ICAD Update: Cards 50 - 51

Hey guys! What's going on? I'm here with a couple of ICAD cards for you guys today, and I hope you enjoy. They're really just some more zentangling ICADs that I was working on as part of a "series" of sorts. I wanted to try out my new papermate pens on something (I got 4 new colors) but I didn't know what. So I decided to do something with my ICAD cards. I had done the zentangling before, but not in color. So I decide to try it. This green one is from a couple of days ago.

This purple one was from just yesterday. I actually really love the way that this turned out. The thing with zentangling, at least for me, is that I will often times run out of patterns to use on the cards themselves. I just can't think of any more. It's a rather difficult dilemma. I know that I could simply go online and search google for some ideas, coming up with literally thousands of patterns in the process. However, when I'm right in the middle of something, I find it rather difficult to do so. To tear away from the work that I am doing right at that moment. So maybe, not that I'm really thinking about it, what I should really do is to look ahead of time, before I start my doodling. Maybe it'll help a little. Maybe it'll generate some more ideas. Maybe.

Anyways. That's all I have for you guys today; I'm considering popping in tomorrow with a tutorial for all of you. We'll see. We will see. See you then!

ICAD #1: Newspaper + "Rise Above It"

Okay. So here I am with yet another prompt page. Today's question asked me which song I thought best represented how I felt above my life right now. I chose the song "Rise Above It" by Switchfoot. Love that band. I feel as if I could be saying these words to all of the people surrounding me in my day to day life; this is honestly how I feel most people feel like. And I feel as if I could have been the author to this song. It's very much how I feel my life is like. Not for me personally, but for people that I know. That I am around. I cut today's title out of various newspaper and junk mail papers, as I have been doing for the past few days. I just love the effect that it gives.

However, I'm not quite so sure how I feel about today's page in general. I mean, I love the way that it looks, but I don't like how thin it is. Today my paper just decided that it wanted to wrinkle up; so much so that I find it difficult to even want to maneuver around it. I am hoping that tomorrow's page, working on the back of this one, will straighten everything out and totally thicken the page itself. 

Today I again used circles, as I keep finding myself drawn to them. But I'm trying to use different colors. Less blue and green, and more warm colors. That's what I was trying to achieve with this page. The journaling is also very much my personal opinion on a topic. I love the way that always turns out to me. Even if I don't like the look of a page, I can always count on the journaling to cheer me up.

Something else that I wanted to share with you today is my ICAD card. This is my very first one, as the challenge started today. Here I used my favorite colors, and felt a whole lot more in my comfort zone that I did with my other page I did today. I also used one of the prompts that she suggested, which was simply "dictionary". So I used some dictionary paper on this card. 

Here's just a little bit of a better view of it. I know that this post is a little bit shorter than the rest of the posts I've had this last week, but I'm pretty tired, and am just throwing this together before bed. Hopefully tomorrow I'll come up with a bit of a longer post for you guys, and even this one isn't TOO short. So yeah. I guess I'll see you guys tomorrow!

"Extreme" and "Artfest - Cover"

Okay. Today I have two pages for you guys to see. And they are both very, very different. That's the way I like to work though. I feel that if I'm not limited by just one style or medium, then I'll always have countless ideas running through my head; endless miles of ways that I might be able to roam. I love that aspect of it. It's so inspiring. Anyways. The first page I have to share with you is from a prompt, like the last few pages have been. 

Today's prompt asked me the last thing I had said. And that was a single word. Extreme. I know it's kind of weird. But then again, I'm kind of weird too. And I'm proud of that. I kind of took this word out of context however, when it came time to work on the journaling. When I had actually said it, I had used it in the context that the case of hiccups that I had just got over was kind of extreme. But in the journaling, I focus more on the aspect of my personality that forces me to go to extremes to get things done.

For example, I was supposed to leave my math exam at noon today, but I wasn't finishes. So I stayed two and a half hours afterwards so that I would be able to finish. My teacher didn't mind. She said that she liked the company.

I wasn't super fond of this page personally. I like the way it looks, but it really doesn't seem to scream me - not the way the rest of my pages do. It's too subtle. Too delicate. Plus, I think the title "Extreme" kind of calls for something more bold and edgy. But it's too late now. I do think it's pretty. I just don't think that it goes with my style.

 Here you can kind of see, on the right side page, a little bit of what MIGHT be coming tomorrow. Since the flowers are in the very first layer, they could very well be covered up by the time I get to the blog. However, I do have a little bit of a plan. So we'll see. Those flowers, by the way, were made up of the excess paint around the edges of a stencil I used. Just flip the stencil over, and you get a negative space image. Pretty cool, huh?

And here we are. With yet another page. Actually, it's a cover. But that's beside the point. I made these magazine journals a little while ago, and I posted them on the blog back in August. And they have just been rediscovered. By me of course. The moment I saw them, I knew that I had to work in one. A new one. Brand new. From the start. And I wanted it to be interesting. I had just finished the previous page, and I knew that I needed to do something bolder. Edgier. More me. And this certainly accomplished that for me.

The colors are a little bit darker than I've been using lately, but I really like the way this turned out. I love how the circles are so imperfect and wonky - I dislike everything being even and perfect. To me, this is just more appealing to the eye. More interesting and intriguing. If you think otherwise though, that's fine. Not all art journals need to be messy and put through a lot of wear and tear. If you want your art journal to be even, pretty, and have everything to a tee, then that's part of your style. This is a small part of mine.

