Art Journal- Do What You Feel

Here is a page from my new art journal.  You may notice that this booklet is coiled as opposed to bound.  I think that the nice large coils will help when the journal inevitably starts expanding because of all the mediums and layers that I will put on the pages.  The paper in this particular book is 90lbs and it’s meant to be used with wet or dry media.  It holds up much more nicely than my old journal i.e. no more gluing two pages together!  The weight of the paper also helps prevent the pages from buckling or bending at the edges when watercolors, or mist sprays are used.

This quote is from Elenor Roosevelt, I paraphrased a little bit as the original reads-
“Do what you feel in your heart to be right, for you’ll be criticized anyway. You’ll be damned if you do and damned if you don’t.”  I almost ran out of space on this one- next time I should plan out the space before putting pen to paper.

I’ve been playing with different techniques, in preparation for my art journal class that’s coming up in a few weeks.  Here, I tried stamping both before and after spraying the walnut ink background to see if the ink showed up differently each time.  Ultimately, since I sprayed only a thin layer of walnut ink, the stamped images showed up well both ways.  The hearts were cut out from scrapbook paper and then the rest of the details/words drawn on with paint markers.

© Ammara Cokar 2014