Art Journal Joy: October Challenge - Week 1

Today, I'm sharing the photos from my first week of my October daily challenge. I decided to stay with a mini art journal size. This month, I'm using a Large Landscape Journal from Hand Book Journal Co. Don't let the word "large" fool you though. This journal only measures 5.5x8.5". It is larger than last month's journal but I'm ok with it. It gives me more room to play but it's still small enough to complete a page each day.

This month I have chosen collage as my theme. I ended last month's challenge playing with collage. That means that I can make anything I want as long as it's a collage. I have a lot of ideas that I want to try so it seems like the perfect theme for this month.

Here's a look at my pages this week.



















Some Thoughts on a Creating a Daily Practice

I admit it, a daily practice can be overwhelming. I find it's best to think about it as something I am going to do today.  If I think about this as a practice that I'm going to do everyday for a year, for example, I get overwhelmed and I start to doubt myself.  What will I make? Where will I find the time everyday? If I think of it like a great big project there is too much opportunity for doubt and self-sabotage to creep in.

I like to think of it in terms of what I'm doing today. I plan what I'm going to do in advance. I just think to myself, "What am I going to make today?" Sometimes I have great ideas and sometimes I have no ideas - zero. That's where having a theme each month is helpful. It isn't limiting. Instead, it inspires my creativity because it's a starting point. It's the first step of the process...well, my process anyway. The next step and the step after that all flow from there.

Somedays it's easier than others but it is always worth the effort. It feels good - really good - to make something and share it everyday. I appreciate every like and every follow I get on Instagram but it's more than that too. It is self-satisfying. I make myself happy because I am making time to do something I love. Does that make sense?

I would love for you to join me on Instagram. You can usually find me there - sharing what I'm making and seeking inspiration.  My handle is @cathiereed

Thanks for stopping by today.

Cathie

Art Journal Joy:Mini Art Journal Challenge Week 3

This week was all about color in my mini art journal. I am still obsessed with abstract paintings.I can't get enough of playing with color and line and balance to create a piece that works. It's like a puzzle - trying to find a way to fit everything together so that the picture makes sense. It is addictive. Once I get started, I don't want to stop.

The only drawback is drying time. I use Dina Wakley Media Heavy Body Paints which are thicker. Think of paint the consistency of mayonnaise. I usually paint with my fingers and put the paint on quite thick.  I like having all that texture on my page but it does take a while to dry. Everything has to be nice and dry before I can add my pen marks. If not, my Signo White Gel Pen  reacts with the paint and the color changes from white and my black Fude Ball pen won't write on wet paint.

So, here's a look at the pages I made during week 3.









This is one of my favourite pages from this week. It's colorful and detailed and flowery - my favorite things!









I left this page more open with fewer pen marks on purpose. It feels like it needs more detail but I'm leaving it as it is. I like the strong vertical lines in this one.






The next day, I filled in almost all the space.






You can see here that Magenta and Blackberry Violet paints weren't quite dry and the Signo White Gel pen reacted with the paint. It turns the ink from white to pinky/purply.



Then I opted for a monochromatic blue page. I don't love this page. It feels bland after all the previous colorful pages. That's ok. Not every page can be my favourite.









This page is another page that I don't love. I decided to try adding triangles but it just don't work out. I used my fingers but I probably should have used a brush to paint the triangle shape. I was annoyed that the triangle didn't have a point at the top. I do like the combination of blues and greens though and I love the pen work on the circles.



This orange was a failed attempt at a color combination. The nice thing about using gesso and acrylic paint is that I can change my mind and remove paint or pen marks with a baby wipe. However, I couldn't get that orange out of the crease. I guess I left it there too long and it wouldn't come out when I changed my mind.




Another week of art journal pages and I couldn't be happier with the progress I'm making. Last week, I wrote about pushing through the creative resistance - the thing that makes it hard to keep going with a daily practice. This week is easier than last week but still takes work and commitment - even now. Looking back at my pages makes me happy. Yup, even the pages I don't love make me happy. I have learned so much and have enjoyed myself. Art journaling is not a chore for me. It's a joy. That makes all the work worthwhile.

I have one more week left in my mini art journal and then it's on to the next challenge. I have some ideas but I'm really not sure what I'll pick. If you want to see my daily progress, you can find me posting these pages and other creative endeavours on Instagram. My handle there is @cathiereed.
Thanks for stopping by!

Cathie

ps: You can see the first week of my art journal pages here.

Art Journal Joy: Mini Art Journal Challenge Week 2

There's been a lot of acrylic paint this week. I prefer to use acrylic paint in this mini art journal because the paper is just too thin for watercolors. Otherwise, the books are holding up surprising well. I wasn't sure that these mini journals would be up to the full mixed media experience but so far the spine is intact and there isn't any seepage in between pages. I haven't used any masking tape to reinforce anything either. It's great.

If you're curious about last week's pages and the journals I'm using you can read all about it in last week's post. 

Here's a closer look at this week's pages.

Still inspired by flowers, I made this sunflower inspired page. I think it looks more like a gerbera daisy. Either way, I used a palette knife to get the shape of the flower and then used my fingers to blend in more color. 



