One of the things I want to do with my Art Journal Sharing Thursday is to show some works in progress as well as finished pages, a bit of a ‘warts and all’ share. For me I’m hoping that it will be therapy to help me get over my ‘everything has to look perfect’ mindset and for you I’m hoping it will be helpful to share in a journey that I’m sure you are going through in your art too.
So today I’m being brave and sharing this cathartic work in progress page.
It is very home-themed because my partner and I are in the horrendous game of trying to buy a house. It is horrendous because we love living in London but the London market is completely crazy for all sorts of reasons. We have already had our fingers badly burnt and are back at square one, but in a worst position than we were 4 months ago when we started this game. But hey ho, them’s the breaks and you have to move on – no pun intended. Part of my trying to move on is to work some of it out in my art journal to let it go, well that is what I’m hoping anyway.
This home-themed work in progress page uses water-soluble graphite pencils, Golden Acrylic paints used as washes and a marker pen over the top. You can see that I got a bit impatient and didn’t wait for areas to dry, so there is a little bit of bleed from the red roof into their next door neighbours. But I’ll fix that later if I decide to keep the page, the page may never become anything at all, I might even paint over it at a later date.
Another reason for this page, other than working through some stuff, was to play with the Golden Regular Gel Medium. I wanted to use it as a resist so I’ve used it in several places on the page, over the word ‘Home’, the messy dots in the end of terrace house and the circle clouds in the sky all use the gel medium.
The page was heavily influenced by the Face Mask video from Pam Carriker for the Cloth Paper Scissors Art Journaling LIVE 2013 event and uses a lot of the same techniques because I wanted to see how they felt first hand.
So that is me this week, feel free to share any Art Journaling you have done this week with links and comments and if you also happen to be house hunting in London at the moment I really feel for you.
Catch you later.
Kim
Fabulous Journal pages Kim. I really need to make a start on mine. Hugs Rita xxx
This is great Kim. I'm finding art journaling very therapeutic at the moment, too. We're also having house/home related stresses. Hope you guys can find somewhere very soon, without too much more hassle and stress.
*hug*
How lovely to see other commentators who art journal too.
How you could stay sane house-buying in the capital, heaven knows, Kim. I thoroughly 'get' how the therapy of art works in this situation. Take care of yourself.
House Buying Stuff
Did you see this week's Location x3? It featured two couples in London with a 350K and a 600K budget, respectively. I could not see a huge difference between the flats shown to them. I got completely muddled at one point.
So it seems choosing your district is key. Plus nerves of steel and quick action. If you buy with a room to let, please tell me! Son #2 works in London!
The gel resist is very cool amidst those lovely colours – and great to take out those housing horrors on a journalling page. Wishing you lots of luck with the next steps in your moving on…
Alison x
So sorry to hear about your troubles in house hunting. It can be nerve wrecking anywhere in the world but in London? I can only imagine… phew! I'm keeping my fingers crossed for you to find a lovely home! 🙂
I do love your journal page, the gel medium as resist looks nice. I haven't had a chance to do any art journaling lately but next time I do, I think I'll give that a try myself.
Kim, I also seem to have a problem with everything has to be perfect and tried art journaling but I think I rather suck at it so stopped. I loved the techniques you showed and found your post such an inspiration. Thank you for sharing not only your journaling but your thoughts. I might just give it another shot.
🙂 Chris / CS Designs
Your page is brilliant, Kim!!!!