Sunday thoughts

I wish I wasn't such a perfectionist sometimes when it comes to creativity. Those two words definitely do not and should not go together! Many times I forget this and I criticize art journal pages that I do. It does help to paint over things and begin again, but it's also good to just accept what you've done and move on. Thats what the journal is about.. freedom! It shouldnt be a place that frustrates me or makes me annoyed. If it does, then I need to stop and do something else for awhile.

I finished a painting for my friend for her birthday! You can see a picture of it here. It's a small mixed media painting, a petit doll party girl. Its the second painting I've finished since taking Suziblu's Les Petit Doll class over at her ning site. Since I havent said this yet, I absolutely loooove Suzi. She's my biggest inspiration when it comes to art journaling/mixed media and she's the one that inspired me to do it in the first place. If you don't know who she is, please please click that link and check out her workshops and videos...do it now! You won't regret it. She's beyond amazing... :)

So anyways, it's been so much fun doing these petit doll paintings. I like that I'm trying out different crafts this summer instead of just journaling, it keeps things interesting. Back in June I was really into making journals and books. Anywho, a picture of my southern girl painting is also shown here. This was my first petit painting that I did during the class. The dog is kinda silly looking because he has a humanlike face, haha, but I think its cute that way.

I've been having ideas for different little projects I want to do lately. I just gotta stop being sucha perfectionist, we'll see how it goes. Until next time.. have a creative day,
Marisa

I'm baaaack

I've decided to really start using this blog more often now to share my art journal and post my youtube videos. I don't make videos often but when I do I think that this will be a good place to get them out there and talk more about them. I'm excited to get my blog going a little bit more and hopefully connect with more artsy people!! :) I love all my fellow art journalers.. woohooo! Not sure how often I will post here but I will try to as much as I can. Leave a comment if you are reading!

Here is my latest youtube video I just posted today.. so excited about it because although it is short, its my first real video where I am showing myself actually art journaling. In this video I also show some of my other journal pages I just did, one of them is about Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers. It's actually up above there at the top of my blog! I didn't start the page knowing what it was going to be about, I think it's more fun to do it that way because it's more freeing. I used fabric and with many layers in this spread which was really cool because I never have used fabric before, only to sew in pockets. After I had all of the background down I was looking through pictures to put on the page and those fit really well and had the same colors that really brought the journal spread together. So fun to see a page evolve.

Remember even if you don't like how a page turns out, it's about getting there, not what it looks like in the end. I know it's hard because I always criticize and criticize myself and my pages too, it's hard to get past it. When you are thinking negative thoughts, think back to creating the piece vividly and remember how much fun you had while doing it. Also a page is never finished so you can always just go back and paint right over it if you dont like how it looks! Whew, didn't think I'd write that much but I love talking about this stuff.

Let me know what you think about the video. Talk to you soon

Peace love and paint (ha),
Marisa