RGAJ3 Page 6 | Times Flies But You Are The Pilot | Mixed Media Art Journal Page

Another page in my product manual turned art journal. Today I decided to use a printed map for the background. I have always wanted to do that after seeing so many others use maps for the background. Now I can say I have done it and I like all the colors that are already there. 

I used blue for the border, but then the contrast was too much with the colors on the map itself. What to do? Add water and move the paint to the inside, and it worked perfectly. 

I knew that I was going to use those book papers that I had mopped up paint with, had been wanting to use them since last year, now is my chance. I didn't know how it would go nor where I should start, so I just started in the middle on the top and it seems to have shifted to the right. I just went with it and let the brush pick the paper and that decides which ones I'll use. 

Since I have already learned my lesson about putting the similar colored pieces closer together, I did that again this time. Mainly because I only had two tones of those papers and one of them had loads of red, yellow and green. It seemed to work well though, how it all fit. That woman just popped out of the page and I was so surprised to see her. It was great outlining her, even though her chin and neck where a bit off, but that was easy to fix with some red napkin/tissue paper that I had. I like how the red of the napkin goes so dark and remains so vibrant. Another happy accident moment! I liked her fluffy red scarf :D

I didn't feel that there was much that I wanted to add to this page, so I used another old napkin with little houses around the edge to frame the page, you can't see it in the pictures or the video, but in reality you can see the little details:) I love that! Also the fact that I used the text that was on the napkin for the page :) it seems to fit… I love it when it all flows… they call it art, I call it nature :)

Happy Journaling :) 

Enjoy the creative process here:

Supplies used: (in order of appearance)

• Product Manual as art journal
• Masking tape to protect the spine
• Recycled paper with printed map
• Wood glue
• Acrylic paint
• Recycled text book paper with mopped up paint
• Permanent marker
• Tissue/napkin paper
• Fluid permanent marker
• Acrylic varnish (matt medium) to seal the page. 

RGAJ3 Page 5 | Go Do Something You Can Write About | Mixed Media Art Journal Page

I had this A4 paper with loads of colors of paint on it for quite some time. I've always wanted to use it, but never had the nerve to cut it up. Even now, I couldn't cut it up because it didn't have any big areas with main colors but had loads of colors all over the place. So, this page gets it's own spread, as it deserves. 

Having left over pinkish paper that I can use as a collage I used that on one corner to see what it would show me and how I'll incorporate that with the rich background. 

Having a colorful background presented the challenge of what color to use for the boarder! I went with the lilac color from the background and decided to use the purple with some blue, added some yellow to brighten it up. Looked like a hopeless mess… but…. keep going an don't stop! Started wiping some paint off, which resulted in some pieces of the paper coming off too !!! WAAAAAA!!! But.. keep going.. ad some pink and let it blend and it was starting to look better.. pfewwwww! 

Interesting enough though is that while being so busy with the background, that little pink elephant was happily reading books in that corner! 

This reading elephant: 

I believe it's a she, 

cause she reminds me of me. 

When I have a book in my hand, 

doesn't mater if I'm at sea or on land

I can travel far away in my mind, 

and leave everything, that scare me, behind :)

Interesting, now that I mentioned it, I was distracted and happy with that reading elephant that I wasn't sure about the images in the background. At one point I saw a ship with a huge exploding party on it, but my hands wouldn't follow that image and had a mind of their own. It started with the white fluid permanent marker trying to outline the bottom of the boat, but that didn't' work and it was time for the big black ink tube. This is what turned the background into a huge doodle. I don't know what it is, but once I start tracing the different colors I see in the paint I can't seem to stop until they are all outlined somehow, I believe this can be addictive! And no, I'm not complaining :D That background makes me think of our imaginary worlds when we are reading different books. Because in that space, everything is possible :)

Once all those exploding colors were done with the black it was time for the yellow to use on the border. I really like the way those textures feel wen I'm running my fingers over the page. I almost grabbed the red one to outline the elephant, but thought it might be a bit too much. 

For the quote on the page, I did a lot of searching to find something to say about reading, but then ended up using part of a quote and telling you all to go do something worth writing about :) 

Happy journaling!

Enjoy the creative process here

Supplies used: (in order of appearance)

• Product Manual as art journal
• Masking tape to protect the spine
• Recycled paper with excess paint
• Wood glue
• Acrylic paint
• Permanent marker
• Fluid permanent marker (didn't work, but at least I did try!)
• Transfer paper
• Gel pen (glitter, pink)
• Acrylic varnish (matt medium) to seal the page. 