I love the texture on this one.



I had a lot of fun making the blue background for this page. Lots of mixing and blending with my fingers. I made the flower by cutting up joint tape. I have a few rolls in my stash that I'm hoarding. You can't get this stuff in Canada so I had my husband pickup some up the last time he was in the US on business. He's the best!



I cut and layered the petals to create the flower. I just kept going until I liked the size of my flower.



This background was another experiment in finger painting. It's so much fun but you go through a lot of wipes. I cut the flowers from manila shipping tags that I keep on my desk. I swipe any acrylic paint that's leftover from a project onto the tags. I'm not trying to make anything but they look pretty. I cut up the tags and made these flowers. This is one of my favorite pages so far.






Sadly, this page met with disaster and stuck together.



I still have the photo I posted on Instagram so this is what it looked like before. I have been using Dorland's wax medium on all my pages with acrylic paint to keep them from sticking together and it works fine. This page was made with India Ink so either the wax doesn't on India Ink or I didn't put enough on the page.



And now for something completely different...



I love this page. It's my other favorite page this month. I could look at it for ages. I painted with my fingers and added marks and doodles. It came together so easily.



I tried another abstract piece the next day. I didn't have as much time so it doesn't have as many details. The color palette is more subdued and I think I would like it better if it were more colorful.






Here's my last page. I painted an abstract background and then painted the pod/tree shapes in Liquitex Acrylic Ink - Carbon Black with a brush. Then I added a wash of white paint to the background to knock it all back. When all the paint was dry, I added some marks and doodles with the Carbon Black acrylic ink.





I am at the mid-way point for this challenge and it's getting harder to start pages. It feels like I'm running out of ideas and I don't have a lot time to sit down and come up with some more. Life is busy with all kinds of new responsibilities like school pick-ups and after-school activities and it's taking a lot of my time and attention. It's hard to be creative when I'm rushed for time.

It would be easy to stop this challenge or take a break or cheat and make a bunch of pages on the weekend when I have more time but I'm not going to do that. Something similar happened last month with my watercolor flower challenge. Halfway through I found it really hard but I kept going and it got easier and I created some of my favourite pages. I'm betting on the same thing happening this month so I'm going to keep going. Wish me luck!

If you want to see my daily progress, you can find me posting these pages and other creative endeavours on Instagram. My handle there is @cathiereed.

I hope you have some time this weekend to make something that makes you happy.

Thanks for stopping by today.

Cathie

Art Journal Joy: Mini Art Journal Challenge Week 1

Today, I am sharing all the latest pictures and information about my new challenge for September. This month, I have decided to make a mini art journal page everyday. I didn't have a mini art journal so I made one. I took 2 Amy Tangerine mini notebooks and glued them together. It was a simple way to create a mini art journal with 30+ pages. Each spread is 2 pages that measures about 5x7".



The joy of using a smaller journal is that it makes this challenge possible. There is no way I could make a larger spread each day. Sadly, it would take more time than I have at the moment.  It doesn't take very long to complete a spread and because I'm not spending a lot of time on any one technique or idea I'm free to try and experiment with whatever pops into my mind.

Last month, I had restricted my supplies and my motif and painted only watercolor flowers. This month, I can use whatever supplies I want but I am still only painting flowers. It is a mixed media approach to flowers.  So far, I have used crackle paste, Gelatos, Gouache and acrylic paint. The paper is too thin for to paint with watercolors so when I do want to use my watercolors, I watercolor on paper and glue the pages in when they're dry.

So, here is a look at the first week of my mini art journal pages.



This is the first spread in my art journal. I used Gelatos like watercolors. I picked up color with a wet brush and layered it on a background that I had painted with gesso.



I used my gouache paints for this spread. I had never used them before so I wanted to play with them. I covered the background in gesso first and painted over it. It took quite a lot of layers to get the colors as deep as I wanted.






I wanted to try gouache on watercolor paper. Gouache is an opaque watercolor paint and I was wondering how it would work compared to the previous spread where I had used gesso. It was much easier to create deep, rich colors. I definitely want to play with them some more.




Next, I decided to play with my acrylic paints. I chose the Dina Wakley Media Heavy Body Paints. I love the colors in this line and I like the texture I can create with heavy body paints. I also had fun blending the colors together while they were still wet.






I kept using my acrylics the next night but I decided to try painting with a palette knife. That was a lot of fun. I had started with a coat of gesso and then added a layer of crackle paste before I started painting. I really love how that turned out.



You can see that the paint actually seeped into the crackle to create lots of subtle texture.



The next day, I went back to my watercolors because I had some watercolor brushes that I had gotten for my birthday. I didn't have a lot of time to play so I glued the page directly into my art journal.



Then I went back to acrylic paints again. I started painting with my palette knife but I moved onto my fingers to create some of the shading and texture you can see below.






I love how the flowers turned out. There is so much texture there.






I don't have a plan when I sit down each day and yet I am never at a loss for ideas. That's a lot of fun. I also like having a daily practice. It's something that I look forward to each day and that's a pretty great feeling. I will keep painting my way through the month and I hope you will stop by next week and see what I've made.

Thanks for stopping by today.

Cathie