Journal Work - What's Coming Up on my Pages

Just a pictorial walk through of the journal pages I've been working on lately. Actually all within a short period of time just working to get color on a page, some emotive textures and scrapings, and giving each one a voice with words or texture.  This is all in the progress of starting a new Dylusions Journal which I love and own too many of. Maybe 5??? They are all filled but this one wishin a year or 2.

I am on a new color combination kick of Daler Rowney Blue which has a bright hue to it, but when thinned a beautiful transparent water look, a liquitiex acrylic teal, and a bright pink of the first brand and style as above. Add some white and black gesso and "Say hello to my little art."

This 2nd page is in same journal.  Underneath lies a very inorganic red-yellow-blue-sharpie exercise I did for an on line tutorial. Not my jam. So it became this creation below. 

What I love:

1. Blended colors

2. Depth of colors and paints

3. White gesso scraped to look like the gears stencil underneath

4. Anchor sticker because it is showing up in a lot of my art

5. The blue pink black white combo as above

Photography is another piece of my creative outlet arsenal. I used to get doubles of every picture I would take just to have a copy to cut up for scrapbooking. I haven't done that in a long time. This photo is one of my all time favorites because I am drawn to color and interesting lines. This is simply a picture of used  brushes before I was going to throw them away. I had to take a snap. Fast forward to today, this photo still floats around my art room but I've permanently affixed it in my journal and replicated it with net-color II's. These colors make me happy and I adore this page. I've also added words to remind me how I felt about the picture and why it is significant to me.

Up next, this abstract crazy creation of bright colors that would replicate the crazy feeling that has been swirling around in my head. Not my usual, but the blue and greens mixing together brought out the ocean influence in the next pages. 

My favorite technique here was wiping away paint from the middle of the yellow smears to expose the contrasting color underneath.

 Blue green inspired this page. I may add more, I may not. I just love the colors blended. Go Seahawks! Still more of just an ocean inspired color scheme. Mermaids have been popping up in my ideas lately.

Finally, the swirling mind is connected to this magazine image. I would think I would alter her face, but I just connect with it so strongly. The waves in her mind continued on the page. I then finally started writing where I am in life and where I want to be. I've been very introspective in realizing I'm done "waiting" for the right time to do things in my life. I've spoken up about things I've held onto for 10+ years. If I make the effort I know at least I will never regret not saying what I needed to say. That is the value of this page and incorporating more of the writing part of journaling back into my art. I am a writer at heart. I thrive on it.

 Until I have another power creation weekend,  thanks for checking out my artwork and I hope it inspires you.  Side note: glasses have been a recurring theme as well. You'll see it in a upcoming post with a magazine transfer success!

Clay Octopus

Just as it sounds. Clay Octopus. I have a thing for water and sea creatures. Especially the octopus. I have had the pleasure of scuba diving with some of these amazing creatures as they live in the waters near me. (Not recently, but one trip I saw an octopus as well as a large Santa lawn ornament. Underwater. 

I used some white sculpey to create the basic shapes of the legs. The little tentacle suction cups are easy very small rolled dots of clay that were intended with a round end stylus and pushed on. Of course, he has a fun bumpy texture and he's not really that big. Love him just the same. Expanding my creative playing field one medium at a time. 

Traci Bautista Inspired Morning Workshop Painting

I have been drawing and creating all my life. Well ever since I could use the tools. Play doh, homemade yes. Paint and brushes, yes. Drawing and art class in school, yes. Ceramics and oil paintings, yes. A camera and photography, yes. Art in every medium I could get my hands on.  Jump forward past scrapbooking and all that jazz to the last 3-4 years where I have been emerged in the mixed media culture.

One of my very favorite and first artists that I was inspired by was Traci Bautista. I love her use of abstract, bright colors, and unconventional use of tools. This morning while perusing the book of faces with my morning coffee I saw a FREE online class with Traci!!!  This is the link to her FB page and the course was called "Floraldelights"  https://www.facebook.com/TraciBautista/?fref=nf

I don't know if you have to register to still see this and yes it is a promotion for something bigger, but I created a painting in a style that I would not have otherwise created by following along in this video!

It started off with a mark making exercise which I just used a journal for, but I've recently purchased new canvases and had to use one to make something beautiful. This is my journal base which I painted over.

Here is the painting I created from watching this course. Everything is so free and abstract. I'm sure you can see all of her influences in this work. I have nothing in my studio like it, but was a fun way to start a Saturday morning creating this! 

