30-30-30 Challenge: COMPLETED

Hey guys! I'm here with you guys again today, with the completion of my 30-30-30 project! I actually finished this project a few days ago (the 9th). But I decided to hold it off for a few days, so that I would have some time to prep the blog post for today. The first page that I want to show you guys today is a page that I was working with some specific colors. I wanted to work with circles again as well, and I really enjoy the way that this page turned out.

Here's a bit of a close up of the texture that I was able to achieve with this particular page. I scraped a bunch of color over the page, then added some stenciled circles. Then I painted around the edges of the circles with purple paint. 

And here is the final page for this challenge. These two pages still need to have journaling added to them, but that will probably be completed sometime in the next few days, since I didn't use anywhere near the amount of time that I had set aside for either of them. Which, of course, was 30 minutes. I probably used about 20 on each of them. Which leaves me plenty of space/time to write all over these pages. My biggest problem, I think, is going to be figuring out how to bind the single pages. If anybody has any ideas, please let me know. I would be eternally grateful.

Now I'm going to do a bit of a showing of all of the pages that I have completed throughout this challenge. The photos are going to be in groups of four, except for the final two, because that's simply the way the numbers turn out when you organize in this way, and only have 30 pages. 32 and I would have 4 in every photo. Though you guys probably could have figured that out. This is the first four pages that I completed for this challenge. The first two are when I was really trying to start to get into the flow of the challenge, and really wasn't sure where I was going with it. The second two I enjoy very much, as this was when I was starting to develop a style for this journal.

With these pages, I like all of them, with the exception of the brown one in the lower left corner. I just think that I went a little overboard with the journaling. I should have stopped when my muse told me to stop. I shouldn't have continued. My favorite would be in the UPPER left hand corner. This is very easily my favorite page of the ENTIRE CHALLENGE.

I love all of these pages with a passion. My favorite though, if I have to pick one, is the one in the upper right hand corner. With that page, I fixed a "mistake" and turned it into something that I loved 100 times more than the original. Plus, I think the tab coordinates beautifully with the overall feel of the page. I also really enjoy the upper left hand page, with the Dr. Seuss quote. I just love it.

I'm starting to get into a sort of rhythm here. I love all of these pages. Although my favorite here would be the one in the lower left hand corner. I just think that the colors and patterns that I decided to use go so well with the photograph. I love EVERYTHING about this page. Although, looking at the photo above, the one in the upper right hand corner feels extremely out of place to me. There's no title, no painting, no journaling; it's nothing like the other pages in the journal.

This, for me, is a delicious little group of pages. Seriously. With some of my pages, I'll simply look at them, and be surprised at what I see. I think that I've talked about that before on the blog. With this photo, I find it almost impossible to decide upon a favorite page. However, I could choose a least favorite. And I think that would be the one in the upper right hand corner. The colors just aren't me. But I like it anyways. Just not as much as the others. Both of the pages on the left really speak to me.

In this little bundle, my favorite, without a shadow of a doubt, would be the one in the lower left hand corner. It's just so neon; it pops in your face. I love everything about it, even though I do wish that it had some journaling on it. With some of these pages, I think I might go back and add journaling where there isn't any. I don't think any day did I go over, or right up to my time limit, so it should be okay. And if not, then that's okay too. This is my art journal, and I can do with it what I please.

This is where the journal gets a little bit tricky. I don't enjoy either of the pages on the bottom. The lower left is a bit better for the lower right. But they just stick out like a sore thumb. Plus, they are extremely similar, which I don't really enjoy. However, my favorite of this batch would be the one in the upper left hand corner. I think the colors go very well with the photo. Plus, I love the wonky circles. And the journaling lines.

And here we are, right where we started. With the last two pages of my journal.  If I had to pick between the two of these pages, I would pick the one on the right. I think that the bright, in your face colors are a bit more my style than the purple and green color combo. Although those two colors are my dad's favorite colors. They remind me of Barney though.

And then, the last couple of photos that I would like to share with you guys would be the finished stack of pages, arranged in the order that they are going to appear when they are finally bound. I will be so happy when that happens. Seriously. My first finished art journal. It's quite an accomplishment for me. I guess that's what comes of using composition notebooks that have a total of 200 pages when they are done. Here you can see all of the layers of tabs, showing the dates that I created them.

And here they are from the side. You can see what a thick, juicy stack that this has become. Full of collage, painting, doodling, journaling, and photographs, this journal has become a part of me; an expression of everything that I am. I explored many different topics in this journal, using the writing to express how I felt about each. And I thought that it was amazing. I might be doing something like this again sometime. But then again, maybe I won't. 

