Art Journaling

Do I art journal?  Yes and no.  I have several sketchbooks that contain artistic endeavors, but they also contain scraplets of things that I come across or want to remember, like quotes, new words and their definitions, recipes, plans for parties, labels from purchases, etc.  I sometimes try to illustrate the quote or word.  But a lot of it recently has been trying out and cataloging new art supplies.  I have a separate book for my zentangles, but sometimes they find their way onto the pages of my sketchbook. So I guess you would not consider it true art journaling. 

Playing with new markers from my son and daughter-in-law.

Just a quote I found that I wanted to illustrate with those new markers.

This started as a doodle drawing on a post-it at work (the square at the top) which I thought turned out too pretty to throw away.  So I added some more longer streamers and a quote.  (I do tend towards the snarky quotes, but not all the time.)

I recently splurged on some new calligraphy pens.  Not markers, but pens with ink cartridges. Though not exactly like dipping a pen with a nib in ink, they come very close.  I did take a course in calligraphy years ago at a night school before I got married and became quite good at it.  I have done many placecards or escort cards over the years and I designed our wedding invitations also.  I'm very rusty and need a lot of practice right now. 

Here I was trying out some new colored pencils from my daughter this Christmas.  

Okay, another snarky quote and illustration combining a sticker from some washi tape I received as a gift and the new markers.  I think I should have changed the quote to say "Have you ever had one of those days when everyone looks like a pinata and you wish you had a stick" because I don't think that many people walk around just holding sticks.  

This is a mixed media page.  It started with that octopus in marker.  Actually no, it started with some lettering practice at the top of the page and then I decided to draw the octopus and found myself making it more involved with the addition of the gel pens. So then I wanted to cover up the lettering at the top and opened some tube watercolors, which obviously you can tell I have little experience with because the background is much darker than I would have liked, however, it did cover up the lettering.  Then I googled octopus quotes and found this one which fit the day as it was National Hugging Day.

Words and quotes.

This was done for National Handwriting Matters Day. Sakura had an Instagram contest and asked for handwritten wishes for 2017.  They picked 10 random entries for a pretty nice selection of their product, but I wasn't one of them.  

And then, I got some gel pens to play with.

So you'll see there is some art.  I have begun to think that I should have a sketchbook with just the art products cataloged as a reference book which would make it a lot easier to carry along with me when we go back and forth to the condo.  I try to limit the supplies I bring along and have self-restricted myself to anything that fits in one particular tote bag.  Over the last year I was mostly catching up on my zentangle calendar, but that kind of fell apart this fall and I'm not doing it again this year.  I didn't get a new calendar set up the way I was doing it, and actually my mother bought me a lovely Mary Englebreit calendar planner (which I'm not really into anymore, but I will use it as it was very thoughtful of her).  

I am anxious to try out a new journal that I got.  It's a 3 x 5 landscaped oriented one with 140 lb. paper making it ideal for small watercolors.  I hope the muse will find me and get me moving on that.