New Hope Journal Entries

I packed up my journal kit before heading out for our Thanksgiving travels. I hadn't worked in my "HOPE" journal for several weeks. Over the past several months, I used up odds and ends of paint from other projects to give several pages a base color.
For the above page, I cut up strips from a greeting card catalog and adhered them with a glue stick as Hubby drove along the interstate. Then I added sharpie pen and white marker accents to the border I created. Last night I painted the word hope with Golden fluid acrylic. When it was dry, I added the same marker accents plus some metallic gel pen.

This page had some Golden absorbent ground mixed with cobalt teal paint that I smeared on with a palette knife. While it was still damp, I pressed a tree stamp into the ground. That was done several months ago.

I found that Prismacolor Pencils work WONDERFULLY on this ground. I had to use very little pressure to lay down color. It was easy to add multiple layers of color. I used a Pitt brush marker for the lettering. I worked on this page while my brother-in-law prepared breakfast. It was relaxing to color while we chatted about family.

I keep a folder with hope quotes in my journaling tote. That makes it easy to find inspiration for my pages.

It had been my intention to work on this journal more frequently this year & thought it would be complete long ago. But it was nice to have this to come back to after spending so much time on other things. I haven't selected a topic for next year. I might not until I get this journal done.

GPP Crusade No. 30: Why is the cow laughing?

This is what I was thinking as I toasted a sesame bagel and pulled the red tag that opened a wedge of Laughing Cow cheese. I think of it as "La Vache Qui Rit" because I first tasted this product when I was in high school French class. It's a French product and the label was in French. Now it's widely available with an English label.
It suddenly occurred to me that this would be a perfect topic to journal and follow the prompt for this month's Green Pepper Press Crusade. I already had plenty of thoughts to write down, I had ephemera to collage. Here's what I did:

If you want to try this cheese, this is what the package looks like:

GPP Crusade 28: Portion Control Part 2

It was our favorite night of television, but the circle was calling me! So I sat in front of the tv with some art supplies and started drawing. I used a Pitt calligraphy marker to trace a small circle. My thoughts went to a string of pearls. (Yes, I am that simple.) Well, that's how the queen of O's was started. After drawing the necklace, I sketched the rest with a pencil. I can't tell you very much about what was on tv, since I headed for the art table so I could apply paint to paper. I've been using up paint on my palette that is left over from my bird of paradise painting. I just used sequin waste and a stipple brush to stencil in the background. I layered it for depth and to break up the circles a bit.
Now my engine was fired up and I was ready for more. What else could I do with the same tools - sequin waste and circle templates. By placing the sequin waste down first and laying the circle template on top of it, I came up with some pretty nifty circles. I used the same stipple brush and acrylic paint. The paint was a little wetter than I would use for a clean edge. I purposely smudged the edges a bit after removing the template. I saw a group of topiaries, so I just filled in with simple shapes.
This technique could really be expanded on and I think I'll be playing with it a bit more. I did one more page that night, but I'll save it for my next post.

Art Journal Day 28 - Faith

We woke up to a beautiful day where hoarfrost added a touch of fantasy to our landscape. It is things like that which turn my thoughts to our wondrous Creator and I am touched by joy and gratitude. Earlier this week I was reminded of a favorite quote from a message given by a former pastor at my church. Kip Hamby was speaking of God's kingdom and the parable of the mustard seed. It's easy to feel insignificant and forgotten in our world, but each of us matters. How we live our lives matters.

I took a few quick shots of the trees near our house. Then I just had to play in PS Elements last night. I'm not sure what I'm going to do with that altered image, but I can see it has possibilities.