And I'll leave you guys tonight with a bit of a better view of the title for this journal. I printed this out from an online source; it has the title "Artfest" being signed out in ASL (American Sign Language). I just thought that it was cool, and it really jumped out at me when I was searching through my little box of collage goodies to find a title for this page. And with that, I wish you a good evening, and many more happy, arty days!

Textured Art Journal Page

Hey guys! Sorry I was gone for so long, I feel really sorry about that. I'm actually going to go back and write all of the posts that I had planned for you guys. I've just been so busy with homework. I know that is starting to sound like an excuse, but it's the truth. It's up to you guys whether you believe me or not. Anyways. The page that I have for you today was actually a really fun page to make, and I really enjoy the way that it turned out. I was looking through a bunch of my older paintings and I came across one that I absolutely hated. I know. Horrible, right? But since I've talked about this situation coming up on multiple occasions,  I'm sure you guys aren't too shocked right now. Anyways, I took that page and I simply coated it with a layer of lime green paint. Then I let it dry.

After that, I went ahead and put a few squirts of this light turquoise color on the page. Now, I wasn't quite sure what I was going to do with it yet, but I knew that I could come up with something unique. And so, I took my paintbrush in hand, and simply started spreading it out by dabbing repeatedly with the brush itself. It took a little while, but the end result is amazing. I love the texture that this technique created for me, and I'm sure that I'll be using it again. Anyways. That's all that I've got for you guys today, but I'm sure that I will return tomorrow with yet another post. Farewell. :)

Textured Art Journal Page

Hey guys! I'm here today with just a really short post. It's getting kind of late, so I thought that I could just post now and get this sort of over with, if you know what I mean. I just have a single page to share with you guys today, and it was a page that I was really enjoying working on. It's blue and green like a lot of pages that I do, except this one has a little bit of added black and a TON of texture. I don't even really know how I got the texture I did. It's kind of an odd thing; that I don't even know. It's also just a little bit disappointing. Because now I don't even know how to recreate it. I think what I really need to do is start keeping better track of what it is that I am making. Then maybe I won't forget how I did something. I did just a couple of layers on this today; very mundane layers. But I'm already getting ideas for more of them. But I do think that some of the texture comes from masking tape that I laid on the base of the page. I don't know why I put it there anymore, but I do know that I like the effect. But anyways. That's all I've got for you guys today, and I'll see you tomorrow. :)

Art Journal Spread and TEXTURE!!

Hey guys! Sorry that I'm so late getting to today's post, but trust me, I didn't forget. I was doing homework. Yes. Until 11 at night. I know. The first days back to school after a break are absolutely BRUTAL, and the fact that we're getting ready for our final semester exams doesn't help anything. It's almost like we're cramming for the exams. Yeah. So anyways, I did manage to work on a few pages today, but that was very difficult. I managed to take a short 20 minute break from doing my homework to do some art. I really missed it, even though I only skipped one day. I was really frustrated though, and the page above began to take some sort of a shape. I really like the way that it's coming out, even though there's only three layers down there currently. I'm already coming up with new layers, but I definitely don't want to ruin it. Maybe I should make a photocopy before I add more layers to it... that might work.

But it was really a very simple page. I started out by mixing a very deep, dark green color from just blue and yellow. I just used barely any yellow, and that made a much deeper green. I painted over top of my whole page with said color mix, and, on top of that, I layered a yellow Fresco Tempera Paint. Then, I pressed some papers on top and pulled them off. The paper caught the color and lifted some of it up, thus creating the texture that you see here. Then I pulled out my trusty stencils and stenciled some red hearts all over the page. Yet another example of what you can do with stencils. I promise you guys that tutorial will be coming up, as soon as they stop overloading me with homework at school. But I still love school anyways. Just sometimes the homework can be a little bit overwhelming.

This is the second page that I worked on today. It was a nice page in the first place, but I really didn't have any idea whatsoever of where I wanted to go with it. So I decided to do this. Some masking tape was already on the page. I was thinking about bailing on this page forever, and just put the layer of orange tape on top. But the masking tape was calling out to me. So I pulled it up, and I personally think that it looks really good, probably better than it did in the first place. This type of layout also gives me a good place to put a title and journaling when I actually get to that point in this particular page. :) And although that's all I have for you guys today, I'll be back tomorrow with another post here on The Creative Artist. TTFN. Ta Ta For Now.

Layering Experiment

Hey everybody!

Jordan is back with you guys today.

I'm sharing with you a page that I was working on today.

It was sort of a sample/experiment thing that I was doing for my art journaling e-course that I'm working on.

I've already done a couple videos for that course BTW. :)

It's getting so exciting!

I was playing around with different layers and stuff.

I used some markers, gesso, water, and oil pastels.

Not that much into it thus far, but I really liked the way it was turning out.

I randomly picked the beginning colors with my eyes closed.

And they turned out being my favorite colors!

Blue and green.

With blue being my absolute favorite.

Pretty cool huh?

So I hope that you guys liked the video that I posted yesterday, and I'll hopefully be back tomorrow with some more cool stuff to show you.