I am showing you my journal... Normally my journal is all my own, private. But I got it in my mind to do a flip through. Sorta like a walk through. It runs about a minute and a half. Put your sound on to get the full page turning effect!
The book is a Moleskine Sketchbook. Gouache is a perfect paint for the paper used in these books; it is substantial and glides onto the page smoothly. I am at the end of the book and I have glued so much into it and stuffed the pocket in the back so full that the binding is broken. I am sad that I am almost to the last page. This book has been a refuge, a page of self love and artistic commitment. It has helped and soothed me through this move.
I have a new book, a hand-made book with watercolor paper all set up and ready to go but am not sure if I can move away from Moleskine right now. The watercolor paper will make me think about using the book in a different manner and I am having too much fun with the pages I am doing right now.
This fall I am going to teach a mixed media journaling class at the Coconino Community College. I have never taught this sort of thing before. It will be fun.
I sometimes use papers found stapled onto telephone poles, miniature golf tally cards, reciepts, any old found bit will do.
Sometimes I draw from life while I have my coffee at Macy's, my favorite local coffee digs. When I draw birds they are taken from photographs from the pages of my favorite bird magazines.
Sometimes when I want to learn how another painter did something... I trace paint. I lay a piece of tracing paper over an image and paint it. Like the third page- the greek female.
Sometimes I use tracing paper to draw on because when I glue it onto the page transparencies begin to occur and I like to play them up. In my mind tracing paper is akin to silk organza, when i get to the point of translating a page into a work in fiber. Thinking in this way really helps me if I get to the place where a page is asking to be made into quilt art.
So I hope you enjoy this walk through! Please leave comments, I would love to hear from you. Maybe some of you will do a video walk through to show me how you journal!?