Mark Making and Art Journaling in Wanderlust 2024

I enrolled in Everything Art's Wanderlust 2024 last November and have been enjoying the weekly art inspiration and instructional videos.  A recent session with French artist Eugenie Billotte invited us to look for treasure in our homes to create with.  

Of course, treasure could mean a wide variety of things.  I gathered words and pages clipped from vintage book pages, an old photo, and interesting papers like the textured brown paper packaging above.

  Eugenie walked us through upcycling and mark-making activities that I found freeing, relaxing, and calming.

After creating a small stack of decorated papers, we began working in our art journals.

Here's my finished page spread with a B&W photo I took one spring decades ago of blooming Bloodroot as the focal point of the page.  Nature is my treasure.  I love walking through the woods in the spring, watching birds at my feeder and listening to their songs.

I made a wheel with samples of the decorated pages I created in this lesson.

If you're interested in joining Wanderlust 2024, you can find information here:

https://www.everything-art.com/p/wanderlust-2024-artjournalingcourse

I played with the remaining words I had clipped from old books to make poetry.

And I took some of my leftover materials to create this little treasure about my excitement about an upcoming adventure.

I hope you take the time to play with art supplies, make an art journal page, or express yourself with words cut from magazines or books.  Making art just for yourself is a great form of Self Care!

Happy New Year Art Journaling!

Even though December is done, I continue to enjoy Kasia Avery's Care December 2023 art journaling class.  You can access it for free anytime here:

https://www.everything-art.com/p/care-december-23

The prompt that I loosely followed was the New Moon prompt from day 4. 

I picked out a page spread, gathered some Prismacolor colored pencils in shades of blue, and began intuitively making swirling lines across the page. 

I had just been flipping through old nature journals made when I lived in Ohio, and revisiting those journals allowed me to revisit my favorite park there, Oak Openings Preserve Metropark. Going out into nature then, as now, helped me to relax, feel grounded, and to connect to nature and my creativity.

As I recalled my afternoons wandering the park with my nature journal and Prismacolors, my art journal page organically grew into a representation of the Oak Openings sand dunes that I loved.

I found that as I listened to the quiet, tiny voice of my intuition, that inner guide suggested colors (yellow ochre) and ideas (draw winter grasses & dead weeds).

I listened and sketched, all the time remembering the joy I felt in nature hiking the Oak Openings trails, reliving the gratitude I felt for time to spend in my favorite park.

The memory of a nature escape brought up the same feeling of refreshment that I felt all those years ago. 

What a powerful practice nature journaling is to provide a well of renewal to dip into again and again!

May the new year bring you opportunities for renewed creativity!

Copyright 2024 Betsy Bangley. All rights reserved.

Care December: Coldness

I love the idea of tuning into the coolness of the color blue in this prompt.  

Blue looks cooler when you put it next to warm colors like spots of yellow and orange 

by the candles' glow.

This morning, I set up in my studio at dawn with a hot pot of tea and my art supplies to take on the Care December prompt:Coldness.

I had prepared a page spread of vellum paper with clear gesso, so that I could easily draw with Inktense colored pencils and NeocolorII crayons.

A wet brush moved the pigment and brought the colors to life.

I love how the vellum looks like stained glass when held up to window light.

I hope you get some time to create -- this project took me about 15 minutes.  Even a little time spent creating can be great self care.

Care December: Gratitude

Today's Care December prompt involved thinking of the people that make us feel loved and the places that make us feel at home, and feeling gratitude for them. 

I began with this page spread, and picked out some paper bits that made me think of my best friend.  Just the thought of her makes me feel loved and grateful.

I collaged on a stamp -- my BFF and I write lots of letters -- and some tea-stained papers because we love drinking tea and chatting for hours.

A variety of acrylic paint colors added their brilliance.

After the acrylic dried, I painted on a layer of clear gesso so I could easily draw with colored pencils.

A heart with two teacups finished the pages for me.

I hope you'll join Kasia Avery's Care December, too,

and take some self care art time this week to create something just for your own joy.

