Art Journal Catchup

I have fallen terribly far behind in the Documented Life Project that I talked about in my first post. This week I jumped back into it completing a page digitally for one of the weeks I missed. I also made a print out of all the challenge information so that I can look for inspiration. Below is that missing week as well as several previously completed challenges.

Week Five

January Theme-The Blank Page and How to Face It!

January 31

Art Challenge:  Under Paper (paper on your work table that gets all inky while you work)

Journal Prompt:  What Lies Beneath?

January Focus Word- Truth

“If any of you lacks wisdom, you should ask God, who gives generously to all without finding fault, and it will be given to you.  But when you ask, you must believe and not doubt, because the one who doubts is like a wave of the sea, blown and tossed by the wind.”

James 1:5-6 (NIV)

When I saw the prompt I immediately thought of sea monsters, kraken, sea dragons...I think its the geek in me coming out. The verse for the week also struck a chord with me. For quite some time my husband and I have been struggling with fertility issues and trying to decide what route to take has been complicated and stressful. While we both try to keep a positive face we always have stress and doubts about our options and decisions lurking beneath the surface. I had originally intended to write about our struggles and bury it under a painted copy of the wave but got distracted by other things. I created the version below by combining several other pictures in photoshop.

Week Two

January Theme-The Blank Page and How to Face It!

January 10

Art Challenge:  Gesso

Journal Prompt:  “The beginning is always today.” -Mary Shelley

January Focus Word- Truth

"Show me your ways, Lord, teach me your paths. Guide me in your truth and teach me, for you are God my Savior, and my hope is in you  all day long." Psalms 25:4-5

I focused on the theme of paths and journeys, and was also inspired by Psalms 119:105 ( Your Word is a lamp to my feet and a light to my path.)

Week Three

January Theme-The Blank Page and How to Face It!

January 17

Art Challenge:  The Color Wheel

Journal Prompt:  "I found I could say things with color and shapes that I couldn't say any other way . . . “ - Georgia O’Keeffe

January Focus Word- Truth

"Lord, teach me your ways, and I will live and obey your truths. Help me make worshiping your name the most important thing in my life. Psalm 86:11 (ERV)

I decided early in this week that I wanted to try Zentangle for the color wheel but I never found a really good way to connect it to the verse. I looked up verses about rainbow and included one along with the regular weekly verse. For more information about Zentangle check out https://www.zentangle.com/.

Week Four

January Theme-The Blank Page and How to Face It!

January 24

Art Challenge:  Writing

Journal Prompt:  Words with Friends

January Focus Word- Truth

I am the way, the truth and the life. No one can come to the Father except through me.” John 14:6

Right before this challenge came out my husband and I had a kind of strange conversation. When I can't sleep its usually because my brain is too active so I play a game to distract myself where I try to come up with words in a certain category for each letter of the alphabet. This particular night I was actually doing a trio: Animal, Food, and Place. So I came up with Rhinoceros from Russia who likes Rutabagas. Sometimes if he's awake Bear will help is I get stuck on a letter. In this case we were both nearly asleep and had a whole conversation about how maybe the Rhino worked as a guard in a Siberian Prison and only feed the prisoners Rutabagas. . . Lack of sleep makes all sorts of things funny. Anyways I used that as my words with friends inspiration and made a totally separate page for Documented Faith using a card created by Documented Faith organizer Stephanie Ackerman.

Week 6

February Theme-Layers You Will Love!

February 7

Art Challenge:  When Not To Stop

Journal Prompt:  "Don't Stop Til You Get Enough!" (Ooh)

February Focus Word- Believe

“If you believe, you will receive whatever you ask for in prayer." Matthew 21:22

This page was also inspired by our fertility struggles but came at a time where we were both hopeful and felt like we were finally beginning to make progress. That bird is ready for some eggs to fill its empty nest. Yellow and turquoise are one of my favorite color combinations. The bird was created by Becca Kallem as part of a set of Christmas ornaments.

While I feel a little bad about being so far behind I'm still glad that I'm at least trying to make time in my life for art and I hope you enjoy seeing what I have so far.

Art Journaling Groups

I spend a lot of time browsing Pinterest and one of the things I like to look at are Art Journal pages. Sometime last year I noticed that a lot of the pages I was seeing were taged as dlp or Documented Life Project. I had to know more about this so I googled it and found a Facebook group then spent the remainder of the year lurking  and quietly gawking at all the beautiful artwork that I found there. So when the new year hit and I decided that I wanted to work on being more creative I joined the group and started a journal of my own. I also discovered a related group called Documented Faith and joined that as well.

You can find more information about these groups here:
Documented Life Project with Art to the 5th
Documented Faith with Stephanie Ackerman


Every week the Documented Life Project offers a journal prompt for inspiration and a challenge such as specific supply to use. Sometimes the prompt is quote, sometimes just an idea. You are free to interpret the prompt in any way you choose and the challenges are optional, just a way to help people push themselves and explore new techniques. Documented Faith had a focus word for each month and then a Bible verse using that word for each week. I started out trying to combine all the prompts into one art page but because the information for each group is released on different day and it takes me a little bit of time to connect things and come up with a plan it has quickly put me behind. I'm not sure how or if I'm going get caught up but the important part in my opinion is that my art supplies are no longer collecting dust.

Week One

Journal Prompt: Be Your Own Goalkeeper

Art Challenge: Book Paper

Word of the Month: Truth

Weekly Verse: "For I know the plans I have for you," declares the Lord, "plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future." Jeremiah 29:11

For this week I started out with a connection between goals and the phrase "plans to give you hope and a future". I decided to use a map for the book paper part of the challenge thinking about plans and goals and directions. I choose a map of the North Pole to complement the round shape of the compass. I used the map as inspiration for color and painted the background.

Background Watercolors

I decided that I wanted to keep my goals more private so I attached the compass as a flap and wrote my goals on the back side so that they are hidden. Then because my husband's nickname is Bear and the North Star is part of Ursa Minor I decided to search for quotes about the North Star and star maps. I found a star map that had the North Star and constellations for both of our astrological signs as well. So I poked holes over all the stars and marked through them with a silver gel pen. Then I connected the constellations for our signs and Ursa Major and Minor. Finally I added the verse around the outside of the compass and the following quote around the coast of the map. 

She was his north star, the fixed point round which his world turned. For as long as his heart beat, or hers, he believed they would always share s destiny. (David Gemmell)

Detail of Constellations