Flight of the Butterflies: Daily Art Journal Page

Hey guys! What's going on?

I didn't have a whole lot of time to create today, as I had to study for an Anatomy test I have tomorrow (I still need to do some more of that) and I also had to clean my room. So even though I didn't really go anywhere today, I was pretty busy. However, I did manage to carve aside a tiny bit of time to create; a lot of my pages as of late seem to have been created later in the evenings in the time span of about an hour. Sometimes a bit more, sometimes a bit less; I don't really time myself. It's pretty much just an estimate. 

Here's a bit more of an up close of the title. There is a bit of deeper meaning to what I have here, I promise. I'm not just talking randomly about butterflies migrating. I actually just watched a movie by the title of this in an IMAX theater the other day at MOSI. I was so inspired by their colors that I just had to create a page around them. However, the black and orange of a monarch butterfly were just too halloween - like for my taste. So I added in the blue. That really helped me.

Also, one of these days, I need to show you guys the method I've come up for organizing the letters that I've cut out from magazines and newspapers. I used to store them in plastic baggies, but that got really annoying to try to mess with. One day, I promise I will show you. The sorting itself is very tedious, but I generally do it while my mind is busy doing something else; watching television or the like. In fact, just this evening I was watching a recording of the All-Star NBA game that came on last night, and was sorting out the letters while watching that. However, I need to try to find the last two periods of that game online somewhere, as they didn't record on my VCR. That makes me sad. 

Anyways. One last picture for you guys before I go; a detail picture of the background itself. I can definitely see myself pulling out the typewriter and putting some some simple journaling inside of this star. Why not, right? It looks like it would fit perfectly, if I'm being completely honest. Maybe a quote from the movie, or something about the emotions that I felt while I was watching it? Again, I'm not really sure. However, sometimes I just need to let things sit for a while before journaling. I think this is going to be one of those pages.

Thanks for looking guys! And I'll see you next time! :)

Linking to Mandarin Orange Monday and Creative Every Day.

Forgiven - Daily Art Journal Page

Hey everyone! How's it been going for you guys today? Hopefully good.

For me, it was a Monday. For the most part, I don't have a problem with Mondays for the regular reasons. Most people wake up, not wanting to go to school. Or work. Or whatever it is that they have to do on that day. For me, my biggest problem is just the getting up. I don't mind school. Not at all. In fact, I quite enjoy school. I just don't like an alarm going off in my ear at 6:30 in the morning.

Anyways. Enough with the complaining about getting up. Let's move onto the art.

For the most part, I've noticed that art journal pages I create during the week are generally quite a bit simpler. For example: Peace. I created that page in the middle of the week because I didn't have hardly any time at all to get anything else done. And I wanted to collage. However, art is still art.

Today's page is fairly simple as well. The original idea for the page started when I thought it would be interesting to work with watercolor on top of newspaper text. I used much bigger pieces to collage this background; a total of three pieces in total. Generally, I work with smaller pieces, gradually working up to a nice collaged background with lots of depth. However, today I wanted to try something different. And different I did. 

I used another heart on this piece today. I'm not exactly sure why, but they seem to keep showing up in my work. I'm not doing it on purpose, I swear. I know it's a bit coincidental, as it is February, and Valentine's Day is this month. However, it is not on purpose.

I think it might have something to do with my 31 Hearts project. Even though I didn't finish it, I think it might have leaked into my everyday art style. Honestly, it wouldn't surprise me. And I'm not sure that I actually have a problem with it. Maybe I should try doing a personal 31 Hearts project. I know I wouldn't mind experimenting with it a bit more. However, I am interested in doing the 29 Faces challenge this month. I know I'm a little late to the party, but I know I could still do it.

Anyways. That's what I have for you guys today. I was just messing around with paint, trying to see what would come out of it. I personally like the way it turned out. Even though I initially intended for the heart to be a bit brighter than it is, I think it just adds to the page, seeing that it is a bit darker. 

So I thank you guys for looking, and I'll talk to you next time! :)

Life - Daily Art Journal Page

Hey guys! What's up?

I know that it's been a while since my last post, but I've been trying to make time to do art in general. Since my weekend away from home, I kind of got out of the swing of things. However, now I'm back, hopefully for all of February. That's what I'm hoping for at least.

