Art JOurnal | Family Style Living

I thought it would be fun to show how I do some of my art journaling. Its a place to experiment and have fun. I will show the progress from start to finish. Any page I do is finished until I decide to add something to it. But I usually move on to the next page. There are no mistakes in art journals. It is a practice of color use and mark making. I follow many artists and get new ideas. I have learned to use so many products, stencils, paints, paint pens and gel medium. I highly recommend starting an art journal. It will get you going if you need a boost to paint again. You can find art journals at Michaels, Hobby Lobby, WalMart, Amazon. You can make your own. I will have a lot of visuals today. So lets get started.

This is how I began. First I gesso the pages so they hold the paint well. Then I add some favorite colors of bottled acrylics to wash on the page. Just a nice washy mix.

Next I add stenciled areas with another pretty blue. This is where you start making marks and adding interest.

I’m definitely thinking spring. Can you tell. Below is a shot of some of my favorite stencils.

Next more marks with paint pens and stencils and stamps. I just use my regular acrylic brushes on the stencils. Messy works just fine in an art journal.

More stencils and washes of yellow. I have softened some areas of the painting with a light wash of white.

Some new shapes.

More flower- like shapes.

This next shot is how I save paint. I just took colors that I had left over on my pallet and used a pallet knife to smear on the next two pages. They will be the jump start to my next journal page. Love the colors.

Now this feels finished before I start the negative painting. All my shapes and marks will look much different once I define them by painting around what I want to grow in this garden. I used a very pale blue white.

Finished. I keep a special note on my design wall that I use in my head all the time.

“No Risk

No Art

No Reward”

I’ll be back with more art and quilting techniques. As far as the George house, Rog is on the hunt for a jet ski again. He couldn’t sleep thinking about it. Its noon and I’m still in my pajamas. I love my life.

You know I am always quilting and knitting and whatever else. But I have found something new that makes my heart soar. I am having a ball. I was getting a bit board with quilting and decided to get my paints out. I had been perusing Pinterest and fell in love with Art Journaling. Now I always thought anything with the word ” journal” in it meant spilling your thoughts and woes on a page or just keeping track of your life. But art journaling is a way of keeping your art in a compact place. It’s mixed media. It’s a place to try new things and possibly spark something bigger . Its fun and so relaxing. I usually make my coffee, and run to my studio to do a bit of painting before Rip VanWinkle gets up. Roger loves to sleep in. It works for me most mornings.

I started this path by soaking in as much info as possible. I bought a few books, new art supplies and watched UTube by all kinds of artists.How did we live without Utube?

So today I’m going to share my journal pages. My Owl page sparked a nursery quilt. So you see this doodling and new techniques can inspire something bigger than your journal page.

My Book

I bought this at Walmart. It has nice paper and easy to work with. I start with pasting two pages together with gel medium matte for every piece of art I do.

page 1

page 2

page 3

page 4 and 5

page 6

This is a great background for something in the future. Your paintings are never finished. You can always go back and add to them.

page 7

This was inspired by a photo I took in the mountains a few years ago. This is agreat example of forcing me to do things differently. I always painted in realism. I wanted to paint whimsy. Now I have learned ways to venture out and try new things. This painting has also turned into a baby quilt wall hanging that you can see in my Etsy shop.

page 8

I love bright colors, but here I want to paint soft and subtle. The harlequin pattern in the background was done with a palate knife and texture paste. So fun! ( I would love to do our bedroom in these colors) 🙂

page 9 and 10

page 11

At first I wasn’t happy with this, and I titled it Good and Bad days. Make art anyway.. But I kept adding more and more and I love it. I hope I have inspired you.

Get out those brushes and blow the dust off of them. Your paints last practically forever. I will list a few of my favorite artists that inspired me. Start reading their blogs and you will learn so much.