In My Journal - Back To The Sea

This two page spread had me longing for the ocean, the sea, that great body of water that is so far away from me.

 

I so love to work with these colors. All the doodling was so much fun. I could spend hours just creating patterns and see what happens next. This kind of page feeds my soul in ways that others don't. Someday I hope to live by the sea, I don't know if that will ever happen. At minimum I would love to be closer so a trip to the ocean doesn't take all day.

Is there a place where you would like to live?

Navigating Through The New Year

On January 1st I chose 3 cards for the year from the Awakening Your Divine Self oracle card deck. I got Daughter, Waiting and Intention.  A pretty powerful set of cards to guide me.  The other thing I plan to do is to choose a card at the beginning of the month. Some great wisdom can be found in an Oracle Deck.  I picked a card one my animal card decks and got Raven so magic is afoot for January indeed. For anyone interested, I now have more oracle decks in stock.  You can purchase your own here.

I have been sick since boxing day and in those moments when I felt better I created some pages in my recycled paintings journal.  Its so fun working in this journal since there is already paint on some of the pages.  I tend to play in it more, having no preconceived notions of what will be there it is very freeing.

This page started from cleaning up in my studio.  I found  scrap with lots of overstamping and brayer marks on it. I glued it right into the journal and started working over it.  I ended up journaling about those unseen guides and how they offer assistance which led to thoughts on bravery and courage and just where does it come from.  Where do you think you get your courage from?

Winter Bonfire

I attended a winter bonfire Saturday night.  There just it something about a bonfire that is so appealing. Especially when its cold outside. You are drawn to the fire by both its light and its heat. This was a fundraiser given by a friend for the local men's shelter. There were hot soups and lots of treats and new friendships formed. A nice way to spend the evening and the shelter received many needed supplies.

This morning we got some snow so Belle wanted to go play.  We took a nice walk out in the field across the street. We have been seeing Trumpeter Swans in the field most days.  Today I could hear them but had trouble seeing them.  I love it when they fly overhead.

A simple mandala that came onto my page the other day.

This is a page I did awhile ago.  Its started with a circle of paper and then just grew from there. I think it looks like a dreamcatcher.

I drew this face on an index card as I was waiting for photos to upload. I find doing little bits of art on index cards is sort of fun.  I have a stack on my desk so they are easily accessible. If you find you can't get to any art making give index cards a try. I think the key is to have supplies easily accessible. Then you have no excuses, you just do it I think I may take this one and tape it into a journal.

Following Intuition When Painting

I started this background with watercolors and acrylic ink.

Next I took stencils, a StazOn ink pad and a makeup sponge to add another layer. I used several colors of ink and multiple stencils. But what to do next.  I saw a figure on the right side.  I decided to leap with some bold color.  Out came the black paint. I took a deep breath and just did it.

I painted around the figure and then made some trees.  Oh I hated it and chastised myself for adding black.  I removed what black I could, covered it with gesso and used some acrylic paint to try and re-created the page.  I didn't really get back what I had, the watercolor was more vibrant than the acrylics.  It was a lesson that you can't go back, can't cover up. So I kept going. I saw two other figures so I painted around them.

Black called to me again. After the three figures I still wanted some trees. The trees I originally made had no shape to them.  Maybe that is what had been missing from my first try. Then I added more stenciling to the black background with a white stamp ink. It was hard covering up that background but I like what resulted in the end.  It really does help to follow your intuition, to not second guess it. These ancestor figures just wanted to appear today. Trees continue to be an image that calls to me.

So what did I learn with this page. Just follow your instincts and go with it. Don't try to go back and put things back to the way they were.  That never works. Just keep working, push on through that yucky stage, magical things eventually happen.









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What Lies Beneath

I have  this quote written on an index card in my studio.  Its a great reminder.

