The Secret Place

I have been progressing on my journal and have a few new pictures. This is the section I call the Secret Place. The page on the left covers the next two pages so part of it is hidden. I will add the words The Secret Place here and probably paint the background red. I want it to be a different "door" than the blue door. but I have to do the other sections that will show with this page and make  sure the colors work together.

This is the page I did to represent the secret things God does for me that no one knows about. Things that are just between me and Him. This butterfly was done in colored pencil and the background is acrylic paint and colored pencil. 

Keys Journal front cover

Here is the front of my journal. It has 17 pages if you count all the flaps and pages back and front. You'll see as I go along. This first photo is how it looks when it's closed. I still have pen work and more words I want to add, but I wanted to post this to give you an idea of how it's beginning to look.

This photo shows the first flap open and the rest of the left page is completely revealed. It's kind of like a treasure box as it unfolds.  I am skipping around doing pages I have solid ideas and sketches for first. 

Keys

Here is the first two pages inked and ready for color. It took a few hours to plan out all the pages around my theme. I had to make sure each touching page related to the other back and front. Conceptually this is a real challenge for me. Now that I'm past the planning stage and have completed these pages, the rest are starting to flow.

Journal

Starting a new project - a visual journal. I found a great blog which inspired me to try and make a prayer journal. Valerie Sjodin is an artist that uses visual (or art) journals to express herself. She also paints. So this is the beginning. It's made from 3 sheets of watercolor paper each cut 22" x 10" and folded to make the journal. I'll post more as I go along.

In case you aren't familiar with visual journals, or art journals, just Google it and you'll see many awesome examples. I love the idea of combining words and images in a book format. I am excited to add to that a theme for the whole journal. Let me know what you think of art journals, and if you have a favorite artist doing journals, share that too.

I have finished all the 6" x 6" monoprints need ed to fill my sketchbook. I am happy with them all except now my book won't close. But it's a learning curve. I'll have to solve that issue next time around. These are three prints I did using my brand new stencils from Stencil Girl.  Mary Beth Shaw has collaborated with many artists to design really wonderful, interesting stencils for artists and crafters to use.

Three Birds on Stilts

Landscape

                                                         
                                                         Heart

Gold squares and a blue sky

Gold squares over navy scallops- 6 x6" monoprint.

                                Blus Sky - Vermont vista 6 x 6 oil on canvas.

Layers

This one has three layers and each one surprised me. finished enough prints today to dil the sketchbook. A bunch of really nice stencils arrived today from Stencil Girl. Can't wait to try them out.