Art Journal Challenge #1 - Step outside the box with me!

Some days I sit down by the computer with a drive to create something. An emotion, a dream, a memory, a twisted thought -  SOMETHING disturbs me and I need to digest it in order to move on.  I certainly don’t feel like scrapbooking. Right here and now, I have to deal with this *thing* that pulls me.
That’s when I turn to my art journal. My digital art journal. 
I have tried gesso and paint and all the loveliness that traditional art journaling involves. But it is messy. I have to clean up my hands, my work space (which is my laundry room LOL!!),  & with two small kids, a dog and a husband who just as often behaves like a big kid – I can’t come and go to create with gesso all over my hands and hair. (I am terribly messy when I get started.)

So I was thinking – I love scrapbooking, I know Photoshop, my digital stash is better equipped than my poor laundry room/art room – so why not do my art journaling on the computer? And that’s how I started. It is a free space for *me*. Where I don’t feel the pressure to make a scrapbook page, to write that memory. I release myself of the need for it to look perfect. I do this for me and me only. It is a tool for me to play with papers, colors, design, typography, words. To release that pressure that has been building over the last few days. To deal with that emotion. To put that happy/sad/frightening dream to rest. To show happiness, to show fear. To be me.

I sit down to create, not worrying about what the end result will look like or thinking about how my *audience* will comment on my page. I often start with a single word that encompasses today’s emotion. From there I work quickly and intuitively, try not to think about design. I use papers and masks, my own photos or photos I have googled. I use brushes and paint like I would in the *real world*. I use masks and stitches and everything else I keep in my stash.  For me typography and choice in font are important elements too.

I want this blog post to be a challenge for you to step outside your own comfort zone of scrapbooking . To try a different approach. To use all the wonderful Designer Digitals supplies to delve into your own emotions and memories, not to scrapbook – but to create something only for you, where you throw stuff on the page because it feels good right now – and not worry if it turns out perfect or not.
I will encourage you in these posts to use different techniques, words, moods, products – to create art for the fun of it. If you are uncomfortable about posting it in the Art Journal Gallery, don’t post – remember this is for you only - but step into the gallery and feel the inspiration anyway.

Final comment –
I am certainly no artist, but I love creating these pages. And if I can. Anyone can. 
It doesn’t have to be artsy and creative. It can be graphic and simple too. Let it be what it becomes. Just have a look at some of my pages. 
{aino}