After reading the zine Play I’ve been having an itch to create on paper again. I didn’t bring my altered book because it is heavy, but before I went to the airport I picked up a couple of folded watercolour pages that I had planned to bind into a book last year.
I decided to follow the advice to paint a couple of backgrounds with washes of colour, all at the same time, and used my most summerish colours on some of the pages.
I had so much fun while making these pages. I love my watercolours so much. I’ve had the same box for at least 15 years, but added new cups of colours when the old ones was finished. I adore the new colours I recently added: bright orange, lemon yellow and turquoise blue.
Mmmm!
I was so happy while creating these, I forgot about time and room. I found some old magazine and cut out some images to make a collage, on top of my washes of colour. And I think you can tell that the feeling of happiness was with me when I made these? I scanned them before adding journaling, and now I don’t know if I will be brave enough to journal on these? I like them as they are, but probably I’ll add some text or something later…
Some watercolory washes of colour on textbook pages.
I also took book pages out of vintage youth novels (that I bought at a flea market last week) and painted watercolour on top of the text for collage ephemera! This is a great tip for you girls who want to try visual journaling! So fun to tear these colourful pages and use them in your journal.
My own imagery
I’ve been thinking a lot about creating more personal images for my journal later. Actually making my own stuff – saving ephemera, printing and editing photos, drawing, cutting shapes, painting watercolour backgrounds, saving doodles. I think this is the next step for me, in my art. I don’t just want cut out images from magazines, and use other’s imagery, but to combine parts of them, and make new images. To do some interesting marks on my own.
Further Inspiration
Some inspirational links today, as usual:
- About the health benefits of writing in a journal.
- Writing in your journal with no sketching doesn’t have to look boring. Look at this moleskine movie.
- Kelly Kilmer defines what it is to be a book artist.
Du är en stor inspirationskälla och jag blev så glad när du återupptog bloggandet. Jag läser här och hos många andra och stöter ofta på ordet ephemera men jag lyckas inte klura ut vad det betyder p? svenska. Skulle du kunna hjälpa mig att översätta?
I’ll look into the links later, but your pages are really bright and lovely! I have to try water colors too. So far I only have acrylics, and I adore them. I’m really interested in journaling now, trying to find my “place” in it, and getting a little confused, so your posts about it are really interesting to me!
I love those pages! Beautiful!
Mia,
Ephemera har ingen bra översättning till svenska tycker jag. Det är typ små bitar av gamla papper, ephemera kan vara biljetter, kuponger, brev, inköpslistor – sånt som finns kvar när dagen är slut och som de flesta människor slänger bort. Sånt kan man spara och integrera i konst eller i sina visuella dagböcker. :-) Hoppas beskrivningen hjälper. Jag älskar ephemera (både ordet och de små pappersbitarna).
Hagit;
thanks for your comment! There are so many styles of visual journaling, just try a lot of different books, papers, paints and collage and have fun. In time you’ll find what you like best. I’m still experimenting!
Claudia;
thank you girl!
Heisann. Takk for koselig hilsen p? bloggen, for noen nyyyydelige collager du har laget. Fantastiske farger og veldig kreativt arbeid. Utrolig flott. Jeg kommer tilbake for ? se hva du finner p? neste gang. Ha en fin sommerferie…
Hi Hanna!
Thank you for visiting my blog. So glad you did because it brought me to your wonderful blog. You do just about everything don’t you?? I’m right there with you. I love watercolors. They can create such magic and you’ve made magic with yours. I don’t think I’ve ever met a medium I didn’t like. I love to sew too, but I can’t sew properly like you. I just use fabric and make art quilts.
I want to be in your shop dream…..count me in for sure. I bet you can make it happen!
Thanks for those links–I enjoyed reading about the health benefits–I’ve been journaling pretty much all my life–very glad I did and do! I’ve never tried it with a moleskine though–maybe I will next time. Your pages are looking good–I think it’s one of the things that you do best!
Oh, your pages are so inspiring. I too have been working with watercolor in my journal. This week I made big lettering with a tiny brush and sumi ink (worked great) and then different colors of watercolor (also worked great). This was painted on top of acrylic which I thought might repel the paint but it took it just fine so now I have a new tool to play with. I find the journal the perfect place to try new things and just experiment. I never expect it to be all that ‘pretty’ – for me it is all about doing something I haven’t done before.
Bloglines finally let me add you to my list so now I will receive every post; I’m so happy!!
Really love your blog.