Around The World We Go | Mixed Media Art Journal Page

Another page, another chance to play!

So, lately I have been thinking about trying out a new technique. It is simply putting paint on the page/canvas and then doodling according to the lines of where the paint meets at different colors. 

Having a black background to start with was going to be a bit of a challenge, but I decided not to think and to just do and see what happens. 

I remember seeing a video from Christy Sobolewski (http://www.youtube.com/user/GulfSpr1te) of how she put dabs of gel medium and then stuck pieces of book paper on it, then she ripped them off and had nice patches of that text paper. I tried that out, using my wood glue instead of the gel medium. It didn't seem to work this time. Not sure if it was the amount of glue I used or being too impatient and ripping the paper off before the glue completely dried. Anyway. cutting strips of text paper and sticking them worked ok, in the end. 

Now, for the technique of paint then doodling. I just went crazy, seriously! Letting go of all inhibitions and control, I just started playing like a little kid would. I also didn't apply any of the acrylic paint with brushes here (only used that for the gesso). I like not having to clean a brush so often. 

Enjoying the application of the different colors I reverted to some finger painting of blobs, or circles... as some call it. 

The time then came to test the white fluid markers I had, since I had to use white for doodling instead of my normal black. I was pretty lucky that day because the white marker I had with the fine tip, had it for over a year, hadn't worked before! BUTT!!! It decided to work that day and I got to get carried away. 

By just following the where the colors meet, the page ended up looking like a map. A completely "naturally" made map (LOL). This map was the inspiration for the quote of "Around the world we go!" :) 

I just kept going with it and kept stopping my mind from thinking. Whatever came at that moment to do, I just did it! Grabbing different pens and BAAAAM just doing it :) some worked, some didn't, but that didn't stop me. 

I got loads of pleasant surprises while working on this page. For instance, how I doodled with a red marker and then outlined that with white, while the background is yellow, and got a great effect and the colors changed completely... I was AMAZED :) Love it Love it Love it!!!

There was a lot of detail work on this page, but it was worth it. It felt like meditation! I must do this more often :) 

When was the last time you felt like that while doing a piece of art, or anything else that you enjoyed so much?  Please share your experience :)

This is the full spread: 

Check out the video for the full creative process: 

Supplies used: (in order of appearance)

• Wood glue
• Transfer paper (recycled)
• Black gesso (homemade from black acrylic and white gesso)
• Text paper from an old book
• Acrylic paint
• White fluid paint pens
• Permanent markers
• Acrylic varnish (to seal the page)

RGAJ3 Page 4 | We Are Who We Wish To Be | Mixed Media Art Journal Page

Another day, another page! 

This time instead of using collage for the background I decided to first put a Gesso layer and then make my own with acrylic paint. I chose for skin tone and red ocher, since I have a lot of that red. This time I also used the collage pieces by clustering the color/shade to make it easier to see the image/shape that will appear out of it. 

I have to admit, it took me over an hour after I had put the collage pieces to finally decide which image/shapes to use. At first I saw a baby rhinoceros but couldn't find all it's legs, then I saw one face and wasn't sure of the other. GRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRR Decisions decisions decisions!!!

I also couldn't think of a proper quote with a baby rhino, so I opted for the faces. They didn't really help much, but the sentence is what I felt they were telling me. We are who we choose to be, not who you decide we will be :)  

I had to laugh at one point when I thought I saw Darth Vader :D)

What I learned from this page is that perception will always be there and it is personal for each of us. What we see is just a mirror of our own internal categorization system. If you don't believe me, take a friend to see an abstract painting and compare notes on what you both see :) 

Happy journaling every one :) 


Enjoy the creative process here: 

Supplies used: (in order of appearance)
- Recycled product manual for the art journal
- Masking tape (to protect the binding)
- Gesso
- Acrylic paint
- Wood glue
- Recycled paper that was used to wipe off excess paint
- Permanent marker
- Fluid permanent marker (white)
- Acrylic varnish (matt medium) to protect the page

RGAJ3 Page 3 | It Is Written, If You Believe, You Shall Triumph | Mixed Media Art Journal Page

My journey with my mixed media art journal page "It Is Written, If You Believe, You Shall Triumph"

Having used a lot of collage pieces in my last page and not having much luck with an image, this time I decided to use less.  I took the plunge and talked myself into directly using gesso on the manual page, which is pretty thin for mixed media, but it seemed to be strong enough :)

It was also nice to hear the crackling of that paper while I was applying gesso and then the acrylic paint for the background :) I don't know what it is, but the sound of paper movement and tearing is so nice to me, probably because it's part of the creation process :D

This time I also decided to use only one "shade/color" of collage pieces to see if it would make finding an image easier. It was successful, in my opinion! I also just centered the collage because of the background to cover the paper in the middle, no other intentions where there other than creating art with no direction in mind. 

