She’s the Mama of all the other monsters!
We each have our own Inner Critic. It’s that voice in your head that tells you you’re not good at something, or that you need to lose weight, or maybe that you’re not pretty/handsome. You know, that voice that makes you feel bad about yourself, what you do, what you want to accomplish. That voice that diminishes your confidence with each whisper.
I really liked this until I spilled ink on it. Or painted that. Or drew this.
How many times have I said that to my spouse or one of the kids. How many times have my students said it to me!
But you know what? Short of a fire (and maybe not even then) almost anything can be brought back from ruin.
Take this page. It had a beautiful rose on it.
Let’s assume you are human. You’re going to make mistakes. We all do. They are part of life.
Without taking risks, trying new things and making mistakes, we don’t learn new things. However, if we never try, we don’t learn anything.
So, there’s nothing I’ve done in my journals that I couldn’t change. It doesn’t matter if it’s a misspelled word, an icky color, or a smudged stamp. I can always glue something on top, paint over it, or simply incorporate it into what I’m creating.
I several different times, as a child, I had one of those super boxes of 64 colors of crayons. They were one of my favorite things. I would often just spend time arranging the colors in an order that please me. Or, I would color various combinations on paper to see what they looked like. I was always fascinated by what new colors appeared when I squinted at my scribbles, using my blurry vision to combine colored strokes in my mind.
I have a great deal of difficulty with handwriting. When I was in High School, my English teacher asked me to write out my homework, like everyone else. So I did, I handed in a paper in my best, carefully done handwriting. The next day, she told me I had permission to print, or type from then on. She couldn’t read my paper.
So, I get it. I understand that you might be afraid to write on your page.
So many people tell me that they can’t do an art journal (or Zentangle!) because they think they can’t draw.
But, just about everyone had crayons as a kid. And when they did, they drew all sorts of things, like Mom and Dad, the house they lived in, the sky, trees and flowers.
The problem isn’t that they can’t draw… the problem is that somewhere along the line, they were probably told, “That’s not what a (fill in the blank) looks like!
Every artist and writer has times when the Blank Page Monster takes over and they just can’t get started!
For me, I slay this monster by using a pencil, and drawing a border lightly around the page. Then I write, lightly, what I’m planning on doing on the page. That’s usually enough to get me going.
If I don’t really have a plan, and I just want to do something… I grab my watercolors and paint in the background.
I’m starting a new insert for a Chris.W micro Traveler's Notebook . I am using an insert that I made, rather than one that came with the book.
This time, I’ve chosen the theme of Monsters, in particular, the ones that I have vanquished. Everyone has “monsters” in their lives. They are both internal and external.
Some of them are the voices in our heads that try to tell us that we can’t do something.
When I got back from vacation, look what was in my mail!
I ordered this tiny Key-Per from Jot before I left. But because it was coming from Canada, it took a while to get here. Unfortunately, it didn’t arrive before I left.
But check it out! It is a little less than 2 inches high, and a bit less than 1-3/4 wide, when closed. To give you a sense of scale, the star paper clip is normal sized.
I’ve come to the end of my teeny, tiny, micro art journal. I made this out of materials I had on hand as a test to see if I like doing art this small. I tried all sorts of things in it, and it was a lot of fun.
I ended up making more than a weeks worth of layouts. There are a total of nine spreads in my little book.
The number of seeds in a dandelion are, like the number of stars in the sky… Beyond measure. It is the same with ideas. There is no knowing the number.
All of us are artists when we are born…filled with infinite ideas. When we grow up, we no longer trust our own creativity. We think we must be like someone else. We are not good, we are not talented, we cannot do this.
Sticking with the theme of seeds, here I’m showing someone peering fearfully through a tiny window and looking out on a garden. The garden is planted with all the things that make us happy.
So often, we push away the things that bring joy to our art. We are afraid to make mistakes, or worried about what someone will think about what we are doing.
It’s important to allow ourselves to be happy!
Jokes and puns about pie abound in this household. It’s a popular food item, and also a popular numerical value.
However, I set all of those aside, (perhaps to be revisited in their own tiny art journal,) so that I could use something that related better to the theme of the book I am working on.
If you will remember back, I did a page where the fruit was harvested .
Today, I can show you the covers that fit the insert booklets you saw yesterday!
I used the green leather you saw previously. I ended up using oatmeal colored elastic and I added some charms. I made two complete sets. The one on the right is for me, and the one on the left is a gift for a friend!
Here, you can see all four booklets in each cover.
The first step in figuring out how to make my micro art journal from the parts I showed you yesterday was to figure how to make the inserts, and what size they should be.
Next, I selected Canson Mixed Media paper to use as the pages. I chose this paper because I already know it handles wet media well. It is the paper that I use to make Gelli plate prints.
After working in my teeny, tiny, micro art journal for a week or so, I’ve decided on a size that I like, for the time being.
I figured out the sizes for everything and made myself a set of templates.
And after I decided what to use for the cover, I found paper that will look nice for the covers of the inserts!
Doing a happy dance!
Tandika*
#microart #microartjournal #miniatureartjournal #miniartjournal #miniatureart #tinyjournalnation #allthingstiny #allthingsminiature #microartjournaling #tinyartjournal
I’ve planted lots of “seeds”, tended the garden, and now it’s time to reap the rewards!
Another spread in the tiny Traveler’s Art Journal! I had drawn Pokeroot on the page, and there were a few gray marks. So I just went with it, incorporating it into the theme.
If you are interested in Tiny Art Journals, you might like Micro Art Journaling Facebook group!
Tandika*
#microart #microartjournal #miniatureartjournal #miniartjournal #miniatureart #tinyjournalnation #allthingstiny #allthingsminiature #microartjournaling #tinyartjournal
Again, working on pages with markings. And then I added more to the page on the left. I added a tiny stamp with two bees and then used my watercolors to paint them and the page, over the markings.
I had already drawn the flowers on the page on the right, but I added watercolor, micron and gel pen.
Finally, I added the words.
It is fun trying to scale down my normal art journal techniques to fit in this tiny book!
I loved my teeny, DIY, Traveler’s Notebook so much, that I decided to purchase a commercially made one with a leather cover from Amazon.
It arrive in a tiny box! I thought this was really adorable. When I opened it up, the book was inside.
The book itself is very nice, although I thought the cover was just a bit too thick in proportion to the size. However, I’m ok with it because it will probably last forever.
For the third set of pages in my teeny, tiny Traveler’s Notebook, I decided to create a two-page spread.
I decided to use Mooka shapes to indicate parts of a plant and create a “family.”
I wanted to illustrate that when you have a good idea for your artwork, you need to nurture it and protect it so it comes to fruition.
Tandika*
#microart #microartjournal #miniatureartjournal #miniartjournal #miniatureart #tinyjournalnation #allthingstiny #allthingsminiature #microartjournaling #tinyartjournal