Thanks for visiting me guys! And again, if any of you have any idea at all of how to bind single pieces of paper, I'd be grateful for the advice! See you tomorrow!

31 Hearts: Day 7 + Color Challenge #3 Announcement

Hello my art friends! How are you guys doing this fine evening. Very well I hope. For I have some more art to share with you guys today. I might, before long, vary the way that I do these posts, as I do not want to bore you. On the contrary, I would like to excite you to create, and I don't know that posting the same thing over and over again is really helping that too much. But, for now, I'm going to remain the way that I am, until I can figure out how else to do it.

We're starting out with my 31 Hearts page. I decided to do a zebra inspired page today, and actually created a stencil to make this page. I've been doing a whole lot of that lately; making stencils, masks and stamps to fit the theme. For example, I also made two zebra heart stamps today as well. I love the way that they turned out, and I'll probably do something with them tomorrow. My head is already swarming with ideas; we just have to see where they go.

Also, I decided to throw in a picture of yesterday's page and today's page side by side. I don't know if I like them right next to each other like this; I don't know if I'll do it again; but I did think that it would be interesting so that you could see this. I thought that although it was kind of weird to see two hearts side by side in my journal, it was also kind of different and unique. So I just had to share it.

My 30-30-30 Challenge page (30 art journal pages in 30 days in 30 minutes each) today, is actually extremely similar to yesterday's page. I decided to do more doodling. And this is what I churned out.

Here is my ICAD. Doodled.

And a couple of ATCs. Also doodled.

And really, to be honest, that's all I have for you guys today. At least art wise. I also have something else for you guys today. You remember when I did the color challenge with Dede? And with Barbara? Well. The color challenge is back. And it's more advanced than ever. I am once again playing with Barbara. We both enjoyed the previous challenge so much that we decided to do another! But there are some differences. First, and foremost, we actually have another person joining us! Mavis Penney of Mavis Penney Studios! So it's not so much a one - on - one challenge as it is a personal/secret challenge. Also, we have another twist that we will be adding in. The reveal will be Monday the 16th, and we will be revealing a total of 3 pieces. That's three pieces in 10 days. I'm ready to get started! And I hope you guys like the results!

Anyways. I'll see you guys tomorrow. Have a good rest of the night!

31 Hearts + Zentangling

Hey guys! How are all of you guys doing today? I am doing fine, and I hope that the same holds true for you. I would like to share with you today, some of my art that I was working on today. I worked on yet another 31 Hearts page, which I have been doing for the entire month of July. Those of you who have been followers of my blog will have seen the other pages, but, if you haven't, if you simply backtrack from here, you can see some of the others.

This isn't really my favorite page that I've done for this challenge, but I might add some more to it. I liked it a whole lot better before the black border around the heart became extremely dark and thick. I liked it better when it was dark and thin. It feels like it might be more my style. However, tomorrow, I may add some more words to this page. That might help a little bit with the style of the page. Adding some more near the bottom would be what I would normally do. I just ran out of time in the day. However, today, this is what I used on the page:

"These diamonds we collect are hardly the beginning to the power of all of the facts life has been without."

                                                 -Jordan Hill

Hope you guys like it. Sometimes the little phrases, sentences, and paragraphs I put together seem to have deeper meaning than I originally intend. That's pretty much what happened today.

Of course, today I would love to share with you guys my 30-30-30 Challenge. For those of you who are not aware of my challenge; I have been challenged by Bianca of Luctor Et Emergo to create 30 art journal pages in 30 days in 30 minutes each. Today I decided to do a Zentangle doodle. I still need to add the tab of course, but it seemed easy enough. Plus, I've been really into the doodling thing lately. It's fun, easy, quick, and looks amazing. Plus, I find it fun to experiment with all of the different marks that it is possible to make.

For example, with today's ICAD I did exactly the same thing. I made a zentangle. I love the zebra type pattern; it really seems to explore my style; I actually have an idea for my 31 Hearts pages that I'm looking to explore with some zebra patterns included in it. We'll see what becomes of that. I have about a million of ideas for that challenge after today. 

Here are some stamps that I actually made for this challenge. Or, rather, based around this challenge. I used self adhesive fun foam and cardboard from a cardboard box. I have probably 5 more ideas for some stamps that I would love to experiment with, as well as some more stencil ideas. I've really been having fun exploring using a new shape in my artwork, and am even considering trying a new shape after this challenge is up. I feel as if this is exploring a side of me that I never even knew existed; the hearts seem to be a part of my style that I didn't even know was there. It's weird. But true.