I've been busy organizing a lot of stuff at home as I have to downsize with everything. Discovering that I have a lot of paper that I kept for recycling, this then prompted me to use as much as I could in each page, as long as it fits, so as to use up my current overflowing supply. This is when the thing sheets of written paper came in. This was part of my "gratitude" writing that I wanted to use and I think it gave a nice effect and contrast with the blue color :)

I'm always amazed at what becomes of each page in this journal in particular, since I've taken the leap to starting with only the intention of creating something and without knowing what that will be. 

For instance, this time the collage looked a bit like King Tut from Ancient Egypt :) He just popped out of the collage, one line at a time :)

I also had no idea what the text for this page would be, but when it came it seemed to fit perfectly :)

This time I also used my acrylic paint in a tube to doodle on the edge and even wrote with it and it went very well. I might do that more often too as I like the textured effect to the touch. Feels nice all those lines under my fingers when I feel the page. The same goes for the text. 

All in all I believe this is one of my favorite pages up till now :) 

Please feel free to comment and share your opinion and suggestions :) You can also check the final picture of this page on my blog, the colors are better there. 

Here is the actual creative process as it happens: 

Supplies used: (in order of appearance)

• Masking tape to protect the spine
• Gesso (to prime)
• Acrylic paint
• Recycled pieces of paint covered paper for collage
• Wood glue (watered down to make it easier to spread)
• Recycled notebook paper (my gratitude lists)
• Permanent markers (for outlining and text)
• Fluid paint marker (gold for the Ankh on his headdress)
• Acrylic varnish to seal the page (Matt/gel medium)

RGAJ3 Page 2 | Who Is Afraid Of The Big Bad Wolf | Mixed Media Art Journal Page

Lately I've been into using collage, but not in the real sense of the original meaning of this term. I like putting bits and pieces of recycled paper (with paint on it already) and see what images I can see that I can use. For this page I could only see one mean Red Riding Hood :) She really looks vicious!!! But that was the only thing I could see on the page after all that gluing! 

I realized, a bit too late, that this technique works best if I bunch up the colors together as it will give better distinction between the colors, compare to if you just put everything all over the place as what happened here. 

Nevertheless, this challenge didn't stop me and I kept going and trying to find something until I decided to stay with only one figure, seeing there was no wolf visible :) 

Even though I only managed to find an evil looking Little Red Riding Hood, I couldn't stop singing her song from the story, thus the quote on the page :) Because there was no known wolf, I had to stick with "a wolf" :) You never know what can be lurking around the corner :) 

You can watch the creative process as it happens here: 

Supplies used: (in order of appearance)

• Recycled product manual (as my art journal)
• Recycled paper, used for exess paint (including an art journal page I didn't like)
• Wood glue
• Acrylic paint
• Permanent marker
• Fluid permanent marker (the white)
• Black gesso (homemade from black acrylic and white gesso)
• Ballpoint pen (blue to outline the text)
• Acrylic varnish to seal it all

RGAJ3 Page 1 | You Can Not Stop The Waves But ... | Mixed Media Art Journal Page

The first mixed media art journal page in my new art journal RGAJ3. I decided to call this one "You can't stop the waves, but you can learn to surf", thanks to the surfer that appeared from the collage :)

The journal I'm using is a recycle hairdryer manual. I was not sure if the paper would work because it has a layer of plastic on it. Turns out that this layer was pores so the paint will be able to stay on it, and the wood glue.

I chose this booklet because it is already bound and only has a few pages in it, and after the long journals I have made so far (yes, I know they were only two) I felt like wanting to do something that only had a few pages, for a change. 

Recently I've been interested in discovering the images that pop out at me from the pages, so it only seemed natural to start this page with collage. There is also a possibility that this whole journal will be started in the same way as I can't use too many layers of media because of the binding.

The collage is made out of a complete recycle A4 sheet with left over paint from other projects and some circles cut from book text. It was actually used as a paint pallet. I just tore up the paper, as you can see in the video, and glued it randomly with absolutely no direction at all. 

