Mindful Art Studio - Art journaling and mindful creation from the heart

My Brooklyn Sketchbook Project Journal

10.10.2018 by Amy Johnson Maricle // 2 Comments

Dear Wonderful, Creative You:

I’ve been interested in cutouts and layering in my art journals for quite a while. It started with my class, Fluid Art, where I create tunnel journals. Soon I started using my cutouts as collage, as I teach in my new class with 21 Secrets, Papercuts. All of this got me hungry to do more serious paper cutting. I dedicated my Brooklyn Sketchbook Project journal to practice paper cutting. It’s been a ton of fun and I’m thrilled to share the process with you.

Tunnel Journal, Accordion journal, Paper sculpture, Paper art — Paper cut beginnings: A tunnel journal I made in Fluid Art

Paper Cutting Art Experiments

Here’s one of the first pages I made in my Sketchbook Project Journal. It’s fun to play with opacity, and positive and negative space using paper cuts.

I also love when there’s an interactive element to my art journal pages. This page has little stamens in the middle of the flower form. If you gently blow on them, they flutter. Isn’t that fun?

This page had so many cuts! There were moments when I wasn’t sure where this page was going or whether I’d like it, but I stuck with the process of following one step to the next, and I love the end product. So far I haven’t drawn or planned out my pages, but created intuitively, following one cut to the next. This page had so many cut outs! It feels amazingly light. It’s incredible how much weight came out of the page.

Another thing that fascinates me about paper cut journals are the shadows each page creates. It’s wonderful to see how each page changes as you turn the page and lay down the next page on top of it.

Really, one of the most important elements to a rich art life is curiosity. I’m curious about how to create interesting shadows. I’m curious about how to combine layers of cut paper in interesting ways. I’m curious about layering cut lines and holes. Finally, I’m interested to see how much paper I can take out of each sheet and have it still hold together.

If you’d like to get in on the paper cutting and collaging, you can learn how to combine gorgeous painted pages with beautiful paper cut outs, like this one in my new workshop, Papercuts.

To learn more about creating intuitively, take my free class, The Creative Self-Care E-Course. You can sign up right here:

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Creatively Yours,

Amy

My Completed Collaborative Art Journal

09.11.2018 by Amy Johnson Maricle // 6 Comments

Dear Wonderful Creative You:

Tomorrow I am off for my annual art retreat for the next several days, so I want to leave you brimming with ideas for YOUR creative life. Connection with other artists is one of the most nurturing things I do for my creativity. An art retreat or a workshop is an amazing way to do that, but a less expensive, more sustained way of doing that is to connect with someone and make collaborative art journals.

If you’ve hung around here for a while, you might remember that in early 2016 I started an art journal collaboration with artist Cait Sherwood. We both purchased the same Moleskine accordion journal, worked on it a bit, and then swapped. We continued this process for nearly 2 and a half years, until we finally met up in New York this summer. I’ve shared our progress all along the way. You can see the first marks here, see how the journals evolve and hear about my art fears here, and watch as I open Cait’s creation for the first time here.

This art journal collaboration was a ton of fun, and helped me stretch as an artist. When your style is similar, but also really different, it takes some time and trial and error to put the pieces together. Initially this felt like a challenge. I worried about upsetting her with something I did in the art – doing too much or too little. But as the collaboration continued, we found our groove, and things began to gel.

Cait had been the one to reach out to me on social media and suggest a collaboration. I didn’t know her. Over the last two years we have shared our art and some personal things too. I love the way that art has the power to connect us and make us better. Seeing Cait in person for the first time was such a beautiful way to complete this project. I also had no idea she was so tall! (And yes, I’m a bit short. But hey – not that short!)

So my hope in sharing some of the completed pages here is to inspire you. Cait has an AMAZING eye for color and texture. I love how everything feels so alive in these pages, and how our styles melded. YOU could do this too!

Aren’t these flowers that Cait made so loose and beautiful? They are a wonderful example of the beauty in imperfection.

See how they contrast with my slightly more neat plants, but still relate? This was part of the challenge initially, and then once I figured it out, the fun – going back and forth between these styles and building bridges between what each of us was saying in the art.

I made several of these birds throughout.

Cait made these fanciful cows. We also mimicked each others marks.

I punched holes all throughout this one, and we both took advantage of the different layering options that afforded us.

I love the loose lilies that Cait makes.

Cait introduced fish throughout, which were also a lot of fun to play with.

Inspired yet? What about doing your own art journal collaboration? You might have a friend nearby who is interested, or you might reach out to someone new and make an art penpal like I did. I have to tell you, getting a colorful journal in the mail takes fun mail to a whole new level. I’ve done a few other collaborations with other artists I didn’t know, and it’s always been such a rich experience. Not sure how to start your art journal? This post has tons of great ideas, or you can grab my e-book guide here, or take my intuitive art journaling class for beginners here.

Creatively Yours,

Amy

P.S. Today I was featured on the Self-Care Soother Podcast with Suzanne Falter. We talked about the way I use art journaling to express and transform my feelings. She had some great questions for beginners and I think you’ll really love it. You can listen here.

P.P.S I’ve just added a free workshop for next Friday and I hope you can join me. We are going to build our creative muscles by playing creatively. You can RSVP here: Call Off the Art Police!

The links in this post are affiliate links. This means that at no extra cost to you, if you decide to click on something and purchase, you will support the work of Mindful Art Studio to empower the artist in all of us.

Let’s Make Some Inchies!

08.21.2018 by Amy Johnson Maricle // 2 Comments

Dear Wonderful, Creative You:

Join the Inchie Challenge! You’ll get my free Inchie Workbook, and from August 20 – 31st I’ll be sending prompts and inviting you to create small art. For this challenge, we will be creating art that is 3 inches or less, any medium. This is a wonderful way to invite more creativity into your day.

Yesterday I was live on Facebook creating inchies and giving tips on how to incorporate images and text in your inchies, as well as how to use them in your journal pages. I’m excited to this little art tutorial with you here and hopefully get you inspired as well. Let’s make some inchies!

Supplies:

You can use whatever supplies you have on hand – even a post it note and pen. If you’d like to find some of the materials I’m using, I’ve provided the affiliate links here.

Strathmore Mixed Media Paper

Koi Watercolor Markers

Sakura Gelly Roll Pens

Micron Pens

Be sure to tag @Amymaricle and #mindfulartstudio when your share your work on Facebook and Instagram. One randomly drawn winner will win a spot in my class, Fluid Art.

Creatively Yours,

Amy

The links here are affiliate links. This means that at no extra cost to you, if you choose to follow a link and purchase something, you’ll be supporting the work of Mindful Art Studio to empower the artist in us all.