Art journal

I just finished cleaning up my place after procrastinating about it pretty much all weekend. It's not fit for a visit from the queen or anything, but I'm good with it for now. I hate cleaning, but I loooove a clean place.

How the heck are you? As always, I'm just getting into the groove of my weekend and wishing I had another couple of days off. But I suppose if I have to start back to work, I'm as ready as I'll ever be.

Here are my final art journal pages:

     

I'm too lazy to figure out prompt numbers, so I'll just explain what I remember.

My Day: Here we were supposed to make sort of a comic/graphic depiction of our day. I did it for this past Friday the 13th of July. I think it's mostly self-explanatory. Average day.

Favorite Flower Scent: This was based on a prompt my sister gave where she asked us to talk about flowers we like or hate for the scent. My favorite flower happens to be my favorite because of it's scent, not necessarily because of how it looks (although gardenias can look pretty at times--they just aren't quite as flashy as some other flowers). Fun fact: I never used to think gardenias could be delivered from a flower shop, but I was proven wrong when I was sent a beautiful bowl of floating gardenias one year for my birthday. This was pre-digital so I don't have a photo, and now I really wish I did. It was awesome!

My City: In this prompt I was supposed to talk about the city where I live, things to do, etc. I included some activities that aren't in Salem, but close enough to visit on a day trip, at least.

And here are some current events de Jessica.

Current weather: 77^° F -- perfect and welcome after feeling kind of cold this morning. I'm also kind of tired of the cloudy "mornings" (the clouds stay until afternoon, really), but let's just forget about it for now.

Currently watching: I'm making my way through Veronica Mars again. It's been a couple of years and I wanted something to turn on during meals and such. (Yes, I watch DVDs during meals--that's what you get to do when you live alone!) Who here likes that show?

Currently not watching: The Olympics. Sorry!! I feel weirdly guilty, but I just haven't thought to turn them on. I've never been big on them, though I don't mind watching if someone else is. I do love watching uneven bars in gymnastics, though, so I should probably find out when they'll be on.

Currently glad about: My computer had been acting up for the past week or so, and after many different sorts of scans, nothing was improving. But then I turned to Malwarebytes' Anti-Malware and managed to find and remove a Trojan virus of some sort, and my computer's been working soooo much better ever since! (This sounded like a commercial.)

Currently reading: Garden Spells by Sarah Addison Allen. So far, so good!

Okay, I think this is long enough. Have a great week!

Art Journal - Prompts 10-16

I know you've been so [un]eager to see more journal pages! I've not been very good about posting these, so then you're bombarded with a bunch at once. Sorry! Heeeere we go.

As always, click images for a larger version. 

Prompt 9 - This was the 4th of July, which I decided to make a free day--no goals to accomplish. It worked out because the prompt was almost the same as the one I traded early on, and I didn't want to do it.

Prompt 10: Talk about stuff you collect, used to collect, etc. My heart wasn't really in this one. It's just not a topic of interest for me.

Prompt 11: Here we were supposed to talk about our favorites in each of these four categories.

 

Prompt 12: Talk about trends you like. I kind of explained my feelings about trends mostly.

Prompt 13: This topic was actually called "Silly Insecurities" but I don't find most of mine all that silly. :P 

I mean, in the grand scheme they are, but I don't think I'm silly for being aware of how others 

look at/judge people.

 

Prompt 14: Now we're supposed to talk about the good things about ourselves. I'm really not comfortable pointing things out because I fear people disagreeing

 

Prompt 15: Pretty self-explanatory. This was timely because I had been feeling very unmotivated and discouraged this day. It was helpful to rethink my goals to help me get back on track. I actually have a specific chart of goals for the next several weeks, but not everything was shared here (it's personal!).

 

Prompt 16: I'm not really putting in my best effort on these. Lame! Prompt 17 should be slightly more interesting. Stay tuned.

I wanted to let you know that my sister is going to try and post weekend journal prompts for those of you interested in doing this occasionally. You can jump in (or out) anytime. Head over to her journal and see the latest prompt. It's a fun activity and break from routine--I recommend it. It's given me some stuff to think about and I reflect on my tendencies when I'm working on it. Make sure to let us know if you do it--I'd love to see your pages! I really enjoyed following R's month of journal pages.

Art Journal - Prompts 5-8

I'm back with some more journal pages! Click on pictures for a larger version.

