Art Journal Faces - Each one tells a Story

In this video on my YouTube channel I share some of the faces and scenes in my art journal.  When I work in my art journal the intention is not to initially draw a face, but to work on creative play on a background without judgement at how it should look, just reaching for supplies and allowing them to find the pages.

Once the page has got to a certain point I start to think about what I can see emerging from the background, often you can see shapes of images - you may have to turn it upside or on its side to see the shapes/figures that have formed without you specifically thinking about it. 

Each image has a story to be told and you have been given to task in telling it, the first step is finding them on the page and releasing them into the world - I will let their voices be heard.

Dancing to the Beat of Your Own Drum

She decided to dance to the beat of her own drum, not worry what others had to say or tried to say.  She no longer sought the approval of others and understood that she had been on a journey collecting the tools she needed to stand on her own two feet. 

 

A big learning curve had taken place and she was free to be who she wanted to be and live her life.  She could express herself in the way that tapped into her creative dreams, visions and goals - it truly blessed the world and herself

I hope you enjoy looking at some of the images on the video and look forward to seeing how you start to approach your Art Journal.

Experiments in the Garden

Come and join me in my Creative Garden and see some of the things that I use for my creative projects. Let me know what your getting up to in your green space.

You an also check out some of the other Gardening videos while you are there:

Join me the Creative Gardener

Distraction Art Journal

Distraction Journal

In this video that I shared I show you in 'real time' working through two art journals and creating two faces. It is a great idea to have a space where you can spend a short time in being creative.

You don't have to worry about things being finished in this journal, it just gets you being creative rather than doing other things which saps your time and makes you loose focus for the real work you want to do.

In this video that I shared I show you in 'real time' working through two art journals and creating two faces. It is a great idea to have a space where you can spend a short time in being creative.

The emphasis in my distractions journal is to give myself time to play creatively so that I can get on with other work. I usually start by adding color and marks to the page and then my 'go to' is to create faces. I don't restrict myself by having to finish it all at once, but I am able to dip in and out of the journals.

I love using the water soluble pastels/pencils or crayons as they dry quickly and come in a wide range of colors.

There are times where we put things off when you need to try and break through and complete your tasks. Very often we also have to look at the position that we are in (literally) and shake ourselves up. My distractions journal is a place where I can unwind and recharge my batteries

Supplies used

Neocolors, Derwent Inktense and Graphite Soluble. You can check out the supplies on Amazon HERE

I would love to hear how you use your art journals to help you stay focused, leave a comment below. Stay blessed and be a blessing

Arts and Wellness Cafe - Personal Growth and Development

Come and join me in the Arts and Wellness Cafe, it is always great to have you accompany me as we ponder on the various aspects of Arts and Creativity.

In todays video I wanted you to think about ways in which you invest in your creativity and work on your growth.  It is important that you are constantly learning.  It might be a subject that you want to experiment in - there are so many free tutorials around that you can access, books that you can read.  You only have to decide what the subject will be.

I have been one of the teachers who shared a taster session on Life Book recently and my session was all about creative play.  I love working with different and new supplies and constantly look at ways in which I can do more with the supplies that I have.  If you didn't get to see my finished piece it is below.

Life Book Taster Session - Amanda Trought

The great thing about Life Book is the amount of lessons that you are getting, a wide selection of teachers and techniques, so you will be spoilt for choice at the range of techniques, you also get to continue to have access to the FREE taster sessions if you didn't get to complete them all.  It is also a useful idea to redo some of them using different supplies.  I would love to see what you do using different supplies with my session.

You can sign up for the Full 2021 Life Book Course HERE Remember to use the 20% discount code FEELHAPPY20 at the checkout.

The other thing that I am excited to share is some of the Eco-dyeing with Avocado seed.  Artist Dylan Sara shared how to create your own inks as part of his Life Book Taster Session.  I decided to experiment and see what effects I would get dyeing fabric, and here are a few of the designs that I did:

Avocado Eco Dyed

I created a paste and applied the avocado seed to fabric

Avocado Eco Dyed Fabric

I allowed it to dry in the sunshine and it acted like a resist.

I will be sharing the process I used in another video, you can see in the video above some of the results once the avocado has been washed off.  It was great fun to do and I shall be looking forward to adding them to my fabric stash and getting to use them.