Here are some videos for the basics of art journaling. you don't need everything listed, but a few basic supplies will be helpful for you.
If you are having problems viewing the video here on my blog, click the title on the top left of the video and it will open in youtube.
Pretty frequently people ask me about drawing portraits. How do you draw a "good" portrait.
Here are 4 tips:
#1. Don't draw from fashion photos. Use well lit images of real people from Flickr or anywhere else you can find them. Fashion magazines and their photography involve a great deal of softening the image to remove the kind of lighting you need to make a good drawing. They also remove every last wrinkle and bump in the face, the stuff you really need to navigate the contours of the face with your pen/pencil.
#2. Don't be so hard on yourself. If you spend 90% of your drawing time worryingabout how much your drawing sucks you'll never get down to the business of enjoying the process. First concentrate on the process of making your image. Enjoy the feeling of the pen or pencil on the paper. Enjoy hte moment of creation. After you are done with the image, then critique it. It's alright to go back and say, "Next time I'll try putting the line for the nose here," or suggesting to yourself, "If I put the lower eyelid in more of a gentle curve, I'd like it more."
#3. Embrace imperfection. You will make some drawings you hate. That's okay. You learn the most from your bad drawings. You learn where you went wrong, so that in the next image you know what you don't like and what you should do with the curve of the nustril and that little divot above the upper lip.
#4. Keep at it. Don't give up. the most important thing is that even though you are going to make some really bad drawings, you will eventually make some really great drawings. But you won't make great drawings if you give up. I make a lot of bad drawings. I'm okay with that. Part of art is learning what your style is and embracing that style.
Here's a late add on to this post, MIllande has some great ideas about portraits. I love what she does with her self portrait.
In addition to my free art friday post I have loaded up some of my can lids to my etsy shop. they are original works of my art done on can lids. They are a super fun thing to do because they reclaim something that would go into the waste stream and turns it into something fun. Anyway. I'm having a blast making them between paragraphs in my papers.
Here are some pics: 
Jean M. has won the drawing!
I started to make these little recycled mixed media mandal styled images. (The mandala is around the center image of a weirdo/automatic drawing.) I’m obsessed with the idea of “Free Art Friday.” I’ve written about it before so I won’t go on about My Dog Sighs and all his crazy good art. But I want to do some of that in my area as well as on the blog.
So I’m doing a rafflecopter giveaway where you can enter to win this piece:
You can enter a couple of times in different ways. Check out the raffle copter below. Enter, share win a little peice of my art!
Gesso is a great tool in the art journal. It's great for so many things. These videos detail just a few.
If you are having problems viewing the video here on my blog, click the title on the top left of the video and it will open in youtube.
I've been very very productive this weekend, both on my paper and in making lots of art. Not all of it for my classes. At this point I'm fighting inspiration and getting ready for bed. I've got a little light reading… Well, sort of light.Okay, not light at all.
Anyway. I worked on this little 4×4 inch gallery wrapped canvas. I layered some antique magazing (American Journal of Physics 1970) and then did a little automatic drawing on it once it was dried. The gelmedium I used for it was Liquitex Matte gel. My Pentel Hybrid technica worked on it just fine. granted it is matte and not gloss but not a skip or nasty line at all. Keep in mind I waited until the medium was absilutely dry. After the drawing I started to add in some color. I built up layers of color. The backgroun has a light teal paint with small plus signs all over it in light blue. They can only be seen whenm you are looking for them. Fun. Again I'm messing around with colors that jive with one another. the color interaction does not photograph well. 
I finished the last of the 3 small pieces for the small frames I posted about yesterday. I'm really inspired by medieval art works. 
I also did a little drawing and paint background on a book page. The school library gets rid of all kinds of neat and funny books. either they are damaged or not needed. This one wasn't worth anything but had some self help inspiration. So i'm working with that.
I forgot to also mention that I picked up a Fabriano journal with a 50% off coupon at Michael's. So far it's really nice, but we'll see what it's like once I start to abuse it. 
Anyway, the art will be up on etsy in the next few days. I'll probably load them up Wednesday. Scratch that, they are all loaded up here.
Last winter I picked up three 5×5 inch wooden frames with cute 2.5×2.5 inch openings at Michael's. I had planned on decorating them, filling them, then loading them to Etsy. Well life happened and I didn't manage to finish them. I'm working on that now. 