Prompt 5 (top left): Here we're supposed to talk about our favorite blogs. I'm always bad at favorites, and there aren't really any blogs that I necessarily *have* to check everyday, as the prompt asks. Not everyone even posts everyday. But these are the ones I enjoy that came to mind first (and I may have consulted my reader as well).

Prompt 6 (top right): In this one we were supposed to talk about some goals and desires for the moment (today, this week, whatever).

Prompt 7 (bottom left): Please excuse this one--I really don't like how it came out. I guess I suck at drawing castles. I even contemplated redoing the page, but got lazy. I liked the prompt (tell how we were feeling that day), but couldn't really express it very well. Some of you know, so I'm asking the rest of you: any guesses on what book I was reading? I just finished it today.

Prompt 8 (bottom right): Today's prompt was to illustrate an inside joke. Well, I wrote and illustrated many, instead. (I guess I don't follow directions all that well at times.) This was a fun one for me, because a friend and I have a ton of inside jokes. These all pertain to one friend, so I'm sorry to the rest of you--it'll be really lame. No need to read it over. [And please ignore the incorrect guitar drawing. :D]

Thanks for reading, and if I don't post tomorrow, have a great Independence Day! Non-Americans: have a great regular day!

Art Journal - Prompts 2-4

Oh hey, let's get caught up on these.

Prompt 2 was, "What is the BEST part of your day?" Answer:


My opinion of my page this day: LAME. It's not the prompt's fault, I just really lamed it up here.

[Note: that says "Watch the beavers," not "Watch the bears." Sorry about my handwriting.]

Prompt 3 (talk about a person special to me) was not one I wanted to do. I didn't like the idea of picking one person and then making other people feel sad or confused or anything. I know I could've picked several, but then where do I stop? It's like making a wedding guest list. So instead, I stole one of my sister's ideas and talked about someone who is my opposite. 

That was easy because whenever I think of someone who is my opposite, I think of my younger sister, D. The page kind of explains why.  I definitely appreciate some of her non-me qualities, though. For instance, in social situations she can make friends instantly and keep the conversation going, so it's fun be at gatherings with her. Anyway, she and I aren't always the extremes of those descriptions, but it gives you an idea. Like some people would be all, "Jessica? A wallflower? Que the heck?" but that's because they're seeing me in specific situations where I'm feeling more social, or maybe there are bugs all over the walls.

Prompt 4 (that's today) was, "What does your heart look like?"

[I should clarify that I've not actually seen my heart, so this drawing probably isn't 100% accurate.]

I was thinking about how to sum up what's in my heart, and I thought about how the seasons are a good representation of life overall, with their goods and bads and changes and consistencies.

And now we're caught up! So far I'm having mixed feelings about this project. It's a good thinking exercise for me, and I enjoy it for the most part, but before I start I always feel a little dread. Also, my pages are not exactly gallery quality, so it's a humbling exercise to post them here for you. :P Oh well.

What about you--have you done a journal like this or do you want to?

Art Journal - Prompt 1

My sister R has been doing a 30-Day Journal Challenge and it has inspired me to take on the challenge myself! Only, I'm afraid to actually say I'll do it for 30 days since I tend to be a big quitter. How about we take it a week at a time? Or a day at a time? :) (Though I am feeling encouraged that if R can do it between homeschooling and caring for her 5 kids plus 4 nieces and everything else, then what excuse do I have not to finish it?)

The challenge comes from Janel over at Run With Scissors. I guess the ideal is to follow along with the group, but I'm just now feeling like things have calmed down and I can work on something like this. A few friends did the challenge last year, so I decided to go back and do the 2010 prompts so everything would be new for me. It seemed unfair to go into it knowing what prompts to expect, plus it puts pressure on me to think about it before the day has come. I like this idea better. I won't look at the new prompt until the day I do it.

Prompt 1 says to "Create a full page design introducing yourself. :) Highlight your name many times in the midst of your design."

  

(Click for larger)

How self-centered am I? :)

I've decided to [try to] avoid disclaimers with this journal and just enjoy it. It's going to fall short in many ways, but the point is to just be creative and try something a little different. When I was a kid I loved doing a lot of art projects with paper, tape and markers, so this is a chance to go back to that and get off the computer. I took R's lead on this day and skipped pencil and did it all in pen. No erasing! It's kind of liberating, actually.

I've written too much in this post, so if you have questions, feel free to ask. I'll try to be less wordy on these in the future!