#TBFLORALdelight, #TBfloraldelight,
(Also...my first #'s)

Altered Envelope Swap Becomes a Handmade Journal

Once upon a time in a swap group not so far away, I signed up for an altered envelope swap. This was 4-6 envelopes, depending on size, that are decorated and sent to your partner. They in return send you the same number of altered (arted, painted, collaged, changed in some way by artistic techniques) envelopes. My amazing partner Kathy Cote sent me 5 of the 5x7 manilla envelopes with the most amazing art in a vintage style of blues and coppers that I fell in LOVE with on sight.

I loved these envelopes so much, I decided I had to keep them and incorporate them into my art somehow. But how? I wanted them to be displayed where I could see them and use them and admire them. Not long after I created a signature for each of the envelopes and these beauties became a handmade journal.

First I must show off the 5 envelopes as stand alone pieces of art. In they order they appear in my journal are the following:

   Front Cover and 1st Signature                        

 2nd Signature                  

3rd Signature                                     

                

4th Signature

                      

    Back Cover

Each envelope is opened so the flap closes down over the first page of manilla cardstock.  Each signature is made of one of the envelopes, one sheet of manilla cardstock, and one piece of mixed media watercolor paper in the center. Each is sewn down the center with a sewing machine straight stitch. To get the envelopes to be sewn to the signatures, the machine stitch is sewn over one long edge of the envelope making the opening 1/4 in smaller at the top, but still functional as a pocket.

Both pictures are showing the stitched signatures and the folded manilla with the envelope flap still able to open as a pocket.

Once all of the 4 signatures were sewn, I couldn't decide how to bind them. I wanted to preserve all of the details and have a book that would lay open. I hand stitched sewing thread in a zig zag pattern through all of the signatures. Following this I used a multicolored embroidery threat up the center of each signature. I used one long string on each and tied each at the top to create a fun tassel.

From there it is up to you what to put inside. I glued this galaxy 5x7 playing card art I made into the cover page inside and used the "live creatively" tag I also made on the opposite side. A fun tutorial for another day..washi tape as ribbon. 

One final touch I used a similarly colored piece of ribbon (aka the small colored scarf from the goodwill bin) as a tie around the entire journal. More texture, more color, more yum!

This couldn't have turned out any better than this. I just love it to pieces! Thanks for visiting my page and if there are any questions about making this book, comment below, and I'd be glad to help you out!

The Art You See is NOT What's Going on in my Head

Inspired Creativity. Where does it come from and how does it influence the art I create? I usually don't become philosophical when creating, it's either an escape from the daily hustle and bustle, a place to center my crazy mind, or I have a new project or supply that I must absolutely try before I forget that I wanted to. I have had a lot of "grown up" moments recently and I needed to get some of that out of my head into my art. My first instinct was to grab some mixed media paper and the neo-color II's to start a background. The neo-color II set I grabbed includes exactly 10 colors. They are all bright and vibrant and really saturated. Know that I will show you now what my first creation was in the process of just making some art. I think I was just going to make it a background but then my overthinking got in the way. 

I truly love using the water soluble crayons because when they are wet they produce bright bursts of color that blend like magic. I intended fro this to be a background but this is as far as I got. And here's why. I looked at this and I think of all of the art I create. I am so emotionally charged with negativity and I create this. It does not reflect how I feel but people will generally look at it and think "oh, wow! That's awesome." 

Um no. No it's not. It's making a really bright fun background, but it's not processing my feelings which is why I entered my art room on this particular occasion. It was to process art, not make something pretty. 

I had to stop myself from going any further and I grabbed a 2nd piece of the watercolor mixed media paper. I believe it's a CANSON pad but it's not relative to this whole thing. 

I had to look further into my mind and look past the bright colors because they are a learned response. Grab some colors and throw them on a page.  Once my mind was cleared from the pretty masking the way I was really feeling I wanted to create, I grabbed a black crayola marker because quality doesn't matter in process. It's water based so it can add for some interesting muddy color. I then chose a black crayola colored pencil so that the words would be permanent underneath. I needed the scribbled mad fury to be texture under this picture that I had in my brain. I pushed hard and that lead didn't last the whole page but I turned the pencil and only pushed harder. Red colored pencil has marks and stabs of lead, then purple paint, dark, but splatted down flat, the bristles splayed to hit direct contact on the paper, smacks of color. I added orange because it's a fiery color and some magentas and of course red. Red jagged smear marks, nothing smooth only rigid harsh lines partially blended or smeared to confuse themselves with everything else on the page. Nothing stands alone but becomes one big mass of chaotic line and color. That is what is in my brain. That is what I want to say. Bold colors, but not made pretty, made to feel. Small spots of blue with water to drip them down the page and blur all of the lines in its path. That is what I wanted on my paper. 

