5x7 journal pages: "same and different"

Sort of like the 'one of these things is not like the other' segment on Sesame Street, I analyzed the pages I included below and picked out their similarities and differences. 

Same: overall color scheme, yellow + pink. I've been using a lot of these colors in this journal, prompted both by the colors of the Dylusions spray inks I used on the backgrounds, and also by the bright colors of the Arizona summer landscape. 

sparrow journal page

Same: overall page construction = colored background + collaged paper + images (from the internet or magazine) + details. Most of my pages have this overall 'page scheme' to them; it's just a matter of degrees- either more or less of any one (or more than one) of these elements. I rarely use a white background, and I very rarely make a page without collaging at least something onto the page.

Same: all these pages have some sort of Sakura pen on: gelly roll, fluorescent, or glaze... I can't seem to make any pages right now without using them somewhere! darn you, Kelly Kilmer, for getting me addicted- lol!! (by the way, that link goes to Kelly's post on her pen list- great info!!)

yellow rose and graffiti flower-
facing pages in my 5x7 journal

Same: nature themed focal images. My overall 'journaling style' has moved away from using images of people (although I will occasionally still use an image of a person) to using focal images from nature, either birds, butterflies, plants, or flowers. I know some journalers use the 'person' image to represent themselves, but I never felt like that worked for me. Since I've always felt connected to nature, using these images on my pages is more my style.

Different: to me, the bird page has a calmer feel to it. The flower pages feel more 'energetic' to me, both because of the number of colors on the pages, but also the amount and type of patterns I put onto them- the graffiti flower page has quite a bit of scribble-type details on, as well as a more graphic pattern of paper (the zebra-ish pattern was a rug advertisement out of a home decor magazine). In addition, on the bird page I only used one type of black pen for the journaling, whereas on the other pages, there's more than one color / type of pen used. This difference depends on how I'm feeling when I make the pages (good mood or bad), and/or how much time I want- or have-to devote to the small details.

close-up look at the pen details on
the graffiti image from right-hand page-
white Signo pen and gelly roll pens

Different: the bird page is a bit simpler, with less layers overall. It's basically just  stenciled with two colors of spray ink, narrow strips of collaged paper on the edges, small patterned paper shapes (the circles) and the focal image. On the other hand, the two flower pages started with a much 'busier' background that included more colors, and even some gesso and stamping. Even though there's not really any more collaged onto the backgrounds of these pages, they have more pen details (which I consider another 'layer' on the page) including on the yellow rose and on the patterned paper medallions, the 'scribbled' frame on the right-hand page, on the blue deco tape, and in the graffiti flower focal image. (Again, this can depend on my mood and the amount of time I have available. But it also depends on just how 'finished' I think the page looks; it's hard to explain.)

Same: I'm still having fun with this journal! Right now, I really like the size: 5x7 is large enough to allow a decent amount of room for images and writing, but not large enough to be intimidating. Also, the paper it's made of can stand up to a decent amount of different media being used on it- so far, the only medium I haven't used in it yet is acrylic. (I guess I need to change that, and pull out my acrylic paints!) 
I'm close to completing this particular journal, and I'm getting excited at the prospect of actually completely 'finishing' a journal in such a short amount of time (I only started this book in late June)... and that means I'll have to choose which one to work in next!

scissors + paper + glue + pen(s)

just a few recent journal pages to show that you don't really need a boatload of 'art' supplies to do art journaling, depending on your artistic style and/or mood. Sometimes I really like making pages loaded with layers-- paint, stencils, stamps, collaged paper, tape, images, etc. etc. And then, sometimes I really like just the basics (well, my basics, anyway): paper, scissors, glue, and pen(s) or marker(s). 

Hello, Kitty!

This page is mainly strips of patterned scrapbook paper, a floral design cut from SB paper, and a cute Japanese kitty I got from somewhere (I think it was Japanese note-paper or something), all glued down with a glue stick. (In all honesty, there is also a bit of lime green ink edging the kitty, but that wasn't really necessary.) I may write on this page later, I may not- but I probably won't add much of anything else to it design-wise.

