That was...different

Hi!  How's it going?

I'm sitting here, drinking a Coke and singing along, LOUD and off-key, to Adele (if you sing loud enough, it makes up for the fact that you're bad at it, right?), trying to tell myself I want to go to work and not back to bed...  This is a lie I tell myself basically every single week day...

I've got my Journal 52 (J52) and Documented Life Project (DLP) pieces to share with you today, but FIRST...I was invited to be a part of a blog hop by Trece over at SIMPLYTRECE!  Thank you so much for thinking of me!  I was/am SO excited...my very first blog hop!  Yay!

So, for the hop, I had to answer 4 questions:

1. What am I working on?

2. How does my work differ from others of it's genre?

3. Why do I create what I do?

4. How does your creating process work?

And so I thought I would have another first and make a video where I flip through some of my journals and answer the above questions...so I did!  

Let me just say in advance, sorry for the weird portrait format of the video...if you make it full screen, it's not quite so bad...but I realized afterward that I could have done it in landscape format...for shame!  Also, apologies for all the "and, er, ums" and nervous laughter...but I do eventually get through the questions, with a relative amount of intelligence....so without further ado:

So, there you go, my first video...I am working on more videos right now, which will hopefully be a little easier to watch...much like art, I imagine it takes time to get better with doing the videos, so hopefully, I will get better at them...

That video is my excuse for being a little late in posting my art for last week...so let's get to that:

First, for J52, the prompt was "Passion".  What are you passionate about?

For me, passion is a hard word.  I mean, I'm passionate about things...art, sleeping, chocolate milk ...there's more, I'm sure.  

But to me, passion is a frustrating word, much like expectation...because it tends to lead to disappointment.  Passion is one of those emotions that are a little more scary than the others.  Because it kind of includes two people.  Passion is an emotion that you risk rejection over.

If you've got passionate feelings for another person, there's a chance that they don't feel that way about you.  One-sided love is a terrible, heart wrenching feeling.

Even if you've got passionate feelings about a cause or a thing, you run that same risk of rejection.  Because if you're passionate about something, you're going to talk about it...a lot...and maybe you discover that you're the only one who is passionate and to everyone else, the thing you care SO MUCH about is just a bore.  Then maybe you start to doubt your own judgement...if no one else cares, can it really be that important?

For a long time, I rejected getting too excited over anything for that very reason.  Strong opinions, strong emotions, convictions, passions...all of that was too tough, too scary.  So I didn't let myself be open about things.  If I don't reach out, I can't be rejected.  Nobody wants to be rejected.

Living like that is lonely and it is boring, and I got tired of being bored and lonely.

So now, I let myself be passionate over the things that I feel passionate about.

One thing that I got passionate about is abstract art...or trying to make abstract art.  Ever since it was a prompt for Journal 52, I have had this obsession with trying to make abstract art...or, I should say, GOOD abstract art.  (I still haven't been able to reach that goal...)

So for this week's "Passion" prompt. I decided to try to make an abstract piece of two people kissing, and here's what I ended up with:

Still not there...

The one thing I like about the page is the squiggly lines in the faces.  I had the thought of how some people think/used to think that when you kissed you exchanged souls or some such thing...  And I thought that it was an interesting idea that when we get passionate about a person, or a cause, that we are willing to share ourselves fully with whatever it is we are passionate about.  That's what those squiggle lines represent to me...

Of course, you may not see that...you might instead see a commercial for those Breath-rite strip things...  "If you want to kiss someone, you're gonna need open airways..."  Hahaha...

For DLP, the prompt was to "Use book pages or text paper" and here's my spread:

"Well that was...different."

I covered the whole spread in book pages from an old Spanish/English dictionary I had and then sprayed it with Dylusions.  And then I couldn't figure out what else to do...

So I thought I would try using Coarse Texture Gel (on the left page) and Gesso (on the right) over top of the sprayed page to see if it would seep through.  Both did a surprisingly good job at keeping the bottom layer of Dylusions (the orange/yellow/pink layer) from seeping through enough to mess with the top layer (the greens).  And then I was stuck again for something to do...

