Transcripts
1. Introduction: Today I want to invite you
to take the routine to ritual as we make our own
according style sketchbooks. And fill them with mixed media
collage and mark making. And what I like to call my
sacred sketchbook practice. I don't know about you, but I often felt daunted by
a big sketch book. But I am always so happy. Once I overcome that and
conquered the blank page, a mini sketchbook is the perfect place to find
your creative intuition. Create a visual altar for
your inner artists and play. An accordion book is
flexible and fun. You can experiment beyond a single page and let
your curiosity guide you. Hi, I'm Makita Hun. I'm a printmaker artist and collage aficionado and
the designer behind Ritual Morning Studio where
I elevate the every day to bring artful branding and design to creative
business owners. But I'll let you in on a secret. All that client work can often let my creative practice
for myself slip. So while this class is for you, it's also for me when I'm busy creating design for my clients or head down in my day job, my sketchbook can
often lie empty, that blank page staring me down each time I pass
it in my studio. It's so easy to feel
rusty, intimidated, or unmotivated when you lose your daily rhythm
in your sketchbook. This class is the perfect
way to kick start your art practice if you're feeling like you don't even know where to start with
the new sketchbook. Or if you just can't find
your way back to creating your own art because
you've given your creative energy
to other things. Collage is your way in. Collage will help you
quiet your inner critic. As you cut glue and
arrange elements on paper, you'll find the fun of creating. Again, as you work
with your hands, making your own sketchbook
and filling it with colors, shapes and designs
that light you up. I'll start by making the according book
structure so we can have our own mini handmade
sketchbook to create. In then we'll gather materials from our
homes and surroundings. We'll also create some of our own handmade elements
with marks and color. Soon it will be time
to really play as we start cutting, arranging,
and collaging. We'll let the glue dry
and then add even more. Finally, we'll collage the cover and add finishing touches. Let's meet, and let's create
our sacred sketchbook.
2. Make a Mini Accordion Book: Now you're going to want to gather your
materials for your book. They are fairly simple. If you don't have exactly what is listed in
the materials list, go ahead and just improvise because you want
this to be easy for yourself and you just want to create something that
you can carry with you. I have found an old piece of
paper in my paper drawer. It's actually a
printmaking paper, so it's a little bit thicker. It's a Reeves FK. You can use something like Card, even post your board. I do recommend something
a little bit thicker so that it'll hold up to any collage that
you're going to do. And will also work to be a free standing alter for
you when you're finished. The size is
completely up to you. I'm thinking around
an index card size for the individual pages. I'm just going to feel it out. But I do have a ruler
to measure it out, just so that
everything is square, as everything is straight. It's looking for me like
I want to go about 5.5 ". I'm just going to mark that out lightly at the edge, paper. We're not striving
for perfection here, but we do want it to be a
solid book structure for this. If you don't have a long
ruler like I have here, you could actually go
ahead and measure it out in increments and
you could cut this out, but I'm going to actually
just tear my paper. I'm going to come along here. I have what's called
a bone folder. It's a bookmaking tool
for scoring paper. But you could also use a butter knife that works just
as well with a blunt edge. I'm just doing this are the paper so that
it'll tear it easily. This ruler is not ideal. You can see it's flexible. But that's what I have and
we're going to work with that. If you have a yardstick or something like a big metal
ruler, that works great. But again, you can
use an exact on knife or scissors to cut
this out if you prefer. I like the torn edges
of tearing this way. I'm going to hold the
ruler firmly in place. I have it on the marks
that I've made and I'm just going to take from the top corner and
start to tear gently. You can see this is
a thicker paper, it's a bit stubborn,
and that's okay. I'm just going to
take it slowly. This is the piece I'm
not going to use. The part that you keep is
going to be under the ruler. This is the final height of what I want to
create for my pages. I have a couple options here. If I want a set width, then I could measure
the whole amount. Let's say I want
something like 3.5 ". I could calculate and see
that I have about 15 " here. I could actually
mark this out where I want the pages to fold and then I could
fold off the excess. If you're not as particular
about the width, you can actually just
work with what you have. I'm going to show you both
with the scrap paper. I'm going to show you
how we might fold this. If we just want to work and use every bit of
paper that we have, you can start by
folding in half. I'm going to make sure
that each corner matches and make sure that these
sides also are matching up. Then I'm going to take my
bone folder or a knife and I'm going to come to the
center. Mine's a little dirty. It is making a mark. You want to make sure yours isn't dirty
if you don't want that. But then I'll come
and I'll score up, then I'll score the
rest of the way down. Because this is an
accordion fold, that means each paper
turns a different way. For this, I'm going to
actually come from the middle, take this right edge here, do pretty much the same thing. You could also use your
fingers here if you wanted. I'm holding to the center
and then I'm scoring. Scoring down my folder
is really dirty. I think it has some ink
on it for these purposes, it won't even be that
big of a deal because we're going to be collaging on it and we can work with that. Now I'm flipping this over
to get to the other side. I'm going to fold in again. Score up and score
down. Just like that. You have your basic
accordion fold. Now this isn't super long, but for this project
I really like it. I want to create
something simple that really calls me back
to my creative practice. Your book for this project
can be as simple as this. Again, with the accordion fold. It goes up and down
like an accordion. And you can see it can have a front cover
and a back cover. It can be folded like this. You've also got the back side
that you can do something with or it can extend
out like this. And you can see it can
actually stand on its own.