On Thursday, I gave blood for the very first time, through my school. I had a whole lot of fun doing it (though I don't think it was supposed to be fun), and I thought that it was a very interesting experience. It only took me a total of three minutes to give a pint of blood, and the lady who was doing it seemed surprised. Not sure what that means, but hopefully it's not a bad thing. XD

Anyways. I was inspired to do a page based around that concept. The fact that I did give blood.

 I had a sort of idea in the back of my head that I wanted to come into fruition, but I could only BARELY see it in my mind's eye. What I had to end up doing was just starting in the first place, and not being afraid to mess up. Really, all that I had for the concept was the fact that I knew I wanted to use a lot of red, and I wanted to have the red drops coming down the page.

Even the heart was something that kind of came to me in the moment.

That's one of the things that I love about mixed media art. About art journaling in general. You don't necessarily have to know what you're doing before you do it. I know that, at least for me personally, the actual process of working actually prompts more ideas in my mind. Makes my vision clearer.

After every couple of layers, I get a few more ideas for the next few layers. That's just the way I like to work.

Anyways. I hope that you guys enjoyed seeing this page; I feel like it has a lot more personal meaning than a lot of the other pages that I do, and that makes it unique. And that's a good thing.

Linking to Paint Party Friday, Art Journal Every Day and Try it on Tuesday. :)

Peace - Art Journal Page

Okay guys. I am here with you guys again today, though I really doubted I was going to be. I had a ton of homework in Anatomy and Algebra II, and, from that, I wasn't even sure if I was even going to have time to do any art at all. 

I ended up finishing all of my work around 9, then sat down to make something. I didn't know what I was going to do, but I decided to go with it anyways. I took my journal that I used for the In the Sun prompts this last summer, and flipped to the next available page.

It was painted yellow, and there were quite a few layers underneath of it.

That's part of what I love about this kind of journal. Since the pages are already half-way done, they go together super quickly. So I can actually make something that looks respectable on a day like this. When I literally have no time. But still want to create art.

Then, I added the collage. The piece of chevron type paper was actually made for my first 52 Sparks page. If you look in the background of the page, you'll see what I'm talking about. It's under a ton of layers, but it's still there. This piece was left over from collaging that. I saw it on my desk, and felt it went nicely with the background. So down it went. The heart, which was also lying on my desk, followed soon after. 

I grunged up the background a bit with some RoseArt crayons and chalk pastels, then added a title and some journaling. Then I was done.

Going back to the concept of stopping when it's finished. Even though there weren't many layers on this page, as there are with the majority of my work, I liked the way it turned out. I didn't want to force it to be something that it wasn't. I would have ended up ruining it, though I'm perfectly satisfied with it right now. I like letting art develop on it's own. To me, that's what makes it special.

So that would be that! As a side note however, it is highly unlikely that there will be a post either tomorrow or Saturday. I had meant to get some posts stocked up to post on those days, but I was so busy, I didn't have time to. I'm going to a sports tournament type thing, and I'll be gone until 9 P.M. on Saturday night. I'll be so focused on sports, I probably won't even think about art. I might bring a couple of things to mess around with, but I probably won't be posting. Just a comment. 

Anyways. Thanks for visiting! And I'll see you guys next time!

52 Sparks - Motivation.

Hey guys! I'm back again today, though I have a bit of a shorter post for you guys.

I have a lot of homework to do, so I'm just popping in to share a few photos.

This was for 52 Sparks. The second prompt was to create a page around what drives you. To me, drive and motivation are very much one in the same. So I decided to do my page about motivation.

I did the page on a live stream, and I collaged a bunch of pieces together to create this little owl. I came up for the design for him while doodling for one of Milliande's newest prompts. So I decided to let something become of it, and create this little guy.

I really like the way that he turned out, and I tried a technique that I never have before, which is actually trying to create recognizable pieces from scraps of magazines.

I hope you guys enjoyed, and I'll talk at you later. :)

Resize It! Challenge Update

Hey guys! How's it going? 

If you didn't see my earlier post about the Co-op Youtube Channel that I'm trying to start up, you might want to go check that out. :)

However, let's get back to today's post.

I had originally recorded a video of me creating this two-page spread in my Resize It! Journal. However, a lot of the audio was lost, and the recording itself was very glitchy; entire segments are gone completely.

I'm very confused as to what happened there. However, I am going to ask you guys what you want me to do about that. I can try to take screenshots of the broken footage, as I obviously don't need audio to do that. And I'll do a step-by-step post tomorrow.

