the first pages in my newest 'working journal'

Whenever I take one of these journal-making classes, I always get the itch to work in that book right away- but, I usually have at least one (or more, lol!) journals already in progress, so either I abandon the one I'm working in for the new one, or I have to wait (till I finish the prior journal). I'm not good at waiting, lol! But, in this case, I am going to. The next journal I'm going to work in is one I made at the end of April 2010, but never worked in (not seriously, anyway) till now. {You can see that post here: Kelly Kilmer Weekend Fun (Bliss Journal)}  I collaged a few pages during the class when I made it, and over the course of this summer (while I was recuperating from my surgeries) I painted some of the backgrounds-- but, now I'm ready to actually work in this journal: to fill the pages with fun stuff like collage, paint, stamping, and words. Here's some pics of the newest work in it:

page made during class

I started by using this journal in one of the classes during my 'Kelly Kilmer Weekend.' It was a class on using lettering in unique ways on your journal pages. I thought I would hate (or at least dislike intensely) the way this particular technique turned out, considering how it looked when I started, but it ended up looking really cool (as Kelly said it would; I should always just trust her, lol)!!

here's a closeup:
the word 'rest' was handmade by me: the paper was
decorated by me, and cut out by hand.  I will 
definitely be doing more of this type of lettering!

This next page is one I started in class when I made the journal- collaging the images and background- but that's as far as I got.

Walk this Way-- the first page.

I went to town on this page with my new set of Sakura Souffle pens! So much so that there was really no room for writing (and nothing I really wanted to say, anyway). Souffle pens are fun because they're really opaque and chalky when they dry, which makes them 'pop' when they're used on dark colors.

a close-up of the pen doodling- I used them to color in 
and accent the patterns in the paper. 

The next page, also collaged (partially) when the book was originally made:

Doodled Fox

This page had the background and image on, but that was it. (and part of that background had been torn off along the center because I didn't like the paper). So, I added more paper, decorative tape, doodling, and stenciled a pattern over the entire thing. This page is an example of 'if you don't like it, keep going.' I'm not sure what I think of the page overall; I like it, but I don't love it, if you know what I mean. I really like the techniques I used, so it was definitely a good exercise and I'll use some of these techniques again, which means it was worth it.

juncture-- 

This page faces the fox page, and has the same stencil-- I used the chevrons (my newest stencil, a 6x6 stencil design by Julie Balzer- I love these designs!!) on the fox page with a pen, and on this page I used it with my Stabilo watercolor crayons for a totally different look. (the background on this page was watercolored previously). The focal image was cut out of an art and antiques magazine, and I added a bit of patterned paper, along with a bit of vintage dictionary paper. (and more souffle pens!)

next post, I'll show what I found on my Black Friday shopping excursion! (yes, I did go out... madness, right?? not exactly.)

04/26/11 journal pages

A couple recent journal pages for your viewing pleasure. I really don't have a particular artistic "style" for my work; the page style changes depending on my mood and what I want to convey or capture. I don't usually work with a particular image = page idea, either; mostly I collage pages just because I like the images, and write "whatever" on them at some later time. Every once in a while, though, I do find a particular image and idea that go together; both of these pages went like that. This one shows visually how maddening it can be to have tons of ideas floating around in my head! (maybe it goes with being a Gemini, or maybe it's still leftover ArtFest inspiration?? Nevertheless, sometimes I do wish I could turn it off- especially when I'm trying to get to sleep and my brain just won't shut up, already!) FYI, the larger page in the photo above (the one with the greenish background and the black stamped medallion pattern) was the background for this finished page. I didn't really think the colors of the paint "went" with the page design as I developed it, so I added some collage paper and color with Stabilo Woody watercolor crayons. Not that you can see much of the background on the finished page anyway, but I wanted to show you that they can change quite a bit from the way they first start out, which is totally okay-- it's my book, right? yes, it is!! :D Here's a closeup detail of the page above: this page might not be pretty, but I really didn't want it to be. I wanted it to be full of "stuff" and energy to get the point across. When I first started doing "art journaling" I was intimidated by the thought of doing the "wrong" thing on a page, or "screwing something up," and I thought the finished pages were supposed to be "pretty" or "artistic," but I've gotten over that. I know some people do have that sort of personal style, and that some people use their art journals as a sort of "practice" place to try out new techniques, color combinations, etc. for use in other artwork later, but mine isn't like that. For me, the act of painting, collaging and doodling is a bit like meditation-- my mind goes sort of blank when I'm "in the flow" with the art, without any thought of time passing or of the final product. Later, I'll use the page to write on if I have particular thoughts about something, or I do a bit of "what I did today" writing on them. Some pages don't ever get words on, and that's fine with me, too- the act of creating the artwork itself is sometimes enough for me. This page is another that started with a specific idea and image... the "skyscraper" on the left was originally an advertisement for a hanging light fixture. The phrase "urban sprawl" was in my head from a conversation I had with my mom, so I decided the light fixture looked rather like a high-rise building, and went from there. The other skyscrapers were cut from a magazine page and some vintage music. The "sun" with the vacant-eyed china doll sort of conveys the uban sprawl emptiness idea; even though it really is sort of creepy to me, it got the idea across so I went with it. a close-up of the doodled details on the urban sprawl page. I usually can't leave paper the way it is; I embellish it with doodles and patterns on top of the patterns that are already there. In this case, the white dots were added, along with the purple and pink details on the green paper. A few of the collaged papers on this page are from Teesha Moore collage sheets that I purchased at ArtFest; I love how she photocopies her designs and journal pages then uses those on her artwork and in her journals ---> journal pages on top of journal pages! I have just started scanning some of my own journal pages to print out, so I can do the same thing using my own artwork. The phrase "urban sprawl" refers to the Phoenix Valley of the Sun in general, and I do personally agree with that assessment... there are small pockets here and there with more of a "neighborhood" feel to them, but they're few and far between (at least in my opinion), and the "strip mall" feel does dominate the area overall. That's one of the reasons I like living in Maricopa; it's not really part of "the Valley" proper, so it has more of a separate, smaller-town feel to it (even though there are 30,000+ people). Living in Maricopa does lead to a large amount of driving, but at least it's driving through the desert / reservation land, which means views of mountains, cactus, and the possibility for wildflower and wild horse sightings; personally, I'll take that over traffic lights and 6-8 lanes of traffic one way, any day!