CHANGE AND CHALLENGE ...

 

There's lots of change around here as stuff gets cleared out, packed up or comes off the wall and there's just 36 hours to go before the removals company arrives ....

Obviously I made this a few days ago when I could still find my favourite art materials, but I have packed a bag of art journalling "necessities" to tide me over until my studio is up and running.

The page background was done with Neocolour II crayons and then I added the curved black edge with a Promarker.  The figure is a Modigliani lady I accidentally copied in black and while instead of colour - a very happy mistake!

The strong white on top is a Posca paint pen - these give very good opacity over most surfaces, so are my go-to white pens.

The writing is kind of "stream of consciousness" because this is what is swirling around in my head at the moment.  Of course life right now is crazy, and there's too much to do etc etc but how I respond to that is a matter of choice.  I can be threatened and overwhelmed or I can allow it to be exciting and positive.  I choose to look ahead to the new life we will be building, and to focus on the positives contained within that.  I don't always succeed in holding to that, but I keep working on it.

And as you can see I had a lot of fun just drawing and doodling on the rest of the page, which is the reflective part I like the best and find the most relaxing.  On this occasion relaxation was definitely the whole point of the exercise!!

So dear readers, I will see you on the "other side" - not sure when because my studio will not be high priority on the unpacking list, beds and kitchen having to come first!  There's also the small matter of a broadband connection which is booked to be done the day after we move.  Hope that goes to plan as life without the internet is NOT fun!

I'm looking forward to our new life, but not to the process of unpacking the old one and putting it all in a van.  Doing a great deal of God bothering and putting it all in her hands .....

SUDDEN SHIFT ...

 

A sudden shift is certainly something that happened while I was working on this page - which is literally hot off the press.  There I was happily playing in my journal when unexpected news came which rocked my foundations for a while.  So what's a person to do in that situation?  Get it down on paper of course!!  

I had begun with this turquoise paint background, just because I like the colour, and its nothing fancy as you can see.  I rarely bother to do "clever" backgrounds because I know I'm only going to cover them up.  I just brushed a slightly darker blue around the outer edges and added the flower.

Then I began to collage around the border - set in a bit from the actual edge of the page so that the two shades of blue could be seen, and I particularly wanted to show you the before and after stages which follow.  On the left is the page with the collage finished, and on the right after I'd added a grey shadow and some black outlining.  Makes all the difference in the world doesn't it, and helps the sections really stand out from the background.

And it was pretty much around this time that the nuclear bomb dropped on me ... so I got out my pen and wrote about it.  I was all over the place emotionally for a couple of days, but am gaining a sense of proper perspective now - helped by attending the utterly joyous wedding yesterday of two beautiful young people.

And then all that was left to do was fiddle about endlessly filling up any dangerous blank space that might be lurking there!  Don't ask me why - it just seems to be the way I'm made, and if I'm honest, after the collage part its my favourite bit of the whole process.  Its meditative somehow?

It is SO good and cathartic to let everything out on a page this way - its very healing for me.  The girl at bottom left was originally just there because I liked the colour of her eyeshadow.  In the end her serenity was what counted - and a message to my soul, do not let this event disturb your peace.

CLEAR SIGHTED? I wish.

 

Just a quick post because I've been away this week and am still tired.  This is a page I was particularly pleased with - I've seen some black and grey pages that intrigued me but didn't want to do without colour completely, so told myself I could have just one!

Unfortunately I was so absorbed in what I was doing that I forgot to take a picture until I got to the point below, but I think you can probably see its evolution anyway?  The background is Caran D'Ache crayons as usual, and I added a grey border with Posca paint pens.  I've made myself some collage sheets using Modigliani images (now out of copyright), and when making copies I accidentally pressed the black and white button instead of colour.  Great result, talk about serendipity, and I've loved using the black and white images, and of course the lady bottom right is one of these.

The glasses are the top are a stamp by Stampers Anonymous - a Memento ink pad works well over the crayons as long as they aren't too thick and waxy.  Then as you can see I let rip with the writing, except for the drawing of a life plan page, and some Posca Paint decorations in the top right corner.

The little panel in the bottom right is another home-made collage sheet - I borrowed an idea from Teesha Moore and made colour copies of some of my pages and cut them up to make collage images for future use.

Not nearly as much doodly drawing on this one because I actually like the spaces here.  Luckily I took this photo of the finished page BEFORE disaster struck!  I had used a very soft pencil to add shading around the figure and noticed it was coming off onto the facing page, so decided to seal this one using Mod Podge.  I THINK that what I'd used for some of the writing may not have been totally dry, so to cut a long story short the black lettering got smeared.  Aaarrgghh.  I've cleaned it up as best I can but the result is nowhere near as clean and crisp as in this picture.  Lesson learned.  I just love these colours though, and can't wait to use them again!!

And as for being more clear sighted ... well that's a work in progress, but I am trying not to be someone who is just swept along by things but to make and implement decisions to achieve the things I'm after.  Its all a bit hit and miss, what with the brain fog, and I don't have much control but I do have a BIT.  And that helps.  I'll keep working on it!