In My Art Journal

I have two more pages left in my current art journal. I'm so happy to be able to work in it more. I find it challenging and enjoyable, and it's a great opportunity for me to actually try all those paints/techniques/ideas I've been wanting to try! I love working in smaller journals, because seeing them filled up is great, but I'm also starting to feel the need for a thicker journal, which will also document my process. I wonder whether thinking about my next journal isn't just an excuse for me to feed my addiction to notebooks!

Anyway, here are some recent pages. This is one I really liked, and I loved working on it.

 

It stated out as a collage: 

 

 The reason I have a picture of the unfinished page is that I sometimes have such a hard time getting over the "oh, it's so beautiful" stage, that I like to keep a picture of it - just in case it gets totally ruined under all those layers! :)

The next page is one that took just a few minutes. I didn't have much time, but decided to work in my journal anyway, and I'm happy I did. It was a chance to use some colors and inks I'd been wanting to try out, and to doodle a really quick face - which is also great for me, because I'm always so afraid of faces! It so happens, that the time limit was great here, because I'm really happy with this pleasing guy. Nothing deep, nothing too meaningful, just play, really. 

This is another very quick page. I was painting with my 2-year-old (he's actually going to be 3 in only 4 months!!), he picked out the colors, and I squished them out onto our palette, and quickly brsuhed them on my page, before he muddied them! 

Over here, I decided to use a picture I had taken some months ago, of a giraffe in the Safari.
I'm quite happy with the outcome, but she sure taught me some lessons! There are so many layers going on here, so many trials and places where I was about to trash her! 

 This is how it started out- with a photo, printed black/white on regular printer paper. I then outlined her with pencil:

Painted gesso over her, and stuck on a background I had prepared in my journal: 

As I said, she taught me many lessons, one of which was how to use watercolors, and how much water to use so the color doesn't bleed as much as this:

And this is my last page, or rather, two pages, because I just didn't manage to blend them into one coherent layout: 

 I love both pages separately, but not both as one layout.
However, out of all the above pages, this one is probably the most personal one, where I actually wrote out some things that were on my mind, and tried to put them down.

Sooo... what did you think? was this too long? I love reading about processes, so I thought I'd share mine! Thanks for reading :)

 

Comments

[v@lblub]

Magnifique !!!! J'adore ce que tu fais****

[Kooky]

What a lot of beautiful pieces you've created. I love process posts too so really enjoyed your 'inbetween start & finish' pictures. I must admit to scanning/photoing my art mid way, often because I like to use those bits as collage later. I really like the page you did with your 2 year old. There is something very graphic designsy about it and it's balanced perfectly.