So I stopped working on the page and decided to do the first lesson of Willowing's free "Art, Heart, Healing" class, in which she shows you how to do her style of face.  When I was done, I realized I could just add the face I'd made into the journal using some washi tape.  I added washi on the other side to try to tie both pages together, and, since I had my face portion of the page spread, I knew it was time for words.

I am excited to try this background technique using different colors than orange and green.  I think this technique would lend itself well to aged colors as opposed to such bright ones...

For the letters, I sprayed some pages that were torn from my beloved Gregg journal, sprayed them with Dylusions, and, when they were dry, cut out the letters.

My version of a Tam/Willowing face.

For some reason, I think my girl looks a little sarcastic, and that's why I chose the journaling that I did.  It's kind of a jab at myself for being a little too cocky recently.

Before I make a move, I try to figure out all the possible outcomes.  I think it's smart to be as prepared as you can be.  But, the fact is, that sometimes, despite all the preparations you may make, people can still surprise you.  

That happened for me recently, and it kind of knocked me off my high horse.  This spread is to remind me that I don't have all the answers, and I don't always know what another person's reaction will be...no matter how well I know the person.

So, that's it for this time...hopefully the video wasn't too horrific to watch and I am really excited to try to get better at making them...the one I'm working on now is for sharing how I make my faces!  I've done picture tutorials before, but it's hard to put everything into still photos, so maybe the videos will help!  

A Million Attempts

Hello!  

I feel like I haven't posted in FOREVER, even though I know it's not even been a week...

Did anybody else had as much trouble as I did with this week's Journal 52 prompt?  Great Koogely Moogelies!  In case you don't know, the prompt for this week was 'Abstract Art' (you can read more about it HERE).

When I first took an interest in artistic things, I was one of those people who just didn't 'get' abstract art.  I never thought it was easier to make abstract art than it is to make realistic art...it just wasn't something I gravitated towards.  I think it's because I'm interested in the story of the art, and with abstract art, it's up to your own interpretation.  I've seen a lot of things that other people really love, but to me look menacing.  Abstract art is kind of like a giant ink blot test...

The more I've come to love art, the more I find abstract art to be interesting.  So when I read the prompt for J52 this week, I was super excited...and then came the execution.  My brain just went stupid...that's the only explanation I can think of anyway.  Or else I made this whole thing harder than it should be...  Or a combination of the two...

"Flight of an Easily Breakable Thing"
 ...no birds were harmed (at least not by me) in the making of this page...

In my defense, the picture has messed with the color of the painting above...it's not quite so bad in real life.  This was my first attempt at abstraction...  I started out with a tutorial I found on pinterest for painting abstract with acrylics, which looked ABSOLUTELY nothing like this.  I just didn't like how it came out after I'd done the steps of the tutorial...so I kept going.  I used a brush for the bottom layer of the painting (Naples Yellow and Portrait Pink) I used my pallet knife a lot on the blue (Pthalo Blue and Mars Black) and scraped the paint around with it.  I liked doing that!  But I still wasn't happy with the thing as a whole, so I kept going.  The red (Brilliant Red) was actually painted on using the feather that's glued to the page!  I do like that I experimented with a different mark making tool...  After I added the red, it looked like something had been viciously mauled to me...and since I was using the feather to paint with, the name of the painting came to me: Flight of an Easily Breakable Thing...  The 'easily breakable thing' part is from a poem (which you can read HERE...the poem is much different than the picture is...just so you know...).  I don't usually name my work...it seems like something for a better...or more professional...artist than me.  It makes me feel self-important...but for some reason, I've been naming my J52 pages, so there you go.  I also used Inka Gold in Lava Red and Gold colors on top of the feather (and red poster paint sharpie around it) to try to make it stand out a little more.

But I was not satisfied with this attempt at abstract art...so I decided to try again:

...this will be known as 'the middle school art project' from this point forward...

I used all water-soluble media for the second attempt...black Inktense for the outlines, various watercolors, and Aquamarkers.  I just started drawing random shapes and lines, and where they intersected, I colored in each space with a different color.  To me, this looks like a middle school art project, completely without meaning or technical skills...  Maybe I would have liked it better if I would have used only warm or cool colors and not combined the two...I don't know...either way, not one of my favorite pages that I've made...

So I made another page...

