Free Therapy - Art Journal

So I decided I wanted to use my art journal as more like a journal (by actually writing daily thoughts in it) and scrapbook-hybrid... so I got it out, got out some paint to prep some pages, and then just got carried away.  And I painted about 6 pages yesterday and 5 today (not sharing all of them on here because some of them are reeeeeally ugly lol).  And I like what I painted so I don't want to "ruin" them by adding more layers or journaling.  So for now it's going to stay as an "idea book" and maybe I'll start a new, real, art journal when I finish this notebook.  Only a few more pages to go.

Here's what I have come up with lately.  Sorry for the bad quality photos - all I have is my iPhone and bad lighting.

This page is incomplete but I thought I'd include it anyway.  This is inspired by a city in Italy called Portovenere:

Watercolor and Sharpie pen

Of course, flowers:

Watercolors and felt-tipped markers

Sharpie pen and Watercolor

Crayon, watercolors, and Sharpie pen

This was inspired by a very similar drawing by one of my favorite artists, Alisa Burke.

Watercolor, Sharpie pen

Multimedia flowers:

Watercolor, Acrylic, Washi tape, sharpie

I wanted to illustrate my favorite quote but I'm really really bad at lettering.  So I just started writing to fill up the page.  I tried it two ways: the first way was to just keep going with the letters, even if the words are split up between lines.  The second was to use all caps and try to fit all the words in.  Which do you like better?

These are lyrics from my favorite song, "Corcovado," by Antonio Carlos Jobim.

"I want a life always like this

with you close to me

until the old flame (of passion) is put out."

I'm not an artist by any means, but it is a fun way for me to relax in the evenings.  Peter and I sit together at the dinner table and paint while watching Netflix.  I love getting lost in the paint and forgetting whatever else is going on in life.  Very therapeutic.  I'm still trying to find "my style..."

What do you do to relax?

Follow

Art Journal || Week 3 || Update

This week hasn't been the best as far as art-journaling goes.  I had a stomach bug for a few days, and the rest of the week I was feeling just kinda blue and not myself.  I did do a couple of pages and I made a stop-motion video of one page (watercolor, acrylic, sharpie pen):

Do you like seeing stop-motion or time lapses of art?  Should I make more videos like this? 

The Challenge

Week 1 Update

Week 2 Update

Follow

Watercolor Flowers

When I started this blog I had just started a new hobby - watercolor painting.  I wasn't very good at it, nor am I now, but I still enjoy it every once in awhile.  It's relaxing.  I put on some music, have a snack, and splash some colors on the page.  Some of my very first blog posts were about watercolor.  You can see some here, here, and here, but please don't judge.   :)

Today I put on some Ralph Vaughan Williams (one of my favorite composers) and tried to paint.  But I was uninspired.  I kept trying to copy other artists, and it didn't turn out well:

Finally I told myself to paint something that I would want to look at.  And since I love flowers, I painted some flowers.  And that's pretty much what happens every time I try to paint... 

I thought I'd show you the process I went through to get to a painting I was happy with.

I started by putting color all over the page.  I wanted to fill the entire page with color:

I thought about leaving it like that and adding some collage and/or quotes on top, but instead I went in and added some details with a sharpie:

I liked it, but it didn't feel "done," so I went in with some more paint and added some more dimension:

Aaand I like it.  It's not perfect... I'm a musician, not a painter, after all, but I am still proud of my little flowers.

(The lighting isn't great in my apartment, so my arms were casting weird shadows over the photos while I was trying to take the pictures.)

So that's how I spent my Tuesday evening.  What have you been up to lately?

XOXO,

Julie