Documented Life Project

I decided to join the documented life project this year because they are going to do a year of art journaling and it looks like fun. I had already decided to do a year long journal after buying the 'No excuses art journal book' so I am combining the two ideas.

The first prompt for DLP is: be your own goal keeper and the challenge is to use book paper. My main goal this year is to experiment with my art and use familiar materials in unexpected ways.

I started with a blank journal and drew in my own planner, leaving a lot of blank area for art. I did not rule the lines because I wanted it to look handmade. I slapped on two blue colors of acrylics for the background. When it dried I also sprayed it with brown but later on washed off those spots because they were distracting to my eye.

I have 4 books that I use for my mixed media work. 3 of them were falling apart already and the 4th is an old Anne of Green Gables book that I chose because the words were nice. Be careful when you are choosing a book to use. Once I did a class where the teacher bought an old book for a couple of dollars only to find during the class it was full of violence and swear words so nobody wanted to use it, lol.

 I painted one page with blue for the water and while it was still damp I tore it into strips leaving a white edge. I used the brownest book for the sand. The wavy edge comes from tearing across the grain. Any type of paper has a grain and when you tear in one direction you will get reasonably straight lines but if you give the page a quarter turn and tear, the lines will be uneven. The other objects were sketched on the book paper and cut out. The bird wings were done with cut out lines of print.

I glued down the water strips and then the sand. I used a clip to hold the page flat while it dried. With the sand I tried to put some blank areas between each of the printed strips to make them stand out more.  Later on I thought that I should have alternated them with some horizontal strips of print for an interesting look.

I used colored pencil along the edge of the sand to make it stand out. It probably would have been easier if I had done that before they were glued down! I also added a little blue pencil at the base of the waves for shading.

I glued everything down and added a little watery acrylics for color. I kept them watery so they would be transparent. I left the whole thing to dry before I added the shading. 

I did some outlining and shading around each of the parts of the picture. I used a Quick Kutz alphabet to cut the letters out of book paper and added them to my page with some shadows.

I have also bought the 'Whimsical Lettering' book so I am doing a different exercise from that book each week as well. Here I have used a pencil to doodle on the letters that I had cut out. In the book it is supposed to be marker doodles on letters that have been drawn with a marker but this is close enough. I am also adding the weather each day and a brief description and image of what I have done. I hope it will be an interesting journal/diary by the end of the year.