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This is a private swap between Kessie and Justene.
We will each make an Art Journal.
They will be fabulous art journals, because we are fabulous people!
Rules & Guidelines:
Size is not important.
The journal can be store-bought or handmade.
Minimum of 6 pages = 12 sides (plus front & back covers)
If you might not be able to send out in time, communicate with your partner.
All pages should be decorated, but also most should have some writing.
Give your journal a title.
Between the two of us, (after several weeks of discussion!) we have come up with 25 ideas for ‘prompts’.
We can just do whichever ones we want; we don’t have to use ALL the prompts.
The prompt does not need to be written on the page itself, but we will include a list of which ones we used.
One prompt can be interpreted in different ways and therefore used on more than one page.
Two prompts can be combined on the same page, for instance where one is about materials and techniques (e.g. ‘Two Colours’ or ‘Stitching’) and the other is about content and theme (e.g. ‘Movie’ or ‘Sense of Place’).
We could scan all our finished pages as a keepsake, and this could also act as a back-up plan if one of the journals gets lost in transit.
We could put the images of our finished pages up on Flickr (but that’s only a suggestion, and maybe shouldn’t be done until after the finished journal has been received by your partner, so as not to spoil the surprise).
List of Prompts (more details given below)
1. ABOUT ME
2. SILENCE YOUR INNER CRITIC
3. I SAW SOMETHING BEAUTIFUL TODAY
4. USE 3 DIFFERENT MEDIUMS
5. TERRIFYING MOMENT
6. I WANT TO TELL YOU ABOUT THIS PERSON
7. A SENSE OF PLACE
8. WINTER AND/OR CHRISTMAS
9. POCKET
10. BALANCE
11. OUTSIDE MY COMFORT ZONE
12. COLLABORATIVE PAGE
13. A SONG OR POEM
14. TWO COLOUR COMBINATION
15. LIGHT AND DARK
16. MOVIE
17. STARTING POINT
18. WORD OF THE DAY
19. PAPERCUT/PAPERFOLD
20. SILLYNESS
21. QUASI-WORDS
22. STITCHING
23. DARK THEME
24. BUCKET LIST
25. MULTIMEDIA/MULTISENSORY
- "ABOUT ME" -
A biography or a self portrait or however else you want to introduce yourself - because it is nice to know who the journal was created by.
- "SILENCE YOUR INNER CRITIC":
Fill your art journal page with all the things your inner critic says such as, “you’re not good enough”, you’ll never be anybody special”, etc. Then paint over the words until they’re not visible. Then fill your page listing your positive attributes / qualities.
- “I SAW SOMETHING BEAUTIFUL TODAY”:
Sometimes you may see something that makes you smile, and you want to tell somebody, or try and ‘capture’ it... It could be a cluster of red poppies with the sun shining through their petals against the sky, or a beautiful sunset, or anything really - even someone's words or actions could be a ‘beautiful thing’.
4. "USE 3 DIFFERENT MEDIUMS":
Create a page using 3 different art mediums. For example, acrylic + ink + collage, or watercolor + embossing + collage, etc.
5. "TERRIFYING MOMENT":
Name the most terrifying moment of your life so far. How did you deal with it?
6. “I WANT TO TELL YOU ABOUT THIS PERSON”:
A page about someone you know, or admire. You could write about your feelings for them or include quotes by them or drawings of them or whatever you want...
7. “A SENSE OF PLACE”:
Choose a place and try and convey a sense of what it is like. It could be a small place, e.g. a room in your house, or a big place, e.g. Mexico, or a fictional place, e.g. Narnia.
8. “WINTER AND/OR CHRISTMAS”:
Self explanatory; whatever these themes mean to you.
9. "POCKET":
Incorporate a pocket on to a page. It could be fabric, paper, scrapbook supplies, a bag you've stitched in....whatever. Journal about something (maybe a secret?) & hide it in the pocket.
10. "BALANCE":
On a blank journal page, write a sentence about something that really ticks you off. Under that sentence, write something cheerful to balance out the negativity. Go back and forth, on two different topics, griping and cheering.
