No Pencil drawing.

One of the things I want to do this year is to improve my drawing skills. I know from experience that drawing  with a marker or pen not only force you to really look before you make a mark but it also help you to overcome the fear and insecurity in your own creative and artistic abilities. I love to sketch and draw and do it all the time and whenever I can even if it is only little doodles while I am on the telephone. 

I usually sketch or draw all over in different journals but this year I dedicated a journal for these kind of sketches. I have only one rule in this journal - NO PENCIL OR ERASING are allowed on any of the pages and it must be real time life drawings.  It doesn't matter if some of the drawings are totally wonkers or lines are not straight. I will sketch and draw as often as I can and I will not let 'bad drawings' sabotage my future drawings. I will just push on because I know that I will have a big smile on my face when I look back through the pages at the end of the year and see how I have improved. 

This is a page from my journal showing the tools I will be using. The journal itself is one I made with a sheet of watercolor paper and the rest of my tools are small, compact and easy to carry around.   

What do you say? Challenge yourself and keep a journal that you fill with drawings going straight in with a marker or pen. Do it for a month as an experiment. You will be amazed to see how it force you to really observe something and your ability to make marks and draw fluent lines will improve drastically. 

Best of luck and happy drawing! 

Ansota :)

Sketchbook Project

Pages from my sketchbook. I used collage elements, watercolor pencils and markers. 

Doodles and Painting

Two more pages from my art journal. 

A kind of doodle. ©Ansota

Time is precious. Use it wisely. ©Ansota

Choices

"Don't wait until everything is just right. It will never be perfect. There will always be challenges, obstacles and less than perfect conditions. So what. Get started now. With each step you take, you will grow stronger and stronger, more and more skilled, more and more self-confident and more and more successful." ~ Mark Victor Hansen~

~ Ansota ~

Getting Whimsical

Just playing a bit with watercolors and markers. Doodling is good for you! :)

Ansota

What is an Art Journal?

There are so many ways one can look at an art journal and to every person it has a different meaning and they also treat their journals differently. I think one thing we all have in common is that our art journal is a place where we can explore our own creativity in our own unique way. 

There are so many different things one can do. You can paste pictures and objects, you can draw, paint, collage and really do anything your heart desires because there are no rules.

I think the biggest obstacle to overcome is to try and create the perfect page. Art journaling should never be about creating perfect art.  It is about experimenting, working out feelings, exploring different techniques, discover how different colors communicate with each other, shapes, forms, shadows, and all of this in a way only you can do it. 

We get so discouraged when we look at other people's art and then we get so demotivated because we think we will never be able to create those masterpieces but we are wrong! Don't get too hung up about your work and don't worry about the outcome. Simply keep exploring! Keep playing and don't you ever stop because beauty is just an illusion which there is no answer to. What makes something beautiful or ugly? Is there a correct answer for this? No! Beauty is in the eye of the beholder is it not? 

I have seen many online journal pages. Some with the most beautiful layouts and some with the most beautiful paintings or drawings but then there are some with only a picture from a magazine or maybe a small sketch and some writing to accompany it and sometimes it is those 'imperfect'  pages that touches my soul. The ones that tell me something about the feelings that person was feeling on that specific day or a place they have been.  It can be the color of the page or just one word but the bottom line is the emotion a page projects and that is what really touches me. I think that is what art journaling should be. It must be a book that tells as something about the life with all it's struggles and laughter. It is a journey through life in a creative way.

So keep on doodling, make lists, paint, collage, write and express yourself. Fill your pages with your way of doing it. Make your own rules, create your own sacred place within these pages and leave your marks because it is your way of doing it and no one on earth can do it the way you do it and that my friends is what makes you unique! You are the king of your own castle so enjoy the process. Live your life to the fullest and do whatever you want to do in your journal.

Happy journaling!

Here are some of my pages that I have been busy with  this week. 

©Ansota

Creative Doodling

More of my doodling pages.

©Ansota

More of my doodle pages

Playing in my doodle journal.

©Ansota

Never give up

Art journal page with acrylics and mixed media.

©Ansota

Two more pages from my daily life

©Ansota

Growth

 

©Ansota

Doodle 2

Doodling