a peek at my journaling process

I wanted to document a little of my journaling/art-making process. This is something I've never done before, and I'm excited to share! 

I've been working on this little series of pages for a few weeks now. On this particular project, it's been important for me to make sure all the pages look like a collection, like they "go together." Because of this process, no single page is ever finished until the whole set is finished. I go back and rework things that don't look right to me, or add and subtract elements as needed. 

As I was looking at the pages together, the middle one in the photo above stood out to me. I wasn't happy with the hand cut lettering and the pink color didn't feel right with the rest of the color palette I've been using. 

This is the official "before." This series of pages was inspired quite a bit by an old 1971 yearbook I found at the thrift store. The paper is SO wonderful and a great size and weight for journaling on. The page is kind of about the difficulties of discipline and parenting that I've been dealing with lately with David. I chose this feature photo of a girl working on a typewriter because it looked like she was concentrating and hard at work. 

I started by cutting off the pink paper that formed a partial border. Next, I cut some different papers to play around with covering the pink text. 

Hm, not quite right. 

Better! You can see that I left the tiniest bit of the old pink lettering visible underneath the scalloped paper. Sometimes I like to see a hint of the elements I've worked over. It's an easy way of adding a little more interest and dimension to the piece. I used to feel like my work looked too flat or spare, and I think these little hints of mistake add a lot of life to my work. (Which is kind of an interesting philosophical idea, huh?)

Then I drew this little frame and hated it. 

So it was covered up. The paper is part of a the back cover of a piece of sheet music. There's some small text on it, but I placed it with the text upside down, so it creates more of a texture than being something readable that detracts from my words. 

I also wanted to add a new border on the side of the page. I chose this brown gingham fabric, which added a nice bit of pattern and interest but is neutral and not too distracting. This is a good place to note that I never measure anything and don't care at all about anything being perfect or the same size. The fabric background is wonky but I love that look. Perfection is boring. 

Sewing on the gingham. At this point, it would have been better to have some orange or yellow thread to continue the color palette, but I dislike buying supplies just for one purpose, so white works for now. 

I won't call this a complete "after" photo but this is where I stopped for the day. I think I'll add some more text and maybe a little doodling, but at this point my work session was done for the morning, because. . . . 

Someone woke up from her morning nap! And David's episode of Sesame Street was about to end. 

And this is what my workspace looks like after 30 mintues of work. Now you know why I don't make art nearly as much as I should. . . even though I love it, I have to immediately clean everything up since that's the dining table where we eat all our meals, too. 

So that's how I work. I hope you've enjoyed seeing a little bit of my workflow. And what about you? Do you follow any similar processes in your artwork? It's always fascinating to me how everyone creates things in a personal way.

Comments

[Irma P.]

Your workspace looks pretty neat after 30 min;) ...I usually have enough boxes and 'Stuff" on the floor that one is unable to walk through the room :)
I really liked reading about your art journal process. Thank You!

[Tammy]

I so enjoy seeing your process and your creative work as it unfolds. My art space is our breakfast table as well, and it is a constant... art stuff out... art stuff back into baskets. I work on a bunch of art journal pages at once, so I can do the same "phase" at the same time. i.e. paint a bunch of backgrounds, collage a bunch of pages, journal a bunch of pages. You take out less "stuff" that way. I am intrigued by this vintage yearbook, how super cool as journal fodder!

[Natalie Malik]

This was great to see! Seeing your thought process as you go through each stage was inspiring and refreshing. Thank you for sharing this with us! :)

[Katie]

What a fun post, Katie! :) I always love seeing peeks into your journals. I've been doing a lot of art journaling myself lately. It had been a while—since the sketchbook project, and I didn't realize how much I missed it!

[Katy Acquaye-Tonge]

Yes, this process feels very familiar!! I'm always impressed when people are creating and making work with children that are still so young ... very inspiring!

[Kaitlyn]

Ahhh, it's almost like I'm art journaling with you! :) How fun. I'm looking forward to these posts VERY much.

<3

[Kara Haupt]

This is so wonderful! <3