What a beautiful day today! I am so excited to be going through my Strathmore Visual Journals from art journaling, and beyond in April. It's been awhile since we've done this together- it feels like just yesterday that you were flipping those pages with me as we made our way through the different projects for each month of our journey towards becoming better artists.
Today, I'm reviewing an art journal that I created during Art Journal Challenge in March 2022 and later. With me, go through the Strathmore Visual Journals I made throughout Art Journal Challenge in March 2022 and beyond in April and early May.
I'll start with the first art journal page I ever made and how I began in 2019, when my husband criticized me for showing him my artwork. For the Art Journal Challenge, I didn't restart art journaling with watercolor until 2022 because I learned not to show personal work to someone else unless I was ready for their criticism. Lesson learned: don't display your personal work to people you are close to unless you're prepared for their comments.
You'll notice that I tried a variety of methods. When I began art journaling, the paper would buckle because I was so heavy-handed with the water brush. I decreased the amount of water used with the water brush as time went on, and the paper stopped buckling.
You don't need to be an amazing artist to practice or create an art journal page every day. I can see the significance of signing and dating my work because I didn't do it when I was younger, and after making the video about the importance of signing and dating my work for context, I realized that it's crucial to sign and date my work for context so that I can remember what was going on with me at the moment I made a certain page.
I discuss stippling, negative space, one perspective, washes, and combining two distinct media (ink and watercolor) for a mixed medium effect. I display some of the art journaling challenges' postings, such as the Candyscape and Balloonscape. I reveal to you some of my art journal entries, including quotes that came up for me. I talk about having difficulty with painting beyond the pages' edges and feeling compelled to fill the entire page instead than remaining small in the middle.
Inking over a watercolor wash background that I painted and let dry is another approach I use. I show some of the works I created but never posted during the art journal. Another thing I came across was that, before going to do the final art piece on my iPad Pro using Procreate, I went to the watercolor pages first to generate something for inspiration.
I discuss how I used to only draw in graphite pencils and Zentangle with ink, and how I eventually transitioned to using color during the art journal challenge, whereupon I now mainly do artwork in colors rather than in black and white. I show you something personal: how I felt about the Art Journal Club and no one signing up for it and how I was feeling a particular day when an art journal club participant emailed me telling me they were too busy to join up for art journal club, as well as my views on the situation.
I also discuss how much I loved the art journal challenge that I purchased more visual Strathmore notebooks and a bigger paint palette, as well as larger art journal pages from Strathmore. I also tell you how I've kept creating in my art journals even after the club was discontinued. I describe the work I completed in April and early May, particularly given my grandmother's Alzheimer's disease diagnosis and how it impacted what I produced.
I'll go through some of my failed pages in my art journaling journey with you. The page may not turn out the way you had hoped, and I explain how that's OK. You may always make another page, so don't be too disappointed if a page doesn't work out as planned. You must accept failure and move on after a bad art journal page.
You can follow me on Instagram to see how I completed the art journal challenge's tasks. I also talk about how I've started adding Zentangle into my work after using it in black and white (ink and paper in a sketchbook).
I talk about how art journaling has aided me in coping with my grandmother's illness and how I created a few pieces with her in mind. I discuss how using art as therapy helped me relax when I was stressed or sad on a certain day since I learned about her illness. Sometimes the artwork I produced that day wasn't pleasant, but it was all I had at the time, and it's fine. Take things easy on yourself; be kind to yourself.
I'll show you some art journal pages where I employed stippling and abstract-looking forms to fill in the page. When I don't want to practice a specific art technique, my work frequently resembles blobs, and I can't make sense of what I've done that day, but in the end, I'm glad I recorded an art journal page.
I talk about the advantages of creating digital art and how minimalism can help you declutter your life. I ask what you do with your art journals if you don't want to keep them at home. Yes, they're enjoyable to look back on once in a while, but storing them permanently isn't something I'm interested in doing. I despise having to trash things; it makes me feel like a garbage collector. Perhaps I could use the pages in another piece of artwork for sale or as part of a mosaic.
Affiliate links:
Sakura 96 watercolor set: https://amzn.to/3lgkswJ
Micron pen llink: https://amzn.to/3LhSprp
Strathmore journals 2 sizes link:
Small visual journal 5.5 x8 : https://amzn.to/3FLgTIm
Large visual journal 9x12: https://amzn.to/3NkOqf3
YouTube Video URL: https://youtu.be/IP6EnFMKGpk
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