I’ve been working steadily on my 15 Words or Less art journal and think I can mark it pretty much D for Done. It was a great learning experience for me on how to use various paints and inks, how to make textures, and how to add layers. I don’t love every page but I like them all and love a lot of them. The handwriting bugs me the most but not enough to paint over it and start again. It’s a learning journal, not a piece of museum art. A lot like an early draft of novel.

I’ve posted a few of my favorites here. You can click on the picture to see the larger versions or go here to see the entire album on Flickr.

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Last week I shared some backgrounds I was working on for my 15 Words or less art journal.  I have some of the pages finished or close to finished. Art, like writing, is a constant learning process. There are some things I really like about each of these pages and some things I don’t. There are sections I look at and feel, mostly in my gut, that something isn’t working but I don’t know what. Like I said, it’s all a learning process. If you’re interested in more detail you can click on the picture to see it larger.

I would have liked to do make the pictures move more to the back of the page, like with an image transfer, but I don’t have the energy to do 50 image transfers for this book. So I’m concentrating one trying to blend them in effectively. It works better on some than on others. I wish I had paid more attention to the sizes of the photos before I printed them out but it was another good learning process for me.

I like sharing this in various stages and even if they are less than "finished" because it helps me feel better overall about putting myself out. Not everything I write or make is going to be terrific or appeal to everyone and that’s okay. I started with a watercolor book, painted the pages with various Golden Fluid acrylics. Collaged the pictures and various papers, added more color with my Neocolor II, Portfolio Oil Pastels and walnut inks. I love using the walnut inks but they take DAYS to dry. Grrr. Even with using a blow dryer on the page. I use the Sharpie Poster Paint water-based pens to write on all the pages.

Right now with art I think I am stronger in colors that I believe I am. I think my weak point is composition. I hate my handwriting (doesn’t everyone?) but I wanted the handwritten connection to the words here since this are all poetry warm-up exercises. Nothing to be written in gold or carved in stone or worried about.  posts a picture on Thursdays and those who want to play along, write a poem of 15 words or less. It’s a nice way to warm up the writing muscles for the day. I printed out the photos she posted on the days I’ve participated (so far). I may take some of these "warm-ups" and work on them more. Or not. I may take some of the pages and work on them more. Or not.

Such is the creative process.

Working on these pages is such good thinking time for my writing.

What kind of art making is feeding your soul these days?

I decided to make an art journal of all the poems I wrote for ‘s 15 Words or Less poetry exercise she does every Thursday. I downloaded all the pictures for any of the photo prompts I wrote a poem for. They’re all printed out and waiting to go on the pages. Today I finally finished all the backgrounds in the journal. These are a few of my favorites.

Now it’s time to start phase 2, collaging the photos and adding the poems.

A few more in my album over on Flickr.

117, originally uploaded by susanwrites.

See the full album on Flickr.

For the people that asked, I thought I’d share a few of the places I’ve found very helpful as I am getting acquainted with art journals. These
folks represent some of the best art and a variety of styles. I’ve discovered that I don’t care so much about a journal that I write a lot of words in – I have this blog for that. For me it is all about learning how to make art. But you might want something different.

Sarah Whitmore. Sarah offers a major chunk of her soul journal class for free on her website. She also hosts a wonderful group on Yahoo.

Teesha Moore Omisgosh her journal pages are something else. She talks about her basic techniques here but go to YouTube and put in her name and you will see tons of fabulous videos.

Julie Prichard offers some great tips on getting started as well as Video tutorials

Ricë Freeman-Zachery has great info and podcasts with some wonderful artists. She hosts a terrific group on Yahoo
and if you go to YouTube, she’s got some great videos there.

Milliande share so much info both on her website on and YouTube. She has some amazing videos.

My introduction to art journals came via   who introduced me to Aisling who has a lot of helpful info here and here.

Kelly Kilmer has a great blog and is always teaching classes online.

Suziblu is popular. Also a lot of her videos are on YouTube.

A quick and simple way to make an altered book journal can be found here

A question a week for an entire year can be found here.

This is just the tip of the ice berg. If you have an absolute favorite site for beginners, please leave it in the comments.

Some people do resolutions or pick a word for the year or maybe a theme or a theme song. Since I am playing with art now I decided to go one step beyond my vision board I created and try a vision journal, well, what I am calling visual affirmations.

