My First Journal Page

It's Friday Eve again !

Isn't it a shame if we can't view every single day with the same excitement as we view the weekend?

My weekdays are a little better now while I'm playing in this new art. I have time in the evenings to spend with it and I find I really look forward to that, but then I don't want to stop and go to bed on time. 😄 It's aways something, isn't it ???

It seems a lot of artists, maybe not just mixed media artists, have journals they practice in. For a good while when I began, I wasn't sure I saw the point. Now I think I understand it better. I'm sure "the point" isn't the same for everyone, but for me, I have finally come around to thinking it is probably a good idea for me as a beginner, to have a place to play and try out things, that is not always an actual piece on canvas or wood board or... well... you get it. I love the ones I have previously created, not because I think I am a natural and they are masterpieces, but because they are my history. I'm sure one day I'll look back and have a laugh or two, in fact, I've had quite a few laughs already and I think that is a really good thing.

I had bought one other journal book previous to this that is a little bit bigger. It has a hard cover instead of the stiff card/paper cover like this one, but later when I was in one of the local shops, I thought maybe I should take it down a size notch to start. Then I had TWO that just laid around for a few weeks instead of just one. I can't help it, I get excited about it all.

Anyway, this is the one I am starting with. My idea is to explore and practice and... anything else I decide to do. I will of course jump out and create more single projects and also work on some paintings that mostly have just paint like I was used to doing before the papers and stencils jumped all over my art table.

No complaints really, not a ONE !

So last night I opened the journal and began. I "thought" I took a photo of the page when it was just random paint, but when I went to download, of course I did not, but this was right after I first began to put stencils over top of the randomly painted page. You can kind of see it was just splished and splashed, this way and that.

Then like I said, I started stenciling over top. neither of these layers were planned or designed, just putting on a layer and then doing another. I did use mostly the same purple, pink, yellow and blue paints on the bottom and then stenciled over different parts using some of the same colors for contrast.

I may have put a few too many photos here, but for real there is something different and added in each one.

Now you can play the game "What Is In This Photo That Was Not In The Photo Before?" LOL... Funny... right?

Actually, when I got it to the below point, I loved the colors and designs of the stencils so good, that I entertained the thought of leaving the first page of my journal this way, I mean, sure it wasn't finished and it only had a couple of layers, but I really loved the colors

Then I glued a strip of painted paper on and now it just had to go forward.

Then I told myself to wait, that I needed to draw on it some before more papers, so I did.

Some mixed media artists say it is SUPPOSED to be ugly now and then through the process, so I was guessing I was on the right track. I made myself laugh when I typed that.

Then back to the papers. I really love this black paper with white rings. It is black rice paper that I painted on. It's disadvantage is that even though it is rice paper which is thin and usually blends semi transparently, because it is black, it can't cooperate that way over all.

More papers and a 5. I have no idea why 5.

Then a giant yellow circle around the five and some smaller circles. I kind of regretted the placement of the smaller yellow circles as they were too parallel to the white ones, but alas, I ran out of time and this is where it was when I stopped last night, because it was bedtime.

Wistfully looking back as I was forced by time to leave my happy place.

This evening though, I was back at it. What would I do next?

I decided to break up the center, so I stenciled pink onto it. It doesn't look too organized as a stencil design till you see the places it goes across the black and blue. That's ok, some of the page needed a break up.

Then I threw some happy white on, by stencil on the top and by painted papers in other places.

A tad more at the bottom..... and called it done !

Just a few creative closeup shots.

That there has a lot going on.

And here it is with a bit of distance so you can see the difference in how it has looked close up and how it looks as a whole when you are not all up in it. 😄

To my eyes, there is a lot of difference in what your eye picks out, the colors that drop back and the ones that come forward. I think it is kind of wild how that works, but sometimes it looks a lot better or at least different when you can take a step back.

So, there it is, my first journal page. Some folks paint both sides of a page and some folks don't. I haven't decided what I will do at this time. I may start out only doing one side and by the time I finish the book that way, maybe I will have decided if I want to go back and paint on the back of each page. It will take a while to get to that point, so there is plenty of time to change my mind 50 times.

I hope you have all been having a good week and that your hearts are happy.

Love you ! Mean it !

Jacey