Try Writing in Your Art Journal

I made this page up to show the art journal groups that I work with, and to encourage them to add text in their art journals. It is also a reminder for myself to utilize several types of text in my journals.

1. Masking Tape Mask - Put masking tape down where you would like your words to be. Paint and let dry. Peel up the tape and write in the area masked off (I chose to stamp in this version but you could handwrite as well)
2. Draw your own set of lines to write between
3. Cut out letters from magazines to spell your words
4. Write with a gel pen in a light color, and outline the letters with a dark gel pen (using cursive font)
5. Write with your non-dominate hand
6. Create 3-D lettering (Check out Teesha Moore's Youtube Series on Penmanship for more information)
7. Use letter stamps 
8. Go over each letter several times to give it a scratchy effect
9. Fill in the bubbles of the letters and outline everything in a contrasting color
10. Cursive writing with the bubbles of the letters colored in a variety of colors
11. Cutting out full words from magazines
12. Write with a white crayon or oil pastel and create a watercolor wash on top of it
13. Use a bamboo pen and india ink (experiment with different pens and found objects such as sticks)
14. Write with a gel pen in a light color, and outline the letters with a dark gel pen (using a print font with small serifs added)
15. Block out each letter with color (here I used oil pastels) and stamp letters on top of it
16. Write with a gel pen in a dark color, and outline the letters with a light gel pen
17. Write on masking tape and add to your journal

Experiment with different writing utensils, pencils, pens. Scratch words into paint, into oil pastels. Be creative, and don't worry about messing something up. You can almost always fix it, or change it or cover it up and start over. Sometimes the best results come from mistakes or accidents.

Journal Group + Silhouette

I have not been demonstrating in the journal too much recently, but here is a simple page that I did last week.

Silhouette

1} Find an image of a person from a magazine to use as your guide
2} Hold the magazine image and the desired paper back to back with the magazine image on top
3} Cut both pieces of paper simultaneously using the magazine image as your guide
4} Voila, you have a silhouette in your desired paper

Journal Group + 2 Techniques

This is my absolutely favorite group of the week. I love that the ladies enjoy the group so much and encourage each other in their art making process! Today was especially fun, as the ladies had me take pictures of their pregnant bellies (I wish I could show them here!!) and drew smiley face on their bellies with glitter glue... It was so much fun!

Today I also demonstrated a couple of techniques in the journal.

Masking Tape Mask

1} Place masking tape on paper in desired pattern.
2} Paint the page with desired paint
3} Remove tape - the paper will be exposed underneath.

In the above image, I stamped within the masked design.

Packing Tape Transfers

1} Cut out the desired image from a magazine.
2} Cover it with packing tape.
3} Soak this in water and then rub the paper off the back of the tape—the ink will stick.
4} Adhere in your journal layering over text, color or other images.

Above is the finished page in entirety. Below is a close up of the transfer so that you can see the transparency.

This is the other image that I worked on in the group, to demonstrate extending the collaged image through the rest of the page.

Journal Group

I finally got around to posting more pictures of the journal I am working on in group to demonstrate techniques. I don't work in it every group, sometimes I am really helping the women out, so it has been dormant for a while.

Journal Group

Here is the page that I worked on in group to show the clients how to use the photographs I took of them. (So fun to take really cute belly shots)

And I prepared this page today to model writing in it next Tuesday!

The ladies really make it feel worth while, when they tell me it is their favorite group of the week, and they stop by my room to get art supplies to work in it over the weekend! So worth it!

Journal Group

Last week I had the pleasure of starting an Art Journaling Art Therapy Group. It meets twice a week, and is composed of the pregnant ladies at the clinic. The hopes is that the women can journal about their pregnancy and baby, which will hopefully help with the attachment to the baby in utero!I am not sure about the ultimate goal, but I can tell you this, one of the lady's told me today it was her favorite group. That is enough for me at this point.

I have decided that I will also work in a journal during the group, so that I can help create the creative atmosphere, but also to demonstrate journaling techniques.

Here is the cover that I created today in group (You might recognize the journal from this post and instructions on how to make it can be found here):

And the inside covers, that I worked on at home (the ladies are also encouraged to take their journals with them to work):