25 Steampunk paper dolls
I just completed a personal 25-day self-care art-journal project aimed
at improving my capacity to focus and work through a theme, being brave
about my imperfections and being open to new ideas.
The second page was a 'Self-Care Manifesto'
There were a couple of exploratory pages in which I trialed different themes, styles and processes until I decided to go with the process detailed below:
I often find it difficult to stay focused and complete a themed body of work in my art journal. So, this year I decided to choose a word for the year, which was - FOCUS. The strategy I wanted to follow when working on this on my journal was:
1. Keep my focus on producing journal pages related to just one theme for at least 21 consecutive pages.
2. Ensure that I used the same art techniques on each of these pages.
3. Suspend my tendency to judge the results (and as a consequence post nothing) by being brave about the fact that there would be multiple imperfections in each post and that was OK. This was to reinforce the idea that the process and not the product mattered.
4. Try as far as possible to re-purpose "rubbish" or use up my existing stash of art materials
5. Try out new ideas - basically ideas/inspiration that I would not normally entertain when selecting subjects for my artwork. This was intended to stretch myself and add new tools to my skillset. To ensure that this happened I decided to select the theme for the pages and the technique to use by randomly selecting words from an art journal. The first two words my eyes settled on were: "steampunk" and "articulated paper dolls". Since I knew nothing about either, the initial impulse was to reject them and start again. I resisted this and began to source images for both from Google and Pinterest. I printed these as black-and-white images and pasted the printed sheets onto cardboard boxes which would normally go into our "re-cycling" bin.
6. Each day I intended to select a quote that spoke to me in some way and include it in the art journal spread. The quote may or may not be related to the steampunk paper doll which I created.
7. The journal was to begin with a spread designed to encourage me to keep working through the 21 pages, no matter how long it took to produce them in calendar time.
The 21 pages are now complete and have been shared on Instagram, so I made a short
video on my process on my phone. Here it is. I
apologize for the video quality.
I will upload photos of each page and the quotes accompanying each spread, over the next 25 or so days. As always, look forward to hearing your thoughts on it.
Self Care
Since this was part of a self-care journal, the first page was intended to remind me of what self-care means to me in terms of definitions and sayings.The second page was a 'Self-Care Manifesto'
There were a couple of exploratory pages in which I trialed different themes, styles and processes until I decided to go with the process detailed below:
Process
I often find it difficult to stay focused and complete a themed body of work in my art journal. So, this year I decided to choose a word for the year, which was - FOCUS. The strategy I wanted to follow when working on this on my journal was:
1. Keep my focus on producing journal pages related to just one theme for at least 21 consecutive pages.
2. Ensure that I used the same art techniques on each of these pages.
3. Suspend my tendency to judge the results (and as a consequence post nothing) by being brave about the fact that there would be multiple imperfections in each post and that was OK. This was to reinforce the idea that the process and not the product mattered.
4. Try as far as possible to re-purpose "rubbish" or use up my existing stash of art materials
5. Try out new ideas - basically ideas/inspiration that I would not normally entertain when selecting subjects for my artwork. This was intended to stretch myself and add new tools to my skillset. To ensure that this happened I decided to select the theme for the pages and the technique to use by randomly selecting words from an art journal. The first two words my eyes settled on were: "steampunk" and "articulated paper dolls". Since I knew nothing about either, the initial impulse was to reject them and start again. I resisted this and began to source images for both from Google and Pinterest. I printed these as black-and-white images and pasted the printed sheets onto cardboard boxes which would normally go into our "re-cycling" bin.
6. Each day I intended to select a quote that spoke to me in some way and include it in the art journal spread. The quote may or may not be related to the steampunk paper doll which I created.
7. The journal was to begin with a spread designed to encourage me to keep working through the 21 pages, no matter how long it took to produce them in calendar time.
I will upload photos of each page and the quotes accompanying each spread, over the next 25 or so days. As always, look forward to hearing your thoughts on it.
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