What are You Saying "NO" to in 2016 - Self-Doubt

 I am saying "No" to self-doubt in 2016. I started with two leftover pieces of the driftwood image from my "Word of the Year" journal page. http://kimraenugent.blogspot.com/2016/01/word-of-year-perseverance.html I placed the "Journal Starters" image parts on the upper right and lower left corner of the journal spread. I often find I am more creative when I have less to work with. I mixed a blue color to mimic the blue in the water. I extended the design with paint. Then let drips flow through my self-doubt.

I found the bear in the paint and driftwood image and coaxed him out with colored pencils. The bear is a symbol for confidence.

Your Children - Journal Page

I started with magazine images of a shell, three maple syrup bottles, three turtles, and trees. The color of the images and their interesting forms is what attracted me.

I spent a good deal of time intertwining the images with line work using black and white Sakura jelly roll pens and Elmer's Painters.

"Your Children" was written on the tree magazine page and after looking at the images it seemed appropriate. The turtles are to remind me to take my time and enjoy the process. The cruise ship was part of the shell page. While I'm not interested in going on a cruise I found the image fit with the spread and decided to keep it.

I am disappointed that I didn't remember to take process photos. I really like to look back and see how a page developed.

Collaged Art Journal Page

I was inspired by a torn paper collage journal page spread by Marie Danti.  I started with this quote "When the uncreative tell the creative what to do, it stops being art". Next I ripped out mostly solid sections from a magazine and glued them down without preplanning. Pieces laid prior helped to guide the next paper I glued down. I didn't have a plan for the subject matter except to draw something in marker loosely. Tony Bennett was the source for the quote so I googled an image for him and liked the pose from his All Time Greatest Hits album.

The drawing isn't as loose as I had first intended.  Since it was an actual person I wanted there to be some resemblance. First I sketched the image in pencil. Next I drew over the pencil lines with marker. Then I painted in shadows with watered down acrylic paint.

I think the random collaged paper gives the spread more of a dynamic energy than I could have planned.

Salamander Journal Page

 

These two salamanders were seen by me the other day.  It’s been quite awhile since one has crossed my path. Whenever an animal interests me I like to research them, look up their animal totem meaning and draw them.

“The appearance of a Salamander heralds transformation. It also announces assistance with this change from a source somewhere outside of ourselves.” http://spirit-animals.com/salamander/ Something to ponder... This is one of many paths of self discovery that I follow in my journals.

First I applied a color wash using a mixture of Nickel Azo Gold and Dioxazine Purple (Golden Fluid Acrylics) for my background. Next I drew the image of a salamander on a piece of copy paper. Then I cut it out to use as a template to trace, making two matching salamanders. I colored the Salamanders with several layers of Prismacolor colored pencils. Finally I added the journaling.