My Pandemic Art Journal Begins: March into May 2020

If you're new to Art Journal Every Day, the concept is simple: It's a commitment to take ten minutes each day to do something in your art journal.  No need to finish anything or even like it.  It's about making the time to nourish your creativity every day!  If you have the time to flip through your phone, you have the time to Art Journal Every Day.  If you'd like to share what you make, use the hashtag #artjournaleveryday so that we can all take a peek.  You can find new Art Journal Every Day posts here on the blog most Fridays.  The archives go back to the first Art Journal Every Day post in 2010.

I coincidentally began a new art journal last March.  It therefore accidentally became my pandemic art journal.  Here are the first few pages:

You'll note that I always put the year on my End Papers.  I didn't used to and now I'm no longer sure which journals are from when?  I often have to consult photos to figure it out!  Take it from me: put the year(s) somewhere in your journal!

I painted a simple series of patterns across the page.

You'll notice that this next page jumps from March to May:

Yep.  My "daily" art journal sometimes doesn't happen and that's 100% okay.  Missing days in my art journal are usually an indication of me being overwhelmed.  If memory serves, between the pandemic starting, being a new Mom, living in a new house, and trying to pivot my business...I wasn't in "creating just for me" mode. I was barely keeping my head above water.

Here are some of the details from that page:

I feel like this terse face is reflective of my mood in those months:

She's intensely patterned.  Probably another indication of my mood.

And some simply wonky lettering:

I've been hooked on colored pencils lately.  I used them to color in the lettering above.  They're often opaque and they go over everything.

Finally, I'm not sure if you've noticed, but I've been teaching a live online art journaling class via Zoom every other month.  The next one is on May 14 and is called "Friday Night Art Journaling: Tags."

As the name suggests, it's all about the wide variety of ways that I use tags in my art journals!  We'll also be experimenting with a number of surface design techniques.  I hope you can join me!  Also, if there are art journaling topics you'd like me to host a class about, let me know.  I'm already thinking about what I want to teach in July!  Last month's class on lace pages was thanks to a suggestion! :)

Thanks for stopping by!