Where I Create, Painting Faces, and More!

Okay, so I've been very busy this week with some real life stuff, so I haven't gotten as much done as I had wanted to.  But that's no excuse not to create something everyday, so I've been doing at least that.  For you ladies that follow my digital designing, you'll have to wait one more week for my new Marie Antoinette inspired kit.  Sorry!  I hope the wait will be worth it.  

Onward and upward.  I've managed to work on my Book of Days everyday (yippee), and also get a new art journal page done for the Art Journal Caravan.  Watching Effie create her pages of faces, I'm so jealous.  I want to do that!  I've loved that look, but have always been afraid to try it.  I didn't want it to look childish.  This coming from a girl that has had formal art training.  Honestly, drawing people has NEVER been my strong suit, so I've always shied away from it.  Today I challenged myself to just do it.  So what if it doesn't look good?  It's going in my art journal.  It's not wall art.  I should just experiment (thank you Donna Downey) and try it.  So I did. 

I had envisioned this page with her hair sort of swooping across, sort of a windblown look.  I started sketching and actually managed to draw her!  I was so afraid to add paint!  But I put on my big girl panties and did it.  I started applying a base coat all over, sort of transparent so I could still see the lines of the image, using fluid acrylic paint (by Golden).  Then I just kept layering in the paint, adding low-lights and hi-lights.  

I really wanted dark accents, but I have yet to find the perfect marker/pen.  I tried using my Faber-Castell brush grey marker, but it didn't show up well enough for me.  So I grabbed a 4B woodless graphite pencil and went to town on the shading and such.  I used my fingers to blend it a bit, but then used my water pen to blend it all better.  I used Derwent Inktense pencils to color the eyes and the lips and then used my water pen on them.  The black in the eyes is from my collection of Faber-Castell Pitt Pens.  

So, here's what happened.  Another mistake made good.  I sprayed the entire thing with my Perserve It! by Krylon and hit it with the heat gun. So, thinking it was dry, proceeded to turn the page for a minute, and it stuck the pages together!  OMG!  I slowly pulled them apart, but achieved removing some paint in the process.  Oops.  

BUT, this was a blessing in disguise.  After I calmed down, I remembered that I had been afraid to journal over this, make it messy and such because I didn't want to ruin her.  After that, I felt freer to add my usual layers of paint.  I used punchenella, bubble wrap, and splats of India ink.

The final touch was the quote.  I wanted a quote that had something about trying new things or experimenting.  I went to this week's Itinerary and saw the Alice in Wonderland quote and was like, "OMG!  That's perfect!"  Final touches with my black pen and of course my Smash book date stamp.  This page makes me happy.  :)

Now, onto my Book of Days weekly entry spread.

This is my entire week, on one small book page spread.  It worked out very well.  This was my first week doing this type of spread.  I did a basic wash to get it started, but throughout the week added more layers to it.  I love this new book!

Okay, and one more thing.  There's been this fantastic discussion in the Art Journal Caravan about where we create.  So, I was gonna clean up mine a little bit, but I decided, this is the way it usually looks, so why not share it?  So here are some photos of my creative space.  (It's kind of taking over my living room).  I put a table in front of my desk, so I can turn around, and I'm surrounded by my stuff.   It works for now.

my pretty art books!

Thanks for looking!  Have a happy creative day!

AJC | Fat

So this week, one of the prompts was to journal about something you think about yourself that you would never let anyone say to you, or something to that effect.  The thing that kept popping into my mind was that I have always had a problem with my weight.  I do say that I'm fat out loud or to myself all the time, but I would be so offended if someone were to say that to me.  So, this is what came of that.

I LOVE it!  I had no clue what color palette to work with, but I decided to go with something I never use, yellow.  After putting down the background with a makeup sponge and fluid acrylic paint, I envisioned the phrase, "You are so Fat!" boldly on the right.  After that, I was kind of stuck.  But going through my supplies, I found this Elvis notecard and it matched perfectly.  LOL!  That is the only reason it's there, but I love it!  I used a canvas mask and Adirondack walnut ink to spray around him, like a border.  A little decorative tape and some journaling, finished off by my new date stamp.  Yippee!  This page makes me happy.

Mon | 06 | BOD

Happy Monday!  I woke up soooo early this morning!  Can't really talk about it, but since I was up anyway, I figured, hey, why not get a jump start on my creative day?  My first Monday spread, my first real spread in my BRAND NEW Book of Days.

Can you tell I like pink?  Whole lotta love in this page.  Lot's of stampin' love, watercolor love, and ink love going on.  

Any questions on supply or technique, shoot me an email!  TFL!

Ira Glass on the Creative Process

Watch This! You won't regret it.

Imagine and Book of Days

First of all, how come nobody told me about the Book of Days?  Huh?  I just discovered it the other day while blog hopping, totally by accident.  OMG.  I'm so in love with it.  There's videos of Effy (our noble leader) creating like almost everyday (you know how much I love videos!)  And there's just so much inspiration.  The concept is so freakin' cool!  If you want to learn more, check it out on my blog down on the right, under the Art Journal 2012 heading.  

Anyway, moving on for a minute, I received another prompt from A Year in the Life of an Art Journal (again, linked down on the right), about imagining yourself____something.  Huh.  Optional use of magazine clippings and a mask.  OH man!  I went to a way dark but happy place with this one.  It turned sooo cool!  

I had no idea what I wanted to imagine for myself, so I was flipping through a magazine and found a Dolce & Gabonna ad (did I even spell that right?) and it was of an Italian looking family, kind of a family portrait, but the "man" of the family was in the forefront of the photo.  Suddenly I knew what I imagined, a whole family.  Not just my little family, me and the kids, but what every little girl dreams of, "the one", her other half, ect.  Yes, I really am that much of a romantic.  So the piece just took on a life of it's own, as they always do.

Okay, so the whole family wouldn't fit, but I managed to rip the important members and put them in there, using gel medium to tack them all down.  Then I cut out the man, and placed him back in the front of the family.  I used a dark walnut ink spray (I'm never using it again-so messy and it took forever to dry) with a plastic fern placed over the family on the right to use as a mask.  But then I couldn't see their faces, so I used a wipe to just rub off their faces.  I white washed over it, added some white dots with punchenellla, and then my journaling with a white paint pen (extra fine point Sharpie--horrible pen!) added some more words with stickers and my BRAND NEW date stamp (from the Smashed line by K&Co.)  

I love it so much because it's so ghosty looking, like you're looking through the fog or great recesses of my brain.  He's there, just out of reach.  LOVE IT!

{title} imagine. {mixed media}

Now, on to my NEW art journal project.  Omg, I've got like three art journals going now.  LOL!  So I missed January completely (and that was the start of the Book of Days project workshop).  Bummed, but it's cool, really.  I signed up (for FREE) and watched a few of Effy's videos.  She rocks!  I discovered yet another kindred spirit!  I love artists.  Anyway, I was hooked immediately and was like, I wanna do that!  So, taking a page from Effy's book, I decided to try my hand at my first altered book.  Ooooh!  So much fun!

I went to my local used book store and found my book.  It was perfect.  The pages are nice and thick, it's sewn in, it's old (1928), and it's the perfect size!  Yay!  So I bought it ($3!) and went home and immediately got to work.  I had a ball and I ended up covered in purple, but it's all good.  I'm not going to go into massive detail on how I created it, you can sign up for the Book of Days workshop yourself and find out how or I'm sure on You Tube.  Anyway, a lot of paint, masks, inks, drippage, spray, and markers later, I give you my cover, and my first inside spread.

*Side note: Because it's now February, I decided to just start mine now.  I'm not going to go back and try to remember to journal about things from January.  Too much stress!  My book of days starts now, February 5th, 2012.  And I can't wait for tomorrow for my first Monday spread!  Here's the images.

For those of you on the caravan with me, you might notice my one word symbol on the cover.  I printed it on tracing paper (not very successfully--the ink ran) and glued it down with liquid medium.

My one word...Breathe.

(I even made a secret pocket!)