Umbel

To be perfectly truthful, while the page above is 'only' paper, glue, and pens, there's a lot of different kinds (of both pens and paper). The papers range from origami to handmade imported, scrapbook paper, vintage book text, and hand-made marbled paper (on the right edge of the page). The pens used on this page are mostly Sakura gelly roll glaze pens, along with my trusty Signo white gel pen. My art supply collections have evolved and grown over time (helped along by the fact that I also scrapbook- and the fact that I'm a bit of a packrat, lol!). 

But, you don't need a huge collection of supplies to art journal; you can make journal pages with only plain paper and a ballpoint pen or a pencil if you want, or if that's all you have. (I have quite a few doodled pages in my journals that started out that very same way!)

Quote

Another page made with various papers, pens (only 2 to 3 pens were used here), and my trusty glue stick. I made the page frame with various papers, wrote the quote with a black pen, embellished a few of the paper designs with colored pens, and did a bit of doodling with the black pen. A couple more things I want to point out on this page: 1) I made a mistake on this page! I mis-wrote the word 'talk' in the quote, so I re-wrote it on a separate piece of paper and glued it right over the top. 2) my writing is not 'perfect' or 'artistic'  here: I can't write straight, and no matter how much I might try, I don't have a 'flowy, artistic' style of handwriting. 

Just a couple more lessons for me (and maybe you, if you're reading) to take to heart: it's your journal, and it doesn't have to be perfect. It has to reflect your moods and your (current) artistic style, and be full of supplies and techniques that you like. 

art journaling- the real deal

This post: Kelly Kilmer: Keeping it Real is a great one, and very timely... since I've been thinking recently about the 'metamorphosis' of my art journaling. Kelly's post talks about putting your 'real' self into your art journal pages, and that not every page has to be fluffy, flowery, and only about happy things. She's posted some pretty 'heavy' journal pages lately, which is understandable- her father recently passed away, and they were very close... 

I wholeheartedly agree with Kelly's point of view: if journaling is about putting yourself onto the page through words and/or art, then you can't ignore the bad stuff. It's part of life, so (I think) it should go into my journal. In my case, it doesn't always go onto the page as words (or at least not readable words)... 

I also do NOT think art journal pages have to be 'pretty' or artistic' when they're finished; that's way too much pressure for me to put on myself! I know some people use their art journals as a place to practice techniques and try out new things (like color combinations) but I don't do that. My journal isn't practice for other artwork, it is the finished product. So, not every page is going to be 'artistic' or 'pretty' when it's done. It took me a long time to be okay with that, but now, it's a place to do what I want-- if that's pretty in the end, so much the better, but that's not my goal. 

Here's a couple of my recent journal pages as an example:

This page was done after a bad day at work-- I needed to get my bad mood out of my head, so I used Sharpie paint pens to do layered writing, so the actual words aren't readable, but the overall 'mood' comes through. It may end up as a background, or it may stay like it is. It's not pretty- not at all- but it shows how I felt, and I felt better after getting it out onto the page.

This page isn't about a bad mood, or being sad, but it does show that I don't always go for the 'artistic, pretty' page. I made this page after going shopping last Saturday and got some cool new stuff, so I wanted to document that on a page. I used scraps of all the papers I bought, and four different pieces of deco tape-- I know the things on this page don't 'match' each other, but that wasn't the point of it.

This page isn't pretty at all! I made it not long after I found out I had an ovarian tumor, and this page was all about getting the fear and negative feelings out onto the page. This page doesn't even have any words, but it doesn't need any-- when I look at it, I remember how I felt. 

Here's an earlier journal page, from 2008. It's another one that's not pretty (in fact, the colors I used are actually kinda ugly), but looking at the topic, I'm pretty sure I wasn't feeling much like using pastel colors and flowers at the time... 

all this is to say, journals are a personal space to do what you want, however you want to do it. Sometimes I do like 'pretty' and 'flowery' but not always-- and that's okay, because the only person I have to please in my journal is me! 

and if you journal, the only person you have to please is you-- so go write some bad words in your journal if you want to, paint with some icky colors if they suit your mood, or scribble over something if you feel like it!  (...seriously, scribbling is such a good way to get out your feelings, and it's fun to do-- lol!!)