About a month ago, I happened upon the art journal craze "
Journaling by 5s". This was the brainchild of artist
Shannon Green. The concept was easy and results achieved fairly quickly. So, I jumped on the bandwagon. Here's the basic structure of it.
Let me explain a little further - using a 20 page journal (most are composition notebooks with pages glued together to make only 20 pages), you work in the journal for 15 minutes each session using only 1-2 mediums (each of the 5 sessions is assigned two mediums). At the end of the 5 sessions, you have a mostly completed art journal. After that, you do some 'free play' to add the finishing touches. Shannon explains it much more eloquently in her initial
Journaling by 5s video.
Anyway. . I made my own, so I thought I'd share. Though it took me forever to get through it (because of the recording and editing and whatnot), it's really a quick, easy, and fun process to get a completed journal. I cheated a little with session 3 - you'll see in my videos. Almost all of the videos show my process, with the exception of the last one - which is a flip-through. Here are links:
If you're simply interested in how my pages came together or a better look at each of them, these are my final results. (A larger image should pop up if you click on each of the pictures.)
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I really, really enjoyed this process. In the end, I was ready to just be done. The unfinished look of the last few pages could probably tell you that. I like that in just a few hours, you can have a completed journal. Or if you've only got a few minutes, you can do one session. I've already bought a new journal (and some 'wrinkle free' glue sticks - the wrinkles on my pages drove me crazy!) and will likely start another one of these before too long.
Have you found any ways to direct your creative energy in short bursts like this? I'd love to know how you get creative when you're short on time.
I found a lot of old agenda notebooks at home recently and kept them to make notes but I could also use them to get more confident with just painting the pages :)
ReplyDeleteI think when people first look at the finished pages of someone's journal, it can be overwhelming or intimidating to think they anyone could do it. This approach helps to break it down into little bites so that it doesn't seem so difficult. I must try this myself when I get those required 15 minutes!
ReplyDeleteYour pages look great!
Judy, I agree. This process was so great to work with. It involved little time, few materials, and not much thought. It's all a mad dash to get something on every page in the 15 minutes. I love that burst of spontaneous creativity. It's awesome!!
DeleteWhat a cool project!
ReplyDeleteEach page is a feast for the eyes! Well done!
ReplyDeleteThank you so much Shannon! That means so much coming from you. I'll say it again and again, I so enjoyed this project!! Thank you. :)
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