And finally, I would like to present you with my ATCs for the day. I started some more besides these, but these four were all I was able to finish. I've been working on top of color washed and watercolored papers for these pieces, so that the color will show through the black and white pieces. I love the effect that this gives, for sure.

Anyways, thanks for checking out my blog. And I'll see you guys later. Peace.

Challenge Updates - 7.5.2012 Edition

Hey guys. I'm back with you guys again today, even though I haven't really been doing so good with getting my art in lately. Some of this I just do while watching television. Since that's what I seem to be doing lately. Vegetating. In front of the television. Plus, my family makes me feel guilty because they want to watch Lost, while I'm making art. So they keep pestering me every two seconds. Ha. So eventually I just gave in. But here I have my 31 Hearts page for you guys today.

I'm not sure if this page really turned out the way that I wanted it to. I mean, it certainly fits the style of the rest of the pages that I've been doing for this challenge, but for some reason I felt like this was going to be much more graphic and bold. Instead it's subdued and subtle. And I don't know how I feel about it, to be completely honest. I had to stare at it for a couple of hours before I could bring myself to leave it as is, and not completely cover it up and start over from scratch. Of course, I realize that I am much too difficult on myself sometimes.

My 30-30-30 page for you guys. Again, very much the same collage based style that I have been using for the majority of this project. It's weird. It seems that I develop a style for any challenge that I start. This one is more collage based, while my 31 Hearts challenge is very much based around paint, stencils, masks, stamps, distressing and subtle colors.

Here's a few of the details of the page. I used a bunch of scrap paper from magazines to create this page.

My ICAD was purely doodled today. I drew my inspiration from some pieces that Tammy was doing earlier on in the challenge, although I did mine in simple black and white. And I do like the way that it turned out. It's certainly not horrible.

I also made some ATCs today. I haven't quite been keeping up with my schedule this month, but we'll see what happens. Today I made three cards, and I love each and every one of them. These, as always, are available for trade. I made two of them from a very basic watercolor background, and the other from specific collage materials that I culled from anywhere that I could. And I like them all. Anyways. That's all that I have for you guys today. And I hope to see you tomorrow. I'll be here.

31 Hearts, 30-30-30 + ICAD

HAPPY FOURTH OF JULY!!

*fanfare plays*

Yep. And that's that. All of the fourth festivities that you're going to get. Because, to be completely honest, I didn't use those particular colors in the majority of my art today, like I know some people did. I guess that it's just not my style. But I'll tell you what is my style. Today's art.

We're going to start off, once more, with my 31 Hearts page. This is starting to become a habit, now that I think about it, but I don't really think that should be a problem. I just like showing my most favorite pieces first. That's the way I blog; I almost always have. And I think something about getting back to journaling in a full size format, and just having a new challenge to work with is really inspiring me. Also, I think I'm creating, in me, a new love of hearts that wasn't there before. I don't know why. I've always shied away from them. But this challenge is pushing me beyond my boundaries. And I've enjoyed every minute of it. And I haven't made a single page that I didn't like.

The real focus of this page though, is obviously the hearts. Even though I did an extremely textured background to work on, the hearts are what I am most proud of. I went on a hunt, through all of my papers that I have lying around my desk; that were formed from painting them, or lifting paint from a previous page; I found my favorites. Then I made a collage of them on another piece of printer paper. I also included some paper towels (dyed, of course) into the layers. Added some stamping and some doodling, and I was done. Then I cut hearts out of the piece. And I really like the way that they turned out. I still have a few left over; not sure what's going to become of them yet.

And here is my ICAD of the day. This is ICAD #35. If you guys remember, yesterday I was having problems with my ICAD. I didn't really like it. At all. I didn't feel that the girl really represented my style. So I tried again today. And I really feel as if I achieved what I was looking for. This is the second time that I have repeated a prompt, but the result was good, so I'm okay with it.

And here you can see the details of her face a bit better. I used watercolors for the majority of this face, and mixed some white acrylics into some of the layers to create a more solid texture. I really like the way that this turned out. I was taken aback by her hair at first, but I soon got over that. I like it now.

And, finally, here is my 30-30-30 page. After doing a quick count today, I realized that this is not page 24 as I thought, but, rather, page 25. So I really only have five days left. I did this page in very much the same style as I have done most of the pages in this journal, and really enjoyed the way that it turned out. 

