old journals

I was looking through some old journals today, searching for a particular page, when I found my first ever art journal. This was my first page, done in a journal I made from thick card, like a child's board book. Looking at it now I can see that I tried so many different things on the page, eager to see what would happen and excited to have found this 'new' art form. 

What interests me is that the type of pages I end up doing differs depending on the type of paper I'm using. These are very thick pages so they can be gouged into. You can apply the acrylic thickly in swirls, and then before it is all dry, scrape it off, leaving interesting shapes and textures on the page. One side of the card was grey and the other white, so some pages are brighter than others.

Here are a few of the other pages from the same journal:

What was your first page like? And does your style change depending on the type of journal?

Blocked!

What do you do when you're blocked?

I don't mean that I'm not creating anything. At the moment I'm knitting, writing the programme and preparing the elements for a women's retreat, preparing to give my testimony at a dinner (aaaagggghhhh!), and writing some stories.

I'm not blocked completely. I just feel that my journal pages have become a little samey - I reach for the same media, the same colours, the same shapes.

I've reached the end of a particular part of the journey and not found the beginning of the next bit.

So I'm starting an art book on Psalm 23. I'm going to deliberately choose techniques and colours that I'm not that familiar with. I'm sifting through my books for inspiration and moving out of my comfort zone.

So what would you do?