Artful Journaling Explorations - Butterfly

I used tissue paper to create the texture in the background of this painting, put on while the paint was wet. I painted this from this photo I took several years ago while visiting good friends in Tennessee - the lilac bush is in their back yard:

Artful Journaling Explorations - Misting

For lesson 9, we learned how to soften and blend the paints by misting on water - I LOVED the technique!

Artful Journaling Explorations - Elephant

I did the elephant with a gel pen and waterbrush for lesson 8 (we've been exploring different techniques and tools in this session).

Artful Journaling Explorations - Applesauce

For lesson 7, we were exploring the use of non-traditional tools to make art. I started by cutting some apple shapes out of foam to use as stamps. I painted them with watercolors and stamped them on the page (after trying on a scrap paper first). I did this a few times, but wasn't very happy with the impressions, so I added some more paint to the page with my waterbrush. It was just a blob of red, yellow, and green, so I took a bamboo skewer dipped in brown paint and added the lines and dots to define individual apples. Then I stamped the one apple by itself. I added our cook pot behind the apples and used my signature color (Cobalt Teal Blue by Daniel Smith) to paint a counter top (artistic license, since our counters are not this color). I included the statement about smell as another sense since I usually forget. The outlines on my apples are much heavier than I would normally like, but it was fun exploring the use of other tools on the page, so I'm satisfied with it.

Lucky for me, DH is doing all the work of cutting up the apples, since they are in pretty bad shape! I help once that part is done. I didn't take a photo of the apples - they're in buckets, so more artistic license was used with the arrangement.

Artful Journaling Explorations - Creativity Map

In an effort to become more creative, I have created this chart for lesson 6. I will color in a square each day that I do something creative - it can be sewing, painting, drawing, etc.
I made the page on August 8th. I couldn't remember whether I'd done anything creative on the first 3 days of the month, so I left them blank. As of August 22, I've managed to color in every square after the 8th.

Artful Journaling Explorations - Word Art

I created this for lesson 4 on word art.

Gesso Resist

For lesson 3 in Artful Journaling Explorations, I used white gesso to paint a pattern on watercolor paper (which I took from a piece of patterned paper). After the gesso was completely dry, I used watercolors to paint over it and the gesso resisted the watercolors. Then I cut a hole in the page where the daisy is (which I painted in my first lesson). So this page serves as an overlay.

Lucky

We lost our cat last year after having him for 16 years; I decided to paint this memorial to him for Laure Ferlita's Artful Journaling - Explorations class. He used to love to sit in our dining room window and look out.

Explore

I painted this for my first lesson in Laure's Artful Journaling Explorations class, using my photo below for my inspiration.