31 Days Of Art Journaling

Happy New Year!

One of my plans for the 2009 is to work on my creative side.  I know it’s in there somewhere…all I have to do it let it out!   In an effort to support this, I’ve just joined Misty Mawn’s  Art Journal Challenge.  I’ve worked in my art journal off and on, but I seem to be better at collecting journals than I am at filling them up!

In addition, I’ve also signed up for Leah’s  Creative Everyday Challenge.   I think this is basically just a way to make sure that you are doing something…anything…creative.  It can be as simple as trying a new spice or a little more complicated like painting a masterpiece. 

 

I’m really excited about both of these and hope it will help me to continue in my creative endeavors.

Day 17

For today’s prompt, we were given yet another list to mix and match. 

Fill up the page with numbers (Draw, collage, or stamp)
-Blob acrylic paint in your book and close it (did you know that Frida Kahlo used to do this in her journals?)
-Trace the outline of your hand at least 6 times (Use a permanent ink pen or paint*)
-Add a wash of a new color paint
-Use a crayon somewhere
-Paint with a fork dipped in paint
-Stitch with a needle and thread OR attach something with thread
-Add some meaningful words

I honestly can’t believe how much fun I’m having with this!

It amazes me that the same instuctions resulted in two very different pages. I have to laugh at myself about the handprints. On the right page, I used a Sharpie to trace around my hand…in all honestly those lines just didn’t do it for me.  When It came time to outline my hand on the right side, I just couldn’t do it.  Instead I looked at the black lines on my fingers (of course I got my hands dirty!) and thought “what the heck” and quickly slathered my whole hand with colorful paint.

Such fun! (and I really like the way that other page looked)

As for the sewing part.  Hmmm…sewing on paper, particularly wet paper can produce a scary look.  I’m not sure if I should call this the Ugliest Flower on the Planet, or the Ugliest Sewing Job on the Planet. Either way, I’m just glad I can laugh at myself!

I can’t wait to see what tomorrow brings!

Day 16

Yes, I skipped right over Days 10 – 15…when I saw how interesting Day 16 looked, I made the decision to just do it and make my way back to those fun house creating pages.  Little did I know how much fun I would have with the 16th prompt. 

Sarah asked up to take this list:

Mix up this list!
-Fill the page with descriptive adjectives (Use a permanent ink pen)
-Cut out a silhouette of a person and ink or paint over it (Use the Magazine Stencil technique)
-Add a wash of paint (use a color you haven’t used yet)
-Write your grocery list or any other list somewhere (use your non-dominate hand)
-Add tape
-Use pencil somewhere
-Make some quick lines, fast and without thinking
-Drip and splatter at least two different colors of paint
-Dry-brush on some paint (use a color you haven’t used yet)

And use them on each page…only in different order. I didn’t take photos as I went along (I was that engrossed!) just this one at the end.

This photo doesn’t nearly do them justice.  They look so…I don’t know…edgy? Like something that I never thought I would be creating! 

Thanks Sarah!

Soul Journal ~ Days 5,6 and 9

Day 5 was to journal (or not, but I chose to), then gesso over the pages and whip out the paint. 

Our task was to paint over both pages then blot up the extra with a paper towel, leaving a really cool design. (Someday I’ll figure out how to take some decent picutures!)

On day six, the promt was to go on a scavenger hunt of sort.  Sarah gave us a list of 24 different objects to find and cut out into a one inch square.  I’ll admit that I thought it was quite silly…that was until I got into the spirit of things.  It got to be a bit of a challenge (Hmmm…not too many exotic things in my issue of Real Simple…will a goldfish do?)  Then our task was to adhere all the squares down on the pages in an appealing order.

I found it very interesting to see how much orange I had chosen.  And, if I remember my color wheel correctly, it is directly opposite from the blue that I had painted the background with on the color wheel.  Hmmmm….

The left side shows the unadorned squares. The right side was when I realized I hadn’t taken a picture and stopped in the middle of more embelishing from prompt 9. 

This is how the spead looks now. It’s had a bit of paint smooshed all over it as well as writings and scribbles. It needs  a bit more work as it doesn’t quite look “right” yet.  I won’t worry about it now…just wait until I’m inspired!

Soul Journal ~ Days 1-5

I started the journal over the weekend and have been enjoying my play time!  The hardest part was deciding which of my vast collection of nearly empty books I wanted to use.  Or…better yet, how I should create a new book to work in.  Fortunately, I realized that all my indecisiveness was nothing short of foolish, so I just grabbed one!

 Ok, if I’m being honest, I didn’t just grab one…I grabbed two…and petted them for a while.  I finally decided which one and just before I scribbled my name in it, a different book screamed out “NOOOO! PICK ME!!!!” 

Honestly, how can you ignore such a heart-felt plea? So, I ended up using a sketch book that had been plopped down on my work table some time ago and promptly forgotten about.  So far, it has been working beautifully.

Our first assignment in the Soul Journal was to write our name in it…sort of mark our territory, so to speak.  So I wrote my name, over and over having lots of fun.  There is no denying that this book belongs to Susan.

 

The next thing to do was create armor to protect our souls.  I was actually looking for something with wings (Yes, I know a suit of armor would be much to heavy to fly in, but this is my armor so get over it!)  I found a beautiful drawing by a man named John (and that’s all I know!) that spoke to me. 

This armor and the trusty steed it sat on became my Soul Armor. I added words that meant something to me, added color, and of course some glitter ’cause I girl’s soul has got to sparkle!

I’m quite pleased with the way these first two pages turned out!

Hello world!

After stalking a bunch of artsy/crafty blogs for some time now, I thought it was time to start my own artful blog.  I have no idea what is going to end up here, but it’s time to start exploring my creative side once again. 

I’m starting with Sarah Whitmire’s  blog called Caspiana.  I’m not sure how I first found out about this, but Sarah is conducting a wonderful tutorial on Soul Journaling.  It speaks to me and I can’t not play along any longer.  Of course that means I have to play catch up as the group is on Day 497, but I’ve been working on it and can do it!

Yay Me!