Thursday 23 April 2020

14 Day Art Journal

 A couple of weeks ago, I saw some information about a free two week art journal course run by Julie Fei Fan Balzer, a designer and maker in America.  I signed up for it.  A new video is available every day with a different journaling technique.  I had all the resources and equipment I needed already, but that would be a consideration if you didn't have everything to hand.  The media needed were watercolours, acrylics, oil pastels, an old hotel card (for the diy comb), distress crayons (or similar), black and white pens, magazine image, matte medium, stencils, stamps, brushes, watercolour paper/card.  A gel plate was useful and a carving tool for making the eraser stamps. 
The first day was making the journal.  Julie showed how she decorated her journal but I decided to try a new to me gel plate technique (from Youtube, I think) - soft pastels applied through stencils and then acrylic paint on top to pull the print.  I used one of Julie's stencil designs - the flower in the top left and bottom right of the photo below - and several other flower/foliage/shape stencils.  I really enjoyed this technique and managed to achieve some quite delicate blends.
 Some of the darker pastels stained the gel plate a bit, but did come off using baby oil.
Day 2 was oil pastel resist.
 Days 3 and 4 were Sgraffito and rainbow arches.
 Doodle collage was Day 5.
 Hand made stamps for Day 6. This was one of my favourites and I used erasers to carve the stamps.
 Rainbow roll for Day 7 and Layered stencilling on Day 8.
 An extra layered stencil page.  Day 9 was a DIY gelli comb.
 Day 10 brought a layered gel print, again using the diy combs.  Day 11 was an abstract.
 Day 12 was black and white doodles using a black marker, white gel pen and black biro, which I really enjoyed and am going to use again in my art journal proper.  Day 13 was mixing media.
Finally, day 14 was monoprint and sketch.  The colours I used made me think of rhubarb!
This was such an enjoyable project and I have lots of techniques which I can use in my art journaling.  I also have a  lovely little journal full of colour and pattern to enjoy.
Edited to add:  Julie posted photos of other people's journals and it was so interesting to see all the interpretations.  The link to that post is here.

15 comments:

  1. Wow. Colour me awed, impressed and delighted.
    Stay well, stay safe.

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    1. Thanks, EC. It was a really enjoyable project and I was sorry when it ended. I still have a couple of pages in the journal as I made too many, so I do need to fill them.
      You stay safe and well too.
      Best wishes
      Ellie

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  2. They are amazing Ellie. What a wonderful course to offer for free! Thank you so much for sharing, I love them all x

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    1. Thanks, sustainablemum. It was a really enjoyable course. There was a facebook group where you could share your work but I'm not a facebook user. Julie did share some of the work on her blog so we could all see it. It was so interesting to see how others interpreted the techniques too.
      Best wishes
      Ellie

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    2. It was instagram, not facebook! I have added the link to that post above.
      Best wishes
      Ellie

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  3. That looks like a great course. Some good techniques which give such colourful finishes.

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    1. Thanks, Jo. It was a great course and creating a daily art piece was fun.
      Best wishes
      Ellie

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  4. Wow, so much work and it’s lovely. I don’t understand some of the techniques you mention and then I realised: “d’uh”, this is what it must be like non-sewers when I blether on with patchwork talk.

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    1. Thanks, Jayne. If you'd like an explanation of any of the techniques let me know - they are all really simple but so enjoyable! For any craft, there is a whole new vocabulary to learn, isn't there?
      Best wishes
      Ellie

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  5. What an amazing selection of techniques, you must have had great fun experimenting and be looking forward to incorporating your new skills into your lovely designs xcx

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    1. Thanks, Chrissie. I loved doing this little journal and learnt a lot from the different techniques. It was also really great to see the other interpretations too. The DIY gelli plate combs are a firm favourite and their patterns will definitely be making an appearance in my art journaling.
      Best wishes
      Ellie

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  6. Ellie!! These are amazing. They show your knowledge and talent, many people would not get results like this. It's funny that you have all the supplies already, and then some I think ;) Perhaps you are the one who needs to post workshops...you definitely have a gift, imagination and maybe even all the tools too. Can't wait to see the next creations....take care.

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    1. Thanks, Maria - you are very kind. I probably could open an art and craft shop myself with the supplies I have got, but there is always something else which catches my eye and my stash expands again... I wish the house would expand too!!
      I have been gel printing today and absolutely loved it.
      Take care too
      Best wishes
      Ellie

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  7. Very cool, sounds like you had a good time with all of it. LOVE the black and white....very very cool.
    Sandy's Space

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    1. Thanks, Sandy. The black and white does look effective, doesn't it? It was a really enjoyable project.
      Best wishes
      Ellie

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