Quick post-journal pages

Finally getting back into a groove, I think!  I'm still working in one of my altered composition notebook journals. Finding that, even during my work week, which is 7 ten hour night shifts, that if I take a few minutes to sit down at the work table in my art room, there will possibly be some inspiration or I can do some prep work.  Gesso or paint doesn't take much brain power and then I can always try again later.  Most of what I'm doing right now is "fly by the seat of your pants" stuff anyway. Thinking of trying some collages on canvas soon along the line of what I'm doing on the journal pages.  If I don't like them, I can always collage over them!  I've not done any messy collages on a larger scale, just simpler, neat collages and several collage/assemblage boxes. A lot of what I've done in the past has been for art group swaps, so it is embarrassing how little I have of my own art at home.  I have given some pieces to my Mom and daughters.  Hope to be entering a phase of finding my voice, if there is one, and expressing in whatever manner it seems to be wanting.

This is the latest pair of pages.  Started with gesso, then blue paint smeared in various colors, and some smudges of oil pastels.  I have a file of magazine cutouts and the paper glued to the lower right corner and the castle picture are from that.  Those led to the circles and carrying the designs around the pages.  Playing around with different pens, paints, etc. to see what works and how.  Of course, all is messy, cause that's how I seem to roll.

I'm using my scanner this time, like I used to before I had a digital camera or a phone that could take pictures.  Amazing how easy those make taking and uploading a picture, but it seemed like the shadows and lighting hid some details.  I do find the scans more pleasing but my scanner bed is too small to capture both pages to the edges, so I scanned individually.  Above the right and below the left.  Funny side note to me using my scanner, is that I'm also using my desk top which I rarely use anymore.Slow for some reason & can't figure out why.  Usually posting from my desktop and a little from my iPhone, So the humorous part is that I keep trying to move the cursor by moving my finger around on the desk instead of reaching for the mouse! 

The pages below are my attempt at "coloring outside the line".  Meaning, I'm not really an orange/yellow kind of gal. Again, gesso first but this time I collaged some papers that were chosen quickly and by color coordination and then went for the paint and pens.  I guess the colors seemed so tropical that I started searching for an image to add. This pretty bird seemed to belong and then that called for a for a branch sketched in with a gold pen.  As often happens, making myself use colors I don't normally reach for resulted in something I really liked. 

This time not much point in scanning each page as the right page didn't have much detail on the edges. So above is the birdie page and then both together.

These next pages are what I call my weird ones.  They were done a little while ago, but I never have scanned them in or shown them.  Totally made up from scraps and pictures from my table top at the time, these ended up being kind of cool, at least to me.  I've said before that I just usually play around in my journals and some spreads are the kind I come back and write on while others wouldn't really work for that, being too busy or more of a collage.  Although these are busy with this and that, there is still enough empty space that I'll probably journal here one day. 

The fish picture is another one printed from an copyright-free online source onto old watercolor paper from the thrift store.  Other papers used are scraps of text from there and there, bits of painted paper from that I keep on my work surface to catch the overflow(ends up with lots of lovely and random color), scrapbook paper bits, old letter pieces, and the bones are a packing tape transfer glued over some text. Yeah, I just tried to move the pointer with my finger on the desk top again.  I keep myself amused!

Also, I have tried my hand at carving cheap erasers into stamps.  the diamond shapes, swirls, and  arrow are some of those.  Periodically I will get some of my rubber stamps or carved erasers and experiment with them on paper scraps or book pages, after which they get filed away for future journal use.

As far as life goes, the new job is working out well.  I do like the schedule so much more than I did when I was working every Tuesday through Saturday in Huntsville.  Definitely don't miss being on the road 2 to 3 hours each work day.  Now I can be at work in 15 minutes and even though I'm putting in 7 long days in a row, I have 7 off days then after they are over.  I feel  like I should be getting more done when I'm off than I have so far.  There are days to spend with grandchildren and this weekend will be one of those.  Emily and her boys are coming for a visit.  We don't get to see them nearly as much as we would like to.  They both work as do we, but with my present schedule I have an entire weekend free without having take time.