Art Journal Day 27 - Comfort

It was my day off. If I was a cat I would have curled up on a cozy spot where the sunlight pooled on the floor. Instead, I made a pot of tea. It's nice to have time to enjoy a POT of tea, not just a hurried cup before heading out for the day. When Hubby & I first moved into a house, we went to auctions to find furnishings and tools. We found great deals and the auction house atmosphere was entertaining as well. One night I spotted a teapot that I fell in love with. It was in a cardboard box with matching cups, a couple of trays, and other items I don't remember anymore. I don't remember how much we got all of that for anymore, maybe about $20. But the only person who bid against us asked what we wanted in that box. She had her eye on one of the trays and she offered us $10 for it. That was a sweet deal.
Not only do I love the blue color and the abstract pussy willow design, but the teapot is made of substantial pottery, so it stays warm for a long time.
In the afternoon I went out for a haircut. After my appointment, I had a bit of time to kill before music rehearsal, so I headed for Starbucks and a chai latte. The weather was so strange and beautiful. There was a very high and thin cloud cover. And it was very gently snowing all afternoon. It didn't seem like there were enough clouds for it to snow. The atmosphere made for an interesting late afternoon shot of the sun through the window at Starbucks.

Art Journal Day 16 - Red

Red is a strong, powerful color and I didn't think I could go with the wash of feature color on the background to start a page. As I was laying in the neutral background of gesso with some smears of brown Nupastel, I saw the uplifted face of a woman. I thought of a torch singer. So that's where this page started. I imagined a woman who is coming into her own and she is wearing red. She is strong and isn't going to hide in the shadows anymore. Hubby thought she looked athletic. I could imagine a diver who is preparing to take the dive of her life.
She is worked in Caran d'Ache NeoColor II - watersoluble crayons. They were a bit challenging on this surface, but I like the variety of ways to treat them. The background was colored on directly, then I burnished it with a fitch scrubber and finally a flat color shaper.

Journal Day 10 - Sudoku Portrait

Numbers can intimidate me in the abstract. Calculating yardage and quilt blocks doesn't because it's not abstract. I use a lot of simple math with my jewelry designs. But algebra and calculus are not for me. When I first saw Sudoku puzzles, I didn't give them a second look. I could never do the typical number puzzles in crossword puzzle books. I inherited my Mom's love of crossword puzzles.

But one day I was reading the newspaper while waiting for my husband. I was waiting a long time and I decided to take a look at that number puzzle by the crossword puzzle. Hmmmm. It was fun. I didn't have to do math. I was quickly hooked. Now Hubby likes to do Sudoku puzzles, too. He's got a program on his computer to do them. I like my books edited by Will Shortz. I'll attempt all difficulty levels, but I can't always complete the most challenging. My favorite are the moderate puzzles. There are books that have only moderate puzzles. I'm working on my second one.

My favorite time to do the puzzle is when I go to bed. It helps my mind slow down from the day, and I usually fall to sleep faster if I work on a puzzle or two before I turn off the light. If I read art books or magazines at bedtime, I usually need to work on a puzzle to get my mind to settle down. Otherwise I tend to get bombarded with imagery that keeps me from sleeping very soundly. It's just the creative part of my brain getting all churned up.

Last night I doodled this face on an envelope while talking on the phone and decided to incorporate it into this collage. Once again, I struggled with getting my eyes even. It didn't help that I was working in ink.

This page was colored with Nupastels and Distress Ink. The portrait was colored with Prismacolor pencils. I cut a frame from a catalog. I tore out a page from the last book I completed.

Lest I forget, many of my puzzle pages have doodles all over the bottom of the page. They work like a list for me. You know, when you're at work and your personal life keeps intruding your thoughts. I just stop and jot down reminders to myself so that I can put those thoughts away til I'm done at the office. The doodles on my puzzle pages help me let go of the creative thoughts that would keep me awake.

How do you help transition your brain activity from the creative mode to help you sleep?

Art Journal Self Portrait 2

Singing is as integral to who I am as much, or maybe more than visual arts and crafts. I have memories through my life that are connected to singing. I remember skipping and singing about the moon as a very young girl. One thing I loved about kindergarten was learning music. We sang "Away in the Manger" at the Christmas program. Much later that song would have a big impact in my life. A "big girl" on the school bus taught me "Silent Night." I cried at the big family Christmas gathering when they kept singing songs I didn't know. My aunt took notice and we sang "Silent Night." Dad got me involved in the church and town choirs. I loved going to practice with him. I have sung in school choirs and honor choirs. My husband & I sang songs to each other at our wedding. The past several years it has been my privilege to sing with our church's praise band. It brings me great joy. I am an OK piano player and that was very therapeutic for me for a number of years. But it became difficult in recent years when I was having tendinitis and carpal tunnel issues. I haven't really played for two years since Dad died. My sister and I would play for him at the nursing home. It seemed to help him connect as Alzheimer's took him away. Lately I've been thinking that I would like to try to play again.