3. [Optional] Book Variation with Measurements + Rounded Corners: As I mentioned,
the other option, this worked out pretty well. The width wise, I
like this shape, but if I want to be
more particular, I can take this, I
can measure it out. Let's say I'd like
the width to be 3.2 I'll just mark really lightly at the
three, a two inch mark. You can do math, you can keep
it here and measure it out. You can also move
your ruler down and then you can do
the same at the top. If you have a
triangle like this, you can actually just come this way and mark, knowing
that it's square. But you can also just use
your ruler to mark these out. With this method, you may
have some extra at the end. You can either tear
or cut this edge off. Because I do have my triangle. I'm just going to make sure
that square if I can help it, I'm not being too fussy
but and mark there then. It is harder to work this
way with a smaller piece, but it's going to work. I have my excess off and you can see what we're left with
is called a decal edge. It's that fancy edge in
book binding that makes it feel perfectly imprecise. From here, we want to
score these lines. Actually one thing we can do now very easily is just start with the middle again, I'm going to match the corners. And the edge come here and hold. Then from here we actually can also eyeball this if we don't
want to measure. Going like this is a
process of discovery, we can plan something out and then realize
there's simpler way. I always like to ask,
how can this be easy? We're not even going
to use those marks, We'll just erase them. I'm going to hold
here, have this. And what I will do is take my eraser and clean up
some of these marks. My desk isn't even
perfectly clean. I have some different
things here, but I'm not too
worried about it. Collage is a messy, imperfect process and it
can stand that as well. Another fun thing you
can do if you want to think about something
like rounded corners. I have this corner round here. I've got these two
book structures. Now I'm actually liking
the shape of this one. This one could be my
test piece if I wanted. When you have these
scraps, you could even work on a couple at a time. I'm going to see how that
feels to around these corners. This is obviously
completely optional. I like this is almost an oracle deck size that feels like these could
be something really special. We can actually do these
folded ones as well. This paper is a little thick,
so it's a little tricky. But I'm going to give
it a try just to see it is definitely resistant. And then we have these
corners we can round as well. I got this I think
just at Michael's, so if you like rounded
corners, you can look it up. There are fancier corner
rounders for thicker paper. Just handheld one, but something about rounded
corners just makes things feel polished and sweet. You're my own little
personal project like that, I assume I'll be
carrying this around in a bigger purse and the corners are going to
get dinged up anyway. We can just go ahead
and round them. I just really like how it has this little sweet feel
to hold in my hand. It feels complete on its own, but then it also expands. Doesn't that already
feel special and book like because we
add those rounded corners? We have our finished
book structure. It's so sweet cute. It's totally ready for collage. Meet me in the next
video and we will begin collecting our
materials for our book.
