Purpose of Art Journaling, by Shana

Its my turn again! I am hoping you are all doing well my Lovelies!

This weeks play time ended up totally different than what I had first planned to start out with. The start of my page I wanted to be sweet, maybe a girl with a teddy or something equally sweet. But my page turned into this worried girl.

At first I was frustrated and was going to start over, but after some deliberation I realized this is what a journal is for. I may not write my feelings down in words but the face I painted shows how I have been feeling as of late. I have multiple family members that have medical issues that are very scary right now and this causes me to worry, and worry causes anxiety. These are the times when I should be working in my journal the most but I tend to lock up and it's a fight for me to get into my studio, but once I do I feel all of my anxiety start to melt away. Sometimes I forget what the best medicine for me is.

To start I used my Stathmore Visual Journal, starting with a page painted in a sloppy black layer. My girl and the idea I had for my page were inspired by another artist, Mindy Lacefield. So I started my girl using a palette knife to lay down some white Dina Wakley paint for her head and shoulders, I then used some of the other vibrant paint colors from Dina to create shadows. I used my Generals Scribe-All to add definition to some of the features. I then went in with more of the paints to add more definition using brushes and palette knife.

For the background I used a big paint brush to 1st do a layer of orange to which I added some stenciling. I decided to cover it and I used another layer of paint using white this time. I decided I needed a bigger shape in the back ground so I used Bodacious Pods stencil from the Playful Pods series using orange, then using green to fill in space.

I love how this page turned out, it shows how I was feeling but also shows the bright outlook in my background, which encompasses my fake it until I make it way of life! And so far I'm winning!

So I guess my lesson learned is that I need to use my journal as way to better myself instead of worrying what I think everyone else will like! If you would like to watch my process take a look below at my video up on youtube.

Big Hugs and Mushy stuff!!!

- Shana Banana

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