Compassion: Daily Art Journal Page

Hello everyone! I'm here with you guys again today, with a page that holds a bit more meaning to me personally. I don't know if I mentioned it here on the blog, but yesterday, on a field trip through my school, I went to the Holocaust Museum here in Florida. It was my first time being in a place like that, and even though it wasn't extremely morbid, graphic, or anything to that extent, it still had a pretty emotionally draining affect on me. I didn't quite know how to react.

For as long as I can remember, I've always felt very deeply for people. It's just something that I've always had. Even fictional characters. I cry in movies and television shows all of the time, even though I HATE to, because it messes with me and gives me headaches. Anyways. Basically the entire trip, I was close to tears. I was trying my best to control it, as I knew it would be extremely awkward for me, and for everyone else if I just started bawling. I realized that I needed to wait until later on to get all of that emotion out. And that's what I did. however, I did it the following day, and through art. 

This spread is what I did. The idea for the tree actually came from a painting that I saw AT the museum. I liked the simplicity and the meaningfulness of it. There was jut something about it that drew me in. So I decided to work with it a bit in my own work. I actually will be adding journaling to this page as well. This is one of those pages that DEFINITELY needs some. To make sure that I don't forget what I was thinking when I made it. However, the journaling that I typed out just so happened to be extremely personal. This is one of the few pages I'm not going to be able to share the fully finished thing with you guys. Maybe eventually I will. But I think I need to let the feelings relax a bit before that point.

The page itself was extremely relaxing, and nice to work on. I had about a million layers before I was finally finished with it, but I like the end result, for many different reasons. I love the meaning behind it, as well as the documentation of a major event in my life.

Tomorrow is Valentine's Day. A perfect day for my Heart Investigation series. That page should be quite a bit happier, just for that reason. However, I like using art as a way to express myself, and my emotions, as well as what I've done and been through. So there are going to be a few sad and depressing pages every now and again. However, that's all I have for you guys today. And I'll see you tomorrow! Bye everyone!

Age of Ignorance - Daily Art Journal Page

Hola people! I'm back today, with yet another art journal page. Today, I used the opposite page of the beginning of the spread I began yesterday. I realized that I wouldn't like it as a full spread, so I decided to paint over the one side of it. I liked the depth I knew I would get, and I think I may have mentioned my plans to do so yesterday. 

Anyways. The title (Age of Ignorance) is actually the tile of my current most favorite song. One of my guy friends, whose style in music is very similar to mine, sent it to me on Facebook over the weekend, and I haven't been able to stop listening to it since then. Actually, I'm listening to it right now, even as I sit here typing to you guys. I'll link to the song itself here, if you want to listen to it for yourself. It's about the corruption of government and society in America. 

Because it has been stuck in my head for so long, I knew that I had to do something about it. And the only thing I could think of was to record it in my art journal. At first I was planning on actually putting some of the lyrics from the song on the page, but the more I thought about it, I thought it would be interesting to do some of my own thoughts on the concept. 

Here's a few more of the details. I had some punch out letters that came with a scrapbooking kit I had from years ago, and I just painted over them with some metallic paint, to make them blend with the rest of the page. And I really like the way that worked out. Some of the leftover paint I had from painting the layer on top of them created a sort of mask on my scrap paper, which was kind of entertaining. 

Also, today I went to the Holocaust Museum as a field trip with my school. It certainly wasn't a very happy experience, and was very emotionally draining. I got to a point, near the end, where I wasn't completely sure that I wasn't going to burst into tears. However,  I managed to keep a level head, and have taken some time since then to work through some of the emotions. Expect some pages based on that in the very near future. It was an emotional experience, and that's what I like to journal about. Things that mean something to me. 

Linking to Ruby Tuesday.

Forget - Daily Art Journal Page

Hey everyone! I'm here again with you guys today, with yet another art journal page. I worked with some more prompts again today; so far I've really been enjoying doing that. 

Before I get started with today's post however, I would like to make a comment. Even though today's page looks like a spread, it actually isn't. I had originally planned to work over the two pages of the journal, but after I had started to try to work it out, I finally decided against it. Tomorrow's page will be built over top of the page on the right. It will add more layers. More texture. More color. And hopefully more interest and depth. Anyways. Onto today's page.

Here is today's page. The idea came about when I was trying to consider what would happen if I became just the slightest bit more graphic with my art. I tend to add a lot of layers in my work, and then one stenciled pattern over the top to add the graphic qualities. So that it doesn't look like everything is blended together. However, I thought it would be interesting to try some freehand paint doodles, just to see what happened. And I have to say, I quite enjoyed the result.

 There aren't very many layers on this page in particular, but that is because I became happy with it so quickly. It is very possible that I could have continued on with more paint and perhaps some stencils. However, I didn't want to ruin what I already had. I loved it far too much. I started off with a random layer of green collage as my base. I took a bunch of my own hand painted papers and simply tore them up randomly. Then I added some lime green paint to the top of that. After that, I added the paint doodles in orange. The oil pastel border followed soon after, as well as the title and journaling, which is actually a quote that I found on the internet. It felt so relevant to me right now that I felt I had to incorporate it. 

I also added some "X's" to the edges/border of the page because of a prompt. The second daisyyellow Prompt6ix has "Treasure Hunt" as one of it's prompts. The first think I thought of, naturally, was "X Marks the Spot." And I decided to use that. 

I had a lot of fun creating this page, even though it didn't take me very long to make. It seems that's how the majority of my things have been lately, as I do have so much going on with school. I personally don't really mind how long something takes me, as long as I'm happy with the result. Anyways.