You know, I could have really picked an easier first art journal project. But this was a good way for me to learn about the various materials, what I like and don’t like about the different ones and just try things out. I learned a lot in the process. Like backgrounds for these things are hard for me. Mine kept going dark which wasn’t the look I wanted and made it hard to paint over it with anything but black or my trusty white watercolor pencil. I learned there’s a reason that Golden gel medium is the most popular and am only going to use the other brands I have as glue, not top coat. I learned that you can write on mulberry paper with a Sharpie but not a watercolor marker. Oops. I learned that sometimes the vision in your head for a page never quite makes it down on the page in the same way. (hmmm…that sounds a lot like writing.) I learned that I can think outside the box but that it doesn’t come easily for me. (Which means, of course, I just need to do more of it.) I learned that I am not a natural doodler and those little swirly things that look so simple and easy AREN’T! There are some pages I like a lot and some that are just so so but I love the book as a whole.

My intention is to keep it next to my bed and look through each night before bed and first thing each morning. I learned a lot about myself as I worked on the book, thinking about the pictures and words I chose and why they had meaning for me. By the time I got to the end, I had my theme for 2010 worked out. For years my friends and family tell me how talented I am, how wonderful I am, how much I am loved but when it goes through the translator in my head, the message gets screwed up. I want to stop that. I want to align the person I see in the mirror with the person the rest of the world sees.

I want to see the me that everyone else in the world sees. So that’s my theme for the year 2010. Here are the pages from the journal. You can click through to see the larger ones or go to my Flickr page and see the whole album in a larger size.

Edited to add: based on the wise advice of my dear friend Eileen aka hulabunny I am going back through these pictures to tell you something I love about each one.

From Vision Journal

Front cover. I picked these pictures for the front because they all make me feel happy about myself. I can remember where I was and what I was doing when each of these was taken and I can recover those wonderful feelings by looking at the pictures. I love the way the border came out here.

From Vision Journal

Torn paper collage that was too glossy. I was going for a mountain but it came out too much like a triangle. Tissue paper over the torn paper to tone down the glossy. I had so much fun doing the torn paper collage and I love the row of pics of me down each side border.

From Vision Journal

I really wanted to try the punchiella effect but didn’t have any of that kind of paper yet. So I found a mesh bag that had garlic in it and colored on it with the watercolors then stamped the page. I love how that turned out. I also challenged myself to use a color I don’t normally go toward, a peach, and ended up loving it.

From Vision Journal

I was really happy with the border on this page.

From Vision Journal

I adore this page. Love the colors. Love the mesh of beautiful things. One of my favorite pages.

From Vision Journal

I love my zentangle on this page. It’s a fun and easy one to do.

From Vision Journal

This page looked so different in my head. I love being surrounded by the word CONTENT. This was an experiment in printing on tracing paper. I love the transparent effect without having to wait to do a transfer technique.

From Vision Journal

I like the placement of the food on these pages, especially the one on the right.

From Vision Journal

I adore this page. I love the words on the left and I love the me peekint out from behind the plants.

From Vision Journal

On this page I love the pens pointing to the typing fingers. It came out just like I hoped it would.

From Vision Journal

I love this page! At first it was just a place to play with my new stamps and I figured if I didn’t like the look I could just paint over them. Then I went looking for images that spoke to me and it all came together.

From Vision Journal

Although you might not see the detail, the big heart is all torn paper and I love it. It adds a depth and strength to the heart, much like my marriage adds to my life.

From Vision Journal

This page makes me smile.

From Vision Journal

I had fun with this page.

From Vision Journal

I love the kind of hazy feeling this page has.

From Vision Journal

The energy on this page makes me feel happy, like the way you feel after a good workout.

From Vision Journal

Another favorite page of mine. I love the hummingbird. I love the dog fairy. I love the wishbone "hat"

From Vision Journal

I love the intentions on this page and the way the yellow outlines call attention to the words.

From Vision Journal

This page absolutely captures how I feel about my marriage and how it has enriched my life. I love the quote from Pat Schneider that says, "You can write as powerfully as you want, if you feel safe enough." My marriage has made me feel safe enough to write to the depths of my emotions. I love the wings on the girl jumping.

From Vision Journal

I love seeing all the smiling faces of my friends staring back at me here.

From Vision Journal

I love the crowns…and what you can’t see well in the picture is that the pic of me, on the page on the right at the top of the page, has a little bit of clear glitter around it, as though I have that reflection bouncing back from the world.

From Vision Journal

Back cover. I love how the border came out….amazing what you can do with the letter "C"