I should have, but I didn't take any pictures during the process of making this page.  It all started out trying to use colors different than by usual. At first I hated the colors, they were dark and drab and not uplifting.  So I let the page go.  I looked at it once a day for several days hoping for  inspiration. Then I thought oh if I add  a new shade of brown I bought recently then it would look like dirt. Before I knew it I was drawing trees.  Not any trees mind you but the 4 willow trees that are in my backyard. Which led to the roots and the focus of the page.  What fun. I painted the trees with India Ink and Golden fluid acrylics in Van dyke brown and Light burnt umber. The I used a white gel pen for the roots and writing.  I am loving the page now.

The journaling I did revolved around roots and what lies beneath the surface.  I am constantly on a quest to go deeper, jump out of my comfort zone, explore where I haven't before. Its often scary but so worth the trip. This was a departure for me colorwise and I learned so  much from the experience.

Where in your life do you want to dig deeper? To explore what's beneath the surface? How do you challenge yourself?

Kate

A New Journal Tutorial Sort Of

You know they something about best made plans of mice and men often go awry. I decided on a project, took some pictures along the way, tried a video two but there are som many missing part that its not truly a tutorial anymore. I'll share what I can.

I have a lot of fearless paintings that I have made over the years.  Some when I took Total Alignement, BIG and DEEP and others I painted when I went to Sedona. I thought they would make a great journal.  First I folded the paintings in half and cut them in two.

I took each of those sheets and folded them in half  and then in half again and cut the pages on the bottom. They came out to be about 9 X12, a great journal size.

Here is the pile of paintings all folded. Lots of different colors.

I ended up with 6 signatures with 5 pages in each signature.

 The covers I used were from old pads of paper. I bound the book using the coptic stitch. I always use this video. its the best description of this binding I have seen.

Then I needed to decorate the covers.  This is the front and I used prints I made with the gelli plate.  Some are on tyvek and some on deli paper. I glued them down with gel medium and covered the front with Dorlands Wax medium.  It gave the cover a nice glossy feel and protects the paper.

The back cover included gelli prints I had made into tags.  They were layered on back cover and then covered with the wax.

This journal feels so nice. It is going to be so fun to work in.  Every other page is blank. ON the painted pages I'll be either painting over them or adding to them.

This page has so much color that I am sure it will be fun to play with.

Or this one.

Even the subtle color in this will be fun.

and now my first page in this journal. I think this must have resulted from watching The Big Bang Theory and their episode about the prom. I painted around the part of the painting that looked like a dress.  Add a little journaling and that was it.  Art Journaling is such fun.

Have you ever made your own journal?

Kate

Using Distress Stains In My Art Journal

I haven't worked in this journal for awhile.  I decided to play with Tim Holts Distress Inks and just get some color on to the page. I don't use them a lot and I wanted to change that.  I created three backgrounds to work with.  This is the first completed page, others will come this week in future posts. I created a image of a woman as I often do. Then came the doodles and a poem. I picked it for just the color and how it looked on the page. It seem like a New year, letting go type of poem. Perhaps there is meaning inside of it if I look deeply. Maybe there are things I need to let go of.  

Later I added journaling to the page.  All those lines flowing out of her head seemed  Here is the poem so you too can enjoy it.

I am running into the new year
and the old years blow back
like a wind
that I catch in my hair
like strong fingers like
all my old promises
it will be hard to let go
of what I said
about myself
at sixteen and twenty six and thirty six
even that thirty six
but I am running into a new year
and I beg what I love and leave
to forgive me

Lucille Clifton

I have insomnia tonight, so I got up and finished this page. This was created with the same distress stains except for the face. I used Golden fluid acrylics for that.

I have a crisis going on with my novel.  I have to change a big portion of it and frankly I am stuck on where to begin.  I need the muse to visit. To inspire me where to go, to lift a depression I feel myself sinking into. Sometime art journaling helps. Just where do ideas come from?  Its a place I need to travel to this week. Yes, even I lose focus and lose my way.  Its all part of the creative process but on days like this is really is not a pleasant place to be. I have techniques, tools I use in times like these and I'll be putting them to the test this week.

Tell me what do you do to call back the muse, to inspire yourself to keep going when the gremlins arrive to pull you down?

Drawing My Novel's Characters

I have been thinking about drawing my characters in my novel for awhile now.

