Using Fabric on Art Journal Pages
At this time of the year, at the beginning of summer, there’s a lot to do in the garden. I started early this year, but recently there has been so many activities that I feel I have neglected the garden. This guilty feeling also showed up on my latest art journal page!
This page is made on a spread of Moleskine Sketchbook, so the image is fairly small, about 10 inches in width. A special feature here is that I have added two small cotton fabric pieces to boost my imagination. Using the technique of fabric collage was just a sudden idea, but I love how the page feels when touched!
I attached the first fabric piece at the early stage. Golden Soft Gel Gloss Medium was used for attaching the fabric.
After attaching the fabric, I doodled with a black drawing pen to get the creativity going.
When I began coloring, I realized that I want to create a spread instead of a page. So I attached another fabric, purposefully a bit different from the first.
While coloring the page, I added more details. As my garden looks wild at the moment, I wanted to show the growth on the page too.
Here’s one corner of our front garden. Tulips bloom beautifully, and peonies (my favorites, of course!) grow fast. Lots of weeding to be done!
Why not try some fabric collage in your journal?
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Intuitive Start for Art Journaling
My latest art journal page is about one of my favorite places: art museums. On the page, I have used both organic and graphic shapes to express the interaction between art and architecture. That interaction is something I enjoy examining when handling art museum inspiration.
Inspiration
Last week I went to Kunsthalle Helsinki to see an exhibition of Erling Neby Collection. Erling Neby is a Norwegian businessman who collects concrete and geometric art.
This kind of art makes me remember the time when I was in my 20s and very certain of what kind of art I like and what I don’t like. Simple-shaped abstract paintings were in my comfort zone back then – it was “good art” that I was excited to see and experience although I have never been able to stretch my personal style to that.
At the exhibition, the reflection of the yellow painting was especially inspiring. It made me think how art is never disconnected from its surroundings, whether physical or mental. Thus, an illustration about art museum would not need to separate artworks from the architecture but express the holistic feeling of the experience.
Techniques
I used a couple of black pens and colored pencils for creating the page.
1) Free doodling and coloring.
2) Drawing sharp graphic shapes with the help of a ruler and a round object. 
Emotional Connection
When I draw, I always want to get an emotional connection with the subject. Without that, I start to worry about the result before the first stroke! When making this page, I did not think about art museums in general. Instead, I thought about tiny details that I saw and tiny moments that I remembered from my last visit in Kunsthalle Helsinki. I focused on the feeling and let my imagination work with that.
Inspirational Drawing
Working from tiny details towards the big picture is something that is not easy to explain in a single blog post. To explain it shortly, it is starting with an intuition and then slowly bringing the page towards the intention. This way of working is in the main role in Inspirational Drawing.
Inspirational Drawing is built so that you can enjoy developing the three dimensions of drawing:
1) increasing your imagination
2) improving your technical skills
3) using inspirational source material.
You will learn a creative process in detail through art journaling exercises. Course videos will not only show you how to do, but I also talk about the emotions and the inspiration behind them. I will answer your questions and help you adjust the process so that it will work for you. You can start enjoying free drawing without questioning what to draw or how the process itself will take care of that!
Why History, Computers and Art Belong Together
This art journal page is about two things that are close to me: art nouveau and computer engineering. With my background in technology, many find it surprising that historical styles like Art Nouveau fascinate me so much. And vice versa: why someone so interested in history, has studied and worked with computers.
Inspiring Periods of World History
For me, history, computers, and art have a natural connection. Think about the era of Art Nouveau: the end of 19th century and the beginning of 20th century. It was the era of the industrial revolution when many technical inventions were born. Also, at the same time, new kind of art was emerging. For example, Virginia Woolf wrote books using the stream of consciousness, Vincent van Gogh painted Starry Night, and Charles Rennie Macintosh designed a grand building for Glasgow School of Art. After inventing computers, we are experiencing another great era with a lot of innovations, the internet, and smartphones among others. I am certain that it will be seen as one of the most exciting time in the world history. We have new tools for art and design and we if any can use art to look at what the future could hold.
The Stream of Consciousness – Creating a Coloring Page
When I started to create the art journal page, I thought about the two eras and their similarities. With a black drawing pen, I began drawing art nouveau style shapes. It was exciting to think about modern things while drawing in the old style. It is very inspirational to stay focused on two things that have both similarities and differences.
It is relaxing to draw like imitating Virginia Woolf: using the stream of consciousness. Rotating the page makes it easier to keep the stream flowing.
Coloring books seem to be popular at the moment. We art journalers can make our own! Here’s my page before coloring.
Past, Present, Future – Art Is an Equation
When I studied computer engineering, I had to understand a mathematical equation that was used widely to control technical systems. It was called Kalman filter and it was composed of three parts: past, present and future. I found the philosophy behind the equation most fascinating: to get better at what we do, we must understand the past, stay grounded to the present and be brave enough to predict the future.
