The Green spread is the last of the monochromatic pages that I have made so far. Making a monochromatic page is like doing a little colour investigation. I picked up all the green pens from my pen box and it was obvious that green is a colour that I am drawn to, though of course I already knew that. Pink and green is one of my favorite combinations, and green itself is so rich and luscious to me.

The whole green spread.

In the comment section we’ve been discussing that monochromatic colour pages are great for beginners. If you are new to Art Journaling and don’t know what to put on your page why not start with a few pages of monochromatic. You could start with any colour and just experiment with it, why not ruby red (the colour that got me started)? Mix red colours and use pens, crayons, watercolours and acrylics in red, look for matching papers, find words that makes you think of red or describe how you feel about the colour. I think you will be inspired to continue once you get your materials out.

To create a green colour you mix together yellow and blue. If you already have a bottle of dark forest green colour you can mix in white to make it lighter. Green with white will create a cold green, if you mix green with more yellow instead you get a light green that feels warm and spring like. Yellow green makes me think of leaves moving in the wind and meadows of grass under a bright sun.

I have a whole folder of yarn samples from a Swedish weaving company that I bought at a thrift store once. Each yarn brand is a row of similar coloured fringe in a nice row. I cut them out and incorporate them into my art journals in different ways. When I bought the folder I had no idea what I would do with the samples but I am a firm believer that you can use anything flat in your art journal, sooner or later you will find a way. A row of only green hues was perfect for the green page. I like to glue a row close to the edge so the yarns stick out of the book when it closes, like a soft book fringe that you can touch.

Little pieces of green papers glued together during my colour investigation.

As an artist I am continuously exploring colour. I think I will do it in one form or other for the rest of my life. It is a topic with no end. The range of colours are endless and we can probably not even see all the colours that exists.

Crusade prompt: Use “found” typography as background in your art journal. Cut out text headlines from a newspaper or magazine and glue it on a page to create a background or a text message. Material requirement: found type, adhesive, scissors and journal pages!

I cut out random words from a few newspapers and glued it all together rather quickly. I don’t think this is a finished page, and I am hoping that the next crusade will reveal something interesting to do to it, if not I will try to come up with something on my own…

Check out what others have made during August too: crusade no 43: text messaging!

You make fabric beads the same way you make rolled paper beads, but I prefer fabric. I haven’t had any success when I tried making paper beads (yet). It’s easier to roll the fabric, and the beads get chunkier faster. Here is a quick tutorial to show you how easy and fun this is!

1. Cut your fabric into triangles. I do this without a pattern because I don’t mind if the beads are not the same size.

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Orange is red brought nearer to humanity by yellow.
/Kandinsky

The fourth spread in my Monochromatic Series, and the colour is happy orange.

I’m not sure if it is true but I heard that orange is the colour of creativity. When we see this colour it would makes us more creative… it might be true. At least I know for sure that it is a juicy happy colour. I’ve also read that it stimulates activity and appetite, and encourages socialization! Isn’t it cool what colours can do, hehe.

Orange makes me thirsty for orange juice. I can even smell oranges when I see the colour. Another strong image that comes up when I think about this colour are the smiling Buddhist monks I’ve met, all wrapped in orange cloth. I also think of henna, curry, saffron and other spices…

This is the orange spread in my Art Journal:

If you mix red and yellow you’ve got yourself a pretty orange. Try it out and let me know how it goes.

Here are some more details of this spread:

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Details do create the big picture. I wrote about this Hand Bound Art Journal last spring and considered the promising emptiness of it. I thought I’d go through it quicker, but I’ve been working in other books too so it still has blank watercolour papers to fill. But soon it will be full and I need to consider binding another one together. Here are some details from this one journal:

Image transfer.

Red sticker rose.

A yellow butterfly sticker.

Colourful letters cut from a magazine. Big they say: use your whole palette!

A LOL Buddha on a Diana Trout inspired page, written on a loose lined page (now glued into the journal) while I was reading her book Journal Spilling.