My main character Caitlin is the focus of the drawings.  Here is a first try of what she might look like.

Then I went with more of an action shot.  She is an archer from a Celtic like society. I didn't really like the way this turned out.

Then I had a journal page in process so I added her to the page.  She came out looking much older than she is, but it was still a fun page to create.

This was a page for Sketchbook School Storytelling. We were to do a cover for a book or travel journal so I thought I would add elements of my book. Its way too big for a cover but it was still fun to create.

I think I'll be doing some more of these, maybe for some of my other characters.

If you are intrigued by my book at all, make sure to sign up for my newsletter in the sidebar. My newsletter subscribers will be the first to know when it's published and available for sale.

Kate

Art Journaling Wisdom - My version

My good friend Connie Hozvicka held a 10 day free workshop called Art Journal Wisdom. SHe invited us all to impart our own wisdom.  I think what I do daily on the blog is to do that very thing, impart what wisdom I have gained on the art journey that I have been on. So for this project I will share this piece and what kind of wisdom resulted from it. I think that every page in a art journal brings wisdom.

This page incorporates several things I have been working on.  The word stencils I created using my Scan n Cut machine. I have been wanting to make word stencils for awhile and these two were the first ones I tried.  The second piece is the scrap of paper in the center between the two pages. I made that earlier this week on my 3 x 5 gelli plate.  The colors seemed to go with what I was doing so I glued it down on the page. The third thing is that I have been exploring using warm colors.  I can easily do red yellow and orange together but have been wanting to move beyond that and add some cool colors to them. Since green is the first cool color on the color wheel I chose turquoise to experiment with. After taking a picture of this I thought of this is not done at all. There was more that needed to be explored.

This is the finished page, at least for now.  My favorite quote of late is That no painting is ever finished, you just stop at an interesting point. My artist friend Pauline Agnew told me that. The same holds true for a journal page. right now its at an interesting point so I am stopping. Other bits of wisdom. I always experience an ugly stage, where I look at what I have done and think YUCK, what was I thinking.  I believe the yucky stage is just one part and you need to stick with it to find the gem underneath.  Secondly go with your intuition.  I personally do not like at with bent heads, but here I have a bent head women in this spread.  That is how she appeared in the background so I just went with it. When I went back to the painting and added the trees, I thought ah,  just what it needs, of course she'd be in a forest. I think I am the lady on the left and the other women are my painting tribe. They represent all those women I've met in classes online and have come to call friends.

To some up my Art Journal Wisdom

1. There is always a yucky stage just keep going.
2. Follow your intuition.
3. Take risks, add that color you are not sure about. If it doesn't work at least you have learned something.
4. If something isn't working be brave and try something new.
6. If you are stuck, try putting on some music, or go outside for a little bit and come back to it later.
7. Stand instead of sitting, or put your journal on an easel.
8. Mix things up, if you always add circles to your pages pick a different symbol and try that.
9. Embrace the mess, if you still don't like it, turn the page and move on.
10. Let go of your expectations and accept your page for what it is. Its just a moment in time, how you felt on a given day.

I am linking today to Art Journal Wisdom and Paint Party Friday

Kate

My Garden and Other Pages

I started this page with a piece of gelli printed paper.  The shapes on the right were a big rectangular piece.  Then I added the turquoise and red paint and the rest evolved as pages often due.

I bought myself a Dylusions Art Journal awhile back and had not used it yet.  I thought I would try some spray inks in it.  The paper is supposed to be good for that. So I sprayed through a stencil, some pink, yellow, orange and red dylusion inks. Then I thought what to do next. I painted around the stencil with black gesso.  Black gesso makes such a nice surface for writing on. I added the silhouette which I cut out of red cardstock. I looked through my stash of collage items for the rest of the page. the I added some journaling. My gelli roll white pen just flowed over the black gessoed surface.  It made the finishing touches on the page such fun.

Are you often surprised on how a page turns out? I always seem to get to a point where I don't like what I have done but sticking with it always brings me out the other end to a sense of satisfaction. That is how this page went.

What have your experiences been like?

