Art?

Gosh I don't know what's come over me. As you know, I've been blogcruising and yesterday I wandered into the world of art journalling. I knew about it through the very talented Butterfly at Words and Pictures, and now I've had a good old rummage in the cyberworld.

Now, I could bang on for some time about my history with Art, so I won't. Suffice it to say that although I would describe myself as a creative person, I would not describe myself as an artistic (in the visual art sense) one. I do, however, like writing - the physical process, I mean. I love the feel of pens in my hand and the experience of making marks on a page. So when I came across a process from DaisyYellow called slow journaling (sic - it's American),  as demonstrated by Leslie Herger, I found myself desperate (I do not exaggerate) to try it. So I did. And I took some pictures, because I realised that a) it's nice to have a record; b) for me, it took away the fear of messing things up, because I would have a photo of the stage before and c) BECAUSE I CAN (cf iPhone).

So I'm going to be very brave and post them. Oh - one other thing. The idea of doing this with words of my own was too much for me in a first attempt, so I took as my text the fine Scottish song Ye Canna Shove Yer Granny Off A Bus (my phonetics). There are other verses, but they lack the high moral tone of verse 1, so I have not used them. Ready?

Stage 1

Stage 2

Stage 1 - draw boxes with wavy lines

Stage 2 - write words and go over outline of boxes. For those of you who like pens (and if you don't, I'm sorry. I mean I'm sorry you don't like pens) I used a Pilot V5 hi-tecpoint 0.5

Stage 3

Stage 4

Stage 3 - paint over with watercolours. 

Stage 4 - go over outlines messily with Sharpies to match the watercolours. Nearly. (My own idea! Not to do it messily, though.) NB I don't know what's going on with the text here - I can't get it to space properly - sorry.)

Stage 5

Stage 6

 Stage 5 - realise that watercolours were too strong and text now more difficult to read. Experiment with using Sharpie to go over text, whilst subliminally altering message. Put in arrows so people know where to go when reading.
Stage 6 - go for it with Sharpie-ing and add more helpful instructions.

Stage 6

Stage 6 - admire my handiwork and nearly drink paintwater instead of tea.

Stage 7 - realise there are two Stage 6. Er - Stage 6s. Sixes. Stages 6. Whatever.







So - the result is far from perfect but I had fun doing it and learned a lot. Ooh - musical interlude.

Thanks for reading. And remember what not to do with your Granny.