Friday 20 February 2015

Documented Life - Weeks 5-7

I can't really say that I'm still enjoying creating in my Documented Life journal after seven weeks. I want to play by the rules, not skipping ahead - so I'm always waiting with anticipation for the new prompt so I could start creating. But when the prompt comes, I'm just facing a blank page and a vague prompt that allows me on one hand to start painting pretty much anything I want, but on the other hand doesn't really give me the initial impulse to paint. I will probably have to think up some prompts for myself. 

(photoshopped part of my Week 6 page)

Week 5
Art Challenge:  Under Paper (paper on your work table that gets all inky while you work)
Journal Prompt:  What Lies Beneath?

I usually use junk mail as my under paper and I always throw it away. When I use cardstock as my under paper, I keep it for future use. But I just didn't want to use the thick cardstock in my Moleskine journal. It's getting pretty bulky and we have 11 months to go...
It was snowing all week and I knew I had two pieces of paper with snowflake-like patters from when I was spraying tiny flowers with ink. But I couldn't find it anywhere. But I found this one:


Technically, it's not an under paper - it was a side paper on which I was cleaning my stencils. But it could be used for my snow theme.


This week, I decided to divide the journalling part in two parts.



February Theme: Layers You Will Love!

Alright... use gesso, do layers, collage something... What's next? Use paint(brush)? Geez, I need something to inspire me - not just "do what you normally do".


Week 6
Art Challenge:  When Not To Stop
Journal Prompt:  "Don't Stop Til You Get Enough!" (Ooh)

I decided to recreate a background I'd done the same day in the morning for a different project.


I started with a collage of washi tapes and tissue paper which I gessoed and sprayed with some inks.


 It started well, everything was going wonderfully, I got the look I was going for...

(inks removed through a stencil using a baby wipe)

Then a made a mistake, I tried to fix it and destroyed half of the page. Technically, it wouldn't matter because I could use that half for journalling. But I was so fed up that I just had to step aside and just leave it be for a while. The next day, I added more layers - that's the theme, isn't it? - and went on. 
I ended up with something completely different from what I'd first intended. But it doesn't matter - sometimes you just have to work through the uglies.


I was in no mood for journalling - so I cut random (but not entirely meaningless) sentences from a book I use for collages.


Week 7
Art Challenge:  Cover Up Good Stuff
Journal Prompt:  Going Undercover

Well, now I'm officially fed up with the prompts... I'm in the mood for arting but I miss the initial burst to get me started. Cover the good stuff?? No problem, but first, I need to create something good, right? I went through all the posts to see at what point the Design Team cover their "good" stuff and found out there's a pretty wide definition of what "good stuff" is. So, I decided to just do a couple of layers (as I always do) and then cover it at some point (as I usually do).




This is the finished page. I didn't really need to add the yellow glow around the quote... it looks a bit weird...


I didn't really want to continue with this page. I'm leaving it without journalling. This is how it works for me... if I don't enjoy the process, I find it very hard to like what I create. 

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