When it comes to drawing or art journaling, you've got to love fruit. Most fruits are pretty easy to draw and they conjure up so many sensations and memories.
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| Jane LaFazio shows how to add depth to your art journal pages with vellum, in PAGES 2012. |
For me, watermelon will always remind me of my yiayia (grandmother). I will never forget watching her set a weighty, green- and white-striped oval on her kitchen counter as if it were about to be sacrificed. I braced myself as she raised up a steel kitchen knife and brought it down fast, cleaving the melon in two with a satisfying thwack like some Greek samurai.
The sweet aroma would rise up out of the flesh while the juice dribbled out of the bottom. My grandmother would always give me the first slice, cut straight out of the heart. Then she cut the rest of it up with a surgeon's precision into thick red and black triangles, served in a bowl for the whole family to enjoy out on the lawn.
Yiayia has been gone for more than 20 years, but to this day I can't cut into a watermelon without picturing her.
Just writing about this experience is bringing to mind so many sensations and memories that I want to rush to my art journal and start sketching, collecting photos, writing, etc.
I could take a few different approaches to art journaling about my summer watermelon memories with Yiayia.
One option would be to work two-dimensionally, drawing and/or painting with watercolors or markers. Jane LaFazio's art journal techniques come to mind. I love the way she incorporates stitch, too.
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| Handmade fruit books by Katherine Pippin Pauley, as seen in PAGES 2012. |
Another option would be to work in 3-D, fashioning a handmade art journal in the shape of a watermelon slice and filling the pages with memories, images, and watermelon lore. Something like the handmade fruit books by Katherine Pippin Pauley.
There are so many ways to approach visual journaling, and I see a lot of art journal ideas and inspiration for handmade books in the pages of the new PAGES 2012 magazine. The art journaling techniques and gallery art of nearly 50 artists are represented there.
I think I'll mull over the options with a big slice of watermelon and my copy of PAGES 2012. You can order your copy in print or download the digital version right now.
P.S. How would you approach an art journal with a fruit theme? Tell me your ideas in the comments section below.