I keep hearing, around the neighborhood blogs, within my tribe of multi-media people, the ones with keen design sense and funny haircuts and those weird, long limbs, you know, like the creatures at the end of Close Encounters of the Third Kind, with the black eyes and knobbly fingers...
I forgot what I've been hearing.
Oh, yeah. I've heard on the streets that we learn just as much, if not more, from failure as we do from success. In which case I must be the smartest person in the world.
hahAAHAHA!!
But back to my story.
If it is true that we learn more from failure than we do from success, here's your lesson for the day:
'nuff said.
Except I have to say more, because the whole POINT of the failure is that this is the journal page I made with my travel kit, detailed here! I also made some backgrounds for the Pink Artist project, but it's the journal page I want to share with you here, because I believe that Michelle Ward, that Goddess of the Monthly Crusade (registered trademark), asked us to assemble a traveling art kit. And, perhaps... to use it! AHA! What a trickster! Because, you may remember my clever deduction to the effect that Ms. Ward is obviously privy to my email security password and my blogger account. Accordingly, she KNEW I would not only create my kit, I would also be intent upon USING my kit while I was traveling within the wilds of Las Vegas.
But, I can't blame her. I'm responsible for what I hath wrought.
Here's what I did: I started this new little journal I had purchased some months ago from the Target dollar bin. I offered to pay more than a dollar for it, but they wouldn't let me. Anyway, for the little weekend jaunt, I packed some white paint, some chalks, come ink pads and a few rubber stamps, and some colored pencils. Oh, it was a glorious array of goodies! I didn't want to rely on paints because I didn't want to have to deal with the water, the brushes, and the inevitable spills. Have you ever tried to put into a slot machine a $50. bill with dried black paint all over it? It's NOT FUN. (And the security people have a habit of giggling.)
Anyway, with this festive array of supplies, this is what I did. I placed down a base layer of Ranger distress ink pad all over the surface of the page. Then, I stamped a little flower border and colored some of the flowers with prismacolor pencils. Then, I used a large handwriting stamp with espresso ink all over the page. It was looking like a dark page, which was not my intention, so I took a wedge of gold chalk and rubbed it over the page. Then I wiped my hands all over my dinner slacks, so I might as well have been using paints and water. Anyway, the ochre chalk helped to lighten up the tone a bit. Then I used a baby blue ink on my barren trees stamp. I thought it might help to lighten up the page some more. I liked the effect of the blue and the gold. Then, for good measure, I took some white chalk and rubbed over the page, and then tried to make a wisp of white clouds over the trees, using just the white paint on some dry paper toweling. My initial goal was to journal the contrast between nature and the vintage-y colored page with the fact I was in Vegas, the land of the new and the concrete.
I tell you, when I was done with the page, I was so irritated I had to lie down with a bottle of champagne and a movie for 6.95 charged to the room.
Well, to make a short story long, when I got home, I decided to open up my journal and write on this page, even though it was not a success. Because someone, probably a sympathetic soul, told me that one learns an awful lot from failure; no, really.
So, tonight, I wrote a bit about how I had been feeling during our trip. I wanted to try to put into words the anxiety I had been feeling during a weekend that was actually quite nice. But, while I was writing on the layered surface of my journal page, my pen gave out. Yes, now that you ask, I did try different pens. I tried a colored pencil. I tried a gold marker. I was going to try an iron chisel, but I was too exhausted to pick it up. Finally, I simply went over with black gel pen any of the words which originally faded out or hadn't taken.
So, there you are.
And because Pandora's Box still holds some Hope, I'm going to make another page using inks and chalk. Don't try to stop me! I'm going to see if I have learned anything from my first foray with the little art kit.
11 comments:
Chris - thanks for coming back to the team to share your experience of taking your kit out for a road test. Of course that isn't required - but good to know you made it work. I enjoyed hearing your spin on layering - and chalky dinner slacks, and not giving up on a page that required a boozy nap. Pages that give us the most trouble end up being our favorites if we've given them a second, or third, or fourth chnace to be re-worked instead of tearing out. It's where the best lessons can be learned. Bravo!
Thank you, Michelle! I have to tell you that these challenges you give to us are really great for me as a fairly new artist, just one year old! I didn't think the journal page was required, but I really wanted to experiment with the travel kit, since I was going on an actual trip! I look forward to working on another page, but I'm going to use the same materials as if I were still away, and try to work through those glitches. This is my first art journal so it will benefit from some TLC.
Hi Chris
I really enjoyed the story how you created this journal page. I think you will never forget how you made it LOL
Keep up the good work and don't let this stop you!!!!
Hedwig
Chris, as always you are a hoot to read! Hey, I have heard that Sharpies are great for writing on top of paint and pastels and the kitchen sink...you can always give them a go as they come in a ton of colors...each one could fit a different mood! :o) Jo Anne
Glad you aren't going to give up, Chris. I think the page looks great for what it's worth.
You go girl, give that journal what it can take!!! :-)
Thanks for sharing your adventures!
I am excited to hear that someone else has actually used their kit! I cannot wait for my trip to northern California to take mine out for a test, so I've started using it already! By the way, thanks for stopping by and saying hello. Hope to see more of you around the crusades!
Chris, I loved reading about your kit and your journal page process. Its great to know that someone else tries a bit of everything too!
I actually really like your journal page.
Hi Chris... don't beat yourself up too much... we ALL have pages we wish we could burn... but it's important to keep them, so that one day, you can look back to those first pages, and see how far you've come... trust me, that's the only reason I've kept some of mine! Your story was VERY funny... hang in there, it will get better... and the better it gets, the more fun you'll have! Remember: Serious art requires serious play! :D
i loved reading your adventure into journaling. i made a page recently that i felt like ripping out, but since i had already spilled my guts, i just worked and reworked it, rewrote everything i had wiped off while trying to add color and then decided to just leave it alone and leave it in there as evidence of ugliness...ha ha. it doesn't have to be perfect!!! keep going..
Hi. I just found your page via another blog but now I can't remember which one. I've got to add you to favorites and also link to your blog via mine so others can enjoy your wonderful sense of humor!
It might be easier to journal on a chalky page if, when you get home of course, you spray the page with some fixatif. I've heard that seals the surface enough to keep adding to it.
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