Step by step

Today is my day off from my day job, so last night I made sure I was all prepared to get busy first thing with my journal. I spent a good 2 hours cutting images from magazines clippings  to use for borders on my journal pages. I now have a whole box full and it was really fun to do in front of the box.

As I mentioned in my last post i have always found it hard to write on my art pages so I decided to make a list of ideas to journal about, and realised the writing will just naturally come.
The idea came to me, to journal about something I don't like about myself or would like to change.
The answer to this  for me, was how I can't swim. It really bothers me. People say just take some classes, but I have whole other issues, like hating water in  my eyes and not being able to stand water in my ears or nose, and also hating the pressure of my head underwater. Its just something that I can not overcome, or maybe not willing to overcome.

So a new journal page was born. I thought you might like to see the progress of my page and how I went about it.
Step 1:
 I work inside an old childrens book so I gessoed the pages first to prepare them. I liked the picture of the ship illustrated on the page so I decided to keep it. I then painted my pages with blue acylic paint and added my borders when the paint was dry.

Step 2:

I was a little lazy, so I decided to use an old sketch I did when I was playing around. This will be my head for my fish body.

Step  3:

I used my aquamarkers to color my little face in, cut it out and stuck it to my fishy body.

Step 4:

Playing around with these two dolphins seeing where I want them. They are from an old calender my daughter had last year.

It's at this stage that I become blank and need to think about what drawing I want to add to my page. So I have a break and make myself a cup of tea and ironically some tuna on toast...

Step 5:

Okay, I decide to draw myself as if I was swimming. Here is my initial sketch.

Step 6:

I have added some more color, some more collage and have started outlining. I take another break, as it helps me see where I'm heading better.

Step 7:

Finishing touches and adjustments.

Hmm going to have to fix the word 'is' and 'Dream'

Finished.