I thank you guys for visiting me here today, and I'll see you all next time! :)

Linking to Prompt6ix, Mandarin Orange Monday, and Creative Every Day, 

Superbowl 2013: Daily Art Journal Page

Hello everyone! What's going on? Hopefully you've all been doing what you enjoy over the weekend, whether that be art or something else. I personally have been working on a few art journaling pages, and have been watching a few of my favorite shows. I finally got Season 7 of Doctor Who (the first five episodes) from the library, and I watched the first two today. I love it so far. That is one amazing show. 

Anyways. I just got around to making a Superbowl page in my art journal, even though I've been considering doing it for quite some time. I'm not really sure what've been holding me back for this long, but I'm glad that I did. 

Basically, I just went with the colors of the Ravens, as they were the team that won. If the 49ers would have won, then I would have gone with their colors. Eventually I'm going to add some journaling to this page as well. The funny thing is that I didn't even watch the Superbowl game. I was too busy playing basketball and video games with my guy friends. Which made me think that it was comical that  I even decided to make a page for the event. However, as I felt it was a major event, and something that happened in my life, I needed to document it. If I would have been keeping a regular journal, I would have written it down in there. Why not in my art journal as well.

I will also say that I have another page/spread planned for doing on what I ACTUALLY did for the Superbowl. ;)

Here's just a bit more of a close up of the detail in the layers of this page. At first, I was having a lot of difficulty with the colors, as they kept getting muddled. As purple is made up of red and blue, when I added the yellow/gold color, I would get brown, since the 3 primary colors were getting mixed together. However, I eventually managed to pull it off, after much layering and patience. 

It's certainly not my favorite page in the world, but I can definitely cope. 

Thanks for visiting guys, and I'll talk at you later!

Heart Investigation 1.2: {Torn}

Hey everyone! I'm here with you guys again today; sorry that I wasn't able to share anything with you guys yesterday. I wanted to, but my brothers had some friends over, and we were playing Call of Duty. I was distracted. And I didn't do any are at all.

So today I wanted to make up for that, and do yet another Heart Investigation page. I've really been enjoying this, and my 2013 journal in and of itself actually looks really cool. It's a bit more cohesive than my journals have been in the past, which I really enjoy. 

Today I was working with a daisyyellow prompt; the very first Prompt6ix prompt. There are quite a few more that I have to catch up with, but I was inspired to attempt this one. And I personally quite enjoy the result.

Quite a few of these pages still need journaling added to them, and I will eventually get to that. One day, when I'm really in the mood to get some of my emotions out, I'll get my typewriter out, and just type a bunch of journaling segments based on page titles. 

In this photo, you can see some of the heart pencil doodles I did in the background of this page. I only had a couple of layers down when I decided to add them in. I thought it would look cool, and would just add that much more depth to the idea for the page. And I think that it accomplished what I wanted it to. I personally quite enjoy it.

That's something that I've noticed myself saying quite a bit more as of late. And I wouldn't say that's necessarily a bad thing. It's good that I'm confident in myself. That I enjoy my own work. Of course I love looking at other artist's work. Much more than I enjoy looking at my own. But when I can look at my own personal piece of art and smile, I feel a sense of accomplishment. That's always a good thing.

Finally, I'll talk about the heart itself that I was working on. After all, this is HEART Investigation. The idea for the page came from the prompt on daisyyellow, one of which was "decision". I can never make tough decisions. And it's a horrible feeling for me personally. So I'm always extremely torn internally. So I took a heart, and I tore it in half. Meaning on multiple levels. That's also something that I enjoy in artwork, or in any type of media, including books or movies. And that is a meaning. A good concept. It draws you in, and interests you. That's what I'm trying to accomplish with my art. An intrigue. A pull. Something that makes people want to look.

Anyways. I thank you guys for checking me out, and I'll talk to you guys later!

Linking to Creative Every Day, Prompt6ix, Sneak Peek Friday, and Show and Tell Saturday.

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.

Facts - Daily Art Journal Page

Hey everyone! What goes on? I'm back with you guys again today. I seem to be doing pretty good with my daily posting on the blog, and I've really been enjoying it thus far. 

Today I did yet another page that included some hearts. I'm not sure I'm actually going to make it a legitimate challenge for myself, however, I do like the idea of working with one particular shape for an extended period of time. I love the way I have to keep coming up with more and more ideas after continuous working with a concept. It's very inspiring to me personally, and I hope that it's inspiring to all of you guys as well.

Today I also messed around with quite a few layers; I just had a couple of ideas that I really wanted to work with. Yesterday when I was working on my page, I knew that I wanted to use yellow on today's. I didn't know exactly why, but I just did. I guess I hadn't used a whole lot of it as of late, and I felt like it would be cool. 

Then, earlier today, when I was at school, I had finished all of my homework in class. So I was just sitting there thinking about ideas for this page. I knew that I had a black and white dot tissue paper somewhere in my stash, and I wanted to work with that. Then, I had the idea that yellow might look good with it. However, that was all I knew. I decided to just go from there.

I just started layering. Adding different colors and textures, stencils and crayons. I had a lot of fun playing around. I've really enjoyed the past couple of days, using a ton of layers instead of what I've done in the past, which was significantly less.

Anyways. As one final note, I would like to mention that I will add journaling to this page later on; I already have some ideas of what I want to put in. However, I didn't feel like doing it tonight; it would just be difficult, since it is so late. I hope you guys enjoyed, and I'll talk to you later!

Also linking, yet again, to Try it on Tuesday. It's their fault for making the theme hearts when I can't seem to stop making them. :P