Today I’m beginning work on a new project – a visual journal – which is quite a stretch for me as I normally only ever work with fabric related projects. And if you’re wondering if I’m switching mediums, don’t despair just yet because with me all roads eventually lead to fabric and all will be revealed in time.
So what do I know about visual journaling? Precisely nothing which is why some time last year I signed up for the Strathmore Visual Journal Online Workshhop Series – you can find more details about it here – and already I’ve missed the first two workshops, but I’m determined making the effort to begin the third which is Roz Stendahl’s workshop Building Your Visual Journal from the Page Up and which began on the 1st May so I’m already a few days behind but today I am prepared to begin.
I only needed to purchase a few items – A good mixed media workbook; the pages are thick and support a variety of wet and dry media. And I also treated myself to some new Golden acrylic paints and some cute little stamp pads.
I already have a nice variety of paintbrushes …
Stencils and stamps and texture plates …
And things to create visual texture and design. I found some leftover bits of fabric paper shapes and textures that I thought might work as stamps or texture plates; we’ll see how that works out.
So now I’m armed and dangerous and I really don’t know how this will turn out because if you put anything in my hand other than a needle, thread and cloth, I’m usually quite hopeless. An interesting journey ahead.
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How funny…l am doing the exact same thing. Not following a course but trying to do the visual journalling bit. I too work mainly in textiles..scary isn’t? L will watch with interest!hax I am lready subscribe to you so won’t miss a step! good luuck. lynda
Hi Lynda, yes it is kind of weird to step out of your comfort zone and try something new. I’m always trying new stuff with textiles of course, but swapping fabric and thread for paper and paint just feels a little awkward x:-/
I’m doing the workshop too! I think I found out about it through you. Its way out of my comfort zone but I think this is going to be great fun because we can take our textile knowledge and experience and play with new media, its win/win all the way! I’ve already learned something new just preparing the pages with paint. Very diluted acrylic binding medium and food dyes give a translucent pearl finish on paper! I’d been using this mix to paint felt.
Hi Caroline – Thanks for the tip about the food dyes – I have a bunch of them that I use for dyeing so I’ll give them a try on paper. Playing with paper and paints is kind of fun, but a lot different than what I’m used to
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This will be interesting to see how you go along. My husband does watercolors and I have been itching lately to get into some paper & paint stuff also.
First I have to put away all my stuff I brought back from Florida and that is quite a job. Will keep me busy for awhile plus the garden is calling. Bought my 4 baskets today. Couldn’t resist.
I’m kinda sorta getting the hang of this paper stuff. Lots of resistance but I think I’ll persevere – it’s good to learn new skills
Have fun in your garden Freda.
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How did your visual journal experiment go? I would love to see pictures! I browsed around your site, but didn’t run across any, but I may have just missed it. I love your idea of this creative adventure that you are on, thanks for sharing all of your ideas and images of projects! I am big into visual journaling, you should check out my site, I would love feedback! You should send me a link of your journal pages if you have one! Thanks for sharing!
Hi Whitney, gosh time flies. I haven’t updated the visual journaling recently; I’ll try and get something up within the next week or so.