Art Journal: Mixed Media

This week my art journal put on some inches! I wanted to indulge in some mixed media, and realized that it can quickly fatten an art journal. The Happy Planner that I'm using allows me to take out pages, so I'll be experimenting with that.

See for yourself!

 

Inspired my Michael Holt's song, The Couch.

Thursday morning, absolutely zero motivation to do art. I preferred the couch, but

finally followed the adage "Just Start". And I went fast, just picking up whatever was on

my table. I don't remember how the rosette happened, but I found a tutorial on YouTube and went 

for it. It's a little smushed from being in the closed journal, but that's okay.

 

Friday, I stayed with all collage and just used scraps.

Back to Mixed Media on Friday, I added some line work and textile to the collage.

Saturday found me exploring mini-folios and using scraps. 

The butterfly holds this one shut. Inside, a little mixed media.

The finished page:

Sunday, Lar and I went to the theater and saw "Murder on the Orient Express". I used the program and some junk journaling scraps for my collage on Monday and Tuesday.

I'll end this post with some junk journaling techniques that I learned: hidden paper clips and mini notebooks from Pink Monarch Prints tutorials on YouTube. Lots of possibilities!!

Thanks for keeping me company on this rainy Wednesday. I hope you connected with something here. That's what it's all about. (And we thought it was the Hokey Pokey.)

"Perfect Days" in my Art Journal

In last Wednesday's post, I omitted the picture of a piece I had completed for the Certified Zentangle Teacher master class. The class, "Undersea Pearl Garden" by Theresa Marshall, featured a new-to-me pattern, Infinity and lots of layers of shading. The background, a tan Zendala tile, invites us to use every tool in our box to shade, deepen and highlight. (This is true for all "mid tint" papers, be they gray, sage, tan, or any other "in between" color.) 

Thursday night, Lar and I went to see the Wim Wenders film, "Perfect Days". I mention it here because it truly influenced my thoughts and creations for several days. One of the central tenets of the film is komorebi, a Japanese word that, loosely translated, means "the leaking of sunlight through the leaves onto the ground", or "the play of light on the leaves in a forest". I'm sure we've all enjoyed this phenomenon. The use of it in "Perfect Days" brought to mind so many thoughts about impermanence. The shadow play of leaves is unique and fleeting, sort of like snowflakes. My  art journal entries were very basic, with quotes.

And finally, just for fun, a paper doll collage I put together with digitally downloaded elements from an Etsy shop, byJLeeLoo. I embellished it a little.

Happy Spring!

Art Journal

 Springcleaningdetoxwellnesssparetreat

You read that right. But here it is again, with s  p  a  c  i  n  g: Spring cleaning detox wellness spa retreat.That's what I'm calling this week of my time on earth, after feeling the need to prune, let go, shed, cleanse, rest. Think of it as pushing the reset button. So far, it's been working wonders with my soul and sense of freedom and receptivity. And when I feel free to receive, I feel free to create. Whether it's making special pancakes for breakfast, or taking a leisurely stroll to admire nature, or just looking up at the sky, I have a sense of abundance.

And here's what it looks like in my art journal:

Three days, three pieces for my journal

I decided to move to a different format of paper this week. My 1.5 x 2.5 daily strips felt so limiting. (Lar calls them "bookmarks".) This helped me to enjoy the process again. The top piece used a new pattern from Debbie New called eNNDearing. I added the faces. The second, Better Angel, started with some stenciling. I added collage and marks. I created the third with randomly selected patterns. The common thread among the three pieces is their palette. (The first and second came from the same distress ink dyed paper.)

I took two classes offered in the Certified Zentangle Teacher Artifex Eruditio Masterclass (CZT AE). The first, "FIFE: Fragments of Life, by Midori Furuhashi", used two 3Z (triangular) tiles. This was totally relaxing, and reminded me of what I enjoy most about Zentangle, ie the repetitive strokes, patterns and metapatterns. 

The second class, "Undersea Pearl Garden, by Theresa Marshall" taught me a new-to-me pattern, Infinity. There was lots of shading, and coloring with chalk pastels. When using a mid-tint surface, like tan or sage green or gray, the shading/highlighting process allows us to create layer upon layer of dimension and depth. (I forgot to take a before picture with only the line work. Oops! I think since shading is my favorite  part, I get excited and forget!)

Be back soon for more!

Thank you for your patience

If anyone is still clicking on this, thank you for your patience! I see that my last post was over a month ago. That may be a personal record, and not a personal best! What happened? Lots of art, followed by 2 weeks of nothing much while we went to visit family for a week. In fact, at one point before that, I was so busy creating things that I didn't want to take creative time to blog. But, I know that this place is one of inspiration and motivation for me. It's good to be back. This post will definitely be a messy one, but you have to make a mess to put things in order, don't you? I will spare you the messiness and incompletion of my work, and hope to give you something of interest.

February Art Journal

February 4-10, 2024

My theme was "Portraits and Collage". I used some Zentangle patterns on the first 2 days and then decided to stop. I love the spread, and how I felt making it. They images told me a story as the characters in the Portraits came to life. My favorite project so far this year.

February 12-17. 2024

My theme was a distress ink background with 3D ink on top, in the Trencadis pattern. By Friday, I left off  the 3D ink tangling and just played with stamping and stenciling. Not thrilled with any of it, I'm happy that I finished the week!

February 18-20, 2024

I ordered some rice paper to use for Collage and junk journaling, and decided to try painting and drawing on it. (Because of its bumpy texture, you really have to slow down. Relaxing.) I do want to do more. 

I used a white glaze pen on white rice paper in my junk journal as an overlay page. I like it, but you can't really see it in my photographs, so I'll leave it to your imagination! Or better yet, have a go at it yourself!

Since junk journal has taken up some time lately, I'll close with a picture of the cover of my February junk journal. There's a small photograph with rice paper decoupaged on top.

Thank you for your patience.