...well...I do like the white space...

For the next page, I put some washi tape on the page in random places, and painted over it with acrylics in various colors...then removed the washi.  This one is ok to me, but it seems like a background that's just waiting for more things to happen on top of it.  Maybe that's my problem with my abstract attempts...they all look like backgrounds for something more realistic...

At this point, I got irritated with the whole stupid abstract art thing and decided to see if the bottle of crackle medium I had (for at least eight years...) was still viable:

...again with the bad coloring in the photos...I think it's my fault...or winter's fault...because I took this picture at night, so not great lighting...

I actually ended up liking these crackle pages more than anything else I had done!  Especially the bottom one...look at those gigantic cracks!  (I think the thicker the layer of crackle medium you use, the bigger the cracks you get.)  I used up my entire bottle of crackle medium, so it's on the list for my next trip to get art supplies...I see more crackle experimenting in my future.

So, in the end, what did my million attempts teach me?  For one, abstract art is NOT easier than realistic art...I didn't think it would be, but I also didn't think it would be so much harder for me than my normal art is.  I have been completely frustrated by abstract!  For another, I realize that I am now going to have an abstract art obsession until I 'get it right' in my own eyes.  Yeah, as we speak I have another page drying so that I can do more...  So far, I think that two things to work on for my future abstract attempts are going to be to not forget the things I already know...color, composition, shape, value...all that technical stuff that I work on in my regular art still applies in abstract!  The other thing that I think will help me personally is to try to think of a specific thing while I'm painting...all the attempts I showed you today were just me 'trying to paint abstract'.  I think I will do better if get myself in a certain frame of mind that I want to convey in the painting instead... Does that make sense?  As in, here is a painting of how loneliness feels to me, or here is a painting of the day I fell in love, or the day I had a bad cold, etc...  I think I need to have something that I want the painting to say...  We'll see how it goes...

AND...

I finished my spread for Documented Life this week.  The prompt for it was 'Open your Pinterest Board and Be Inspired' (you can read more about it HERE).  This one felt too easy for me, because I use Pinterest for inspiration A LOT!  Mostly, I get inspired by quotes on my 'Just Words' board and then go make a page, or else use a face in my 'Photographs' board as a reference photo.  So I decided to make sure I was inspired in a different way than I usually am, and here's what I ended up with:

Whoops...I forgot to take out my wax paper!  (I use it so I don't get stuff all over my other pages.)
I feel like the flower needs...more something...any ideas?

I did a couple of different things *inspired by Pinterest*.  First, I used THIS video from Journal Artista (aka Paula Phillips, I think) to do a REALLY STINKING COOL variation on a packing tape transfer.  You can see this technique best on the left page.  SO COOL!  Just for the record, the Journal Artista lady has some really interesting techniques...I will be checking out more of her videos and learning more fun stuff from her really soon!

Then I used THIS tutorial on how to draw a croquis (or fashion figure).  Can I just say I LOVE, LOVE, LOVE the croquis?  Cause I do!!!  *draws croquis on everything for the foreseeable future*

"One may have a blazing hearth in one's soul and yet no one ever came to sit by it.  Passers-by see only a wisp of smoke from the chimney and continue on their way." - Vincent Van Gogh

And then, I let my spread inspire which quote I used (which you can see the pin for HERE) from my 'Just Words' board, instead of the other way around like I normally do.  

I really like the way the croquis lady contrasts with the Marie Antoinette lady (which was already on the piece of scrapbook paper I had added to make 52 weeks worth of spreads to work on when I made my DL journal).  There's a meaning in there, but in the spirit of abstract art, I will let you decide for yourself what that meaning is exactly...  The croquis lady reminds me of Pam Carriker's work (you can see the pinterest search results for her name HERE), but it wasn't on purpose...I think it's the color more than anything...she uses muted tones a lot...  

Ah...croquis lady...allow me to squeal with delight for your awesomeness just one more time...SQUEAL!!!

So, what's your take on abstract art?  Are you a fan, or not so much?  Have you ever attempted it...and if so, did you find it as hard to do as I did?  Where do you tend to find inspiration? Do you like to see how other artists do things, or do you like to experiment and make your own discoveries, or do you do a combination of the two?