Make mistakes. It is how we learn to solve artistic problems, and life, right? If your art journal is too precious, you will fail at even trying to begin to truly dip into the soul of your matter.
Mix things up. Mix up mediums you use. Mix up ideas. Do an ugly page made onto a paper you have cleaned your brushes on, smeared on left over paint. Just cover stuff up and uncover some other stuff. Play. Experiment.
***Hint: save all colors of paint you do not use up. Use a blank page to smear the leftover paints on, to clean a brush or a credit card off on… that is one blank page you will have in your stash… Yah, us!
It is so easy to think we are not creative, or use that as an excuse, yet, something might be longing within us, to say what it needs to say and I PROMISE you…art journaling will fill a void that you had no idea you had. An art journal is almost an experimental thing…see… we make mistakes! We do! I know, I can hardly believe it myself! Snort! Mistakes can make great art journal pages. Honest!
See, once upon a time we were children. No matter what we did, someone was sure to ohhhh and ahhh about it and tape it to a fridge. Then we got a bit older and we KNEW, right to our bones, that stuff was no good. Apparently, we spend the rest of our lives trying to get that acknowledgement from someone that, indeed, we are, art geniuses, and since we do not ever get it, we stop trying. See, we miss a Great Teacher, if we do not try, if we do not simply pay attention to the process and forget about end results a bit. What do we do with mistakes in our everyday life? We fix them, don’t we? Well, consider a blank page that looks messed up as something to fix.
Oh, I do not like working with oil pastels. Oh, probably because I cannot control them. Yes, I am an occasional control freak... ok, well, most times I am a control freak. I do not know why I try to control myself when history has shown... oh, well, never mind. Lol! Sometimes you just dive in. I grab some gesso, some Mod Podge, some junk pieces of paper and simply cover stuff up. Who knows, she might appear again. I try to add things in odd numbers; for instance, see the three green ripped pieces of napkin? The one flower cut out of a kid’s mediation coloring page, well, for some reason, and I cannot go into brain and behavior, but the EYE likes odd numbers. Ok, just do it… I figure I have had some good results.
HINT: tear don’t cut, you will thank me later. Cutting leaves sharp straight edges. Unless you are going for straight sharp lines, just tear... it is sooo fun.
Just keep collaging pieces and bits and whatevers until you have covered all or most of page. See, I am not willing to give up on her face for some reason... she remains peaking through. Hmm, wonder why, because I have no idea what this page is going to be…. And yes, it might be getting to the ugly stage!
Let stuff dry. See if it doesn’t haunt you from the other room… you brain is now wired to fix something! While you are away, maybe spend some time thinking about how into “fixing things” you are. You know you are good at fixing some things. We spend a lifetime “fixing”. I fixed a few things I should not have. Sometimes Creator is not finished with someone and who do I think I am trying to doe Creator’s job? Yes, I learned that lesson too.
When we post things online, artists do not show you the struggle it got for them to get such a precious pretty. Letting a page sit and dry, rather than using a hairdryer or heat gun to dry it faster, is that you sometimes need to let things boil and roil a bit. At some point, just do it… jump the broom and get interested in what you could do to the collaged page you have just done. There is nothing much that gesso cannot cover over. Remember that. Gesso gives you a brand new starting point, so… do not make a page precious…. When you put in the work to get past all the hurdles and detours, it is going to happen. Honest.
Ok, now to sort of tone down the page and then get a sense of some color. Actually, something came to mind and I can now start towards that. Just some light gesso covering with a wet brush does not erase everything but starts to tone it down. Next, I think…. ugh…oil pastels.
Ok, so, I have decided on some creamy metallic colors, a kid’s set of oil pastels (I love dollar store for art journaling experiments) and some creamy cayola pastels. Whatever oil pastel type product you have works for this. Oh, and a torn-up towel (Scott towel is wayyy to precious during Covid, doncha know!). I have a bit of water to dip smudgy hands into and wipe on the towel piece. Color a bit of dark where shadows could be, and then pick colors that are all great NOT to mix into gray or browns where you do not want them. Smear, add color, smear. Anything goes. Add a bit of lighter, brighter color in middle of forehead, down nose, a bit on higher cheeks and a touch on chin and lower neck… that will brighten things up a bit.
Rub and blend colours a bit. Be sure to dip fingers in water and dry off on your toweling so you do not get a muddy mess on your painting.
Ok, now for some even lighter. Find your lightest, or white, if you are lucky) and highlight the line down nose, a ball for nose-tip, and bit for highlighted cheeks, a chin and a bit down on bottom of neck. I also added some white to the eyes. Take a rest…… then blend a bit and walk away. Use some charcoal pencil or even a pointy bit of black oil pastel piece to do the next part which begins to define some areas.
Suddenly muse takes over and wants flowers in her hair…Frieda Kahlo style, I think... not sure... but I out some curly spiraling marks that will, I hope, become flowers. I scribble over some white because flowers are not all one color, right? I am going to smear to see.
Now is time for some pen work. Walmart has painter’s pens that work good over anything. Sharpies cover too, but sometimes that is shiny... sometimes shiny is good.
Hint: did you know that mark of life that brings eyes to life is a small dot of light in the pupil?
Ok, now I tend to jump around the page a bit because that keeps me from overworking a spot. I know that flowers are not all curly lines. there are petals in there. I made some strange shapes that I can blend into petal shapes. Then I went over with some white again and that stats to give the flowers some depth and heights in the petals.
I have to quit on the flowers for a bit… I am starting to muddy them. And so I jump down to her dress/shirt/blouse. Just some transparent color to it. Green, I shall go green. And, since I used green on her shirt, I think some green around her might look good.
At some point, you need to walk away for a long time. I am walking away from this page for now. It does not mean that I will not come back some months later and say, I should have... or I want to.. and then I do. An art journal is not a diary. I, eventually will write something on this page and it will most likely ne on the green around her. It is then I might perk it up a bit and do more finishing. That is the joy of an art journal. You are not done until you are done.
Note: I will be revisiting this page to turn ugly flowers into something else, methinks.
©Carol Desjarlais 4,5,21
Post Script. I have now gone on to trying an oil pastel on mixed media paper. I actually love it.
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