11. “OUTSIDE MY COMFORT ZONE”:
We all know what we are good at. But the idea here is to draw things that you always think you can’t draw, so you never even try. Or, use this page to try experimenting with a new craft, art technique or medium, which is either new to you, or where you normally think ‘oh I can’t do that’... E.g. drawing horses or cars, or using charcoal or oil paints, or trying to do anime style drawings, or Steampunk...
12. “COLLABORATIVE PAGE”:
Ask your friends or family to write on the page, or for them to email you an image or a quote for it, or, if you have artistic friends, you could create the page together, or you could glue in inchies or ATCs you received in a swap... Basically, a page that is not just your own work, it somehow has other people’s work on it too, or they helped you to create it.
13. “A SONG OR POEM”:
Include the lyrics to a song or the words to a poem (you could even write your own!) and interpret it artistically.
14. “TWO COLOUR COMBINATION”:
E.g. a page which is just black and white, or just blue and gold, or whatever two colours you want to choose.
15. “LIGHT AND DARK”:
I was at a friend’s house where they had little stained glass lanterns with candles inside, and I was wondering about how to try and paint something like that – the glowing colours in the darkness etc... or perhaps you could try and paint one scene or object in different lighting conditions... But interpret this prompt however you like.
16. "MOVIE":
What was the last movie that made you cry? Illustrate & journal about how it made you feel.
17. “STARTING POINT”:
Start by cutting out a little ‘patch’ from an image in a magazine or something similar– about inchie sized, so you can't really see what it was originally. Glue it onto your page and use it as a starting point for a design. Paint around it, trying to match the colours exactly, and expanding the shapes etc to form a completely new, possibly quite abstract piece...
18. “WORD OF THE DAY”:
Learn a new word, or choose a meaningful or inspiring one for today. Journal about it.
19. "PAPERCUT/PAPERFOLD":
Interpret this however you like...Sculpt a few pages like Brian Dettmer's book autopsies, or create an intricate Chinese paper-cut. Try some origami, or tea-bag folding, or add extra dimensions to the page by introducing ‘pop-up’s or extra mini-pages that concertina out...?
20. "SILLYNESS":
Write a quote in silly or elaborate letters; you could cut out a comic, or draw one yourself; draw your name in block letters with little ladybugs & butterflies (or spiders and zombies) climbing on the letters...you get the idea....just non-sensical kinda stuff! Or write a whimsical haiku!
21. "QUASI-WORDS":
Create a page filled with nonsense words that do not actually exist. My personal favourites are 'dewrapitzed' & 'grimzlies'. I've been using them since I was a teen. :) Make up some fun and funky words!
22. "STITCHING":
Use stitching on a page. Stitch by hand, or using your machine, any way you wish. Use embroidery floss, thread, string, twine...anything at all. Use the stitching to highlight something on the page, like going around the edge of an image, or to give the page a finished look, like stitching a line 1/4" in from the edge of the page, all the way around. Use fabric, cardstock, cut-up abstract art, scrapbooking knick knacks (raid your unused stuff!!!), mini-photos of your artwork, an artist trading card. Stitch a pocket on to a page. Really, just anything to do with stitching.
23. "DARK THEME":
Nothing too dangerous, here, just dark and cool. Mystical or magical, paranormal, steampunk, gothic, creepy....you get the idea. Kinda fun.
24. "BUCKET LIST":
Journal your bucket list. A bucket list is a list of all the goals you want to achieve, dreams you want to fulfill and life-experiences you desire to experience before you die. I've always had things in the back of my mind that I want to experience before I die, but I've never put it to paper. I think this is a great place to do just that.
25. "MULTIMEDIA/MULTISENSORY":
Art journals are by their nature both visual and tactile (the weight of the book, the texture of a collage as you run your fingers across it) but can affect our other senses too – for example, the scent of the glue or the rustle of the pages. Try designing a page that will be a more sensory experience than the others. Perhaps incorporate something that makes a noise (tiny sleigh bells? A rattling sachet of beads?), add links to online music to be played in conjunction with the journalled page. Include scented or scratch 'n sniff materials or even something that the recipient could taste whilst perusing the book (I’m thinking of perhaps a lollipop or a herbal teabag, rather than encouraging the reader to actually lick the page!)
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