Yup. I’m already 3 weeks behind in Effy Wild’s art journaling class Book of Days 2015 – Ordinary Beauty. I signed up for this class, which is 12 weeks long, on January 1st. I loved her description of what the focus of the course was to be: looking for beauty in the world around us and journaling about it. I really, really wanted to hit the road running with this class. The first week’s prompt was provided on January 5th but first I wanted to make a canvas-bound journal in which to do my art journaling for the class. And I couldn’t do that until I received the materials that I had ordered the day after Christmas (thanks to Gary who gifted me some dollars to spend at Jerry’s Artarama).
I finally got the materials I needed on January 9th and finished making the journal on January 11th, just in time for the 2nd week’s video/prompt. Here’s my pristine, canvas-bound journal with four five-page signatures.
And do you think I did week 1 or week 2? No. I did other things. Arty things. Non-arty things. I procrastinated. I took naps. I did watch the videos . . . I just didn’t journal for either week. And on Monday (four days ago), the week 3 videos/prompt were released. Nothing, nothing, nothing, nothing.
Today (finally!) I decided to work on the week 1 prompt. The prompt was to create a 2-page mixed media spread identifying our intentions (goals, hopes, resolutions) and a significant word to strive for during 2015. As part of that, we were encouraged to do an image transfer (using gesso) onto one of the pages. I decided to use a silhouette of a woman doing a sun salutation with open arms (as the image transfer), signifying the words I wanted to focus on this year: ‘release’ and ‘renew’. I also decided I wanted the spread to have the look of a beautiful sunset or sunrise since sunsets are about letting go of the day (release) and sunrises are about new possibilities (renew).
I got so caught up in the process that I did not take photos of the steps I took. After transfering the image onto the right hand page, I decided to paint over the image to lighten it, leaving black only in the figure’s hair. I finished the spread by stamping words on both pages and then journaling my intentions for the year. I also scribbled the words ‘sing yourself alive every day’ around the figure. This is what my pages looked like when I finished.
I’m pretty happy with how it turned out. The colors are vibrant like the sunsets we get here in Arizona. The figure is recognizable and the image transfer was successful, even though I decided to paint over it. I’m hoping now to finish up weeks 2 and 3 over the next few days in time for week 4 to be released.
I found beauty in my art journal pages today. I hope you found beauty in your life too!
Ain't No Ninny 
You must be logged in to post a comment.