And that would be that. I hope you guys enjoyed this post, and I'll see you tomorrow! Bye!

31 Hearts: Day 3

Hello my art friends ! How are all of you guys doing today? Sorry the post is so late getting to you guys today; I know I've been saying that a lot lately. But really, I just threw some of this together a few minutes ago so that I would have something to show you. You see, I do have an excuse though. I was out thrifting today with a friend of mine. Sadly, I didn't find anything crafty, but I did find some interesting, unique clothing that was totally my style. So I was totally pumped about that. That was this morning. Then, this afternoon, when I normally do my art, I had to clean my room. It's still not done, but most of it is. And then the rest of the night I watched Lost. I meant to only watch one episode. I really did. But I got sucked into that crazy world, just like I did with Prison Break. Here's to hoping that the ending isn't QUITE as bad. We'll see.

Anyways, I'd like to start us off today with my 31 Hearts page. That seems to be what I've been doing a lot of lately. But here's the deal. I really enjoy the way that these pages have been turning out. Plus, I've really enjoyed working in a full page format again. I missed it. What with all my small mini pages for all my other challenges I have going. Plus, I really feel as if this challenge is almost forcing me to push my limits as an artist. And for me, that is really a good thing. It is almost forcing me to define my own style. I have come up with several things in the past two months that I feel really show my own artistic abilities and strengths, and I'm currently looking for ways to showcase that in my art. These challenges that I've been participating in are simply helping me to narrow that down. And develop it.

I decided to do a broken heart today. I actually made the stencil for this myself, which is actually part of what I meant about developing my own style. When I first started art journaling, I would have had no idea where to begin with that kind of thing; with the inspiration I am getting now. I probably would have postponed the project until I could find the proper stencil or mask. But now I'm making my own. And I like it so much better. I feel as if it's more me. And nobody is going to have a stencil exactly like it, even if they try. And I think that's cool. It's what makes me unique.

Another thing that I've really enjoyed about this challenge is the way that it keeps generating me new ideas. I know that it may sound kind of strange to any non-artists that may be reading this. But that's kind of why I say it. Just today, when I was working on this page, I came up with two NEW ideas for heart pages. And I'm sure that those are going to create more. It's just a matter of time before I have way too many heart ideas for pages, and have to pick one to work with, and save the rest for another day.

And here is my ICAD for today. The daily challenge was to paint a girl on your card. Even though I'm not so fond of the way that this one turned out, I was fairly inspired, and I think I may try again tomorrow. I know. I don't generally use the same prompt twice. But I don't think there's a problem with that. I was considering using a bit more acrylic paint than I did here, and making it in a horizontal format, instead of a vertical one. Also, I had some cool color ideas. But it's still in the processing stage. In my head. We'll see how it turns out on paper.

And, of course, here I am with my daily 30-30-30 Challenge page. It's actually extremely hard to believe that this challenge is almost over. I have enjoyed it immensely, and may consider doing something similar in the months to come, even if I do it somewhat individually. This is actually Day 23 of this challenge. That means I only have a week until it's over. But, after those seven days are up, I'll have the fun challenge of trying to decide how exactly I want to try and bind these suckers. I haven't a clue in the world, to be completely honest with you. And I think, after that it is over, it'll be nice to have a whole, completed art journal. I don't have one of those yet. But I will. So that will be cool.

And finally, the last thing that I have to show you guys today are my ATCs that I created. I love the way that these turned out; the texture is amazing. The texture of a piece can definitely add a lot to it. I have learned that from experience. A lot of my older pieces didn't have a lot of texture. I think that it's kind of cool to see the way my art has changed. It's interesting. These cards are also available for trade, if anyone wants them. That brings my ATC Challenge count to 8/101. Not too bad so far. Not too bad.

Well. That's all I have for you guys today. And I'll see you tomorrow.

31 Hearts: Day 2 + ATC Challenge

Hey everyone! Jordan here, and I'm back with you guys again today with yet another post. I have quite a few projects going, as most of you know, that I am continuously working on. I have quite a few things to show you guys today. The first thing that I want to show you guys today is my 30-30-30 page. 

This page is a bit more neon than I'm normally used to, and I really like the way that it turned out. The basis of this page really came from the photo of the girl. I got that photo out of a magazine, and then added a couple of other items to the page. Along with the watercolor background. And after that was done, the page was pretty much finished. With this journal, I'm really focusing a little more on the collage aspect of the page, rather than the painting aspect of the page. I'll find my own mix eventually. I'm just having fun with the experimenting aspect of it.