Happy Creating!

Copyright 2023 Betsy Bangley. All rights reserved.

Care December: What Makes You Feel Joyful & Fluid?

I've been taking Kasia Avery's online art journaling course, Care December, at my own pace.  I love that I can have days that I jump right in and follow the prompt, 

and days that I take time off and save the session until I can savor it. 

Today's prompt invited us to think about what makes us feel relaxed, fluid and joyful.  

We used string and blue ink, and I luckily had some of both, 

from the Pittsburgh Center for Creative Reuse.

We dunked the string in the ink bottle, then flopped the inky string on the page, closed the journal and pulled the string slowly out.

I love the wispy, swirly lines that this technique creates.

The designs looked like the engraved drawings of seashells found in vintage science books. 

Relaxing by the ocean is one of the things that makes me feel fluid and joyful, so I kept the "seashell" marks and added ink washes & colored pencil lines around them.

  

The blue, Serendipity ink ($2 at PCCR) has lovely, shimmery qualities when it dries, 

and looks red in the photo.

Interestingly, I bought the white Prismacolor pencil at the PCCR, too. 

If you haven't joined in Care December yet, there's still time to participate!

Even if you read this post long after December 2023, you can still find the course on Kasia's website.

I hope you take some time to make some art just for joy, just for yourself -- For self-care!

Copyright 2023 Betsy Bangley. All rights reserved.

 

Art Journaling: Altered Transparencies

I found a fantastic book by Traci Bautista, Collage Unleashed, that's full of ideas for creating art journal collages in unusual ways, including making transparencies of your own artwork.  

Above is a drawing I did of The Ink Queen, with ink on an old book page, and then photocopied onto transparency film.

Traci gives instructions and ideas for using your own drawings & doodles to make altered transparencies for your art journal.  

The most important tip is: use the correct transparency film for your copier or printer.  If you use the wrong film in a dry toner copier (which uses high heat to make the copy), it can melt inside the machine and ruin it.

Once you get the right sort of transparency film for your copier or printer, 

you can print your artwork onto the film, and then add color with acrylic paint as below:

 I painted the back of the transparency.

And flipped it over to reveal The Ink Queen in all her colorful glory.

I added the painted transparency to my art journal, gluing it in with Yes! paste, a clear, archival adhesive.

Here's one I colored with alcohol markers.

Alcohol markers allow you to blend two or more colors together, and even move the toner around (I used a dry toner, black-only copier).

I warmed up Marion by placing her over an art journal page painted with peach acrylic and white gesso.

I hope you take some time this week to play with collage, transparencies, or just to make doodles.  

When you create, you make your artistic vision -- how you see the world -- visible to the rest of us.  

If we each make art and share it with others, we can spark inspiration and 

celebrate our unique artistic view of the world.

Happy Creating!

Copyright Betsy Bangley 2023

Color Journal Update

I've been painting in my color journal over the last few weeks. 

When I have a little time, a few colors or materials I want to explore, and I want to simply sketch rather than create a full painting, my color journal is an easy place to play.

Sometimes I explore mark making with India ink.

Inspired by the color and shapes of pumpkins, I started this one with a white crayon, added India ink, and finished with layers of wet-in-wet watercolors. 

Other times, I layer different media -- here watercolor forms the lower layer, and after the paint dried, I added lines with a permanent fine line ink pen.

Each page is different.  Each page is low-risk, because I'm just exploring and doodling.  So picking up this journal and trying something new is easy.  And relaxing.

Give yourself the gift of time to play with colors.  

You don't need to buy new materials, just gather what you already have. 

Follow the small voice of your intuition.  

You'll be surprised at how creative that part of you is.

Art Journaling in my Trader Joe's Grocery Bag Journal

I often write a journal entry on a piece of lined paper as part of my art journaling page.  Making pockets to tuck these folded pages feels like play!  The above pocket design is created with book pages & watercolor paper decorated with Indanthrene Blue & Burnt Sienna watercolors and India ink.

