If you're new to Art Journal Every Day, all the posts can be found here. Please read this post first. There is a flickr group for sharing right here. Remember, it's just ten minutes of nourishing your creative self every day! No need to finish anything or even like it. If you've done some art journaling this week and you've blogged about it, or put it on flickr, please leave a link in the linky list at the end of this post. Thanks!
This week I've been in a creative rut. Not going to lie. I've hated almost everything that I've touched. But I think the trick when you get stuck is to keep going. You have to just push through that icky-nothing-is-working phase. One of my no-fail methods of getting rid of bad ju-ju is to turn to my art journal and set myself a specific task. I particularly like to experiment with something unfamiliar when I'm in a creative rut.
Why?
Well, I find that working with something unfamiliar forces me to let go of my usual tricks. It helps me let go of expectations. It makes me pay attention. It's good for me.
This week I decided to sit down and play with PanPastels in my art journal. I've used them before. I like them a lot. But I'm not 100% comfortable with them. Mostly I use them to shade or add a bit of color. I wanted to make them "the main event." So I sat down to play, with no expectations.
I know that I've mentioned this before, but I think of my art journals as more of a place to experiment than a place for finished artwork. Sharing them can therefore be difficult as I often feel that they're kind of a mess. Nonetheless, here are my experiments.....
(P.S.: Besides the PanPastels, I allowed myself to also use a china marker.)
I started with a face:
And then I decided that she was clinging too much to reality. I wanted to push her and add some color and panache.
The whole time I was working on her I was itching to have a brush in my hand. So I decided for my next page to play with adding water and Matte Medium to the Pan Pastels to see what would happen.
Interesting results. I think I may have ruined some of the PanPastel cakes by sticking a wet brush directly on them.
Finally, I decided to take an old unfinished journal page that was kicking around...
...and see what would happen if I added PanPastels on top.
I think the results are fantastic! I love the transparency of PanPastels. It's amazing how easily they changed the mood of this page.
I have to admit that I was still feeling quite un-creative until I wrote this post. But looking back at these pages, I find myself thinking, "Hmmm...they're not as bad as I thought." And that is making me feel ready to tackle some projects on my "to do" list. The creative energy is rushing back in. I'm not sure if it was the unfamiliar product, the letting go of expectations, the writing of this blog post, a bit of time and distance -- maybe it's all these things. But I'm so happy to be feeling ready to create!
Thanks for stopping by!
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P.S. Check out my PanPastel fingers:
