Art Journalling with Paula Watkins

This is a post that is long overdue! Last year I did a three part art journalling course with Paula Watkins, (her blog is here) with sessions in September, October and November. I intended to blog each session - that didn't happen!

The course was held at the Open Door, a community hub and art centre that opened last year, and is very conveniently located at the end of my road!

But better late than never. The art journal we worked on is still a work in progress now. But I wanted to share what we produced at each stage, as I completely loved making it!

The first session was paint and stencils, to create background pages to build on later. So much fun building images, layering the stencils, and experimenting with colour.

There was no waste - we started other pages with the waste paint from the stencils and sponges.

I'll build on these over time!

I carried on at home as well, with waste paint from other projects - the journal tends to be on the side ready whatever I'm doing these days.

The second session was tearing, punching and drawing! 

This is a much slower process, so we did some in the class, more at home, and there's a long way to go. I still have the pieces that were ripped off and punched out, to add back to these or other pages. I really like the doodling, but I absolutely loved the flowers Paula taught us to draw - for someone who can't draw, I was so chuffed with these!

It also proved expensive - the next time we went shopping I "popped" into Paperchase, and this happened:

Two black drawing pens were added shortly after from the art shop! But I am now very well supplied for drawing! And finding many uses for the pens.

The final session was die cutting, embossing and collage.

These pages looked great in plain white, but I have been brave and covered one in black gesso. The next stage will be to add more colour to highlight the shapes and patterns. I came away with a stash of spare shapes etc, and I have loads of embossing folders and dies at home to play with as well.

Now I have to decide which of Paula's courses I want to do this year! And the Open Door workshops for this term are going up at the moment, so there's more temptation for me!