then activated with a paint brush and water.  I can see myself playing around with these a lot more. 

9.  I like the idea of using the pages from my old French dictionary.  I just tore a snippet and glued it on. 

10.  I like my new butterfly stamp.  Not so sure about the hot pink ink though. 

11.  My doodles need help.  Serious help.

12.  Wilma Flintstone wants her necklace back.  : )