Love Your Art Journal: A Guest Post by Susan Yammouni of Red Shoes Studio

Well Lovelies, I’m busy as a bee preparing for the Creative Dig Workshop, and thought it would be super cool to have some Creative Juicy friends hang out in the studio and share with you what happens when they start digging through their own Creativity! Artist Susan Yammouni from the blog Red Shoes Studio is all the way here from Australia to remind you to Love Your Art Journal.

Can we, the creative people, stay creative every single moment? If you think about it, you don’t really have to dig far to tap into your creative self. The problem with some Artists is they have to create something wonderfully aesthetic every single time or they think they’ve failed or they’re just not good enough.

I used to hide my work from everyone. For years my friends and family knew I was into art, but never really saw any of my work. Nobody ever questioned it and when they did I just changed the subject and talked about something else, hoping they wouldn’t notice. What happened? Well, I decided to build a bridge and get over it! I liked what I did and thought surely someone else out there would like what I did too. Of course no art can please EVERYONE because that would mean it’s perfect, and I don’t believe there is such a thing in existence. And who wants to be THAT perfect? Sheesh, what a drain always wanting to please people! I don’t know of such a person, but that’s a whole other blog now isn’t it?

Whenever I feel the urge to create [which is most of the time really] I turn to my trusty journal. My Art Journal is my best friend and I go nowhere without it I am in love with it. To me, an artist without an Art Journal is like a writer without a pen. I open a fresh page in my journal and stare at its freshness for a bit. I try not to think about my outcome at first… I want to see what it is in my head that is dying to get out. My medium makes a difference too. I find that a normal ballpoint pen takes me to a different place than a graphite pencil that can be erased. I love using pen and find I get a bit more freaky with it… this is just a personal thing, you may get freaky with something else.

I am left handed so I all I did was look at my right hand, rings and all, and I just sketched it with black ink pen.

The hatching and crosshatching effect always fascinates me, I am a huge fan of mark making. I didn’t even have to leave my comfy chair to do this. This in turn inspires something else. Now your hands are warmed up, it keeps your hand moving on to other things.

Another way of creative digging is to use objects that sometimes aren’t considered for journals

Mix pen, pencil, gel pens, framing hardware, brads, and some sewing with glitter thread and see what you come up with. Surround yourself with everything, not just paper and pen, or brush and paint.

To limit your palette, doesn’t mean you have to limit your creative self.

Limit your palette. Allow yourself ONE colour of 4 or 5 mediums

This is:

Purple Water Soluble oil pastel

Turquoise acrylic paint

Red Ink

Black Sharpie

White Souffle Pen

Some cut-out images & stamps

When I dig, I don’t dig far because I’ve made my journal my best friend forever… To paint without putting ideas into my journal becomes too messy for me. It is like working it out on canvas and I can’t see which direction I am heading and it turns into a big mess.

The perfect way to dig into your creativity is to listen to your mind. Meditate and tap into what it is that you are trying to say. Have no fear of outcome, concentrate on process NOT product. Find your face in your art and never say it is not good enough. Your journal is a place where anything can happen…. The good, the bad and the ug-ly!

Love your Art Journal.