Learning to Art Journal

I'm so excited! Dianne, a friend from my AGO (Art Gang Ohio)  showed a group of us how she works in her art journal. I had been thinking about trying it, but was a little nervous at first. I know a lot of people worry that their handwriting isn't good enough to use in an art journal - of course I compare myself to all the artists that I admire and think I'm not as good as they are, but we all have to start somewhere - right? Well, it turned out better than I thought, so I'm posting it for all to see and hope that I'll be inspired to get started in one of the MANY blank journals I have sitting around, just waiting to be used. Thanks so much for inspiring me Dianne!

 We worked on 140 lb watercolor paper and started with a watercolor wash to get rid of the scary white space.

I pasted a few images images I had collected, and colored a bit with my Lyra watercolor crayons, then blended.

The stenciled circles in the top right was done with one of Michael Meador's stencils. I wrote with my favorite black pen - a Pentel EnerGel, it's a .5 mm needle tip and gives a nice smooth line (I found my pen at Staples). Check out Dianne's art journal pages on her blog - linked under Artist's that I Admire as Art Beneath the Cottonwoods. You'll see why she's an artist I admire.