Bewilderment: Daily Art Journal Page

Hey guys! What's going on? For me, not a whole lot. School has been going good, although today, right before lunch, they had a major pocket/locker search. Six people had their phones confiscated. It kind of stunk, because everyone was storming around in a rage for the rest of the day. None of it really applied to me, because I never have any problems with the rules at that school anyways, but apparently some people do. I don't know. Anyways. Let's focus more on the art now, shall we?

I decided to do another portrait today; for what purpose, I have no clue. For some reason, I've just really been enjoying doing these pages. However, they do take quite a bit longer than any other pages I might do. Because I'm trying to get a recognizable subject matter, rather than a bunch of colors and patterns that look good together. It's not that abstract doesn't take work. Because it does. Definitely. However, for me personally, it comes a lot easier than realism. I think that has a lot to do with the fact that I am very impatient. Not necessarily in a bad way, so that I can't wait at all in everyday situations. But when it comes to art, I like these things to be quick. However, if I can see progress, then I might be willing to spend more time on something.

This page took me two hours to create. When you start at 8:00 in the evening, that can become quite the ordeal. I enjoy doing it however, so I make time.

I used another quote today, which I seem to be enjoying. I'm not quite sure what led me to these, but I find that often times another person can express, with much more precision, what I was thinking. Today's quote is as follows, as I realize that the above photograph is slightly difficult to read:

"Much unhappiness has come into the world because of bewilderment and things left unsaid."

I'm not quite sure why this felt so applicable to me today. It kind of goes along with how I've been feeling about some of the life situations I've been dealing with. However, it would be very difficult for me to try to explain, and I'm sure you people don't want to hear about my high school drama. :P 

Anyhow. I'll leave you guys today with a bit of detail shot of both the background and the face itself. The color and shading of the face is built up of many, many layers of paint; probably around 20-25. Also, I did it all with craft paint. I know a lot of people think it's not worth it to use cheaper paint, because you can't get the same effects. And maybe that's true. Maybe you can't get the same effects. However, you can get different effects. And sometimes that's what makes something unique.

I've also felt myself being drawn to these brighter colors as of late. Maybe it has something to do with my mood. Maybe it's about how I want to feel. However, any way I decide to take it, I do know one thing for certain. And that's that I like it. It's different, that's for sure. Perhaps it's not what I normally do. But maybe my style is developing. Maybe I'm changing into something new. 

Beauty: Daily Art Journal Page

Hey everyone! I know I wasn't on here yesterday, but I actually do have a legitimate reason for that. I was gone all day, and didn't have time to do any art at all. It was a Saturday, my dad was home from work, and we all just wanted to hang our as a family. Every now and again I'll have a day like that. A lazy day, when I don't feel like doing anything. Nothing at all. Just going out and having fun as a family. And I'm not going to beat myself up over something like that. Yes, I miss the blog when I don't do it for extended periods of time. But a day here and there isn't going to kill me. I hope you guys understand. :)

Anyways, now that I've gotten that cleared up, let's get on to the actual art now, shall we?

I decided to go with a face page today. I know I don't do a whole lot of these, and I'm hoping to change that a bit. I'm not quite sure what inspired me to create this page, but I quite like the way it turned out. It just so happened that I'm actually not horrible at creating face portraits; I just feel intimidated by them. I'm not sure why. I just always have. 

Here's a bit of a close up of some of the facial details. I didn't use a tutorial, or use another photo for reference. I did this completely on the fly, from the top of my head. For that, I would say this is pretty good. Of course that's me. And I'm extremely biased. It's not a problem. It's just a fact. My biggest problem with creating faces, at least that I've found, is matching the colors. I'm not quite sure what it is about it, but I have the most difficult time matching hair and eye colors with the colors of lips and clothing. I think it might have something to do with the face that I don't wear a lot of make up. Because of that, I tend to have difficulties when trying to make it look like my creations are wearing some. 

Here's a bit of a close up of the background, just so you can see what's going on. There is a very likely possibility that I will go back and add into this background in the very near future. I'm not very satisfied with it personally; I don't think it covers up enough space and seems very random and unfinished to me. A few more layers, working it into the hair, would probably do the page a lot of good. And journaling, as always, will be added later. 

