LIVING SIMPLY

I'm really pleased with how this turned out - not sure if you can see how the metallic lines shimmer so you'll just have to take it from me that they do. I did them with my new metallic Promarkers ... which are delicious!

Anyway, as usual I've taken stage pictures and you can see below how the page looked when I had rubbed on the Caran d'Ache crayons - I rub them at an angle to the page, sort of sideways, rather than using the point as this covers a bigger area quickly.
The photo below shows the difference when I have added water to the left hand side of the page and you can see how intense some of the deeper colours become.
And then this is the whole page once brushed with water, and some shading added to deepen some areas. I often make pages with these swirling bands of colour - for a start it tends to encourage me away from writing in straight lines!
And here it is when I've done a bit of work on it - there was quite a gap between finishing the background above and knowing what I wanted to say. Often I finish a page all in a few hours, but not this one. Just realised that the writing is pretty much in straight lines AGAIN, although later I did do some more journalling sideways on - can you tell it doesn't come naturally? I'm just one of life's straightists.
I picked out this face to add because it is so serene - it has the kind of calm peacefulness I aspire to, even if I don't often achieve it. I do try to tell myself that there's no point in kicking against the way things are - and perhaps even turn it into a positive. Am still working on that one and will let you know .... The lady in the bottle is there to express the feeling I sometimes have of being trapped behind glass (eg these 4 walls) and I try to remember that with modern technology the world can come to me even when I can't manage going out.
Here is the finished page and you can probably tell how much fun I had doodling away on it - kept me quiet and happy for hours! A lot of the wavy lines I drew were done with metallic Promarkers, which have given a lovely glimmer to the page. The smaller white dots were done with my Uniball Signo pen, and larger ones with my Posca paint marker.

Its surprising how much of a blessing not just having to but choosing to live simply can be - my day to day existence isn't complicated or difficult, many decisions are out of my hands, there is a straightforward set of "rules" I need to live by, and I don't need lots of money because art journalling doesn't require much in the way of materials. I try to keep those things in the front of my head, but of course I kick against it sometimes. Like when I see courses advertised that I can't afford to go on, but then realistically I probably wouldn't have had the energy anyhow, so no point in regrets anyway!

What I am thinking of doing next is offering AJ courses here at home (Preston UK) - I have a lovely studio with a big table but would only take 2/3 people at a time so attendees would get lots of personal tuition. I've taught a few classes already and LOVED it, and of course I've been teaching card-making and scrapbooking for years. If you might be interested just let me know ...