Hello!  It is me again with a little bit of Art Journaling for y’all. But first thing first - I was thrilled to see all the fantastic pages from last challenge. You guys really rock these challenges. I find every page in the AJ gallery so inspiring. Thank you all for sharing.

Check out Marnie’s wonderfully fun and yes, eclectic page:

Another Art Journal challenge coming up!  First I have to take the time to THANK you all for your amazing works of art since last challenge. The AJ Gallery is ALIVE with colorful, awesome works - an inspiration to anyone who drops by to have a look.

It was difficult to pick two pieces to show off here - have a look at Jazzmatazz/Tracy’s superb page - it is not only creative, but intelligent and technically so well done. I love how unique it looks. 

The next page I show is another fantastic example of creative joy and brilliance - Mugsbigsis/Kelly outdid herself with the brushwork. I would pay a lot of money to have this piece on my wall….

Allright, are you ready for some new Art Journaling ? This week I went Bold and Simple and Graphic. This week I want to pull in all you who don’t think you can do Art Journaling because a.“you are not artistic enough”  b. “you can’t do messed up, crazy pages”.
Sit down and pull up the One Word that comes to mind about your day today. Don’t think too much about it. Then scrap it. In a bold and simple and graphic way. Find colors that fit. Find the right symbol, the right element.

Our CT member Beehive50/Debi has been a little reluctant about Art Journaling - but she boldly stepped forward and created this amazing page about HER day. I think we all can appreciate this feeling.

Another CT member, Myra, decided that a graphic Art Journal page was more “up her alley” and made this beautiful page to represent her Word. I love how the soft colors and patterns reinforce her message.

And here is Shannamay/Sharon’s funky page - which also speaks to me in a very special way - love the movement here.

And for my page - my Word is Harmony - and I went for an image that points to the direction of ying-yang, of day and night, the circle to show completeness. The colors to me are clean and simple. The clock at the top is reflected in the statement in the opposite corner. And then, I wanted to show how easily the harmony is broken, and decided to splash some red on top of it all to create some drama, a little suspense.

So my challenge this week - Go Bold, Simple and Graphic - and I hope I can pull with us you reluctant Art Journalers too !! Now, go and have fun & create some art!!
Make use of this weekend’s fantastic Sale and load up on some new supplies. Now is the chance!
When you are done, feel free to post in our AJ Gallery - so we all can enjoy and be inspired.    ~ Aino.

Happy Friday to you all!  Before I get to our challenge this week,
I want to pick out two pages from our outstanding Art Journal gallery. Two pages among the many, that caught my eye.

Here is h_ryfa’s page Red Tulips :

And here is KathyJ’s page Preoccupied :

Now this week I went looking for inpsiration at places such as Art.com and AllPosters.com. These are wonderful places to get inspired. I looked up some of the great artists, such as Picasso, Klimt and Kandinsky. And I chose one painting by Kandinsky as inspiration piece for my Art Journal page this week. 
My challenge to you is to go and get inspired by the Masters. Perhaps a painting your already know and like, or look around in the poster galleries I mentioned above. You can also take inspiration from the same piece I chose.
This is Kandinsky’s Akzent in Rosa. I chose to focus on the colors, the black background, the yellow big square, the pink circle and the other circle elements.

I used my wacom pen tablet to draw out the big square that is a little crooked, filled it with with a solid color and clipped the yellow paper to it. I used one of my photos, made it into black and white, changed the blending mode to Multiply and lowered the Fill a little. For the titles I used the Clone Tool, opened up a paper with variegated look to it and loaded the alpha as a brush. With the Clone Tool as my alphabet brush, I “picked up color” first from the colored paper I chose and then stamped the letter on my page. I picked up new color for each letter. This way the letters look painted.
Lastly I added the pink circle, the glitter and the jewel.

Here are some of the items I used in this page:  Lynn Grieveson’s Awanui kit (Coming soon!), Anna Aspnes’ Spiced Jewel Page Set, MonoBlendz Bananas and Custard Paperie, CircleIT brush set no1 and no3 and Roughly Edged No.1 and Mindy Terasawa’s Splattered Alphabet.

I hope you can find some inspiration with the great masters this week. If only to go and enjoy some art - it is always inspiring! Then upload your pages in the Art Gallery - so we all can enjoy your artwork too.   Until next time - have fun with your Art Journaling!    - Aino.

I am back with a new Art Journal Challenge for you creative artists out there! This week we will talk about *distressing*. It might sound depressing to you, but no, wait and see - you will be surprised how wonderfully fun it is!