Art can be our equation. We can use art to ponder on what has happened to us. We can use art to record the present. But most importantly: art can make us get off the ground. We can predict what the future will hold by taking old and current stuff and create new combinations. We can imagine what Virginia Woolf would do in the 22nd century and illustrate it. There are no limits and we already have most of the information.
That’s why I think that history, computers and art belong together. They are all parts of the same equation.
Adding New Dimensions by Coloring
To bring today’s graphic shapes to the work, I drew rectangular areas on the top of the drawing. Then I colored them with a different color scheme.
Finally, I expressed how past can bring us the future by erasing color with a light strokes. The light comes from the past. With the past, we can see the future.
Tell me, what have you picked (or would like to pick) from the past to your art?
Create your own colored version of this page!
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In the Spirit of Cassandra Tondro
This painting is a monotype print where I have added only few collage pieces and a couple of little details with pens. In this artwork, the rooster is waking us up to notice that in art, whether we are makers or viewers, we are always in the middle of an experience. Thus, if you want to become a better artist, you should not focus on the final results only, but also on the experience.
Cassandra Tondro
There’s a particular artist that I want to introduce for this subject. She is someone that I greatly admire, Cassandra Tondro. I am most honored to have Cassandra Tondro herself answering to my questions! I also got her permission to publish her photo and my favorite artwork of hers called “Illusion” in this post.
The Supplies
Cassandra Tondro has not only thought through about what kind of paintings she wants to create. She has dug deep into the whole creative process. The development of her current way of working has started steps back from what most of us would think. She wanted to find an environment-friendly solution and discovered a way to work with leftover house paint.
I did not have extra house paint but some odd jars of similar kind of fluid paint like Tim Holtz’s Distress Paint. I also diluted few old acrylic paints with water to get more fluid paint colors.
Working with Colors
Cassandra Tondro has made videos of how she works with the paint. Instead of plastic sheet and canvas, I decided to use a glass plate with blank watercolor paper. My plate is about 12 by 12 inches.
While I poured colors on the plate, I thought about how suitable this process is when you want to forget the rest of the world and have a quality time with your favorite colors. Cassandra Tondro embraces quietness while working:
I like quiet when I work. My experience is that we are surrounded with so much noise all the time — traffic, cell phones, airplanes overhead, radio, videos, Musak in stores. My studio is my refuge from all of that. I like to be alone in the studio — no phone, no computer, no Internet connection — and I like it quiet.
I agree. This is a process where colors are the music players, and the painter is the maestro, fully focusing on how to make it all work together.
Unpredictability
One general characteristic of art is an unpredictable creating process. While you have to accept more unpredictability than usually, there’s a lot what you can control. Choosing the colors and creating color mixtures is one thing. Composing color areas is another. But as Cassandra says, this is an experimental process. Experimenting is also very freeing. As I was unable to repeat the strokes that I usually do, this process tweaked my style to an unpredictable direction.
Movement
When I pressed the watercolor paper against the glass plate, feeling colors crushing between the plate and paper, I felt like running. This process involves physical movement, even if you are working on the table, instead of laying the paint on the floor like Cassandra does. The action, combined with colors, lifts your spirit, forces you to concentrate and makes you curiously excited.
When the paper is turned over, and the artwork is revealed, there’s no quietness anymore! The colors have found their home. They have abandoned the hard glass, and now lie rearranged on the soft paper. A good 24 hours of dry air and they are there to stay!
A warning: Once you have made one, you won’t be able to stop!
I got fascinated by everything, including the cleaning of the glass plate!
Inspiration
I asked Cassandra where she gets her inspiration for painting:
My inspiration often comes from dreams or during meditation. I like to meditate before I start to paint. It sets the mood for creativity, and ideas often occur to me during meditation. Another good source of inspiration for me is taking a walk. Getting outside and walking frees up my mind, and I sometimes get ideas that way.
This kind of art thrives on the freedom. When I look at my pieces, I hear the colors thanking me: “You released us!” And as colors are so close to emotions, it feels like they have been released too.
This is the next print after The Rooster.
This piece was made on canvas textured paper instead of watercolor paper. It is not quite as sharp as those made on watercolor paper. If you create small pieces, as I did, I recommend using thick watercolor paper.
I composed the gallery-style image on a black background, but I think that Cassandra’s work would look beautiful on a brick wall. I like to imagine how the colors would have flown in the air and crashed against the hard blocks.
The more you experiment with this technique, the more you begin to appreciate Cassandra’s paintings. I see her art very powerful. Maybe because it is something totally different from my own, which often includes too much expression, too much explaining. Cassandra’s art is the art of listening. Watching her paintings makes me think: I am free to live, I am accepted, there’s no need for talking.
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