a tale of 3 journals: journal the first

I'm finding myself working almost exclusively in one of three journals lately and thought it might be fun to introduce you to each of them, being the ladies I spend the most time with. I don't name my journals or title them, although now I'm thinking it would be helpful with this post if I did. I mostly think of them in terms of size and sometimes mood-- my mood. When I think to myself, I feel more like working in this one than that one, it is usually a random choice based on how I feel at that particular moment or, at most, simply a matter of feeling the need to work on a smaller or larger scale. Yet, each book is developing its own...not theme necessarily, but voice. Or more like its own way of speaking. But let me let them show you in their own way what we mean. Introducing (in no particular order)....

Journal the First

This little lady has been scantily clad for most of her life. It was only in the last week or so that I got my butt in gear and made her a new dress. Though she was always destined for better things, her bare bones come from a pad of watercolor paper cut in half, including its chipboard backing turned into the book's covers. Wanting the easy way out and a journal that opens flat, I opted for a coil binding which is ugly but easily disguised with a pretty fabric cover. 

The beauty of #1 is her simple uniform pages. No fuss and plenty of room for painting, ranting or anything in between. The thicker watercolor paper is perfect for all kinds of wet media and artistic abuse. My usual method is to paint backgrounds on a few pages at a time then work among them with collage, doodling and writing until they are more or less 'done' and I feel compelled to move on and paint a few more. I'll work like this until the journal is filled or I've outgrown it and feel the need to start fresh. I'm hoping this one will be the first journal I complete every page in. As much as I love each of my journals and recognize their importance at specific times in my life, there is nothing as depressing to me as an abandoned journal. Hopefully, as I grow as a journaler and an artist, I'll either get over caring about blank pages or learn to finish what I start.

 

Some sample pages:
 

 

Next up: journal the second, the black sheep of the family....

Comments

[Lynn]

lovely journals and journal pages...I want to do this next.

[iHanna]

Beautiful beautiful cover and the pages seams to really be "at home" in this journal. Looking forward to meet the rest of them! :-)

[Laura Pace]

I love your color choices! That's one of the main reasons I visit you. And to see you put this journal's outside together with the same thought towards colors as you have on the inside is delightful. I can not wait to see the other two!

[Sherry]

Gorgeous choices in colour and pattern. You can see the love on each page.

[Jessica]

Wow! Beautiful color combinations and patterns. Looking forward to the other two.