Let the Art Journaling Commence!

I figured I'd start the year off with a bang by doing a full-page spread on January 1 with a sketch of a willow tree I had photographed several years ago, done in marker, acrylic paints, colored pencil and a bit of Souffle pen (basically whatever was in reach). I've been thinking about making some ATCs for a tree swap at Illustrated ATCs but hadn't gotten my act together, and I'd also thought about doing some bare trees for the Milwaukee ATC group's January theme "Winter" so this page is titled "Thinking About Trees."

I don't plan to do a full spread everyday. Having done several 365 projects now, I've learned to keep my expectations low, and I'll be happy if some days all I do is doodle a bit. I'm also not planning to do the pages in order, so the past few days I've been jumping back and forth between two spreads. "Snow" is mostly complete now, though it looks unfinished in the scan because the shiny embossed snowflakes don't show up very well.

Also there's a little foldout tab on the left side that didn't fit on the scanner bed where I noted the progress of this spread: writing out excerpts from Archibald Lampman's poem Snow in white acrylic ink with a dip pen on January 2, and then stamping & embossing the snowflakes and adding tree shapes with a thin brush and acrylic wash on January 4. This was inspired by Loreena McKennitt's song based on this poem, which was going through my head despite the fact that we've had very little snow this winter.

I've also been filling a spread with little sketches of faces from Mark Simon's Facial Expressions: A Visual Reference for Artists in ink and colored pencil.

As you can see by the right side of the page, my lack of bookbinding practice means my current stitching might not last the year. We'll see!