I was very, pleasantly, surprised at the form that popped at me after drying the glue. Once I started on his head and his shirt, I noticed the surf board. Once the form of the surfer and the surfboard where outlined, and some doodling took place, it was easy to  just use black (more like grey) gesso to push the background back enough for the surfer to be visible. 

I really had no plans and was just following what the page was guiding me to do. That is also how the waves then appeared :) Seeing all this reminded me of the quote that my mum posted on Facebook a few months ago that says "You can not stop the waves, but you can learn to surf!" And that was how it came about. 

Even trying to write the quote with the nice white fluid ink pen that I used a few pages ago, this time it refused to be part of this project, so I opted to write with white acrylic paint and this also decided that it was not going to be used for writing.... not resisting and just going with it, I then smudged the white paint and decided to use a thin black marker (water based) that later smudged when I used acrylic varnish on the page..... OK, I'm OK with that, I have a black permanent marker, no fine tip but, it will do the job. So I did that and put acrylic varnish on it for sealing. 

So, as you can see, sometimes your art supplies can turn into challenges. That is a fact, but it is how you work with them that will make your page flow :) 

From all the arr jounaling pages I have done so far, and the mixed media I have used, I have learned to surf with it and just keep going. That is what it is all about, to keep going and work around the things that might make you want to stop :)

I hope you manage to work around the obstacles you believe you have to face in your art and in your life. They are just there to show us that there is another way to your destination, so enjoy the journey :)

Here is the creative process as it happens ans as the surfer appears: 

Supplies used: (in order of appearance)

• Recycled product manual
• Recycled paper with paint on it
• Wood glue
• Acrylic Paint
• Permanent markers
• Black gesso (homemade from black acrylic and white gesso)
• Acrylic varnish

Mixed Media Art Journal RGAJ1 is now Complete! :)

Finally, the first art journal I ever started is now finished and bound :) I have created a video for the Flip for a quick flip through. You can always watch the whole playlist here: 

Supplies used in this art journal: 
Note: If I have missed anything or you have any questions, please feel free to comment and I'll reply with the info or an update :)

• Colors: 
• Acrylic paint
• Color pens (for kids)
• Fluid marker
• Permanent markers
• Soft pastels (mostly for backgrounds)
• Spray color pens (for kids)
• Water color paint
• Water color pens

• Glue
• Acetone based glue
• Water based glue
• Wood glue (the best option)
• Primer
• Gesso
• Special Effects: 
• Glitter
• Napkins
• Recycled book paper
• Recycled paper that was used as paint pallets while painting
• Recycled tissue paper
• Stencils (all homemade)
• Transfer paper
• Page Sealing/Protection: 
• Acrylic varnish (for sealing and gluing in the old days as matt/gel medium)
• Hairspray
• Paraffin wax to seal the pages after applying the varnish (I use that from the small tea light candles)
• Equipment: 
• Paint brushes
• Hairdryer
• Jar of water to clean brushes
• Surface protector (I ended up using a cookie sheet which is water and heat proof)
• Video making equipment: 
• Video camera
• Tripod
• Daylight lamp bulb
• Computer with video editing software (iMovie is what I used)
• Royalty free music (This is my best source)

Go Make Some Art! | Mixed Media Art Journal Cover

This is the back cover of my first art journal I ever started. 

The page cover was already covered with black gesso and the outside had some left over paint from other projects I had done. I decided to make the inside similar to the front cover, which is ust the three colors of paint, red, yellow and blue. I didn't need to add texture like I did with the front cover because the back cover was cardboard. 

I couldn't see any forms popping up from the left over paint splashes that were already there, so I opted for spreading some heavy layer of yellow paint. Still not seeing anything, I then decided to recycle some tissue I had used to mop up printer ink while I was refilling ink cartridges (yes, I'm frugal :)).

It was amazing that after I stuck that tissue on I immediately saw that strange being there, looking straight at me :) Didn't need to do much work to outline the form and make him/her visible to all :) This page was pretty easy and quick to do, even though I started without knowing what was going to happen :)

I loved the final result, because this is exactly what you want to do after flipping through an art journal, just go and make some art :)

I hope you like it! 

To watch the creative process as it happens click the video below:

Supplies used: (in order of appearance)

• Black gesso (homemade from black acrylic and white gesso)
• Acrylic paint
• Wood glue 
• Recycled tissue
• Permanent marker
• Acrylic varnish (to seal and protect)