Journal Playground Week 3

This week in Journal Playground we are using up the book pages that we tore out of the book for week 2. I love these pages, they are so thick and fluffy. 

Along rhe spines I have added washi tape and stitching. 

And then I stitched them into sigantures using bakers twine. 

I then cut down a plastic wallet to make a cover, it looked weird with the book page showing through the clear cover so i added a kraft folder inside the cover.. making a kind of double cover.. 

The bakers twine that I used to stitch the signatures was threaded through the plastic cover, tied off and left hanging. Not sure what to do with it yet, maybe trim it off or add beads?

Here you can see the double cover... 

I added book pages with animals on them to the kraft part of the cover. 

Then I added gesso, and watered down paint, some stamping, flicks of white and some drips of FW acrylic inks. 

Finally I stencilled my title and highlighted it with a white posca pen. 

I  had decided to keep this journal just for animals, so as I had to pop into town I dropped this book into my bag in case I got chance to sit down with a coffee. I did all I needed to do and did indeed go for coffee.. I ordered a medium, but a large arrived at my table. A huge bucketful of coffee. Now I like coffee, though not as much as tea, and really a medium is about my limit.. but this thing was huuge.. so huge it had 2 handles!!!

I felt like everyone was watching me pick up this giant cup.. lol

So as I knew this was going to take a week to drink, I got out my new journal.. I only had graphite Stabilo and a water brush with me.. so that is what I used.. 

This paper is super thick and fluffy, which makes it very grabby with water, so I had to blend quick. once dry i added a bit more shading.. was still drinking coffee at this point.. 

They finally let me out even though i didn't drink up all my bucket 'o' hugeness. and I sloshed my way home.. 

I added a little blue to the eyes and some black.. 

I like the blue, but personally I think I ruined it with the black.. but hey ho nevermind.. 

Darcy 

Journal Playground

The very gorgeous and talented Kylie Fowler has released an online workshop called Journal Playground. This is a 4 week course, and covers the basics of making your own journals , 4 of them, creating protective covers and also a step by step instructional journal page within each journal. 

These four journals are all constructed differently and once made will keep you going for a long time filling them with artwork. 

Check out Kylie's 'About Me' page HERE Kylie lives in Australia with her husband, 3 children and animals. she has the most delightful accent and is visually very inspiring as well as informative. 

 I love this line that she uses..

"My aim is to show you how easy it is to draw, by encouraging you to play (like we did as children), to make a mess, to embrace mistakes and work through them. "

Once you have registered and have access you will find lots of information, the classes are separated out into weeks and you have indefinite access. This means you do not need to rush through the classes, you can take your time. There is also a Facebok group where people are encouraging each other and sharing their work. 

The thing I am enjoying most so far is that Kylie is urging us to 'use what we have' and so far I have made use of some very old and unloved scrapbook papers. I used these to create my Week 1 journal. 

Kylie takes us through the construction process in 3 great videos. 

This is followed by a couple more really clear videos on how to make the cover, I haven't done that bit yet, but I do intend to. 

Finally for Week 1 we are treated to 8 yes EIGHT more videos showing how Kylie created her own journal page. 

We are encouraged to either do the page as Kylie shows or to go off on our own tangent, which of course I did. The videos are packed with info on using different mediums such as paint, pencils and markers and lots of examples of shading. if you are keen to learn how to do whimsy type faces then the videos on drawing and shading the faces and features will help you a lot. 

I won't show you Kylie's page, but I urge you to sign up to the class and see it. here are a few photos showing how my page came together. 

and the finished page.. 

We have just done Week 2, though mine isn't finished yet,; I will pop back and blog again when I have the page done in that journal. 

Whatever online classes you are planning on taking this year, this one is a great starting place. once you have your 4 journals made you can fill them with any kind of art, either on your own or use them in class that you are signed up to. 

Darcy x

Butterfly love...

over the past few months Rhomany has been running an online art retreat, where you could experience research, photos, techniques and workshops all from the comfort of your own home.

See the DETAILS HERE...

I was one of the guests, and as such I was responsible for one month of the retreat. My month was September, and has now come to an end. During the month I researched a local venue, shared my thoughts and photos from my visit to said venue, and I also provided details of a project.

This is the project that I put together...

and a close up..

There were lots of other projects, if you fancy something a little different, why don't you check it out..