Mandalas and Moons

Today I have some miscellaneous art to share. The first one was for the bloom true bootcamp with Flora Bowley. Every day this month there has been a prompt to share, and this day's prompt involved doing some art. It was all about mandalas today.  Have you ever wondered how everyone makes these wonderful images and they look fabulous all the time.  Well I have never been that confident about my mandalas and this one was surely a trial.

 

With this mandala I started with a stencil in the center. Then I drew the outer circle and added some triangles, painted them and hated it.  So I covered it with paint and then gesso. I could still see them and so can you if you look close.  So then I drew the leaf shapes, painted them and started to like it again.  So you see any art disaster can be fixed.

Last night the full moon looked pretty awesome.  I was happy to get this shot before the clouds covered her up.

I also painted under the full moon last night.  The moon always has such good energy about it.  I have not decided what this really is.  What are your impressions? Tell me in the comments.

Kate

Revisiting A Journal

When I was preparing my class for 21 Secrets Fall I created a video of some of my journal pages involving animals. This led to looking through all of my old journals. I found quite a few pages that could have more work done on them. I guess that I am a more complete journaler now. I did find a 2 page spread where all I had done was a background.  I set that journal aside to work on the pages.

For one side of the two page background I saw a figure in the background, I rendered the figure in pencil first and then painted the background with black gesso.  I like how it really makes the image stand out.

On the next page I decided to keep more of the background intact.  I drew the woman in pencil and then marker and then painted her dress and face.  It's a great an example of taking a similar background and doing 2 different things with it.

Have you had any fun surprises in your journal lately?

Tell me about them in the comments,

Kate

Bloom By Moon

I had the background of this page painted and waiting for whatever was to come next.  I also had a painting I thought I would cut up for collage elements.

I hadn't decided yet how to cut it up, I mean which parts I wanted to focus on so I ended up just cutting off 2 inches so the painting would fit into a cardboard sleeve I have to store papers.  I took the scrap into my studio and it blended in really well with this page. After added the collage elements a couple images appeared and the rest flowed. I'll still take apart this painting but at a later date.

I have been reading Amy Palko's Bloom by Moon ebook and exploring this new full moon.  In the Celtic tradition its the Vine Moon and in the Native American tradition its the Harvest Moon.  I really loved the phrase "What Seed Dreams will You" so I added it to my page.  I think I'll be doing some further writing on the idea.

Then I finished this page which was waiting for some words of wisdom.  Its seemed right to continue with the moon theme.

On Friday I was featured on Dirty Footprints Studio, go here to have a look. It all part of all the fun for 2 Secrets Falls coming up on October 1st.

A New FInd

Playing with some new ideas. I drew lines inside a stencil instead of paint.  It gives a different look.

I finally found some deli paper. It is pretty cool stuff. Not what I expected. I thought it would be thinner more like what you choose donuts with at a deli.

So I immediately dragged out my gelli plate and started playing with stencils and paint.  I really like the paper. I think it will be interesting to try a regular painting on.  It has a waxy and smooth surface and both sides take paint really well.

Getting Back to Some Art

With my focus on weaving and other projects there has been no time for art.  I have not even working in my journal for over a week I was missing it. I had an exercise to do for one of my courses but I felt uninspired so I did nothing.  So I needed a jump start to get back in the flow.  Just paper and oil pastel does that for me.

So after playing in pastel I was ready to tackle the labyrinth page I needed to do.

The background is old maps and the labyrinth was made with watercolor.  For me the labyrinth journey was all about courage and preparation for the trip I will take in a couple month.  I see the figure as having strength, the will to be prepared for anything.  This was a great exercise.



Today for 21 Secrets our guest Violette was doing faces with markers but I ended up doing my work with oil pastel and collage.  All the collage elements are from an old calendar.  She seems like a plant maiden of a sorts. She was fun to make. The face was done on cardstock and glued down.  I had many frustrating moments where I did not like what I was making, but I pushed on through. It always more satisfying to do art that way.

How often do you find that you are not happy with your art but you keep at it and find a pleasing gem at the end?

Linking to Paint Party Friday.