Here you can see the hair a little bit better. I'm not exactly sure what made me decide to go with an orange hair color, but I'm glad I did. I think it fits the mood of the page perfectly, and really goes with how I was feeling at the time I made it. 

And now, just one last photo for you guys before you leave. A close up of the facial details themselves. I think the nose is my favorite part. It just turned out so nicely. I was really worried that it was going to look overworked in the finished piece; there was really no way of knowing for sure, and I was kind of going out on a wing. However, everything turned out in my favor in the end, and for that I am grateful. 

Thanks for coming to visit me everyone, and I'll talk to you again next time! Goodbye everyone. 

Linking to Try it on Tuesday.

Heart Investigation 1.1: Cherish

Hello people. I'm back with you guys again today, with some more hearts on yet another art journal page. I have officially decided that I am going to continue working with this shape until I've thoroughly exhausted all of my options. I'm not going to freak out if I don't do hearts one day, but I do think it would be interesting to try to explore it in as many ways possible.

I had actually started this page a few days ago, when I was trying to work with the idea of an entirely blue page, for my 52 Sparks page. However, I got frustrated with it, and completely abandoned the idea. Today, I came back to it with a fresh mind and began where I left off. And I'm glad that I did.

I had to add a bunch of layers in order to be able to get myself to a point where I was happy with the result. Layer after layer after layer. Stamping, collage, and paint. I also used chalk pastels, oil pastels, and sharpies to doodle into the background. Something that I really enjoy doing is taking markers and just doodling a layer. 

It's not what the majority of my pages are made up of; not like some people. However, I do like the way it looks underneath layers of paint and collage. Just a bit unique and different. Something that I quite enjoy.

Here you can see some of the book text that I used on this page. Actually, I use book paper on most of my work. I have an old dictionary that I got from a thrift store, which I simply pull pages out of whenever I need them. They are awesome for collage, and also for monoprinting, when I do that. 

Something that I've really liked seeing in my work however, is the development of my own personal style. It's something that takes a lot of time to come up with, and I'm quite proud of what I've been able to accomplish on my own. I love it. I like to think, personally, that if someone was to see my work, they would be able to tell that it was mine.

Though I'm not quite sure that I'm exactly to that point yet, I look forward to the day when I am. That's one of the things that every artist dreams of, and being even remotely close to that is amazing. Anyways. Thanks for visiting guys! It's greatly appreciated, and I hope to see you guys tomorrow! Bye everyone.

Calm - Daily Art Journal Page: 52 Sparks

What's happening everyone? Jordan here, with yet another daily art journal page for all of you. Today I actually worked one of Dale Anne Potter's 52 Sparks prompts; the third one for me. She is currently on five. I'm hoping to catch up eventually.

However, today's prompt was to document your favorite color.

Using this page as your example, I'm sure that you can very plainly see that my favorite color is blue. I felt the need to add little bits of red to the page however; I don't think that really pulls the focus TOO far away from the blue. 

First off, I would like to comment that I created this spread in my magazine journal, rather than in my daily art journal for 2013. Or, perhaps, as is probably more realistic, my not so daily art journal for 2013. In other words, just my 2013 journal. This is created in what was once a Delias clothing catalogue. I love the layers that it adds, and I'm recycling. Always a good thing.

For the body, I actually just whited out/colored a body outline that was already there in the catalogue. So I just added my colors and layers on top of that. As you can see in this photo, I didn't really try too hard to keep the girl separated from the background. I like the look of it better when it sort of blends in. That kind of makes it feel, at least to me, like it was actually meant to be there, instead of just being an afterthought. 

Also, I tried, at the very beginning of this page, to add some facial details to this figure. However, I decided that I liked it better without those details, and just painted over it again. That's another thing that I love about art journaling. It's so easy to fix your "mistakes", if you can even call them that. 

Here you can see some of the smaller details of this page, where I added a couple more tiny red hearts to the bottom of the left hand page, to try to tie everything together just a bit better. 

Overall, I really like this page, and I think that it's kind of cool that everything works so well together. I didn't have any idea, at all, going into this, about what I wanted this page to look like. So, taking that into consideration, I think this page extremely successful.

Thanks again everyone for visiting, and I'll talk to you guys later!

Linking to 52 Sparks and Try it on Tuesday!

Color Challenge #3 Reveal!