I recently was inspired to try intuitive painting after watching this YouTube video by Jackie Schomburg.  When I finished, I realized my painting represents how I feel about the autumn and the coming winter -- a last celebration of the summer sun, warmth & color.  

Yin & yang.

Sometimes, I doodle in my art journal. 

I picked up some watercolor crayons in an art supply swap I held in one of my Osher classes, and played with them on gesso-covered pages.  I love the rich, bold colors and the way they blend with a wet brush!

An art journal is your space to explore whatever you desire -- from a new set of paints to the thoughts and feelings within you.  I hope you get a chance to play with art supplies just for self care soon!

Upcycled Art Journal from Trader Joe's Grocery Bags

I'm a big fan of Trader Joe's grocery store.  I love the staff, and the food! 

Over the last few years, I amassed a collection of their sturdy paper bags.  Determined to recycle them, I turned them into a journal.

I got the idea for creating a faux leather cover from an idea I saw in a YouTube video.  

I cut my paper bags into pages, wet them and crinkled them for some extra texture. 

After letting the pages dry, I sewed them into a journal and added a cover.

On the pages that have print, I gesso and paint over, or simply collage. Here I've used music sheeting and old book pages, acrylic paint, homemade stamps, and Sharpies.

I copied a wonderful "permission slip" from The Unexpected Gypsy.  It's helpful to write down your intention in a journal, and to remind yourself that you are allowed to create without judgement.

I love the brown craft paper surface of the unprinted pages. I can use white paint pens and black ink to contrast. I've sewn in a string of battery-powered lights to this page to remind myself that nurturing myself helps my inner light to shine.

The beauty of upcycled materials for me is that I've saved something from the landfill, so it feels like there's no pressure to make anything "pretty." 

A beautiful way to slip past perfectionism.

Why not create your own art journal from materials around the house?

Faerie in Turquoise

During the lockdown, I discovered an artist on YouTube who creates for self-care.  She paints, writes, and collages in an art journal as a way to calm anxiety and support her mental health.  The Unexpected Gypsy's public YouTube videos inspired me to start an art journal -- then fill it, and embark on several more.  Creating simply for my own joy and self care is freeing and has become part of my self care routine.

I joined her Patreon, and it feels good to support a working artist who inspires me.  She produces special "Paint with Me" videos for patrons, and it was while watching one of those that I painted this little faerie. 

What a delight to play with colors and my imagination, and watch a character appear from my pencil and paintbrush! 

Hoping you'll take the time to play with your art supplies for no other reason than for your own joy! 

Self Care: Enchanted Tea Party

 

One of my favorite self-care tricks right now is the Enchanted Tea Party.  I brew up a pot of herbal tea, put on a fun outfit, and create! 

Recently, I took inspiration from the bold & contrasting colors in Lynne Perrella's book Artists' Journals & Sketchbooks (Quarry Books, 2004). 

I pulled out my art journal & art supplies, and began layering bright acrylic paints and bold markers, then glued on some text and hand-wrote a quote.  All while sipping delightful Elderberry-Lemon Balm tea.  Time drifted away, my body and mind relaxed, and I slipped into creative mode.  

The bold, bright colors spilled sunshine into my soul, and freed up my mind to play.

I even incorporated the quotes from the tea bag labels into my page spread.

The beauty of creating in my art journal for me is that I allow myself liberty to create anything I want to.  There are no rules, only techniques to explore & materials to play with.  If I don't like some element of a page, I can paint or collage over it.  Each layer adds interest.

I found a quote, and felt the rich vermilion and carmine reds invited such bold thoughts, so I wrote it in and added some decorations with permanent markers.

If you would like to join me for an in-person course in creating your own art journal, follow this link: https://ccbc.coursestorm.com/category/arts?page=2

For information about my upcoming in-person art classes, follow this link to the Community College of Beaver County website, and click on the "Arts" button: https://ccbc.coursestorm.com/ 

I would love to see you in one of my art courses!