The Art Journal Workshop

I want to get better about posting more often, especially with my artwork. And, I also want to get better about working on artwork, and am trying to do that everyday. I feel like things are shifting, trying to tell me something. And regardless of what all of this is trying to tell me, I know that taking care of myself is important. For me, being creative and making things is a huge part of my self-care. So by working on artwork every day, I’ll be doing something for myself, and I’ll have things to show you.

I needed a new “author photo” for my book “The Art Journal Workshop.” I wanted to do something different than just a photo of myself. So, I decided to use a photo I had already taken, and art it up. I had this photo that I had taken using Photo booth on my MacBook Pro, liked it, and it was recent. So that’s what I went with. Then on an old book spread, I collaged, gessoed and painted in my usual style for the background before adding my cut-out photo. After gluing the photo to the painted & collaged spread, I arted it up with hand-carved stamps and Soufflé pens. I’m pretty happy with how it turned out and feel it’s very appropriate for an art journaling book.

Just today, I got what I think is the final version of the book cover. What do you think? I didn’t design it, so I can’t take any credit for that. But am pretty happy with it. The circle near the bottom right is a die-cut that shows the DVD that comes with the book. It has 6 videos of me creating the journal pages from the exercises in the book. They are time-lapse, so you get to see me work at super hero speed.