More Journal Snippets

As an artist, I find myself using journals to express myself very often. A journal is like a diary, only more visual. You are already seeing pages from my Nature Journal every month. So thought of sharing a few pages from my Transition Journal that I finished earlier this month.

The above picture is the front cover, and the picture below features an amalgamation of some individual pages along with the back cover.

In these difficult days when our world is in the grip of the pandemic, maintaining a daily/weekly/fortnightly or even monthly journal is a good way to release some pent up stress, sadness and frustration. Try it, dear readers!

Mixed Media Squares

For today's post, we need to go back in time a bit. Let us revisit these previous posts of mine from February 2016 - Faces and Figures, and The Making of a Flower Girl. For a recap, those artworks were made in mixed media using a variety of techniques like stamping, collaging, and finally some intuitive mark making. 

I landed up making quite a few of these 10"x10" mixed media squares, and tucked them away in some corner of my supplies cupboard. Some personal upheavals later that year made me forget about these completely, and I did not post about them here. Till we moved houses and cities last year and I recently rediscovered them while searching for something else. 

Lined up together they looked so pretty that I decided to dedicate a much-deserved post to them finally. So I will not go into the details of the process (for that you can see the previous posts from February 2016), but let you feast your eyes.

Can you identify this singer? My hubby's favourite!

I simply love this cat portrait.

Here is another view of the ladies. They definitely brightened up our lockdown days. Hope you enjoy them as much as I do.

Nature Journal 2020: Half Yearly Update

First, the good news - my Nature Journal for 2020 has finally started taking shape. Though this year the journal size is smaller but I'm glad I have lots of stuff to put in it, including specimens from my own garden.

Now, for the confession - I was so absorbed in enjoying my blossoming new garden at the beginning of the year, that I completely forgot to take samples or record observations for January and February. With over twenty varieties of flowers, those two months could have made for a separate flower journal. 

Meanwhile, this year's nature journal starts in March, alongside the Covid-induced lockdown. 

While the first 2 pages cover the months of March to May, there are month-wise individual pages from June onwards. Needless to say, many of this year's jottings include references to this unprecedented time in our lives, and to the impact of the pandemic.

Now hope to bring you a fresh post each month on the nature journal through the rest of the year.

#naturejournal2020

Poppies with Printmaking

Finally the grey, foggy days of winter are here sending shivers down the spine. But this winter I won't whine.... the unusually hot December was rather worrisome when you think of what we are doing to our planet. Anyhow, to distract myself from such issues, I decided to try my hand at some monoprints using regular stuff lying around the house.

Using two shades of blue and a contrasting red ink pen to fill in the details, I created a bunch of my favourite poppy flowers. Incidentally, our garden did not get any poppies this year (despite getting loads last year), so this was a fitting way to revisit them.

Believe me, no fancy products are required. All I used were a block-sized piece of synthetic foam, some brushes, acrylic paints and paper to print on. And a cutter or knife to carve the design into the foam block. Don't worry if you don't have those; even a ballpoint pen without ink works wonders! I used such a pen as you can see from the pictures below.

Once the design is carved, paint the stamp with acrylic colours of your choice and voila!.... let the stamping fun begin.

Sounds simple enough? Now try some yourself and send me your pictures. Would love to see how my readers get inspired. :) I also created some red and mustard poppies for the inside back cover of my nature journal. You can look out for those in the next post.

Nature Journal: January

One of the new things I started this year is maintaining a nature journal. Last year when I was reading up on art journaling and searching for new ideas, I came across this amazing concept. Those of you who have been following my work would know what a freaked-out nature worshipper I am. Only need an excuse to incorporate flowers, leaves, floral patterns and everything Nature into my works. Perhaps that is why this idea appealed so much to me.

And what was the super idea? - Simple, to maintain a monthly nature journal. And what does that involve? - To go out and take a closer look at the world around you. To record, mentally and literally, every little change that you see happening.... The leaves changing colour, the new buds blooming, the birds that you encounter, the crawly fellows who visit your garden... everything and anything can find a mention in the nature journal.

 

I have just about finished putting together my page for January (though there is still some scope for doodling!) and decided to share it with you all. Do you like it? I had lot of fun putting it together, especially the dry leaf in the right corner. That I try to go on walks daily helped me in collecting interesting pieces for the journal. But this exercise definitely made me more aware of my surroundings, as I looked for interesting stuff to put in my journal.

Also, this journal is made out of an upcycled advertorial magazine. I glued multiple pages that were too thin to serve as a base and got a thicker material that could hold paint and gesso. At other places I laid on thick layers of paint to cover up the original printed matter, and voila, there was a new base to work on! Go on, try making one yourself. It will be an exercise you'll surely fall in love with.

Gift Tags

Another new year starts off.... should have been the season for much partying and enjoyment. But the ghastly happenings in the city had left me in deep distress, unable to do anything creative. Being the mother of a daughter myself it gave me immense anguish to see the apathy of the government at such a sensitive issue.

So, in the hope that the coming new year will bring us better times, I spent the last day of the 2012 making these handmade gift tags...

Some using wooden blocks and paints...

And others by simply doodling designs...

Helped bring the focus back to my creative work, and away from the craziness of everyday living. Hope in the coming year we have the sense to gift some respect and honour to our women.

And in the meanwhile, if you need any gift tags for all those upcoming weddings and parties, drop in a line at creativerumblings@gmail.com and get some handmade ones for yourself.