June Journal Pages

Here are my pages for Journal52 - I'm trying to keep up with July's and forgot to post June's!

Week 22 - Traveling

This is my favorite way to travel... by book. But that might just be because I have never gone first class. Next time I go to Egypt, I would love to see it from the luxury-travel point of view. I've been-there-done-that as "family trip," "archaeology student," and "tourists packed into a motorcoach." Maybe it's a bit shallow of me, but I want to know my salad hasn't been served to someone before me, and my mattress is 100% synthetic - not one bit of camel hair included! ;-) I don't mind get dusty and sweaty climbing through tombs and pyramids, but at the end of the day, I want a clean shower in a safe hotel.

This drawing was done with a UniPin pen, Tombow and Koi markers, and a waterbrush.

Week 23 - Passion

Passion... I am actually struggling with this very thing right now. I know when I am excited about something, but I can't seem to make a list of passions to help me decide what to focus on... So I did a journal page more on the topic of what "Passion" feels like to me. Parts are a bit muddy, but this is not meant to be negative - there's a lot of cool colors and patterns in there.

I used Tombow markers to draw the word "Passion," then coated it with a Gelly Glaze pen and drew all the designs with the Glaze pen too. Then I poured acrylic inks over it. Let it dry, drew more with the Glaze pen, added more ink. Finally, I drew the other words, and outlined "Passion" with a white Souffle pen. Seemed kind of symbolic since it started out nice and clean and pretty - and ended up looking like a mess. But that is what I had intended.

Week 24 - Courage I saw this prompt one morning as I was panic-ing about an upcoming meeting. I was trying to distract myself by scanning email and was drawn to this quote in a post from the FoodBabe: "First they ignore you, then they laugh at you, then they fight you, then you win." - Mahatma Gandhi And I realized that was the path of my entire marriage. And my divorce. Except for the actual legal part of the proceedings... we didn't "fight". And that's where I lost. I knew what was right, what I "should" do, but I lost my courage. I'm not sure why this popped into my head as a "comic" - maybe the irony? It's drawn with a UniPin pen and colored with Tombow markers.

Week 25  - Nature Inspired

I guess life inspires art.
I wasn't picturing anything for this prompt except pretty landscapes, etc. But I don't DO pretty landscapes. So I was stuck.

Then one day, I had just returned home from an awful meeting and was trying to decide if I should just sit in my carport and cry? I didn't want to bring all my yuck-brain into my house.

As I sat,  I realized I was watching a very pretty spider wrap a much larger, very ugly spider, in her web. I was fascinated, and strangely encouraged. "If she can do it - I can do it." Plus... the image would work for this week's journal homework. Yeah!

The whole piece is done in watercolors. I was going to say "No spiders were harmed in the making of this piece..." but, well... that's just not true.

Week 26 - Under the Sea

Materials: crayons and small children

I spent the day at a Garden Party. I felt out of place among the big people (I never know what to talk about!) Then, I saw two small tables with tiny chairs and crayons and piles of white paper and tiny people...OMG... my tribe! Along with my daughter, my nieces, and some other random little boys - we drew lots of horses, unicorns, seahorses, unicorn-seahorses... and mermaids. This one was my favorite! (I'm completely in love with my daughter's seahorses!)
When I saw this week's prompt, I was SO excited!
I've GOT this!! Yeah!

Since I had quite a bit of...assistance... with this piece, I thought I should include a piece I did on my own as well. The day after the Mermaid fiesta, I drew this one with a Papermate ballpoint pen while my daughter tried, unsuccessfully, to displace all the water from the hotel pool!

Wow - we are halfway through the year - how crazy is that? I'm hoping I can keep motivating myself to make these journal pages!