Hi friends,
Today I am on the ITSYBITSY blog as guest designer sharing my first page in my mixed media art
journal.I was very excited when Itsybitsy sent over their newly launched mixed media journal and the
color splash sprays and grainy paste to me.I am a big fan of art journals and needless to say I was
over the moon to receive the goodies.My heartfelt thanks to Rashmi Harish for thinking of me and
Anitha Mallesh for the prompt delivery.
First and foremost it is important to demystify the process of creating an art journal.Most of you
would be thinking WHY and HOW and WHICH journal to use.
In simple terms as to the WHY my answer is:
1 .I create a page in my journal to celebrate some important event in my life or just simply to
document my life with the help of art
2. It gives us a small substrate to experiment with mediums and techniques which otherwise may
seem very daunting to you.
3. It helps as a therapy as you can use art as a way to express your emotions /insecurities/stress of
daily life in a small page.This can be just for you and need not be made public.
4. It is great fun to fill the pages as you try new things.
5. It also acts as a reference point when you get stuck in your other projects and need some
inspiration.
6 .It also helps me in developing my style of work and reflects my progression in my art journey.
I think they are enough reasons for anybody to take up art journalism.Now comes the HOW part.Just
pick up a journal and begin with whatever materials you have in hand.Mediums like
acrylics,pastels,watercolor, gelatoes ,pastel crayons pencils,markers,gel pens all come in handy as
you explore the artist in you.There are no set rules and as one would write a diary ,you go about
making art that you feel like doing.Now comes the WHICH part.It is quite a pleasure to introduce
the newly launched ART JOURNALS by ITSYBITSY. The mixed media one which I would be
using has various different kinds of substrates to work on.It has kraft paper,corrugated paper,burlap
jute and handmadepaper which lets you experiment with different textures.The best part is that this
journal is all ready to use.They come in two very functional sizes.
ART JOURNAL PAGE:TRAVEL THEME
Now it is time to talk about the page I created in mix media journal.As the months of May and June
as vacation period for kids in north India ,most of us travel for recreation.Thus I choose to create my
travel theme page reflecting my recent visit.Will try to explain some step s involved in making this
page too.
The process:First gather all your supplies and think of any theme or objective/reason for creating a
page.It can be very specific pertaining to your life or quite general like you are feeling happy so want
to create or want to try some technique or medium.
.
As I discussed earlier I wanted to do something related to my recent travels so I picked up a picture
which I printed on my inkjet printer in the appropriate size and one brochure given to us at the site.It
is always a good idea to pick up some extra brochure which can be used as backgrounds.
One more thing that you need to organise is undersheet which you place below your pages so the
color does not seep in.Also I like to use baking sheets as inserts to my done pages so that they do do
stick to each other.I randomly tore a picture from the brochure and pasted the same with decoupage
glue on to the kraft sheet spread.As the color scheme was quite earthy I choose the Kraft sheet to
work on.
Next I took some white gesso and used color splash lemon zing to give it color and than
randomly spread on the page with brush.
Also used a stencil and modelling paste colored with color splash spray to give interest to the page.
I also wanted to use one die cut on the page which again I colored with the spray(tangerine).The
sprays are quite pigmented and give bright colors.
I than did some stamping with archival ink pad and colored my chipboard with black mont marte
gesso.I stamped the destinations on watercolor paper and pasted all my various elements together
.Finally I did some dry brushing of Tinted metallic twany glint on the chipboard and the
textures.Hope you like the page and will be inspired to create your own.
List of products used from Itsybitsy:
Thanks a bunch for being here and going through the post.Happy crafting.
Ruchi
