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!

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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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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What you need is an old credit card, some acrylic paint, a spray bottle of water, and recycled paper. Then you scrape paint your paper with one coat of colour and spray it with some water. When you scrape away the water after a few seconds you will create the coolest pattern ever! I really like the look of it. Then repeat as many times as you want, for a layered look.

Pretty!

I have sprayed water before but then only blotting it away with paper towels. Scraping with a credit card makes the whole process easier and more fun.

I like to paint my own decorative papers. These are going to be made into a book soon.

Using a card and a spray bottle of water together was inspired by and found in a this painting tutorial that Jessica (of Paint. paper. play. blog) linked me to in the comments. You should try it too, it was fun!

Also, check out the blog 30 journals 30 days for images, links and profiles of inspiring people!

How long have you been Art Journaling? My answer:

I started Art Journaling shortly after starting my blog back in 2004. It was then I entered into the magic new world of online creativity, craft, art and mixed media adventure. I bought Lynne Perrella’s beautiful book Artists’ Journals and Sketchbooks from Amazon and read it several times before I jumped in and started my first art journal, a big spiral bound book that was filled with sturdy papers.

Read the rest of the interview with me over at Connie’s inspirational site 30 journals in 30 days, go read it!

If you’re here for the first time, from the interview maybe, check out my category on art journaling and make a hello-comment! :-)

Sitting in the shade with my Art Journal and a high glass of iced coffee.

Dipping my paintbrush in water and painting with a mostly unused colour (ochre) in my paint box of watercolours. Swirling it around, making pools of water.

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I love painting decorative papers. For the July crusade I took a pile of papers out and tore some strips of paper. I followed exactly what the prompt said, tore papers into strips and glued them randomly into my Art Journal.

The result is a more wild looking pattern than what I got when I created Sewn Stripe Paper, but I love the look of both. I wanted a focal image and browsed through almost all of my clip archive without finding a suitable image… Probably because I’m going toward doing more personal stuff these days, trying to find favorite images to alter and not use as much magazine photos as I used to.

On my desk I found a photo copy of one of my drawings of two girls standing next to each other. I cut out the girls and moved them around to different places on the spread until I found the right spot.

I colored them with colored pencils, glued them down and made little speech bubbles so that they could have a conversation.

The first one is saying: I think I am going to fill this Art Journal with personal imagery and experiment with colors and happiness! This is the first spread I’m creating in this altered book. It’s a vintage children’s fact book about biology and nature, with extremely cute illustrations. I tore out two pages for every signature to make room for collage as I always do.

This is how the finished spread looks:

Through the strips of torn papers you can catch a glimpse of two of the crusaders, the crab and the shrimp, and listen in on their conversation;

I hope you join crusade number 42 called Strip Ease too. It was extremely fun using all of these favorite papers on one page like this! Please don’t be as boring as this one not so smooth crusin’ fella;

By the way, I promise no pun intended when I made “strip ease” into a “comic strip”, but hey, I love to play with words! Since I think this was fun, it’s now “comic strip ease” (already a word play by Michelle of course; on “strip tease”).