Two art journals filled up gradually over two years. Here’s how they turned out….
I chose these two big sketchbooks because I just couldn’t resist the cherry red & magenta pink covers!
Over the next couple of years, one or both of these books sat perpetually open on my art desk, and whenever I had extra paint to use up, or new pens to try out, these pages began to take shape.
This is where I’d scribble notes to myself, idly doodle in between times, while I waited for a zoom call to begin, and during online classes.
I’d see a face in the doodles and gradually these new characters began to show up.
As the pages got heavy with collage and paint, I tore out and tore up and glued back with wild abandon.
There are no rules in these books, there’s no upside down, no right and wrong.
Page by Page
Be first to find out about my newest art journaling project in my next newsletter.
For a little over a year I’ve been adding a weekly spread to this ginormous sketchbook.
Because of the ginormity of this book (600 pages!) it’s going to span the course of a few years to come, and I’m excited about that. To see what appears in these pages is as much of a surprise to me as it is anyone else.
You can see a flip through of the first pages and a second update from early 2021 here on my youtube channel
Since then more creatures and people have shown up on the pages.
They populate the spaces in between the thought scribbles, color swatches and the occasional off-cuts of the projects that happen along the way.
The latest flip through catches us up with from January to July of this year, it’s exclusively previewing this weekend to my newsletter subscribers. Sign up below if you haven’t already 🙂
We’ve all agreed that time isn’t real, right? because I’m fully embracing that in my reality now.
All that to say, World Collage Day was in May. I posted some photos of my collages in June, I’m writing this in JulyAugust, and you could be reading it any time after I hit publish 😉
In my world, I’m somewhere in Collage Season.
Step one: make space on the floor, spread out all the bits so see what you have to play with.
Starting out with a bundle of collage images – mostly cut out from magazines and book pages + a few abstract patterned papers – kindly supplied by the Arizona Collage Collective + some from my own collection, I began with some swapping of heads.
Gradually these newly imagined characters formed together in groups, in turn finding their home in the pages of my Book of Days
I’ll be posting a flip through of the latest pages in this book where you can see this, and the rest of the collages. For an exclusive preview you’ll need to get my next newsletter.
Since last summer I’ve made a new 2 page spread in my ‘Book of Days’ every week. It’s become a mishmash of notes from podcasts, quotes and song lyrics, accompanied by sketches …
It’s been a few weeks since I began reorganising my studio space and I’m still in the “where did I put that” aftermath.
This has meant a pause in creating time, and in turn caused me to take a pause from online doings. And this, naturally, is also part of the global pause/chaos.How are you doing, are you still afloat?
One thing that has not paused is my ‘Book of Days’, this ginormous book of doodles, which is keeping me grounded throughout.
Quite literally – at 600 pages this thing weighs a ton! but also in the sense that it’s a consistent element accompanying a slow plod through winter.
Since last summer I’ve made a new 2 page spread every week. (sometimes I go ‘back in time’ to add extra doodles and details to earlier pages.)
It’s become a mishmash of notes from podcasts, quotes and song lyrics, accompanied by sketches of people, places, memories & dreams, with patterns to fill the in between bits. There are swatches from new paints and pens acquired, even the paints I used when I was painting some furniture last year. It’s a visual dumping ground, an abstract diary documenting these discombobulated times.
Book of Days: 600 page sketchbook
It will, all going well, be with me for a few years to come.
I’ll show you how it’s coming on, the first pages are here
Book of Days: 16 pages in 16 weeks.
This flip thru took us to some time around October, and I’ve continued a spread a week ever since.
To catch up to date with the latest pages, be sure to see my next newsletter, it’s out tomorrow 🙂
There’s a place to sign up at the tail of this post.
here’s what (almost) a year of doodles looks like, page by page.
Just about a year ago I began this art journal.
It’s a monster of a thing at around 100 pages.
I bought two of these books because I was bewitched by the delightfully bright covers, this one in magenta, another in cherry red.
It took almost a year to doodle my way through this book from cover to cover.
I took a while to get used to the pages.
At first I was at odds with the paper which didn’t take ink and watercolor well.
Gessoing or collaging more ink friendly paper to the pages was bulking it up too much to be manageable.
Over the months I found the best solution was to tear out some pages and recycle them into other projects.
Some of these pages went on to become part of the junk journal I’m using for this year’s 100 day project.
I like the idea that this book seeded a brand new book, allowing ideas to overflow between the two.
Finally I reached the point at which the book felt done, ready to set aside to focus my attention on other things. There’s always an overlap with my art journals – I began playing with the second of these books earlier this year – so maybe we can expect a flip through of that one next spring!
Meanwhile, here’s what (almost) a year of doodles looks like, page by page.
These are the pages that have been brightening up my long dark days of winter. As we’ve reached the shortest day I’m calling this project finished and ready to move on to all that comes next. I can’t tell you how much fun I had with this book.
I fill these pages in the spare bits of time in between other things, so they become a visual stream of consciousness, garnished with bits of stuff, collaged scraps of whatever’s on my desk, they come to represent a snapshot of the season’s projects and ideas.
I scribble down words I hear in song lyrics, audio books and podcasts, there are phrases and words snipped from magazines, landing together to create found poetry and serendipitous sentences.
Faces emerge from the blobs of color, the torn paper shapes and the negative space in between.
It’s weird, it shouldn’t work, but it all seems to come together in a way I never could have predicted.
I can’t tell you how much fun I had with this book.
These are the pages that have been brightening up my long dark days of winter. As we’ve reached the shortest day I’m calling this project finished and ready to move on to all that comes next.
I’ll be sharing a full flip through video + a SPECIAL HOLIDAY GIFT that this book inspired with all the lovely peeps who get my newsletter this weekend.
Sign up here if you haven’t already done so (and then do check your spam hole cos sometimes the good stuff gets swept up into there by mistake)
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I had this little sketchbook and just a few colors. As I noticed the repeating patterns around me I began to play, when I got home I continued to fill up this little book with more variations.
I explored a similar idea before, but now I want to carry it on further – with simpler forms – maybe a circle or a square – maybe in just one color – just to see what’s possible.
If you’d like to see more ideas like this and find out what’s been inspiring me, sign up for my monthly studio musings newsletter here.
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You’ll get a confirmation email when you sign up (check you junk mail folder – cos sometimes the good stuff gets swept away by mistake). I’ll pop into your inbox about once a month with news on what I’m up to in my colorful little corner of the universe and what’s been inspiring me.
Do you notice the patterns around you? once you start to look you can notice them everywhere.
A few years ago I took an art class where we focused on grid patterns. Beginning with one grid pattern we developed it in different media in a sketchbook.
I started out with this photo of palm leaves in front of the grid pattern of window panes.
grids within grids – patterns within patterns.
Once you begin exploring an idea like this it’s amazing how many iterations appear.
While I was on holiday last month I accidentally found myself repeating this idea, but this time with the patterns I kept finding in the rocks and stone buildings.
The more I looked I saw similar shapes in other places, variations in this theme were everywhere. Even the shadows and light presented the patterns again in another ephemeral layer.
Now I’m back home I’m filling the rest of the book with variations on this theme.
Catch my latest newsletter to see a flip through of this work in progress sketchbook, and I’ll tell you more about these ideas.
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Mixy's Art Blog 