Just The Right Inspiration

For a few weeks now, I've been meaning to create a journal to record my thoughts as I work through a book called Healing From Trauma by Jasmin Lee Cori (which I highly recommend if you're looking for this sort of book).  Anyway, I hadn't quite decided on the format I wanted to use until my friend Kathie told me about Valerie Sjodin's art journalling.  Valerie is an incredible artist and she has created a number of stunningly beautiful art journals.  This gave me a jumping off point.  I loved the idea of some interesting edges and flaps as well as little pages within the bigger ones.  

Once I had the journal bound, I got started on the first spread.  I've decided to call it 'a healing journey', so the journey begins with that first spread.  I've mentioned in the past that it is my goal to do Art Every Day because I find it very relaxing and even healing at time.  Today was no exception.  As I started working on the page, thinking about things as I worked, I felt the burning need to start journalling.




I stopped working on the overall spread so that I could quickly finish the lower left area in which I knew I wanted to do some journalling so that I could get my thoughts down on the page.

Once I had written down my thoughts, I got back to finishing the rest of the page.

I incorporated part of a map into the top of the page and drew a bicycle to represent my other passion, cycling, which is another vehicle (no pun intended) for allowing myself to work through issues when I just need some 'zen' time to burn energy and think.  Those endorphins do wonders!

Here's the finished spread:

And Then It Popped...

 Yesterday I showed you another watercolour paint doodle I was working on and today I got out my Microns and Pitt pens and added some black doodling over the paint.

I just love how it makes it pop.  I've also added some additional dimension using my Inktense  pencils to add some shading and highlights here and there.

The final step was to add the words and since the image ended up reminding me of a garden path, that lead to the words I chose.  In hindsight, I wish I had written the text in larger, bolder letters, but what's done is done.

If you look at the close ups, you'll also see that I added some text, using a Micron 01 between the leave and petals on the right hand page too.


It was fun drawing the little pebble circles within the larger circles.  I love doing that when I free motion stitch so I decided to add it in my doodle too.

The photos don't really show it, but I love the contrast between the regular watercolours and the Twinkling H2Os.  It just give a bit of glimmer and pop to some areas.

Thanks for your visit.  I don't say it enough, but I really appreciate you taking the time to stop by!  Have a fabulous week!