Time for a quote;

A mountain is composed of tiny grains of earth. The ocean is made up of tiny drops of water. Even so, life is but an endless series of little details, actions, speeches, and thoughts. And the consequences whether good or bad of even the least of them are far-reaching.
/Sivananda

I love taking bits and pieces of the whole and seeing it anew. Looking at the detail of each collage. That is why I love close up photos of my art journal. I love my art journal, both the making of it and the look and feel of it when it is full. Sorry to go on about this, but it is true every day. Dear Art Journal, you are my friend.

I found I could say things with color and shapes that I couldn’t say any other way - things I had no words for.
/Georgia O’Keefe

Continuing to paint in The Monochromatic Series, as I’ve come to call it. Art Journal spreads exploring one colour only and the different aspects of that colour. The third colour of course had to be my favorite colour (not even wild horses could hold me back any longer, as we say in Sweden): pink.

A mix of red and white, the colour of sweet love, young girls, and my cat’s nose. Pink is my own true love colour.

View of the whole spread:

Mixing colours, trying out both watercolour pink and acrylics from bottles and jars, some pink papers and stickers etc.

A few details of this spread so that you can have a closer look:

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Summer in full bloom, everywhere. There is abundance and I try to notice it and embrace it.

I take more photos in the summer. There are more looking closely at ordinary things happening. More little details of the whole. More documenting what surrounds me today, things that will be gone or changed or different tomorrow. More experimenting with the photos in the computer. More appreciating of life in general. More stillness, just sitting and breathing in and out of the nose, listening within. Lots more flowers. Lots more of it all.

Poetry is the journal of the sea animal living on land, wanting to fly in the air. Poetry is a search for syllables to shoot at the barriers of the unknown and the unknowable. Poetry is a phantom script telling how rainbows are made and why they go away.
/Carl Sandburg

These days I almost exclusively write with black ink in some form. Right now my favorite pen is the Pilot Hi-techpoint V5 Grip pen (a Fine Roller Ball Pen with black ink). The metal nib seams to hold up for the pressure I put on it daily. I’ve written with the same pen all summer and it still works! Pen testing (for me) needs to go on for some time before you can give a true testimonial and judgment of the pens long-term qualities.

I have tired of the Pilot G-tec-c that used to be my favorite. It has the thinest nib ever and when you write with it it feels great, but it does not hold up in the long run. The nib keeps breaking before the ink runs out and it drives me crazy that I have to through away a half full pen over and over again. It is too costly to be a staple good in the house, so when one pen breaks I try to keep writing with it but the nib gets stuck in the paper, I get irritated, the ink pools and smears - and I though it in the trash with a sigh.

In my last order from Amazon I bought a pack of two Sharpie Fine Point Pens that I really enjoyed writing with - for a week. Then the nib got pushed in and the fun was out of the pens. Maybe I have too much pressure on the pens, but I think they should last more than two weeks for daily writing!

So for now I’m going to keep writing with the Pilot Hi-techpoint pen because it works well for me. I recommend you to try it out. But as you know, the search goes on. For ever. The perfect pen is just around the corner and one day we might all just find our own Perfect Favorite Pen! :-)

Have you found your own best match yet, when it comes to pens and notebooks?

The rinse water is colour coordinated after painting another monochromatic page!

Do you remember the Ruby Red Page in my Art Journal? It was so much fun I decided to go on an explore colour a bit more… Time for another almost monochromatic page, this time in turquoise, the colour of 2010.

I have tried out all the different colours of turquoise that I could find around here; crayon, acrylics, deco tape, bits of paper that was in the right colour, and my own try at turquoise mixing;

To make your own turquoise colour you mix white, blue and green together. Isn’t it a beautiful colour?

I like making monochromatic pages, it’s fun! Why not give it a try?

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Fly photo over a Inner Landscape II, mixed media embroidery by Hanna Andersson.

As promised here is the second mixed media embroidery. The first one was very green if you remember. This one is very pink.

It has paper, plastic netting, acrylic paints, fabric, lace and all kinds of stuff in it, but most of all tiny stitches. Lots and lots of my tiny hand sewn stitches spread across the surface. Adding colour and texture. Adding me-ness to my work. Please leave a comment if you like it. And have a closer look below, I think there is much to look at in this one!

More photos/details of this embroidery:

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