Jens Arty Life

How ironic that Brenda at Bumblebees and Butterflies has used greens and butterflies in her page. Without seeing her page, I've done the same. Just like a butterfly this page went through a metamorphasis. I thought I had finished the page ... I wasn't happy with it but I thought it was done. Then, when I was working on the next page over, water spread from one page to the other and ruined it. So i painted over it with gesso (keeping the butterfly textures and the colours peeking through) and started again. Now I really like this page. So I suppose the disaster of the water from the rain page paid off in the end. Thanks again to Brenda for her blog party. i am really enjoying seeing your journals. Jennidee

I wanted to do a page about rain. I had an idea ... I searched for a good image to draw. And it was looking really good. And then I ruined it. I decided the backgound wasn't 'drippy' enough and sprayed some more watered paint onto the page ... which then ran down through my black lettering in a pen that is water based. SIGH. I dried it and went over the letters again, but it isn't as good as it was. The page behind it was also totally ruined. Thankfully I hadn't worked on it much. But it did have some feathers I'd collected from budgies we were baby sitting, including a quite rare spotted feather. I had taped them to the page ready to draw the birds around it. I've tried to pull the tape off and the feathers came off intact, but the tape is all papery and the feathers aren't as visible as they were. I will have to see if I can affix them to something so they can be saved. So the lesson learned? DON'T OVER SPRAY THE PAGES OF THIS JOURNA...

I have wanted to draw Elsa since I first saw Frozen and this page gave me the chance. I originally wanted to draw her in white but it didn't show up on the background. I wanted a kind of ghostly feel to it rather than a true copy of her form and I think i did that well. I ended up with blue ink all over my hands as I had gessoed the page before inking it. I will have to seal it with hair spray. But first I will be writing some things I need to let go underneath like jealousy of other artists (I didn't want to bore you with my angst so I've uploaded it in this state. Thanks to Brenda at Bumblebees and Butterflies for her blog party and Hi to you if you have drifted over from there. Jennidee

I love to doodle on pages. I had this painted background which I had no idea what to do with. So I started drawing in black pen and it came to life. I will have to doodle more. It's so much fun.

Over at art to the 5th http://www.art5academy.com/the-studio/the-documented-life-project-free and the Documented Life challenge, the challenge this week was Gesso. I've never used it before but I was keen to try. So I popped out and bought some. Here is my page. The journalling is actually the exact wording of the prompt. I used the Gesso in coffee cup rings and smaller circles that add texture to the page. I also experimented with crackle medium but it doesn't really show. I'll have to give that another go. Do you like the masking tape at eh top? I did actually rip the page and I thought ... Oh well, I'll make it a feature. :) Jennidee

I was feeling a bit down so I needed a pick me up. I typed 'funny' into Pinterest and spent an hour laughing. Later I created this double page. The painting on the right side is inspired by Noel Mignon. http://noelmignonlayouts.blogspot.com.au/2011/08/mixed-media-flower-canvas-mini-tutorial.html I wrote about not sharing the left hand side as I didn't feel it was worthy of it. it is just a scrapbook paper with a bit of lettering. Then I went to town on the other side and really enjoyed myself, so I thought I'd share the pages together ... one so simple, and the other side much more what I like. I've been trawling the internet lately for other bloggers who art journal as I've been a bit of a lonely artist these past few days. It's so nice to see what other people are up to. I joined a blog party that Brenda of Bumblebees and Butterflies ... so hello to those people who have wandered over from there. http://www.bumblebeesandbutterflies.com Jennid...

My one word for this year is 'Allow'. I have spent a lot of my life anxious and worried because I am so afraid of bad outcomes. Now I am going to allow them to happen (because they happen sometimes whether I worry about them or not, and sometimes they don't happen). I spend a lot of time worrying if my work is good enough to be seen ... good enough to catch people's attention, good enough to sell. That will no longer be my focus. Allowing for myself to be imperfect or fail does not mean that I stop trying. It means that I try for different reasons. I try because I enjoy the process, I enjoy developing skills and getting better, I enjoy seeing improvement and when there is no improvement I just enjoy moving paint and colour around. So I created this page; It's the fifth page in my journal. I had already created the background and I just wrote over it this morning. I'd been keeping the page for something meaningful about starting the year. Thank ...

My daughter asked me to watch the movie 'Lucy' with her the other night. I'm really glad I did because I really enjoyed it. Not only was it entertaining, but it was thought provoking too. It inspired this page; The face is much more realistic than my previous attempt. I have been watching painting videos to improve. I am really happy with this, though I know the girl doesn't bare much resemblance to Scarlet Johansen. The pages are curly so much I had to put a paper weight on the edge to take the photo :) Jennidee

The Royksopp and Robyn song "monument" inspired this page. I really enjoy creating an art journal ... I do it mostly because it's fun, but I do also hope it will survive me and perhaps tell others what I was like when I'm no longer here. I like the grungy look of this page even though it happened by accident. I was trying out a technique I'd seen on you tube where you put a stencil down on a painted page, spray it with water and then wipe off where the water has soaked through the stencil. But I couldn't get it to work and I tried to rub back all the black paint. When I got to this point, no more paint would come off and I decide I liked it anyway. I managed to get the effect I wanted by using an embossing powder over a painted surface, then painting black over the hard embossed areas. Then you wipe back the black paint from the embossed areas. In my version the embossing powder was an extra thick one and it bubbled strangely, causing the pits. so when I wi...

I found the project life (journalling) blog and loved the idea, so i went ahead and completed a page using the prompts ... book text and Goal Keeper. I've always wanted to try text under a face and this was the perfect opportunity to give it a go. The artists associated with the blog produced their own pages and I watched their video tutorials and looked at their photo tutorials before starting the page. Here is the result; I am really happy with the outcome. Materials used; old books for papers with text, acrylic paints, PVA glue, medium black marker, watercolour pencils, gold paint, lettering book used to reference the lettering. This required lots of layering and it took a long time, but the effect it wonderful. I've already layered the opposite page with text and paint ready to write my long term goals on (I'd already done a 2015 goal page (see below). Thanks for looking Jennidee

I was very inspired by a pin on Pinterest, http://www.pinterest.com/pin/497647827549771247/  and created this in response. On the stars I have listed the achievements in 2014 that I am most proud of. Materials; ink as sprays, acrylic paint, white journal pen, black journal pen, star stencil.