And finally, I didn't want to waste the paint I had left on my water container lid. I smeared it out onto a paper and watered it down, only 3 colors of red orange and purples. Dipping my brush in water not cleaning it exactly, but allowing water to soak into it and blend on the page. Heavy body acrylic color  watered down with well, water. Dried and the repetitious small circular designs throughout where white wanted to be seen. Is it a background? Is it a stand alone piece? I'm not sure what it is but it was a good resting place for the night. Until my mind has a specific project to start and finish I continue in this style to create. Not what looks pretty on paper, but what's going on in my head. That is the art I want to create. 

Art is Everywhere

 Art is Everywhere. Truly. One of my very favorite journal pages ever is one that I made recently. I enjoy altering images just as much as an original all out creation. I was really intrigued but this lady on my QFC shopping bag. She had a cup of coffee. That's all it took. I cut it out to save for awhile and that while was not very long.

I originally liked her features and turned head and fully intended to gesso over it all and create my own look over the top. Nope. Because art has no rules, I did not do that.

For this 2-page layout, I cut out her profile with the coffee mug in hand and added it to the far left side of the pages. Instead of fully losing all of her features I used a loose paint brush and gesso wash and outlined the features. Then I just left it and so glad I did. I emphasized the cup and painted gesso over it as well.

Here's the process after that:
1. I had a very tattered crumpled piece of tissue paper I layed out and mod-podged to my page.

2. Brushed light blue acrylic paints in various shades and over the top of the tissue paper.

3. Tissue paper became a wing because it took that shape.

4. Added dark blue translucent paint to the edges in single brush marks for the "spot" painted look without being circles. (This is one of my very favorite techniques right now)

5. Blended blue and purple paints defining the coffee cup and smearing over the textured tissue paper. (When you let the layer dry between each other on the tissue it develops depth between the wrinkled crevices). Also on the upper right page you will see a brush pattern from swishing the brush back and forth like a princess wave.

6. Defined the wing feathers with gesso. I also added a few dabs of gesso with the paintbrush as the "spots" around the edges.

The page had some original plan but I don't know what it is. I will write notes and ideas on blank pages and then later paint over them when they no longer serve a purpose.

I think that's about the most of it. I love using packaging with interesting images. I don't just use grocery bags, but coffee bags are some of my favorite especially Trader Joe's with the vintage people on them.  Here is a look up close.

Quit Trying So Hard

Art is everywhere. And also, I have been ignoring my art room which is my sanctuary and happy space. Why the avoidance? Believe me, it is not intentional on my behalf. Between the end of the school year of a 10 year old, family camping trips, nice weather to ignore the house and be outside, and the tiring repetition of prompts or theme ideas I get set in my mind that I have to create I went for it last night.  

I grabbed my Dylusion's journal, (one of 4 I own), and am finishing up the last 3-4 pages that barely open in the back of the book. Here's where I changed my thoughts. No plan. Just do something. 

Here's what I did: 

1. Grab a random handful of painted papers from the large bucket you keep around because you cannot throw them away and just HAVE to have them

2. Grab the small pack of neo-color II's. It's six or eight basic colors, not a treasure box of too many choices. 

3. Glue down random tears from the painted papers with mod-podge.  (Top right with splatters piece, backwards mood on the far left that turned into a flower, the reddish strips (x2) and the large dome at the bottom middle)

4. Color vigorously scribbled net-color II's in random places. Wet a small pointed (not too small) paintbrush and spread them around to blend. 

*I like to be liberal with my mod-podge. When it dries it is just like a resist so I don't know where it will show up but adds fun interest.*

5. Cut out a sketch drawn weird creature girl with umbrella hat, skirt and curly hair from ledger paper and glue down. 

6. Paint her with neo color II's. Draw them on where you want and wet them. Add a zetti style large magazine eye cut out. 

7. There are some white gesso dots here and there and wash over blended colors in her clothes. 

8. I used the black net-color II for the shading  and dripped 2 lines down with water and black for her legs. 

9. A little drying later and added black and white pen for details. (Oh, red and orange Liquitex Heavy Body Acrylic for jellyfish umbrella stinger tentacles) 

When I was done I didn't like it as in I didn't have a finished feeling about it, but the next morning. I LOVE all of the bright colors. That is my artistic M.O.  

Final thought: Raining under the water. Does it rain underwater? Good thing this creature mermaid one eyed curly hair girl thing has an octopus tentacle and jellyfish umbrella to keep her ..um..er..dry??? 

Do it for fun. Quit trying so hard. 

On the same note of not trying. I found Uni-ball Signo Impact 207  (1mm) black pens to draw with are the most fluid fun black pens. Not sure if they are permanent, but for this randomness I'm not particularly caring.