A guest post by Carolyn Dube
Are there rules to art journal play? Not in my world because I give myself permission to play in the way that fits me. Frequently, I play on random pieces of paper and then put them into my art journal. That’s what happened today.
Dried up glue sticks are hard to take seriously so they are an easy tool for play. During my recent webinar, Playful Mixed Media Techniques with Carolyn Dube, you saw my video where I was playing around with a dried up glue stick in straight lines. This paper was created the same way but with circles!
My colorful circles were on a very large piece of paper so I just cut it down to the size of my journal attaching it with gel medium. Notice how the spine is on the right. That’s because I am using the back side of a journal page. My preference is for the spine on the left. But I didn’t realize how important that was to me until the end of this page.
My thoughts were scribbled all around the circles in all different colors of Posca pens. It’s best to let the paint dry completely before using a pen to journal. It was mostly dry and the pens seemed to have made it out alive.
With all the loose color swirling about, I chose to do some careful stenciling for a title using Now is the Time.
As usual, I had paint left on my palette after the stenciling. To use it up, I added more scribble journaling with that paint. About this point I realized that the spine was now on the left. Unaware of my own actions, this page was now upside down in my art journal. Does that bother me? Not one bit. This is play and I have permission to play the way that fits me!
Carolyn Dube is an art adventurer and educator. Get in touch with the creativity inside yourself as she inspires with entertaining tutorials that invite you to play and laugh along side her. Join Carolyn on her blog, A Colorful Journey, on Facebook, and at Google+. Her stencils are available at StencilGirl Products and check out her four new DVDs from North Light!
For more playful techniques with Carolyn, check out these video products:
