Creative Starting Points

Blank pages & Starting points

Art journaling challenge

I hope you’re enjoying the Art Journaling Challenge and that the three pages I’ve shared so far have inspired you! In case you missed them you’ll find the links below. Today we’re doing something a little bit different and I have a video for you!

The Art Journaling Challenge:

I’ve decided to finish my current art journal by the end of the year so I can start a brand new one on January 1st! I’ll be sharing the pages each week and you’re invited to follow along. You can even set your own goal to end the year in a creative way!

And to celebrate, I will reopen enrollment for my art journaling class, The Artist & the Journal, in the first week of January too.

These first pages were easier to start with because they all had a lot going on already, something I could build upon. They were unfinished but not blank. But now… it’s a different story! The remaining pages are either completely blank or very rough, with just some paint leftovers (including tons of purple… not a color I often use!)

So the idea is to get rid of those uninspiring surfaces and give myself some starting points. Here is a quick video where I show you my journal and the remaining pages, and where I start filling the empty ones with collage. This way I don’t have any blank pages left in my journal anymore, yay! And in the past days I’ve kept adding to them, building up those starting points a little more so they can really inspire me. You’ll find all seven of them right after the video.

Enjoy!

Below are the seven pages that I have kept working on a little bit with gesso, paint, inks and some journaling. These have become really good starting points now, and even though I don’t know what stories will eventually unfold, they each have a different vibe, a personality that is starting to emerge and is already inspiring me!

Purple gradient

This was originally the page with purple and turquoise paint leftovers. To me, it felt like the least inspiring of all: it was so bold that its energy didn’t resonate with me at all.

Here I have kept the purple and green/blue color scheme, as well as the horizontal composition, but I have softened things a lot, building up the layers to achieve some depth and translucency, and journaling with the handle of my brush into the fresh paint. It feels much more subtle now and I can’t wait to see how it will evolve. It could become the basis for a landscape, or maybe a floral… we’ll see!

2. A touch of light

This one feels very uplifting to me already. It is rather neutral but full of light, with touches of gold and the bokeh circles. I’ve no idea what it will turn into but I’m thinking it might be a good choice for my end-of-year gratitude page (more on that very soon!)

3. A Dark night

This one is completely different, and it’s the only page in the whole journal with an almost black background. At this stage I’ve only added some journaling and it felt very therapeutic to be writing in white over the dark page. Even though I was expressing some challenging emotions and thoughts, it felt like I was writing them with light, and that felt so healing. I’ve kept working on this page since then and it’s almost finished so I’ll be sharing it in a few days, stay tuned!

4. found poetry

Another rather neutral page. This one felt like it didn’t have a story at all until I took the time to play with the words that were already there. Just like playing with cut-out words, I feel that found poetry is one of the most magical ways to invite stories and serendipity. I don’t have a clue where this will take me next, but I can feel that this page has a secret to tell me and I can’t wait to find out what it is!

5. deep purple

This used to be the VERY purple page that felt so intimidating at first. I decided to make friends with it and added even more purple in different shades with inks and collage: wrapping paper, vintage wallpaper, a printed napkin etc. Then I brought back some light with gesso at the bottom. This one too could still go in a million directions. I’m wondering if I’ll keep expanding on the theme of the stars? We’ll see!

6. A winter wood

This one was very black & white at first, but I felt called to add some blue. I love the icy, wintery feel of it. I might journal inside the white rectangle, or use it to frame another image. And I’ll probably add a lot more collage in the blue strip at the bottom to really build some texture and ground the whole page. I’m thinking some cheesecloth would be really cool here!

7. In the garden

This one is all about happy colors and flowers! This is the only one I didn’t touch again after making the video. Nevertheless, I built those first layers so quickly that it feels much further along than the other pages. The reason is that I used pieces of a print of an existing painting, so it feels a lot more “me” already!

And just like that we’re at the last page of the journal! So that will be a total of 10 pages for this whole challenge, oh my… I’ve got to get back to work!!

Tell me in the comments!

Are any of those pages giving you ideas for your own art? Do you have any unfinished pages in your journal (or paintings in your studio!) that you could complete in the coming weeks? If so, please post a picture with your comment so we can cheer you on!