Some art journal tips - Part 1

I've been feeling a bit uninspired lately. Or maybe over-inspired, rather. There's so much inspiration to be found online, that it can easily become a bit overwhelming. Especially when you're in a "phase" where you're feeling a bit unsure about where to go artistically. How to develop your style. What you want your art, your style to be. How you think it should be (that is definitely the point where you need to switch off the computer for a bit).

Two weekends ago, I found myself "tidying up my studio" (i.e. finding an excuse for once again putting off doing something arty) again. I looked at shelves filled with all kinds of art materials. And I decided that it was time to play. To just slap some paint on some pages, without thinking too much about colour mixing, composition, subject matter... Actually not thinking at all. Instead, getting out some of the materials I haven't used in ages, and see what I can do with them. Over that weekend, I filled more than half of the sketchbook. I just couldn't stop. I kept coming back again and again til late into the night, adding a bit here and there, covering another page with a colour, that I suddenly felt was missing. It felt great. And I would like to share some of the pages and techniques with you.

Some of the supplies used

• a square sketchbook with very thick watercolour paper (that I've been saving for about three years for some really serious watercolour painting)
• Thalens acrylic paints, which I hadn't used since I stopped going to a painting class I had been going to for years over 1 1/2 years ago
• watercolours
• patterned papers
• washi tape
• brayer
• Gelli printing plate (it's been a while since I used one of those, and I've actually never even used my square one)
•  acrylic and oil-based paint markers, various pens, ink
• polaroids
• index cards with some drawings made with ballpoint pen and felt tip pen

And here's a few of the pages. Some are finished, some are half finished, and some are just a background that I can come back to later.

Watercolour and stencils

I like using alphabet stencils to add text, and they work well with watercolours too.

Or use a stencil with a nice pattern or subject, and add more layers of watercolours afterwards, and bring out details with pen and ink.

Brayer

Applying the paint with a brayer gives great and interesting results. You can fill the whole page, creating a page of richly textured layers and vibrant colours. Or apply it loosely, layering colours and leaving lots of white space.

You can use the brayer to deliberately add colour to your page, or you can create an interesting background by using the page to roll clean your brayer when you're using it for some Gelli printing.

Playing with different colour combinations (here: yellow ochre, burnt sienna, manganese/cyan blue and Payne's grey) in different ways and mediums (watercolour and acrylics). If the page turns out too dull because of the (too) many layers, a pattern applied with a light medium, such as a white paint marker, lightens it up.

There's some more techniques and pages, which I'll share in another post later this week, otherwise this post would just be far too long.