Hey guys! I'm back with you guys again today, and this time I have a color challenge reveal for you guys! This was the date that Barbara, Mavis and I had decided upon to do for the reveal, and I finally get to share with you guys all of the fun art that I've been working on this past 10 days!! And I'm excited to do so! First, let's reveal the colors. Although you probably already saw the photo that I put above, I'll tell you the colors anyways. And they are pale blue, vermillion and purple. ALSO. As I said when I first revealed that I was going to be doing another challenge with Barbara (and I'm glad I did; she was a pleasure to work with as always) I mentioned that there was going to be a twist for this challenge. And that was the use of word prompts in the work. 

Barbara and I came up with the colors and words; she crowd sourced two colors (vermillion and purple), and then added the word prompt life. I added the pale blue color and the words energy and passion. We decided that we somehow needed to incorporate these words into our work, and I found this a wonderful challenge to try in comparison to some of the things that I've been doing lately. All three of the projects that I did for this challenge were art journal pages of one kind or another, but I'll focus more on what journal they were done in when I get to them.

The first page that I would like to share with you guys today is this art journal page that I decided to do in my 5,000 Question Survey journal. In case you aren't really a follower of my blog, the 5,000 Question Survey is a survey that was put together for people who were looking for journaling prompts to work on in private or in public; it really depended purely on the person. Well, I saw those prompts, and I saw art journals. Art journals all the way. And from there, this journal was born. I've probably done about 20 pages, give or take 2 or 3. The question was kind of a deep one, in comparison to some of the others. It prompted me to answer the question; "What is the truest thing that you know?"

Well. That one took a lot of thought, let me tell you. At first, it didn't make sense at all, since my brain, which so yearns for accuracy kept telling me that one thing cannot be any more true than another. Of course, I believe now that I was over thinking the whole question, but, after some time, I realized that one of the word prompts; life; actually went very well with this question. Though I still don't believe that life is the "truest" thing that I know, it is true, never the less.

Life is one thing in this world that cannot be denied, no matter how hard one might try. It is something that is always here, but people very rarely take the time to appreciate it. I know that I don't. Not as often as I should. But maybe, after working through these thoughts on this journal page, I will now.

The next page that I want to share with you is actually the facing page to the previous one that I shared with you. I love the way that this page turned out. It seems that every time I do a girl in one of my journals, in this way, I always like it. Always. I haven't done one yet that I didn't like. And, as I've said before, this is so much more my style than a lot of other ones that I've done in the past. As soon as I knew that I was going to be doing another color challenge, I knew that I wanted to do another girl. I've been doing so many of these lately, that it's starting to get ridiculous. But I love them so much that I find it difficult to resist. Honestly. Soon, my journals are going to be filled with these girls, and there's not going to be a thing that I can do about it. 

I love everything about this girl though. She's just too cool for words. In my opinion at least. I love her hair; the brightness of it is amazing. I think I'm going to have to do this color of hair again sometime. 

And her eyes. Purple eyes aren't something that I would have originally done; this challenge was destined to push me beyond my limits. Maybe sometime I'll try making one of these girls with her hands at her side; not hiding them behind her back, since I don't know how to make them. ;)

And then, just before I move on, I would like to share with you a picture of the two pages side by side in my journal. I love how they match/coordinate without being too matchy. That's the main thing I was worrying about when I made these two pages side by side. But I like the way that it turned out.

Now, the last page that I have to share with you guys today is actually the first page in the envelope journal that I shared with you guys the other day. I had been working in this in little bits for a while now; it seems to me that this little journal has sort of been soaking up the excess bits of my journal making endeavors for the past week or so. I always have a bunch of paint left over when working on art journal pages, and always want to do stuff with them. So far, these pages have all been created with these created leftovers. There are more, but that's for another day. Plus, this is the only one that's honestly finished so far.

Here's a bit of a close up of the title. I've been thinking about carving some letter stamps as of late, but I've been putting it off. These stamps were foam stamps that I've had for a while now, and I love to use them on my pages. So that's that.

My color challenge reveal.

Thanks so much for visiting me today, and make sure to visit Barbara and Mavis to check out their color challenge reveals as well! Also, Beth participated with us. Check her post out as well!

