I am taking Ali’s One Little Word class at Big Picture Classes. The first lesson was posted yesterday. In the class, they’re making an album but I want to use the prompts for my art journal. So I altered this week’s lesson to have it fit into my journal.
Here it is:
I’ve already talked about my word a lot so I won’t bore you with it anymore. One of the things I discovered last year was how much I love color. I want to bring more color into my life. My tendency is always to go to white and browns and black so I am purposefully pulling more color into my life since I know it makes me happy.
I used paint and mists on this. I never use mists. But I am trying to use my art journal to stretch. That’s the point isn’t it?
And there we are. Did you make a page this week?
One of my biggest goals for 2011 is to learn how to draw. For reasons that are still not very clear to me, I’ve become obsessed with the idea of learning how to draw faces. To be more specific, I want to learn to paint them. Draw them and then paint them. I am not very interested in graphite drawings. I want drawing and painting.
I have become so obsessed with this idea that I decided to draw and paint six portraits a week. Every single day except for my art journaling day. I might or might not draw one on that day, too. I have a lot of resources for this:
I’ve taken classes from:
– Paulette Insall
– Tam Laporte
– Pam Carriker
and very soon Misty Mawn.
I also have Kelly Rae Roberts’ book
I have no excuse except that I haven’t put in the time. I always feel that I am not talented at this. I cannot draw, etc. etc. The fact is I don’t put the time. I am not super patient so I try to do it all in a few minutes and then balk at my lack of ability. And yet, many artists take hours per drawing. Of course, there are people out there who are way more talented than I am but this doesn’t mean I can’t improve if I put the time in. And that’s my plan this year: to put in the time.
I bought moleskine watercolor journal and altered the front with words I wanted to remember:
And the back is mostly simple, too.
And now my plan is to sit and draw. Everyday till I get better. I am reserving one hour everyday to this. So I will slow down, do it patiently, and try to learn, focus and draw.
Let’s see if I can make it work.
I won’t post my faces everyday (I know you would love that..NOT) but once a week, I will post all six (or seven) I made that week. And hopefully, as the months pass, we’ll all see some progress.
One of my goals for 2011 is to art journal more. I love watching Donna’s Inspiration Wednesday and looking at journal pages of many of the artists I admire. There are so many art journalers that I admire and I want to make this more of a regular practice in my life. I think it will go a long way in helping me expand my art.
Here are few things I want to use art journaling for:
– explore new techniques
– try different mediums
– practice drawing
– play around with different color combinations
Here are some artists whose art journal pages (or just art in general) inspire me:
– Donna Downey
– Pam Carriker
– Dina Wakley
– Tam Laporte
– Misty Mawn
– Rebecca Sower
– Alisa Burke
– DJ Pettitt
– Judy Wise
– Julie Fei-Fan Balzer
(many more coming)
Here’s what I did to prepare for this project.
First of all, I bought a journal. I wasn’t sure what to go for and I might want to do stitching so my first hunch was to not go with anything bound but I did anyway. I went with a Strathmore Visual Journal in 5.5×8 watercolor paper. I wanted to make it personalized and have it represent my word for the year so I altered the cover with some fabric and put a bird and the word Free on the front cover:
on the back, i made a birdcage and wrote “no more cages”
so here’s how the whole thing looks:
The second thing I did was start a list of art journal pages that inspire me so that I could have ideas to pull from. I am not intending on selling or publishing any of these pages. They are for me to explore, experiment, and have fun. So it’s ok to try to recreate other people’s ideas. I find that this helps me get started and it also gives me the push I need to eventually develop into my own style. I used pinterest for this so here’s my board and I will add to it continuously and also I note what part of the page spoke to me so I can remember what idea I wanted to try out.
And finally, I plan for most of my themes to revolve around my word. So I collected a list of quotes on letting go of the past, being free to be anything you want, that you can accomplish anything, etc.
That’s it. Let’s see how it goes.
If you have art journalers you follow, I would love for you to leave their names/blogs in the comments. I really love discovering new artists!!
ps: I also wanted to add that if you’re interested in even going farther, Julie is doing an amazing project called Art Journal Daily in 2011. I highly recommend checking it out. Julie is amazing.
Catalyst One Hundred and Twenty-Six is: Tell us about a time someone hurt your feelings.