This past weekend I picked up a few more, larger frames, on a total whim. These measure 6×8 inches with a 5.5×3.5 inch window. 
I started each of the frames by applying antique paper with matte medium. Each piece of paper was crumpled, crinkled and torn to size. the paper was pulled from antique (but worthless) books or magazines. I snagged a copy of the "American Journal of Physics" from 1970 a week ago. I have had a copy of a German travel journal from the early 1900s. The paper is so interesting. Layers of it was built up to create texture. 
After the paper was dried I began to add layers of paint. The large frames were covered with warm colors- yellow, orange and red. I brushed the paint on and then scraped it around. again creating texture. In some cases removing the color entirely to allow the paper's texture to show. I then added layers of glaze. The small frames were roughly painted with shades of blue. 
I used some of my crapcut stencils (my own designs). through these stencils I scraped colored modeling paste. I scraped on another shade of blue and teal. on the small frames I decided to make some colors pop so I mixed up a magenta modeling paste and scraped that through a stencil. 
I'm really digging how the colors play off each other and the stencils and modeling paste add a layer of texture. They feel so cool. 
I've decided that I'll fill each one with a black and white automatic drawing. I've made 2 of the smaller images and I can'twait to work on the 3 larger images. 
Anyway, i'll have them up on etsy soon.
There are a lot of things I like to use in my art journal but acrylic is one of my favorites.
If you are having problems viewing the video here on my blog, click the title on the top left of the video and it will open in youtube.
One of the things I've been pondering is the following question:
"Do mandala's have to be circular?"
I keep arriving at no as an answer.
Last night on the train I did my usual relaxing automatic drawing. I started the hatching, realizing I was making 7 marks over and over again. I went with it and slapped a 7 on the head of the skull. I suspect most of you won't like the video, but the Pixies are a favorite band of mine and I must've listened to this song a million times when I was in high school.
When I got home I couldn't focus on the hatching in the background. Too distracted, too amped up by class and the presentation we had and the papers I have due.
I couldn't let it go. 
This morning when I got up I was able to focus on the hatching and feel relaxed while doing it. Mindful. feeling the pen on the paper, counting to 7 over and over again. Though the Zebra Sarasa is smooth and glides across the paper I could hear it.
scritch scritch scritch
scritch scritch
scritch scritch
The sound of pen on paper is something I enjoy. I don't need music to listen to when I can hear the pen on paper. 
I was able to feel the bumps of the paper through the pen as it telegraphed them to my fingers. The rubbery grip of the pen keeping the pen from slipping out of my fingers.
Slowly and carefully I filled in the 5×7 rectangle on my page.
Oh, yeah, what does this have to do with mandalas? I think that a mandala can be square. WHAT WHAT WHAT. A little research shows me that many cultures used square and rectangular shaped for their mandalas. We (Western peoples) know more about the circular mandalas from Jungian psycology and Western practicioners of the art. The circle is mor often used.
A few of my classes require that I make art as part of the class content. For one of the classes I decided to make an altered book into an art journal. I've been adding a little bit to the book here and there.
I started by scraping paint around the book. I used warm colors because they matched the covers. On some pages I've written with sharpies. And on others I've doodled. Oddly I've not added any collage or ephemera from my personal life. I may have to remedy that. 
After I scraped paint I then and added some brushed on paint.
Then I doodled and drew. 
On other pages I wrote.
On some I added more paint. 
The pulpy paper is as absobent as a tissue.
I started this page with white and yellow. I doodled on the waves, but left them "blank." 
Yesterday in class we did an experiential where we interpreted an article we read and discussed with movement. It wasn't dance but movement. Not my usual thing, but the group decided to work with the idea of fluidity and waves.
When I came home I decide to work on the page a little more because it called for it. There is something to the idea of my art journal being a predictive form of art. Though I had read the article in advance of working on the page I wasn't consciously thinking of waves or fluidity. It just happened. Amazing how what I read comes through on the pages of my art journal.
Today I added the blues and greens to the waves with a brush. Then I layered on the primary red and magenta glazes. I used a rough bristle brush to apply the glaze. I removed some of it with an old gift card and a rag.
