Ciao ciao everyone! This lovely Tuesday I invite you to art journal with me… yup! Let’s start a journal together and really experience the freedom of expression that art journaling can bring. I’ve been thinking about sharing my art journaling for a while and was really inspired to start this week because I finally received my Art Saves canvas panel in the mail and want to use it for the cover of a new journal.
If you haven’t already, be sure to check out crescendoh.com to read all about how Art Saves from the life stories of real-world artists. In fact, I will also be a guest curator in May – sharing my story, art photos and fabulous links to artsy crafty goodness. Previously I never shared my art journaling because it was very personal and not something I wanted others to see. However, the process helped me to turn my focus around and what was once a way to vent and release all the bad things has now become a place for play and happy experimentation. My art journaling is still personal, but much more positive and so I am now ready to share it. I’m taking a fashion catalogue shown above that seriously has really nice sparkly thick paper. It’s really perfect as a base for my journal and you’ll be surprised what you can find around the house that can become an art journal. Having pages that are NOT blank also helps you beat the blank page fear as well! First thing I like to do is decorate my cover, so here goes…
I sketched out a little happy drawing on watercolor paper first…
Then I slapped on my blue watercolor for the background…
Then coloring in my drawing, one color at a time and letting it dry in between. (I cheated with heat to dry the paper faster!) As you can see, I am not a trained watercolorist at all – I’m really messy because I’m impatient at times, but try my best to color in the lines and just fill in the colors I like.
Even though the watercoloring might be messy, I try to neaten it up by adding black outlining to my drawing…pretty cute, huh? You can see above how I plan to attach everything to the cover of my journal.
I’m not really done with the image yet though…I like to look at it from afar and add details with colored pencils and my latest craze – Copic twinkling like stars pens! Can’t resist some sparkly-ness and I guess it’s influence from Italy, because a lot of designs and clothing here have that added bling bling.
Above you can see how I went crazy with the sparkly pens and thickening the lines to add definition to the drawing. I couldn’t help but add hearts hanging from the top in silver pen too…
Glue everything down securely and tah-dah! A finished art journal cover…yay! Now you are going to do yours, right? Or perhaps you already have an art journal and just want to play along with a happy image? Go ahead and share in the comments section as I always like to see what folks come up with. Until next week for another art journal with me post!
Happy Monday! I wanted to share some old school drawing lessons by Jon Gnagy today. It’s such a lovely reminder of old TV programs and the style of presentation back in the day. Here’s one lesson on the drawing of an old oak tree.
You can visit Gnagy’s webpage and check out more broadcasts from the past. Pretty darn cool, the way he talks and presents the lesson. So encouraging and reminds me of Bob Ross and watching shows geared for children as well. They are always so nice and I’m a sucker for the old fashioned anyway. Things can be presented in a simple and charming way – that’s the best. Hope it provides you with a bit of inspiration today.
Even if you don’t recognize the name Mary Engelbreit, you would probably instantly recognize her work upon seeing it. She has been in the art industry for a long time and her work is all over. I have loved her illustrations since childhood, ever since receiving one of her lovely illustrated greeting cards. Her work is not only cute and sweet looking, but also always carries a great message. Wise words of wisdom or a life lesson type of saying and subject. I’ve always been inspired and in awe of every little thing that was Mary Engelbreit. She started out like most artists – a child who just loved to draw. Now she is a famous and successful illustrator with her artwork in books, calendars, greeting cards, home accents and much more. People refer to her as a trailblazer and pioneer in art licensing, an industry in which I am excited about and working towards joining.
All artwork copyright Mary Engelbreit
I hope her work can inspire you as it always does me…her artwork is especially happy inducing this gloomy Monday.
Hello lovelies – Happy Wednesday! Thank you so much to everyone who entered my journal giveaway, I am so surprised and honored by the volume of responses. I hope the winners will enjoy using their new journal sketchbooks…
Congratulations to Emily and Jen C.! You’ll each get one of the journals at random (more suspense!) Please email me your mailing addresses so I can ship them off – linda [at] tortagialla [dot] com. For those of you who didn’t win, no worries. Art journaling is really fun or just doodling, whatever you feel like creating and really it’s as simple as stapling a bunch of papers together. If you don’t want to make your own though, I do have exciting news. I just listed my first journal for sale onto Etsy – my very special silver leather covered art journal!
Although I am still a beginner in bookbinding and have seen many masterpieces that are so refined here in Italy, I am still happy to create these little handmade journals myself. Totally handmade in every sense, every single one different and special in its own way. I also love thinking how wonderful it is to create something for someone else to create inside of! The multitude of ideas and thoughts that will go in these journals…that’s pretty darn awesome.
So why do I think it’s so special? Besides the fact that I made it…tee hee… all of the pages are individually sewn together, instead of the common signatures (bunches of paper folded). This one has 30 spreads, so the binding is sort of loosey goosey. See the difference when you push it around from the photo above and below?
However, I bind all the pages individually so they can all lie flat for ease of use as well as for the space it creates between each page. See below how the journal looks like an empty photo album from top view? You know what happens when you put photos into the album? It lines up perfectly and doesn’t poof up…so that’s another cool thing. The spine height gives you room to collage, add ephemera and use layers of medium with everything still fitting inside nicely.
I also put some elements in the inside front and back covers. I always liked how composition books had a place to write your name or journals that have little encouragement quotes inside.
I’m happy with the results of using leather in this way for the covers, but I still have some more experiments to perform and lots of leather to go through. I just got a sample of a pinkish coralish colored leather today, sooooo cute! It’s funny that companies here have to throw away their leather pieces that are inconsistent or too small to make purses, shoes, etc. Those scraps are actually precious to me because they are unique…and really we shouldn’t waste leather…or anything!
Yay! I am participating in sfgirlbybay’s blog it forward and it’s my turn to share a bit about what inspires my art, craft and musings. Thank you to tiny-ass apartment for passing the torch to me.
I am originally from Los Angeles, a total SoCal valley girl for the first 20+ years of my life. Long story short, I was ultimately driven by love to quit my soul-draining corporate job and pursue my dreams in a new land. I moved to the Tuscan hills of Italy, got married to my love and now living my dream. I design, craft and create art…and really loving my new life! Yup, I know it sounds a bit like those mushy love abroad, cliché life changing movie plots, but it’s really my life and through this blog I share it with all of you!
My experiences in this foreign environment inspires me every single day. I am constantly learning new things about the history and culture of Italian life. It’s amazingly uplifting to be presented with a different way of thinking and living. Some ideas are refreshing, others can be annoying but overall it’s an eye-opening way of living. In the end, I choose how I want to live, meshing my new learnings with my existing culture. Everything inspires me… or perhaps I should say, anything can inspire me, because it’s how I decide to interpret what I see and experience. From the landscape, to cool bikes to crafting with my 4-year old niece to random textures and patterns to the details of nature… all of it…
You can check out my Flickr stream for more random photos. I hope you enjoyed a little look into my dolce vita! Thanks for stopping by and I now pass the torch onward to two brunettes who will post tomorrow. Enjoy and be inspired – by anything!
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Yay! I am participating in 