OR

I can piece the footage together as best as I can, and put music in the background. The audio would take hours to try to piece together, and I don't really want to do that. Just let me know, and I'll go with the most popular vote. :)

Here's a bit of the detail on the left page of the spread. I did the same type of journaling as I did yesterday, with the graph paper and typewriter. I just love the way it looks, and I think that it is very effective. 

It's almost a part of my style in and of itself. 

Also, here are a few details of the right page of the spread. I did a little cluster of collage elements on these pages, and I really like the way it turned out.

My journal is already starting to get a bit thick, even though I only have 3 pages done. :P

So yeah. Let me know what you guys want me to do about the lost footage. Either way, I'll post the challenge itself tomorrow, along with whatever is decided upon. 

Thanks for looking guys! And I'll talk to you later!

Divide - 52 Sparks #1

Hey everyone! I know it's been a while long while since I've been on here, but I'm around now! 

I'm stopping in to share with you guys a page that I have just created. I've done this for several challenges, and it's been a great deal of fun. I've missed art journaling; I'm quite glad that I've gotten back into it. 

Let me start off by saying that I have started a new journal. For 2013. My goal for this year is that, at the very least, this journal will be fully completed. I will be a happy camper if that goal comes into completion. A grand total of 200 pages. 100 sheets, front and back. And this is number one.

The major challenge that I did this page for was Dale's 52 Sparks challenge. A weekly prompt to do. I'm a bit behind though, so I'm going to try and catch up. 

The first prompt was to create a page that showcased your word for the year.

My word for the year, though it took quite a bit of thought to determine, is "divide". I'm going to work to divide my time a bit more evenly throughout all areas of my life, so that I don't only have time for school, but also for art, reading, and also WRITING, which I've been doing quite a bit of lately.

There were a lot of layers involved in the creation of this page, and I hope you enjoyed looking. I'm currently working on several other things, including a challenge of my own that will be coming at you, including a video and link post TOMORROW. :)

I'm so glad to be back, and I've been having a whole lot of fun with it. I'll see you then!

ICAD Cards and Painted Fabric Swatch

Okay. So I have decided that, today, I really want to share with you guys my ICAD project. I have a total of four cards to present to you today; today's card is going to have to wait until another day. I can't believe that I am honestly almost at the end of this challenge. It's been crazy. But I've enjoyed it immensely. So let's get started, shall we?

The first card that I would like to show you is composed of many layers of paint, stamping and collage. This feels very much my style, and I love the way that it turned out. I thought that it looked okay before I added the flowers for the stamping, but after that, I loved it. And the collage just added the perfect touch, in my personal opinion.

The next card that I would like to share with you is kind of different than the work that I normally do when you think about the colors. But I do like it. I can't even remember how I made this card exactly, but I do know that there were a lot of layers involved. I didn't like how some of them were turning out, and so I added more to it. And, eventually, I got myself to a place where I was comfortable stopping.

This card was extremely simple. All I did was rub a couple of ink pads onto the background, then wet it down with water to give it an effect that was almost reminiscent of watercolor. I added the stamping with a foam stamp and acrylic paint (seems to be my signature) and then added the words. And that was that.

The final ICAD card that I want to share with you guys today is sort  of interesting in comparison to the rest of the cards. It looks okay in the picture, but I don't know if I'm all that fond of it. All of the colors got extremely mucky and they all mixed together to create one shade. But the stamping on top sort of saved it for me. 

And that's it for the ICADS.

However, I do have something else to share with you guys today. This is a swatch of painted fabric that I was working on. I saw something on pinterest today (actually it was many months ago, but I decided to do something about it today) that was actually a dress that was created from hand painted fabric. I got to thinking, and realized that it would make a really cool homecoming or prom dress. Even though I'm not big into dresses or getting all dressed up for that sort of thing, if I made the dress myself, it might be a little better, since I can make it in such a way that I would be comfortable, and not have to worry about the top being too low, or the skirt being too high, or both at the same time.

Here's a bit of a close up of the texture. I really like the way that this piece turned out. Honestly, the whole thing was a bit of a test. I was just experimenting with painting on fabric. And I think that there will probably be a lot more experimentation before I take on a dress. But a nice homecoming dress might be in the works. Might being the key word, of course. But it would be cool to kind of show the process here on the blog. Maybe I'll do some sketches tonight, before I go to bed. I've been designing some dresses lately anyways. 

Anyways. Thanks for following me and my bunny trails, and I'll catch you tomorrow! Bye!

