Sunday 12 September 2010

HOW TO ART JOURNAL?

This post is about how an art journal page is made. Now to me that title feels totally presumptious, since I'm just feeling my way at this and it's quite new to me. But so many people have asked me about it that I thought I'd try to take a series of pictures of the development of a page, or at least mine anyway. One of the things which has helped me a lot is being liberated from the feeling that I have to sit down and finish one whole page all at once, and now I'm more comfortable with just adding a bit here and there until it seems "finished" or I can't fit any more stuff on!! The above page was inspired by seeing something that was made up in similar layers or waves, like strata in a rock, so I used my watersoluble crayons to set down the basic layers.
Then this is what happens when you add water - brilliant isn't it?? I love the transformation from rubbed-on crayon to deep, intense colour!
So then this is the page after I'd added water to all the layers. As a bit of a perfectionist it's been quite hard for me to work from the bottom up in this way, and to take my time about finishing it. The original vision had been about weaving writing and black lines into the layers.
So I got out my black acrylics and added some new black strata, and I really liked the way this gave definition. Bear in mind always that the gestation of this page was over several days, and I kept returning to it and adding a bit more ... yes OK if you like "fiddling" about with it.
Then I got down the basic theme of what I wanted to write about. At this stage I thought there wouldn't be any more writing and just began to doodle in the spaces.
But I turned out to have more things to say, and I added some more circles of soluble crayon to intensify areas of colour I could draw around. I'm not sure I understand why but I seem to have this need to fill up most of the space, and I've found the artist pages I seem to really respond to are those which are full and busy. Funny, because it's not as if I'm scared of space or silence, perhaps I'm just somebody with a lot I'm bursting to say?
And this is the final result - which does actually feel "finished" rather than my just having filled up the space! I really loved making this page and its one of the ones I'm most pleased with so far. Perhaps I've been using too much scrapbook paper in my pages, but then again I like doing that too. I think I like this one so much because of the layers and strata which touches something deep in me, as indeed the whole art journalling thing does. I guess this is how I truly am, a person with lots of layers and strata, some deep and wise, some colourful, some dark, some which are just splashes of colour or doodles, and it gives me great pleasure to have managed to communicate that.

But most of all it seems that, for the first time, my art and SOUL seem to be coming together, and it's a wonderful feeling. I hardly dare to say this but I think I've found my niche at last ....REJOICE, let joy be unconfined!

19 comments:

Sharon said...

Morning Rosie
Just had to pop in to say .....
I'm going to give it a go !!!!
How clear you make it look
How good you are at this..... you inspire me.
Loving your work
Sharon xxx

Unknown said...

A fabulous post Rosie ... LOVE your page!

donnalouiserodgers said...

there is nothing better than being lost in the creation of a new piece of art - and journals are so liberating just because they can be whatever you want them to be; your tutorial is stunning, and has inspired me to perhaps also use this style in my own journals: thank you for sharing with us...

Dx

Jackie said...

Hallelujah!
What a lovely little 'how to', or, as its so personal, 'how you did it'.
Hope you had a happy birthday.

Unknown said...

I love this page!! Turned out so wonderful...thanks for sharing.

Sarah A said...

Thanks for sharing this, I have started a few journals which are sitting unfinished, well I thought they were until I read your post. Now I don't feel guilty about not finishing them, I will just add to them when and with whatever feels right, a bit like a living document!

Thank you for freeing me from my perfectionist mentality!

Sarah x

VickiA said...

Fabby page (again) and a great tutorial. I'm going to try and get mine done this week. I love how we all create our pages differently. Thanks for sharing! x

Juliwan said...

What a transformation, thank you for sharing your page
great :o)

Luna Art said...

Wonderful tutorial and great to see the finished page. I struggle with not finishing everything in one sitting and am trying hard to do a little and come back to it..I sometimes think you SEE more that way!

thekathrynwheel said...

Ooh it's lovely to see the process of your page. Fabulous! Thanks for sharing x

Shannon said...

I love how you did a step by step on how you make your journal pages. My gosh, you make it look so simple. You really seem to have a knack for it. But I am really glad you broke it down like you did, journaling is kind of the last frontier of mixed media that I haven't tackled yet. I want to start and your blog has inspired me, thank you. By the way, Helga from ArtChix loved your "Spoil Me" page that I forwarded to her. She was really excited about your blog after she looked around on it.

simply blue said...

I love your journal page and I love water soluble crayons...question..what kind of pens did you use as I find it hard to write over the crayon surface?

Unknown said...

Lovely finished page Rosie and thanks for sharing the process. Those water colour crayons look amazing, I have always brushed over them before but after your post I do think I should invest in some. The colours are so stricking. I love the way you page is always so filled too, it gives the 'reader' much more to see/do on each page.

Thansk for sharing =)

Linda Vincent said...

Rosie you are so good at this! Your finished page looks marvellous and I loved seeing your process.

Yvonne Moxon said...

This is beautiful! I love it!

Teresa aka Tess said...

Of ythe p[ages I've seen today (I've been lurking here at yourblog) this is my favorite. I love the colors and the doodles.

Gez Butterworth said...

Wow! Your artwork is amazing. It's been lovely seeing how your page came together. Thanks for sharing. Hope you don't mind me following your blog. It's amazing.xx

HK said...

Hello, Thank you for sharing your lovely work and the process involved. My 10 yo daughter and I have started art journalling recently as part of our home education art classes and Ive been referring to your blog a lot to provide inspiration and examples. Could you tell me what pens you use over watercolour pencil as we are finding the result quite waxy and difficult to write on top of. Even my trusty Posca pens dont like it.

Suslie said...

I love look at all your posts. I miss reading new ones. I am not on instagram or fliker, etc. I prefer reading blog posts. I hope you are doing well!