Everyday adventures

The Art of Artful Journaling

June 29, 2010

Since I returned from Missouri, I’ve been scrambling to catch up in my latest art class, Laure Ferlita’s Artful Journaling: Foundations. (I’m two lessons behind, and should be working on an assignment, but instead I’m writing about the class…)

I’ve wanted to learn how to do illustrated journaling for several years, after seeing an acquaintance’s gorgeous journal while on a trip to Greece. I’ve drooled over books about creating illustrated journals by Hannah Hinchman and Clare Walker Leslie and started sketching off and on. Since I love the look of watercolor, I wanted to incorporate it into my journal, but the first time I tried it (with the help of a library book), I realized I needed a real class with a teacher I could ask questions of. Laure’s current class is the best so far for what I actually want to do: add sketching and painting to my journal when I travel, as well as work on a nature journal here at home. Each lesson helps us build what Laure calls a “visual vocabulary,” techniques and skills for creating different effects, page design and so on. Assignments have included making a color chart (surprisingly soothing and fun), creating a set of borders, using a “placement map,” and making word art (one of the assignments I haven’t done yet).

Here are three of my pages (the color isn't quite right because I have to take a photo of the art instead of scanning it):



(Still need to darken the cast shadow between the cookie sides.)

Summer’s more relaxed schedule is a good time for exploring new hobbies and experiences. For me, illustrated journaling is both a simple pleasure and an everyday adventure. It’s fun—and it stretches me just a little outside my comfort zone while helping me move towards one of my goals.

What about you? What kind of simple pleasures and everyday adventures are you taking part in this summer? Do share!

Everyday adventures

Art Therapy

March 12, 2010

This week I completed one of Laure Ferlita’s Imaginary Trips—this one to the beach. Imaginary Trips are online video watercolor sketch classes, with such destinations as Paris and England, as well as the beach class, and one called “Autumn.” You can read more about them here.

I took this class for fun, but also so I could learn skills I’d need to do something I’ve wanted to do for a long time: keep an illustrated journal. I’ve kept a written journal for years, and I take lots of pictures, too, especially when we travel. Now I want to learn how to draw what I see, either here in my neighborhood or while we’re on a trip. I think I really begin to see a thing when I attempt to draw or paint it. To sketch something, I have to slow down and pause in the hectic pace of my daily life. (Learning to draw using pencil, pen and ink and my waterbrushes is also on my Six-Year Calendar of Happiness.)

The class was great, and my classmates were even better. What I learned from it (and them) went beyond adding pigment to paper or learning to sketch quickly and confidently. I learned not to give up on an assignment even when I felt it was turning out poorly. I learned to make adjustments to a sketch to make it more personal, instead of just copying the instructor. I learned not to panic when I made a mistake—most mistakes are fixable, even in watercolor. I learned that art is therapeutic, even if you have an emotional meltdown in the middle of a picture. And I learned that there’s always something you can like in a sketch, even when it doesn’t turn out like you wanted it to. Here are three of my assignments:



Is there something new you’d like to try? What are you waiting for? Do you want to learn to knit? Play a new sport? Explore a new place? I urge you to do it—open up to something you haven’t tried before, and see where it takes you. And come back here and share your experiences with me!