In the Sun Class Pages

Hello all of my artsy friends! Hope you guys all had a fun, art filled day. I know I did. Today I would like to share with you guys some pages from my In the Sun art journal class. I've been having a lot of fun with these pages, though I have been falling a bit behind lately. Today I just took some time to catch up. I'm not completely caught up yet, but that's okay. I've also been skipping around with them lately. Doing the pages that I'm inspired to do right then and there. And it's really been turning out nicely. Today I have three pages to share with you guys. And I'll probably work some more on this journal tomorrow.

The first page though, that I would like to share with you guys is a page about my favorite snack for the summer. Now this, for me, is almost impossible to decided upon, since I do have such a passionate love for food. It's ridiculous. But I have a tie between watermelon and ice cream. Since I was sure that a lot of people would say ice cream (not that it matters; if it's my favorite, it's my favorite), I decided to go with the watermelon. Plus, I just wanted to play around with the colors and see what became of it.

The next page that I would like to share with you guys is this fireworks page. This is an extremely simple page, in comparison to some of the pages that I have done in this journal in the past. I took the painted paper background, which in and of itself was fairly simple (just white crayon and watercolors), and then added splatters of paint in two colors. That was the prompt. To make splatters of paint to represent fireworks. Then I added the title.

And, of course, added a border around the page with a marker. And that was that. It was finished. I love the way this page turned out though. I think, as simple as it is, it really represents me. Although it might be in a different way than I would normally expect.

The third and final page that I would like to share with you guys today is this one; the prompt was to  create a journal page about your greatest weakness. This was difficult for me, as I do not generally like to put my fears or weaknesses on paper where I can see them. I like to confront them in private, and work through them. But I don't generally like to talk about them.

Also, the background was part of the prompt. I drew the diamonds with a sharpie onto the background, and filled in the spaces with paint. I REALLY like the way that this page turned out. As simple as it is. It is one of my favorite pages in this whole journal. The more I look at it, the more I like it. I just think that the colors really work well together, and that was nice to see, since I really just picked random colors of paint off of my desk. 

I would like to say one more thing however. I had a thought last night, as I was trying to get to sleep. I know that the Olympics are coming extremely quickly (they start on July 27th; I'm SO excited!), and was wondering if any of you guys would be interested in an Olympics oriented challenge. I know that is extremely confined in the overall idea, but if there is interest, I will start to develop the idea. There would probably be a prompt a day, as well as some art journal pages that were inspired by it. And maybe something where you can link up your pages. I would totally love to do something like that. Let me know! Yes or no? It would be greatly appreciated.

Well. That's what I have for you guys today. Tomorrow I think that I would like to share with you guys a 31 Hearts post, even though I'm not quite so sure about that yet. Anyways. I'll talk to you guys then. And I hope you guys have a good rest of the day, and a good day tomorrow!

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!

ICAD Update

Hey guys. Sorry for the missing post yesterday; since I'm a bit OCD, I may go back and fill that gap in. But, some of you who follow me on twitter will know that I wasn't feeling all that good. I just wanted to go to bed. I did the art, just didn't feel like blogging about it. Today I would like to share with you guys a couple ICAD cards that I did. Tomorrow I will be back with you guys with my 30-30-30 challenge; the very final pages. And I'll probably do some collective photos as well.

These two ICADs I did are extremely similar to one another. This is the one that I did first; yesterday. The following card was inspired by it, since I became so fond of it. It was composed of several layers of patterned paper; the bottom, thicker scrap was sent to me in a RAK. The thinner strip layered on top of it is actually a photocopy of one of my art journal pages that I cut up to use in other art pieces. And other art pages as well. Then there's the photo that was printed off of a collage sheet on the internet. And a definition that I cut out of a dictionary page. And, of course, the background was stamped. I used a clear stamp with a dark red ink pad.

Like I said above, this ICAD was inspired by the one above. Even though I'm not quite as fond of it as I am that one, I do still enjoy the look of this one.

It was assembled in very much the same way as the first. Simple layers of paper and images printed off of the computer. I would have much rather used my own images, but I haven't yet gotten to the point where I have them readily available, just at my fingertips. That's what I'm planning on doing the next couple of days, in addition to my color challenge that I am working on, and my other challenges. Getting some nice drawings and things under my belt that I can resize to use again and again. We'll see. I want to do some black and white and some color. I don't know exactly where I want to go with it yet, either. However, I do know what else I need to work on. Summer of Color. I'll probably do that tomorrow too.