Melly and Me

Last week Melly Testa and I challenged each other to art journal in the other's style. As an aside, I love Skype. She had her coffee and I was drinking tea (still half asleep) and got to see her cat, her home and a new piece she is working on. Melly got to see my bedhead. We gave each other instructions on how to work for this challenge. Melly's instructions to me were:

Use frisket to create an object. Use watercolors and work in the negative space. Um ... yeah: think ahead? Plan? In my JOURNAL? Okey Doke.
Frisket is like Art Masking Fluid, which I've used lots with watercolors. You paint the fluid on and allow it to dry and it blocks out all color around it. I've used it in my little paintings, here. Frisket is a paper form of masking fluid, it acts as a stencil to block out or mask. I made a drawing of a teapot and mug, then cut it out of the frisket and stuck it onto the page.*

Using my watercolors, inktense pencils and a pen, I began filling in the negative space. When I  peeled off the frisket, the watercolors had snuck under there (perhaps the frisket wasn't stuck down enough or I used to much wet color?). There is loads more I could do on this page: more pattern, more line, more COLOR! Definitely more fun to be had. This was a excellent challenge for me to be so careful in my journal.

My challenge to Melly was: be messy, use gesso and doodle into it while wet, use smeary gooey portfolios. Don't plan. Here is her response. And, yes, Melly! It is messy enough. (She cracks me up.)

I use my journal in many ways and to try someone else's style is definitely one of them. More often,  my journal is a dumping ground, an idea keeper, a playground; someplace where I can be a two year old with a fistful of crayons, totally unaware that there is even such a thing as "judgement." That's what I strive for in my journal. But, it is also a great place to try out new ideas, materials and techniques. Like Melly, I go to my journals for inspiration and always find it there. I'm much more careful in my sketchbooks and this exercise has me thinking that, really! why are they separate books?

*I'm working in a Rag & Bone Bindery journal. It's a beautiful book with smooth. heavy white paper. Not good for watercolor. I am in the habit of applying a couple of coats of Golden's Absorbent Ground (White) to create a watercolor surface ahead of time on some of the papers. The stuff is awesome; you can make a watercolor ground on a non-watercolor journal. Prepping the pages ahead of time allows me to have these spreads ready to go if I want to use watercolors.

Have a great weekend, everyone. My husband and I are off to Cape May, NJ on Sunday for a couple of days of extreme peace and quiet before Thanksgiving. I love the beach this time of year.

pax diana