31 Hearts Walk Through

Hey guys! I'm super excited to share with you guys today, especially since I managed to get everything I needed to do done early. It's nice to not have to worry about doing a blog post right before bed. But not only that, I have a more detailed post in store for you guys today. I'm going to run through all of the steps that it takes me to make this page. I'm actually going to be something similar to this on a guest post (more on that another day), except with more detail. But let's get started, shall we?

To start off my pages, I like to add a layer of journaling. This is very basic, and is done with a Sharpie. It isn't meant to be read, so the writing can be as messy and/or sloppy as you want it to be. And you can do it as quickly as you wish to.

Then, I decided to add some layers of paint. I did a couple of different shades of pink with a paintbrush on the very base. Then I scraped the yellow and purple on with a credit card. You could use a piece of cardboard if you so desire. I did this rather roughly, paying no attention to where the paint was going. I just let it go where it wanted to.

Then, I started to consider stamping options. I use foam stamps with acrylic paint all of the time in my work, so I wanted to change it up a little. So I decided to go with a clear acrylic stamp and a StudioG ink pad in a dark red color.

Here is what the page looked like when I was finished with that layer. I stamped all over the page, and, although it took a little while, I think that it was worth it overall. I love the effect that I was able to achieve, and I think it really represents me. Also, I didn't try to line up the stamp. At all. Sometimes I even tried to make it NOT line up. On purpose. Because I wanted to see what would happen. And I kind of liked the way it looked. So I decided to continue in that way.

Next, I added some masking tape in varying lengths to the page. I did it so that the angles of the tape actually mimic each other; it makes it a bit more pleasing to look at, in my personal opinion. Also, I had the 'A Year in the Life of an Art Journal' prompt in mind for this page as well. The 'Stuff' prompt was tape. So I decided to incorporate it into this page. Which, just so you know, is a 31 Hearts page. I'm not going to show you all of those today, just this one. Because it's going to be so much longer than a regular post anyways.

After applying the tape to the page, I made a wash from a hot pink acrylic craft paint and water, and then spread it over particular parts of the page; the tape, and then a little bit into the background, so that it would blend a bit better. I love the look that I was able to achieve.

After that, I added some stamping with a purple acrylic paint and bubble wrap. I did this over the entire page, and I especially enjoy the way that it looks when stamped over top of the tape. It's different from what I normally do, so I think that in and of itself makes it interesting.

The next thing that I did on this page was to white out the shape of a person. Instead of a head portrait, I decided to do a whole body, like I did for my other 31 Hearts page, and try to imitate the effects that I got on that page. I also did this same type of thing on one of my ICAD cards.

The next step was to fill in the big bodies of color that my girl is going to be composed of. This consists of the dress, the skin, and, even though it's not pictured in the above shot, the hair. I do this rather quickly, and simply follow the lines that I have whited out in the previous step. You also want to make sure that the white doesn't show through; you need to cover it all up with color. I chose a blue dress for this girl, in order to contrast the background. In addition, it coordinates with the purple. But contrasts the pink. Overall, it just works.

As you can see in this photo, I chose to give this girl brown hair with blue streaks. I REALLY like the way her hair turned out. It goes perfectly with the page. Also, in this photo, you can see that I added the facial features. I drew them in with a pencil, and then painted them in. I used a manga style for my piece, but you could do this in any way that you wished to.

The next step, for me at least, was to add the heart that makes this a "31 Hearts" page. I did it with red acrylic paint, and painted it directly onto her dress. 

After the heart had dried, I added a word cut out from a magazine that reads 'hidden'. It just stood out to me when I went browsing through the text a magazine article was composed of. I also cut out a couple of other words, just for future use.

Next, I outlined the whole thing with a Pitt Pen, in a dark gray color. I used short, sketchy strokes for everything except the eyes, nose, and mouth, in which I used more controlled motions so that I would have a more sophisticated look. And so it didn't look messy. I also outlined the entire page with a border.

Then I added some magazine and newspaper letters for a title. I spelled out aware, as that is the topic that I was exploring in my journaling in the very first layer. Awareness. To yourself and to the world around you.

And, before I leave you, I would like to give you one more close up of this girl's face and hair. Maybe you can see why I like her hair so much. Maybe you can't. But it's mine. And that's one of the reasons that I like it. Thanks for visiting! And I hope that you join me again tomorrow for some more art journaling!

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.