A video flip through of my color story art journal that I created in January 2023 and finished in March 2023.
Color story art journal flip through
My book projects can sometimes go on for years. I have four in progress right now. I just finished this one and am about to make another for a class I’m about to take.
Finishing a journal is always a bit of mixed bag for me. Yay! It’s finished! and Boo! It’s finished. This book has the benefit of being finished in only a few months, so all of the details of it are really fresh in my mind. That makes for good blog fodder. Lucky you!
The making of
Here’s the Instagram story from the day I first made the book. You can sorta see what the “blank” version looked like here:
In the above video I explain how I made this book: I took four 18×24” sheets of 96lb. mixed media paper and used spray paint, acrylic paint, tape, and sumi ink lines drawn with a stick on the big sheets. Then I cut it down to 6×9” pages. I folded the pages in half and then glued them back to back. It’s bound with cardboard and black book cloth.
This type of bookmaking works great for thick mixed media and watercolor papers because they are glued back to back instead of stacked on top of each other and then stitched. I learned how to make this book from Henrik Drescher’s Seeded Notebook class on Carla Sonheim’s website. I don’t seed my notebook in the same way he explains in the class but I for this book, I found a methodology that worked for me.
What’s inside
I decided I wanted to try doing a lot of drawing instead of collage in this book. My default is almost always collage. I will cover anything that will sit long enough with a layer of paper. Focusing on primarily drawing I hoped would push my boundaries a little bit. And I LOVE the way this book turned out. I feel like it can breathe in a fresh way. There’s white space! Which I usually consider an invitation to fill up! And I managed to refrain from filling it! Personal growth, people. Personal growth.
I posted this image on Facebook this past week:
And a friend from college posted this in response to this page:
A child’s voice travels from West to East. As it passes by, you think of French or Arabic, but you suspect it is a language never spoken by anyone alive today. You don’t know what the words are, they are beautiful, and in your heart you know they are Truth.
Next is a melody on wooden pipes from hundreds of miles away. Discordant, somber, haunting, unlike any scale or rhythm you’ve ever heard. So much different to the child’s poem, but in the pit of your stomach you know that it is also Truth.
Now they are together, the somber melody and the child’s poem. They are opposite, but they are compliment. They are the same. It is one thing only, and it is Truth. You wonder how you could ever have thought they were separate.
Leaning to the east, to catch the last syllable/note as it passes away, you realize that you will never be able to describe your experience to anyone else.
Nevertheless, a yellow arch has formed in the center of your being. You have chosen your Truth, and it will grow and grow, until one day you will sing your Truth from a high mountaintop.
We can only wonder who will hear it?
Mike Self
I’m thinking I will print it on velum and put it in with this spread. This story delights me so, so much!
The flip through
I recorded this with audio but when I pulled it off of my phone, the audio was terrible. I shortened it up quite a bit and put some music with it. What was a 20 minute video is now an under 4 minute video. It’s frankly much more watchable at this speed anyway.
I kinda wish I’d named this my CMYK art journal. It’s very CMYK and I realized it only after I’d already used the Color Story Art Journal hashtag like 5 times. Live and learn, I guess. It is a color story alright: a CMYK color story. What have you finished recently that you are proud of? Tag me on socials so I can see your cool thing or drop a pic in my inbox.
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