There have been a lot of changes in my life recently. I’ll discuss more about them when they make sense. But at the same time, in the midst of all this. I do what I always do, I look for ways to stir up my art life.
In the beginning of September in response to a student’s question I started making all sorts of examples to explain the points I wanted to make about small projects. So many turned out to be doodles!!!!
Yep, doodles.
I’m shocked and surprised too.
I was looking for a way to suggest small projects for the student and a series of small projects became my own project. I’ll begin discussing this process on my Patreon site in December and into the new year. (I made quite a lot of examples both before and after I was in the hospital and it’s going to take some time to write about them and edit the video demos.)
I thought I would share this doodle today. It’s watercolor (and a very little bit of color pencil in some areas on the face) and collage (the dress and bow) on a pre-painted background (that blue and gold) that was made as a demo during my “Textures” class that I used to offer online.
While clearing out the flat file and other art file boxes I found this textured page I’d cut out of the book it was in. (In truth the book was one of those Fabriano Venezia journals and the spine glue had dried out and so pulled the entire book apart. My class samples went into a folder which I did keep [and some of them actually survived the flooding we experienced last year]. But this one I kept to paint on and just got around to it in September.)
I ended up binding this sheet (a folded 5.5 x 8 inch or so sheet) into a 9 x 12 inch pamphlet of scrap papers that I used for my examples for the project.
I know I’m partial to journaling, but I really do find, time and time again in my life, that journaling provides the answers before I even know the questions. It builds a bridge forward into a land still shrouded in mist.
It’s a foundation.
Everyday I’m glad I have my journal practice. As the year draws to a close I hope that you have found visual journaling, to help you through this year and into the next.
It’s always a great place to practice changing things up.
Love this. It is very fun. When I was scrolling by I was surprised to see it was done by you (of course looking more closely there is a lot that is familiar) I thought it was something from the typically whimsical style of a couple of mixed media artists I follow
Thanks Tyanne, I’m glad you liked this one. I think you will enjoy the breakdown and build up during the entire project when I get it all editing and out. I had fun playing with non-bearded faces. But I really enjoyed getting the collage materials out.