Creating an art journal

I wanted to talk briefly about a project I’ve undertaken – creating an art journal.  This is purely for myself, and I will work in it whenever I have some free time.  I wanted to do something to relieve the boredom of being at home this week, but funnily enough I’ve been way to busy to do anything else!  So tonight I eventually got down to it.

It’s nothing exciting at the moment but I wanted to make some marks on paper so that I wasn’t staring at a blank sheet of paper.  You know how that can be sometimes – rather intimidating! Here are the steps I took:

Starting my art journal

1. Covered the paper in white emulsion (or gesso if you have it)
2. Scribbled over the pages with oil pastels
3. Sprayed with white spirits, then rubbed it into the pastels, making a nice smudgy mess
4. Splattered on some acrylic paint – not too thick
5. Scratched the still wet acrylic paint to create a sgrafito effect then allowed to dry
6. Painted a square patch of emulsion; let it dry then wrote into it OR alternatively, glued some tin foil squares onto the page then painted over (I used foil from chocolate biscuits).

And those were the first two pages of my art journal!  Easy as that!

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I then started work on another little project, but still within my journal, based on the theme of The Sandman by Neil Gaiman. I’ve never tried to draw in a comic/graphic novel style before, so it’s a bit of a challenge for me. I know it’s not a great image, but since it’s my first attempt I can let it slide, plus I quite enjoyed the process.  To see all of the images in full, please click on one of the thumbnails above – you can skip through the images from there.

Oh, and in case you hadn’t noticed, I’ve not been around for a few days. I was away back home to visit my hubby’s family and to see Eddie Izzard play in Glasgow. It was nice but tiring.  Anyway, more journalling tomorrow!