Stampotique inspiration

I found these stamps from Stampotique that I LOVED but, were too expensive to buy at that time. I found some images of their stamps, cut them out and used them for inspiration for my own characters. They seem to have inspired my own style of characters now, sometimes it happens like that, by accident, finding that style that suits you. For you it might be manga, old-style - who knows? This was simply an idea gathering exercise, however, it set me up for months following. So, a seemingly purposeless activity can provide purpose for the future.

Feeling Blue?

I had dried up doing the black and white Zentangles, wanted to do a different colour. Having a 'thing' about blue, this seemed a good choice. I was fiddling with doing characters with my doodles so, did the person in the middle. There are also other signature things in there, the water droplets, stars, dragonflies. This started as a doodle but, ended up reflecting how I was feeling at that time whilst keeping close those things that represent me.

Split personality

This page expressed how difficult I find operating in general life to be sometimes. You often have to be 2 different people (or more than 2!). At work you may have to be professional and forthright, at home you might be relaxed and laid back. It can sometimes be hard to be those two people, and turning off one to become the other can be a challenge. This collage shows how 2 aspects of myself can make me feel. Colour is always important to me so, the 2 areas of colour show the 2 aspects of myself.

Open Zentanglextension

This one was done whilst I was feeling more open and expansive than usual, hence the doodles around the edges are larger, more open and less detailed. I tend to become 'smaller' and more detailed when I get more negative or, lacking in confidence. Again, central picture, aspects of it to inspire the doodles, done in gel pen.

Zentanglextension

Well, another doodle day here, central picture from an old diary, aspects of it used to extend it around in gel pen. There will be things that come to identify my doodles, hearts, eyes, water droplets amongst others. That's good! It's YOU!

Hatred

Ok, I was REALLY angry and down when I did this collage. The printed age is from an ancient Thesaurus from a charity shop, all about hatred. The cuttings are from a book of headlines (again from a charity shop) - all about people dying, murderers etc. I just piled them all in there, squeezed them in, vented my anger onto that page. It got it out for me in a constructive way rather than shouting and bellowing and screeching.

Ganesh Zentangle

This one is really just a doodle page. I had nothing to say verbally but, wanted to do something to express myself so, did this. The central picture was cut from an old diary and I extended and continued it using gel pens. I try to use aspects of the central image to doodle around the edges so it sits comfortably in there.

Focal point

The purpose of this page was to focus on one thing where there seems to be nothing worth focussing on. This might seem nonsensical but, have you ever had times where day-in, day-out, every day feels the same from start to end, same, same, same. You sometimes need to step back and find one little thing to focus on that will pick out aspects of the day-to-day monotony and make life seem more interesting. This is a simple way to do it. Choose one shape, choose your favourite colour. Mine is usually purple but, I have a kind of thing about teal blue these days. One circle will be in this colour, the rest on differing shades of a contracting or complementary colour. This shows that amongst 'sameness' you can still stand out in some way. Felt pens used for this one!

Focus on the positive

At the time I did this, things were quite hard in my life, and I can tend towards focussing on the negative. Here I wanted to focus on the positive - my husband, our relationship. They are our hands in the photo, and photos of my husband on the RHS. I found a quote that fit well so, incorporated that into the page. This page, when I look at it sometimes feels quite bare but, the more I look at it, the more peaceful it looks rather than bare.

Hidden

A mixed media piece, tissue paper, acrylic paint, gel pen, jigsaw pieces.
I had spotted the jigsaw at a local charity shop and loved the 'old' appearance of it. Everything was designed around the sepia tones, hoping for it to look, in completion, as if it all fit together in an aged theme. The writing on this is done with 'tonal' gel pens. I admit it, I have somewhat of an obsession - ASDA do a set of 36 for £3! Fantastic! Anyways, back to the journal page. This is more of a 'diary' page than some of the previous pages, but each paragraph is in a different pen, in a different orientation, all separate, all dealing with different parts of my day or, how I felt about certain aspects of my life.

The way they are / the way I am

This page started off with me painting huge partial letters in a tone on tone with the background. I had an ancient Thesaurus that I'd found in a charity shop for about 50p. I was very angry and feeling vengeful at the time I was doing this so, picked out 2 sets of statements from the Thesaurus, ones about how 'THEY' were making me feel - and one about how I was feeling or, what I could do.
They were arranged in different orientations so that I knew which was which, overlying each other, individually, however felt right at the time. This feels oddly peaceful for such a potentially angry piece of work.

Me as a tree

I will admit to being very disappointed with this one. I wanted it to reflect more of ME than it does. This goes to show you can have ideas but, they don't necessarily work for you. The idea of this was to express yourself as a tree, roots being those things that ground you, the trunk, you and the branches, what you are reaching for. It's OK, but I'm sure it could be way better. This is something I think I will return to in time and alter, improve, correct. This is something not to be scared of, going back and 'doing over' pages you have already completed. Truth is, if you're not happy with it, it's not completed, it's awaiting completion. I would say not to remove any pages from your journal that you're unhappy with, just leave it to be completed at a later stage.

Fringed face

In this one, I had wanted to do something that made me feel happy, uplifted. My favourite colour is purple so, I wanted to concentrate on that as an overall theme. When I was working on this, I knew how I WANTED it to look but, it turned out very differently. Menacing - this reflected how my life felt at that time. The face is done with - you guessed, gel pens, the rest with torn magazine paper in purple hues.

Fractured Faces

This was a mixed media piece, tissue paper, acrylic paints, needle and thread and gel pen. I had been feeling vulnerable, there were lots of things looming over me, all dark and scary. It seemed to sum up how I was feeling particularly well.

A Zentanglexpansion

My version of a Zentangle, a doodle. I like to start with a central image sometimes. This is one of the first ones I did. I like to choose elements from the central image and use it in the doodles around it. Again, I use gel pens to do the doodling.

Front Page

I feel it is important to have a front page to any Journal, be it an Art Journal, a written one or, a 'scrapbook' journal. To me, it sets a scene, tells you that this is yours. It can be altered, updated and changed as you see fit as time goes on. This was my initial front page, a bit 'raw' but, I think it fits me well. All done in Gel pen. You will see that I LOVE gel pens!