Visual Journal

It's been really hot these past few days - it was around 100 today, so I am just staying inside (thank goodness we have a couple of window ACs!), and one of the things I am working on is my visual journal. 

Sketchbooks and visual journals are my research area as well as my own personal preferred media.  I've been working on my research with it for so long that I have been putting all my journaling energy into my research books, and nothing really just for fun.  So I'm trying to get back into the groove.

I enjoy experimenting with different media - on this page, I was using some water-soluble colored pencils, shading in with a combination of colors, and then going over with a wet brush.  These are chairs from the Restoration Hardware catalog --

Last week I went to a couple of shops in LA looking for some binding and art supplies, including some washi tape that I used on this page.

Sometimes just creating a collage with magazine images or photocopies tinted with colored pencils is relaxing.  On this page, I first did a wash with acrylic paint and glued some dictionary scraps across the exposed binding stitches.

Everyone I know knows that I never throw anything away, I just file it in my supply drawers.  These are ticket stubs from our summer visits to Disneyland, the zoo and the aquarium.

One of the things I've been doing is a lot of pinning of lesson plans.  My students are using Pinterest as a way to collect ideas, and I wanted to do a few experiments with lesson ideas I'd pinned.  These are stamps I carved and printed with acrylic paint.

This is a grade-school lesson idea using both perspective and some basic color theory, using markers and colored pencils.

I've been looking at a lot of Zentangles lately - I'm thinking of taking a class....

Today I finished this alphabet page.  I drew the letters with sharpie, and then used watercolors to fill them in.  This was fun.

I also did a watercolor of an agave, but it's still drying and I've got some writing to add.  This is a nice way for me to sit down and reflect on things I've been doing.  It's also a way for me to model sketchbook behavior for my students, because they are also keeping sketchbooks.  Sharing my own artwork with them lets them know that I enjoy the sketchbook process and that it is a lifelong habit.

If you want to see additional sketchbook pages, I have more of them on my NAEA website.