Category Archives: Art Journaling

Art Journaling, See the Sights, Tales of the Neighborhood

The Codex Leicester instead of the Misadventures

7 Comments

Once again got busy doing stuff today and ran out of time for the Misadventures. Whoops. 🙂 (And also once again forgot to schedule the post before publishing. D’oh!)

So, instead I’ll show you the pages from one of my art journals about seeing Leonardo da Vinci, The Codex Leicester, and the Creative Mind at the Minneapolis Institute of Arts on August 14. Collaged my ephemera from the event, the article in my neighborhood newspaper (without which I would never have heard about the exhibit), and some relevant images from an old encyclopedia and an old dictionary. I wrote a bit about seeing the exhibit with the tiny amount of space I had left, then used a gold colored pencil throughout to unify everything.

If you are anywhere near Minneapolis, I highly recommend that you visit this exhibit before it closes on August 30!

Click to embiggen any of the photos.

*still enthralled* *doesn’t believe it’s just a branch* -Chaos

Art Journaling, Linkity linkity link, Reading, Reviewettes

Linkity largesse

6 Comments

Randonymity

Bookity

Think, Learn, Do, Make

Cookity

Gluten Free

Crafty

Cool

Cool or Wha…?

Wha…?

LOL

Teh Cute

Reading Update
Living Out Loud: Activities to Fuel a Creative Life by Keri Smith. Ok short activity book about how to bring more creativity into your life, which apparently involves a lot of stickers and vaguely New Agey sentiments. I did like the directions (page 61) for how to make a wee book from a single sheet of paper.
Collage, Paint, Draw: Explore Mixed Media Techniques and Materials by Sue Pelletier. Ok collage how-to book that’s not particularly relevant to collage for art journaling, as it focuses on creating works that are not flat. (I don’t see myself using plaster-of-paris or 18-gauge wire in my art journal.) Plus I found the artist’s style repetitive – mostly dresses, Mary Janes, and birds.

*continuing to be enthralled* -Chaos

(Spoiler: It’s a branch. Not a bird. Not a squirrel. A branch.)

Art Journaling

Make art journal pages, not Misadventures

5 Comments

No Misadventures today because art journaling yesterday instead. 🙂

All pages posted from my “Art as Journal” class journal.

These are marker and colored pencil.

The color wheels are from a Kaleidoscopia coloring book, colored in with colored pencils by me. The other writing is unusual words for colors (using gel pen).

The last page and inner back cover.

The assignment for this page was “Connections”. Sharpie and watercolor, with some washi tape in the margins.

The inner back cover. The top picture is ballpoint pen doodles of my name. The bottom is some stamped books and colored pencil. Quotes are strewn hither and thither. 🙂

And here’s the outer back cover. Very random! The quote on the tiny page of (stamped) paper says, “Everything in this book may be wrong.” (Richard Bach, from Illusions: The Adventures of a Reluctant Messiah)

“Really?! No naughty boys today?!? It’s an August miracle!!!” -Mayhem

Art Journaling, Linkity linkity link, Reading, Reviewettes

The cats ate linkity!

7 Comments

Congrats to Curlyq, who won Immutable by Becky Black!

Randonymity

Reading Update
Journal Spilling: Mixed-Media Techniques for Free Expression by Diana Trout. Very good overview of art journaling techniques, complete with prompts at the end. “Spilling” refers to writing (or creating an art entry) without thinking about it – basically stream-of-consciousness. I liked this book enough that I’ve ordered a used copy for myself.
Painted Pages: Fueling Creativity with Sketchbooks and Mixed Media by Sarah Ahearn Bellemare. This was ok – it focused on creating mixed media works, with a sketchbook being one of the tools to get there. After reading perhaps the first third without any of it resonating with me, I skimmed the rest. I do love how her work looks – it turns out that some pretty journals I just bought had covers with her art on them. 🙂

“Can’t we have the windows open and the air conditioning on, Mom?! I’m just too warm and sleepy to enjoy the open windows otherwise.” -Mayhem

Pretty sure she’s had that actual thought. 🙂

Art Journaling

More art journaling, less Misadventuring

9 Comments

Congrats to Joe, who won Prickly Business (Portland Pack Chronicles #1) by Piper Vaughn and Kenzie Cade! Prickly Business is being released today by Dreamspinner Press.

More journal pages instead of a Misadventure! 🙂

This is the cover of the journal I’m doing as part of the “Art as Journal” class I’m taking from Articulture in Minneapolis. I didn’t paint the rainbow bit on the left – it was from a scraps bin at class. The small images were clipped from a book of images at class and I painted around them with watercolors: reading, hockey, black cats, and Minneapolis. Sound like me? 🙂

Two pages for my class.

We have encyclopedias we can cut up, so I made a page about Canada and wrote down some Canada-themed song lyrics.

We were asked to do a page for “mysterious” as our homework one week. I knew that old X-Files postcard would be useful someday!

This two page spread is about being neurodiverse (autistic) in a neurotypical world.

Watercolor pencil:

“You’re not the only artistic one in this family, Mom! I took a selfie!!!!!” -Mayhem

“So did I!!” -Chaos

Art Journaling

The return of No time for Misadventures – making art!

6 Comments

But there are plenty of Misadventures in the archives to keep you busy if you really need a Misadventures fix. 🙂

“Fortunate”:

“The First Book” by Rita Dove:

Open it

Go ahead, it won’t bite.
Well…maybe a little.

More a nip, like. A tingle.
It’s pleasurable, really.

You see, it keeps on opening.
You may fall in.

Sure, it’s hard to get started;
remember learning to use

knife and fork? Dig in:
You’ll never reach the bottom.

It’s not like it’s the end of the world –
Just the world as you think

you know it.

“Saved paper”:

Back in the 1990s, there was a little card shop near the Uptown Theater. I can’t remember what it was called, but it used these little bags patterned with that I thought were too pretty (and looked too useful, even if I didn’t have a use for them…then) to just throw away. Today I stumbled across them again and now I have a use for them! I’m frankly amazed they survived all the moves!!

I took the bag apart and stuck it on the page, then tried to brighten it up a bit with some watercolors.

“I thought I’d enjoy these breaks from the naughty boys, but now I’m wondering if I need to be concerned about this art journaling business.” -Mayhem

Art Journaling

No time for Misadventures – making art!

7 Comments

Congrats to Courtney S, who won Collusion (Diversion #2) (2nd ed) by Eden Winters! Collusion was released by Rocky Ridge Books on June 20.

But there are plenty of Misadventures in the archives to keep you busy if you start to go into withdrawal or something. 🙂

You’ve probably noticed I’ve been reading all sorts of books about art journaling over the past few months. If you’re curious, I’ve included a couple of pages from one of my art journals below, with links to posts with more pictures on my tumblr. I will definitely be posting more pages to my tumblr.

One of the non-abstract pages (newsprint covered with watercolor washes; black pen; watercolor pencil):

And one of the abstract pages (colored pencil and black brush pen):

No big deal, I just forgot I had an artistic streak… for 30+ years. D’oh!

“…zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz…” -Mayhem

That pose makes my spine cringe.