Journal Jam with Effy Wild

 I don't often have the time, or allow myself the time, to listen to some of my most favourite instructors in the art journalling world. Work, Kids, Uni, Sketchbook Project, Time to Myself all tend to take precedence (notice how I didn't say housework cause #nothanks). Anyway, I randomly watch one of Effy Wild's Journal Jam episodes because I absolutely adore the entire concept of it. Maybe one day I could make a live one but these are not the days so instead, I watch the unedited replay because I love unedited sometimes.

I love the randomness of the journal prompts and the ideas it springs forth and most of all, I love that we can all have the same prompts and create something completely different to each other, if you aren't following along with Effy's ideas of each prompt. I thought to myself awesome, I have an opportunity to create something I wouldn't normally create or it will be composed in a whole new way. How naive of me. Apparently, I do what I do and that is what I do. Granted, this one pushed me to use colours I would not normally use, so that made it different in a same-same kind of way. At the end of the day though, I love to create art that has sayings and usually art that has a face or some kind of figure on it and of course, regardless of the prompts that were produced, that is what I ended up with!

I did follow the prompts as each one arose but then I still did what I usually do. Actually, with the first prompt being a feather, because I fell in love with and have remained enamoured of Tamara Leporte's feathers she taught in one LifeBook or other, as soon as I hear feather that is what pops into my head. Then with the draw lines prompt that came later on it kind of sealed the deal and I did a Tamara-esque feather though nowhere near as refined and exquisite as hers. When the stamp prompt showed up I pulled out my drawer of stamps and was immediately drawn to the fairy silhouette's and the big stroppy fairy so that is what I used - along with some stars cause I love that stamp so much.

So once the prompts were done, this is what I ended up with:

Interesting enough, yellow, orange and green are probably my least used colours ever. While Effy used black gesso for her feather-cum-leaf, I rolled the dice and ended up with yellow and while I'm not a fan, I tend to roll with it, perhaps that is why the stroppy fairy appealed to me! Look at all that space though. Of course I was going to fill it with a saying and have it end up looking like just another spread for my Sketchbook Project! Perhaps I'm so invested in finishing it that I just can't seem to do anything else anymore. Not that it is a bad thing. I love sayings in my spreads. I always have and I probably always will and that's ok. I guess that's just my thing. I wasn't a huge fan of the add pretty paper prompt as late in the process as it came though, I'm never really sure what to do with the pretty paper so it feels a little clunky and awkward but that's ok too. I can be a little clunky and awkward sometimes too.

So once the prompts were done it was time for some tending. I love that term by the way. Tending to what is there. It's nourishing, yes? Just as art is nourishing. So I spend time filling in the fairy stamp and adding my saying and doing the final finishing touches that I always seem to want to do to anything I create et voila!

Ze finished product

It's tempting to shrink it down and add it to my actual Sketchbook. This is A4 though and the sketchbook is between an A4 and A5 for a double spread. Maybe I could do just the fairy and the saying to fill up one of the pages I have left though and perhaps some different colours.

Nonetheless, it was such a fun process and, as I said, nourishing. How I would love to do this at a big round table like the Knights of the Round Table but the Art Witches of the Round Table instead, hah! That would be pretty damn awesome don't you think?

In Joy!