Have you ever looked at a finished piece of art or a colorful background in your journal and wished you could remember how you mixed that shade of blue, or made that great mark? You’d know if you had kept notes, or, even better, had a reference book.
In her new video, Art Journaling Exercises: 15 Creative Prompts, Rae Missigman encourages you to make your own reference book with the papers you create as you learn more about your tools and materials.
We’re not talking about a formal reference book, like the ones you have on your studio bookshelf. The images and words in this book will be all yours. Brilliant!
Where to begin? How many times have you bought an art tool or supply only to have it languish on a shelf forever, because you weren’t sure what to do with it? Guilty. Art Journaling Exercises: 15 Creative Prompts will solve that dilemma, and you’ll have fun along the way.
Rae concentrates on getting you to play with the tools you already have on hand, and really get to know them. She wants you to understand what you like about them, and discover what they can do for you in your art making. No worrying about a final product, just play and learn.
Rae guides viewers through a variety of exercises aimed at getting them to test their tools and do some experimenting. She encourages viewers to step outside their comfort zones, stop over thinking, and always look for creative inspiration.
How, you ask? Rae will have you playing with a gel plate, making your own stencils, and using brayers, combs, the tip of a paintbrush, and plenty more to make unique marks. She’ll also show you how to use some familiar tools in different ways. Pounce paint on with your paintbrush. Print your art on sticker paper to create fun collage papers, create a resist, use deli paper for a quick background, and more.
After you add notes to the backs of the papers, noting tips, paint combinations, special tools, and such, the paintings, prints, and markings you created as you got to know your tools will fill the pages of your book and become the resource you have been missing.
Some of the papers (or maybe all) will be so great; you’ll want to use them as a background right away. Just make sure you make notes, so you can recreate the effect you loved so much.
Time to get started!
Enjoy.
Barb