As for this journal page. It's loosely based on a photo of me, but I don't think it looks like me. I sketched with graphite, then drew in the lines with a Pitt sepia pen, colored with watercolor pencils that I lightly washed with water. The journaling is all Pitt sepia. I altered some sheet music with distress inks and glued it into my journal. The watercolor card was glued onto the page.

Self Portrait Challenge for Art Journaling

When I was growing up, I usually had short hair. I grew it out for a while, but it didn't look good. We didn't have the styling products in the 60's & 70's that give volume and control like we have now. Super long straight hair was popular. My sister had that. My hair was fine with a bit of wave and didn't work for that style. I had shag haircuts that actually worked for my hair. But that is NOT what I wanted. I would see models with long, luxurious hair. Artists would draw girls with long flowing hair. Hair was such a big thing that there was a song and a musical.
So, my first entry for the self-portrait challenge that Misty Mawn posted provided an opportunity to get nostalgic. As a teen, I would draw girls like this following the illustrations in sewing pattern catalogs.
This is on watercolor paper. After sketching in graphite, I drew in the lines with a Pitt sepia marker. The color was filled in with water soluble colored pencils that I gently blended with water. It's too bad that spell check didn't catch me writing "luxurious" wrong. I even looked it up before writing it, but I had to go back in & correct it after I'd penned it in wrong. Argh!
For the record, I have come to appreciate my hair and am thrilled to have a great stylist who gives me razor cuts. There are wonderful products that bring out the curl and keep down the frizz. And then there is my friend "L'Oreal" to thank, too. LOL

January Art Journal Challenge

Misty Mawn put out a challenge to work in our art journals daily through the month of January. Since I already was planning on being more intentional with my own journaling, I decided to join in. I was spending time with family when the month rolled in, but I was prepared with art supplies. Here are some of the pages I've done so far.

On the first, I was inspired by images of hour glass style timers in a magazine layout. I cut one out and glued it to a watercolor wash background. The journaling was done with Pitt sepia markers. I glued the 4 x 6 artwork into a Strathmore sketch book that I describe in my last post.

The next day my sister was baking. My reward for the bit of help I gave her was when she handed me the spoon that she had used to scoop prune filling for the kolaches. Yum! I don't really look like that, but my hair is kind of like that & I was wearing a henley shirt. I have a tendency to make eyes lopsided & I'm working on it. This was done with Pitt sepia & Conte pencils.

These larger drawings were done on the 3rd while playing Balderdash with some of my family. I used graphite drawing directly into my sketchbook.

Pitt Pen Variation on the Prairie Fire Theme

I've recently been greatly inspired by artist Pam Carriker. I discovered her blog earlier this month. When she wrote about her new Pitt Pens and posted a video demonstration I was curious. I remembered I'd purchased a similar set several months ago thinking they would be useful for value studies, but I had never gone very far with them. More often my art is very spontaneous. That's not a big deal when working on paper that can be cropped to improve a composition. But as I work on stretched canvases, I don't have that "luxury". It's frustrating to realize that once again I've put the focal area of a painting right in the bulls-eye zone of the canvas. Not cool. So - I'm trying to plan better.
Pam's post was timely because the technique is very quiet and relaxing for me. It was mental therapy for me while I rested my body during my recent illness. I will continue to do this sort of thing in the coming days as my stamina and health improve.
I've been using the Pitt brush markers on Strathmore Bristol smooth that I cut into ATC's. After lightly sketching outline strokes with graphite, I follow through with the Pitt brush pens starting with the lightest shade and progressing to black. I added accents with white charcoal pencil and black gel pen.
Be sure to check out Pam's blog to see her amazing work!
Do you have any forgotten treasures in your art supplies?