Take a photo that speaks to you, a photo that conveys the emotion or theme you want to convey. It can be a photo you have taken or a stock photo. Now, as you know - there are dozens of way to change this photo.
You can make it black and white, change the contrast levels, play with Hue/Saturation or Curves and change the colors, run a few actions on it, add filters or keep it the way it is.
Cut it up into pieces or leave it whole. Or add a worn edge to it.

And THEN. Then you grab your brushes and start painting on it, use Anna’s SandScratched Tools, write on the photo. You can add a variety of overlays to the photo, one of top of the other.
Paint on separate layers and play with the blending, opacity or fill levels. In my page below, I opened the photo, make a copy of the photo on top, and then started distressing it. I ended up with more than twenty layers of grunge on top. Finally I merged the layers and moved the photo onto my empty document. From there it was a matter of creating the journal page.
I hope you feel inspired and please feel free to post in our amazing Art Journal Gallery !

Please take some time and study how digigrandma/Merrilee made her wonderfully warm and sunny page. She altered and blended the photo into that lovely background to make a subtle and stunning composition. Together with that perfect silhouette - well, it can’t get any better I think. Merr used Katie’s Flowers and Pinstripes Paper Pack and Anna’s ArtPlay Palette Mermaids MiniKit.

Elena altered her photo and made it blend into her page (image transfer technique) - the perfect photo and the rough, used look of her page really speak to me!! Fantastic work.  Elena used among other things: Distressed Korners N Edges No. 07 BrushSet, Page FotoBlendz No. 03 12 X 12, Hands of Time BrushSet No. 01.

And here is the page I created. For a complete list of the goodies I used, look up the page in the gallery. Here are some of the items: Distressed Foto EdgeFrames, Distressed ToolSet No. 04, Scratched Edge Overlays No. 02 12 X 12 and SandScratched FotoFrames No. 01.  Can’t wait to see what art you will make!  Until next time, have fun!  - Aino.

I was impressed with the artwork you shared with us since last challenge - you did a bit of revealing and let us in on some great secrets. What I am thinking is - we are so alike, we share the same fears and thoughts in many ways - but we choose to display it differently. Also in our artwork.
This diversity in our unity speaks to me.

Here is Adryane‘s page - such a strong example of the use of repeating symbols, the repeating squares to
symbolize both the small spaces, but also the fear itself.

And I had a good laugh at maureenreynolds’ page on her neighbors, the Grackles. Love the use of patterned
papers and brushwork.

This week I want to focus on painting. Layers of paint. Use Anna’s various Different Strokes or Katie’s watery brushes
to paint, paint, paint on top of your background paper.
Paint in white, with a low opacity (i.e. 30%), try each stroke on a separate layer. I like to use white to
imitate the way I would use gesso. By keeping the layers separate, you can easily change the blend mode and opacity
of each layer and get different results.

I cut out of a notebook paper words I had printed. Random words I wrote with the feelings I had at the moment.
What a great feeling to throw them out on paper!! I recommend it.
I placed them in a more or less random way and then painted more white on top of them. Different strokes for each
layer again.

Another trick I like to use: I click on the Clone Stamp Tool and choose a brush I like. Then I open a grungy fun
colorful artsy paper like Gretchen Thomas’ Sun Burn paper pack. I hold down the Alt button (I am on a PC) and then
mouseclick, on my page I then brush away and the result looks very much like real paint I think.
Good stuff!

I kept on adding layers and layers of various brush work. Try out Anna’s Distressed Toolsets also - great for small
touches. In this page I wanted to add the light butterflies, to keep the spirit lifted even though many of the
words I wrote are more negative and heavy. I finished with a layer of Katie’s Ledger Grid brushes to bind it all together
and on top I used Anna’s multistitches to further emphasize the stronger lines I wanted to break the white.

I was thrilled to have Maureen from our Creative Team hook up with me this week, to share her piece of art using some
of the same techniques I mentioned above. Check out her explanation of how she did this - you are sure to pick up some
new tricks. Thank you Maureen!

I hope you are inspired to try out some paintwork this week! Don’t be afraid to journal on your page as much as you
want and then paint over it afterward, so that only the words are barely visible. The words are not necessarily meant to be recalled
and read later by you or anyone else. There is healing in the process of literally throwing them on the page. And that is what you should go
for on your art journal pages. Have fun and when you are done - you are welcome to share your art with us in the
Art Journal Gallery.
    - Aino.