And here we have some ATCs that I made. I made four today, and I'm starting a challenge. For myself at least. If any of you guys want to join, feel free to post a link to your blog in the comments. Anyways, what I'm challenging myself to do, is, in the month of July, make 101 ATCs. I figured all of the math out. I make four a day for eleven days, and then the rest of the month, I make three. I don't think that it will be too difficult to do. Since they are so small. Plus, I can use up leftovers when making them. That's just a plus. 

If anyone wants to trade for these, let me know. As a group would be preferred, to save on postage.

And here is my 31 Hearts page. This challenge has been pretty inspiring to me thus far, and I'm really enjoying it. I love starting new challenges because I always get a fresh new flow of ideas, which I love. This page was based around the concept that I was talking about yesterday. The original thought was that I should create a colorful, patterned background, and then use black to mask off a heart shape. That's not quite the way that it turned out though. What ended up happening is that I used blue/turquoise paint instead of black, and, since I liked the way that the page looked without covering all of the background, I decided to leave it like that. Then I added the title, and that was that.

Something else that I worked on today was my Summer of Color: Week 4 Colors. The colors were a light pink and bright, summery yellow. I made a few more papers than this, but I didn't take a picture. I do love the way that they turned out though. The colors however, are a lot more vibrant in real life. I don't know why it didn't transmit very well to the screen.

And finally, last, but certainly not least, we have my ICAD for today. I did a bit of a collage today, without any paint at all. I decided to do it this way, because I wanted to sit in front of the television and lounge around, but I knew that I still had some stuff left to do. So I did this while sitting in front of the T.V. And I do like the way that it turned out.

ALSO, tomorrow, I'm going thrift store shopping with a friend of mine. We'll see if I find anything good! If I do, I'll be sure to post it on the blog. :) I'll be back tomorrow, and hope to see you then! Bye!

31 Hearts: Page #1

Hey everybody! It's Jordan, and I'm here with all of you guys again today. I know that I didn't manage to update my blog again yesterday, as I was hoping to, but we had a visitor from Ohio who came and stayed with us for a night. I still did the art, I just wasn't able to update you guys a second time. I might add some of that stuff on here later so that you can see it. But anyways. Let's get onto the first project that I did today.

It was actually an art journal page. I was trying to visualize an idea that I had when I read the challenge on Alaya's Art blog; to make 31 hearts in the month of July.  I had a concept that I was trying to visualize for it, but when I flipped to this page, when I was trying to decide what page to work on, the very basic sketch of this face called to me to try and complete it; or, at the very least, work on it. Just the basic sketch was down. I used a bunch of watercolor and acrylic paints that were already in my pallet; this page was basically made up of leftovers. THIS is why I can never throw anything away. :)

As I was working on this girl however, what I started to imagine was a type of heart on her dress. And then, I started to realize that sort of went along with the challenge. So I decided to go with this for today's heart page, instead of the original concept that I had. So that will most likely be tomorrow's page. But the cool thing about this page, for me at least, is that I feel like that I am really starting to develop my style in faces and portraits a lot more than I have in the past. For example, I like this a lot more, and feel it's more my style than this portrait I did for my color challenge. Even though I like that one too.

And HERE I have my 30-30-30 challenge for you guys today. So. Let me tell you something; I have a surprise for you guys today! I decided to start recording my process of doing these 30-30-30 pages. And, if you click here, you can see me make this page.

I hope you like it!

Here, we have my ICAD for today. Number 31. For this card, I used the prompt "dramatic". Now, honestly, I don't really know if this card is all that dramatic. But what I was thinking about when I came up with the concept for this card was how things that are dramatic are often times big and bold. I was thinking about just putting the crab image down in the middle of the card, and building the collage around it, but I decided not to do that, when, by freak accident, I laid the girl down right on top of it. And I just happened to really like the way that it looked. And really, it just evolved from there, me adding more collage elements and pieces to make and interesting piece.

And this piece too, like a lot of my more recent pieces, is really all about the details. I have loved incorporating that into my newer pieces. As I said earlier, as of late, I feel as if my style is progressing. That it is really becoming possible for me to create my own style that is definably me. Which is saying a lot, since I am so eclectic by nature.

Here is a closer view of some of the more minuscule elements. Layered on top of one another, I really enjoy the effects. And that would be that. For today at least. So, I hope that you guys enjoyed this post, and will join me again tomorrow!