Art journal class review

Taught my last art journal class for the year on Wednesday night. We've covered a range of ideas for how to work in your art journal and this was a fun way to put all of that into practice. I had told them to bring limited supplies and that we would work together to create a page from start to finish. They needed to come with a quote or poem or found words and a focal image so they had a focus for the page. Then to choose a limited colour palette and select appropriate paints, markers, stamps, background collage papers and serviettes. This was all I took to class :

Their class notes had the following headings : 
1. Use paint (scrape it, brush it, baby wipe it)
2. Stencil
3. Words (found in the background, do your own lettering, stamp, cut out)
4. Paper (background, serviette, focal)
5. Cover something up with gesso
6. Markers/pencils (outline, lettering, shading, highlights)
7. Stamp
8. Drip/splatter/ink/glaze
I had written these numbers on popsicle sticks and they were in a jar so we couldn't see what we were drawing out. We got started by drawing a number and then doing that prompt on our page with a timer set for 5 minutes. It worked brilliantly - there was lots of laughter and everyone really enjoyed the bit of pressure of limited time to stop them thinking too much and to 'just do it'. They have learned during the year that nothing is a mistake and you shouldn't fall in love with your first layer or you won't want to cover it up!
I took progress photos as I did each prompt
5. Cover something up with gesso - the others already had prepared pages so this wasn't a good start for them, but I went ahead and scraped gesso on my page to cover over the darkest parts of my book pages. Some hadn't thought to use a credit card in that way so a good start

2. Stencil - a reminder that if you do something in one part of your page you should repeat it in another. 

7. Stamp - I used paint and tried to add some dark areas

8. Drip/splatter/ink/glaze - I shared three things here. A : the use of acrylic ink and transparent paint (Golden brand) to create a layer that unifies but also allows the previous layers to shine through. B : flicking paint loaded on a brush to create spatter. C : Drippage : again using ink/paint with flow and adding water. My drips didn't flow as well as they might because not all my background layer was covered and the paint soaks into old book paper instead of traveling. More lessons learned.

3. Words. First I found words in my background which I outlined with black Faber Castell Pitt pen. Then I cut some additional words found on a large print book page - I just brought a couple of pages from a recycled romance novel hoping there'd be something inspirational. You'd be surprised how often serendipitous looking works

The others wanted a little more time so we set the timer for another 5 minutes but I was happy with my words so I just outlined the larger ones with my Stabilo All watersoluble pencil and then smudged it using gel medium so it is sealed from future movement.

4. Paper. I did bring some background papers which I didn't use, but I had a beautiful serviette which had served as the inspiration for my colours and I managed to use it well around the page as my focal images

After that last prompt stick draw, we agreed we were all at the stage to do what felt good to finish our own page. For me I needed a glaze to fill in the gaps uncovered by any media. 

Especially lovely to have the iridescent and metallic paint shine up through this layer.

What follows are the student pages - amazing that we followed the same prompts and got such different results. 

My page was almost complete by the end of the night and I just love the layers but the bright yellow green spot was drawing my eye. I added some Noir iridescent paint around the page through punchinella and it made all the difference. From this 

to happy to call it complete : 

It's been a fantastic experience teaching these art journal classes and one I hope to continue in 2020.