Monday 28 January 2013

The Art of Art Journaling

I keep several art journals and sketch books that I work in regularly.  For me, those books are places that I can freely create, try new techniques and ideas and mix all sorts of media.  I encourage you to start one if you have never art journaled before - it is a wonderful place to release your creative self, without any pressure to "produce" something!

Today I will show you a page out of one of my art journals, as well as my process of getting there.  In this journal I used a hard cover book that we had in our house - it was one of those coffee table books that fill up thrift store book shelves - perfect for up-cycling into an art journal!

I often glue several pages together before I use them to make my surface sturdier.  That can cause the paper to buckle, which just adds character and an interesting surface to work on.

This was a fun, messy page! I don't always write many words - sometimes just doing the page is all that is needed. However, I plan on writing a little in this one.

Here we go...

I began by adding gesso to the double page.  It was thick in an area, so I heat dried it, creating some great bubbles.

Here's a close-up of the bubbles.

Using my palette knife, I spread some pink, purple and blue acrylic paint. 

Next, I dipped the end of a paper towel tube into yellow & green acrylic paint and randomly stamped the page.

Afterwards, I used these two inks along the top and bottom of my page and allowed them to freely drip down.

I began the yellow ink at the top of the page and let it run down towards the bottom, then I turned my journal upside-down and did the same with the green.

I added some doodles using a black permanent marker.  The thick texture created by all the gesso and paint made an uneven surface for my marker, which again, adds to the character of a project like this.

And here is the end result, awaiting some text.



Have fun creating!!

Silvia

1 comment:

  1. ooooh I really want to be able to doodle like you have with the black marker... I am in serious like!

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