Thoughts:
There are many moments from my past that I can dredge up with sadness or hurt but I decided from now on the path is about looking forward and freeing myself of the idea that things can happen to me. I control my emotions and my life. People cannot hurt me if I don’t let them and I choose joy and not hurt. So here’s to being free and letting go of the past and embracing joy.
This was made with the December A Million Memories Kit.
Catalyst One Hundred and Twenty-Five is: Write a love letter.
Thoughts:
My love letter went to my husband for father’s day. It was long and deep and I worked hard to express the depth of my love and gratitude for him. I love and adore my husband and the life we’ve created together. I consider myself very very lucky. And I wanted him to know this. I made this little card and put my letter inside the card. On the back, I stamped “love.”
Catalyst One Hundred and Twenty-Four is: What makes you happy?
Thoughts:
I made this layout back in May but it’s a perfect example of what makes me happiest in my life. Seeing my kids and my husband and my parents and sister laugh. Seeing the people I love happy is the biggest source of joy in my life.
Catalyst One Hundred and Twenty-Three is: Is there something about someone that you’ve always wanted to know but have never asked?
Thoughts:
A few years ago, I took this amazing class that completely transformed my life. Shortly after, I was back home in Turkey and I was telling my family about the class. My grandmother listened intently and said she wished she’d taken the class and that she had some big regrets about her life. I remember making a mental note to follow up with her, at the time. But I never did. And, this last winter, I lost my grandmother. So now I will never get to ask. So I wanted to make my art be a reminder that you should always ask. Right now. Do not put it off. Do not assume. Ask.
I know I’ve done this before, but this last month of art journaling also meant that I finally finished the art journal I started back in 2008. So I decided it would be fun to to do a recap post about all of them. So here’s the item:
56. Create an art journal and fill all the pages
So, as I mentioned, this journal was started in 2008. It was an old 7gypsies album I had and I covered it with a photo that I loved and with my word of the year for 2008 which was journey. Here’s an image I took early this year:
This year, I bought a journal kit from Rebecca Sower and added the hodge podge pages into this book. So it ended up with some scrapbook paper, some water color paper, some copic paper, tags, envelopes, etc. I then glued the cover so it was one piece. That failed at some point, so I punched some holes and put ribbon through them. Not sure that worked so well, either. But it held up. So now here’s a look at all the pages I did this month:
and more.
and one more set.
And here are some pages from July and before.
remember the trees from months ago?
and more
And here are some shots of the album before and after:
And finally here’s a top-down look for you.
And there we are. I can’t believe this journal is done. I think for next year, I will make another journal and do pages once a week. Maybe I can keep it up.
And here’s the final page.
Simple page but I think these are the pages I’ve been doing the most this month. Blues and greens with whiles on top. That seems to speak to me the most. Focus on Joy and Love and all will turn out great. Isn’t that the truth? Watercolors and flowers and doilies.
Here’s today’s page.
Something totally different. Purple linen fabric. Prima bling. Flowers by Bazzill, Maya Road pins, and other goodies. And a message I need over and over again in life. I need to learn to be calmer and happier and take life one day at a time more often.
details:
Here’s yesterday’s page.
Super simple page. But important message. I think of this often especially since I’ve had kids. Before you love anyone else, first you must love yourself. You can only love someone else as much as you love yourself. I hear these messages a lot. And I believe there’s some truth in it. So I am working on loving myself more. Making peace. Being comfortable in my skin. I think those are the first steps to freely loving others.
This page uses water-soluble crayons, a recent Martha stewart punch, flowers, and bling. Simple simple.
details:
Here’s today’s page.
I’ve been thinking about this a lot. How the past stops you from being free and creating the future you might create for yourself. I think that before you can be free to make choices, you need to let go of the past and your stories around it.
These butterflies are from my new MS border punch. I cut them out and glued them over the ledger paper. Then I used some watercolors for the background. Some stickers and we were done.
details:
Here’s the little boy looking through my book again.
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projects for twenty twenty-five
projects for twenty twenty-four
projects for twenty twenty-three
projects for twenty twenty-two
projects for twenty twenty-one
projects for twenty nineteen
projects for twenty eighteen
projects from twenty seventeen
monthly projects from previous years
some of my previous projects
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