If you find yourself using all of your creative energy on your childrens art and crafts, its time you use it to create something for yourself. Here is a great art piece for the busy woman and mom. A visual journal can be anything you want it to be. It can be specific, following a theme throughout (ex. Summer 2012 vacations) or it can be totally random like mine, creating whatever inspires me at that specific moment.
What I like is that I can let it sit for months without doing a page and pick right back up when I finally get the time. One page can take me as little as five minutes or as long as two hours depending on how detailed I want to get. Heres what you need to get started.
Old hard back book
Gesso (can be purchased in any art supply store)
exacto knife
paint brush
rubber cement
Any found art supplies, paper clippings, photographs, memorabilia, etc
Step 1: Prepare your book
Begin by removing some of the pages from your book. I took out 4 sections of 10-15 pages. scatter these sections so theres not a huge hole in one spot. Use an exacto knife to cut close to the binding, then tear.
I wanted to reduce the amount of pages in my book and make my pages thicker. I used rubber cement to glue the pages together into sections of 10-15 pages. Im not a perfectionist by any means so some of my pages were thicker than others.You can be exact, counting out the pages, or random like me. It all depends on your preference.
After all of the pages are sectioned, prime the entire book, including the cover using gesso. I usually gesso each page as I go, leaving some pages unfinished. This is only because Im too anxious to spend the time priming the whole book at once.
The cool thing about Gesso is that you can create texture with it. Make swirls or even write messages for your back ground.
Once your page is dry you can start your creative release! this part is up to you.
I used art education as my theme on this page. I incorperated collage, drawing, painting and text.
*I like to let the text from the original book show through some areas. It adds a nice layer to the page.
Adding flaps and tearing pages adds aesthetics to your book, creating visual interest.
Heres another page...
I applied gesso to my cover and sprayed it with back spray paint. Collage, stamp and paint was then added.
Release any artistic pressures you may feel and just let yourself use your thoughts, emotions and ideas to create something visual.
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