4. Gather Your Collage Materials: Okay friends, now we're
going to go on an adventure. It is time to set up a stage. Think about what do you need
in your life right now? What would you like to
carry around with you? What would you like to create? Maybe there are some
themes coming up. Some words, some ideas, some symbols that
you'd like to collect. This can look like anything. It can look like going for a walk and collecting
flowers and pressing them. It can look like
finding old stacks of books from the discard
pile at the library. The recycling can look like working with things
that you find on line. You can download the
collage kit that's included in this course and work with some of the things
that I've collected for us. Some of these I made myself. I found in places
where there were free resources and I stitch them together
and created them. Maybe this is a time to create
some marks for yourself. Something like
this, where you're using a tool you already have. And making marks and materials and paints and colors
that feel good to you, maybe that will come later. And you're just
collecting anything on an intuitive
level that draws to something like
texture colors that are really lighting up
words that you see. You can use old
books and magazines. You can use your own sketchbook. You can use anything that
really draws to you. Because you're doing
this for yourself. You don't need to
worry too much about if a book is old enough, if it's in the public domain, if you're going to turn this into art that
you're going to sell, then be more worried about that. When it comes to collage, you need to be just aware of what you have a right
to use, what you don't. It is nice to have a mix of things that you've
created yourself, things that are in
the public domain. I'll list some resources in this video if
you're looking for some more collage material that you can print off and download. And of course you can download
this collage kit as well. This is the time to just begin
collecting your materials. You can see I already
have more than I could possibly use in
this little book, but I just like a
lot of choices. I like this part
to be intuitive, just whatever I'm drawn to. If I have that
list I've created, I might do that
with that in mind. But I might do it after
that step as well. But go ahead and gather your materials and meet
me in the next video.
5. Create Your Own Collage Materials: As you are collecting
your collage material, I like to at least include a few handmade elements
just by using simple marks, or even just filling a
page with paint with the color I'm really
drawn to with collaging, I do creating a
consistent color palette or I'll just notice
one pop up and I can lean into that more
with any supplies. I'm, I love bold graphic colors and
I like black and white. I've got some India ink here. Acrylic ink will
be good as well. If you want something
a little less fluid like to also just fill a spot with paint or create
some marks with paint. Let me grab my palette here. I'm going to start
with this Opera Pink. This is acrylic wash, you could use acrylic,
could use ink, whatever you're drawn to and yields intuitive
and natural to you. This is not something
you need to overthink, but it's nice to
create some marks and even some fields of
color for you to work with that are just
uniquely yours. This part of the
process is really just a good warm up to creating. If it's been a while for you, it can be intimidating
to actually glue something down or
draw something on a page, but these are just
little scraps. If we mess up no big deal, we recycle them, we
just let them sit. But we can, we can wander. I'm not going to let
this be too perfect. I don't want to fill this
in perfectly because I like the texture that
I'm creating as well. This will likely get cut up into smaller pieces, maybe not. Maybe it'll just go on as is. I like what's happening here. I'm just noticing, I'm
exploring. I can lead into this. I can do a completely
second swatch that's more of this texture so that I have it in the future. Maybe it won't even be
used for this project, but I'm just really liking that. Maybe down here I want to
create some little marks. I think it's a clay making tool, but I'm just using it for
some interesting marks. Marks almost feel like texts. They feel like part
of a conversation. I like being in conversation. When I come to the
page, especially if it's been a while in
my creative practice, this just invites me back and gives me something to
react to, to work with. That is still something of
me that gives me a way in. I'm not worried about how any
of this looks from number. We're going to cut this up, glue it down, draw on top of it. It does not need to be perfect. I have this little
posca pen line. I love some stripes. So I'm just going to
go ahead and at some, I just cannot help. When working on a
project like this, I'm not worried about creating
something representative. Of course you are welcome to. This could be a
good time to draw some full symbols to you and what you're
looking to create here. But if you just need to get
marks on a page and not worry about making
meaning like I am, that is perfectly great. I'm going to leave a little
bit in case I want to keep some of that solid
green or something. I love this in
perfect edge here. I do want to draw to
the edge loss of that. I do want to use some
of this as well. Again, I tend to work
with bold graphic shapes. You do you, if you want to
do something more fluid, create some water color washers, Any of that can work well. Beer. Letting the brush
create the shapes comes a meditative
practice for me. I'm out in my sunray and I can hear the outdoor sounds,
the sound of summer, and I can just be present in this moment not even
worrying about what's going to happen with us yet already I feel myself returning in the reminder that I don't need to be perfect. That this is here for me, anytime that I can
be called to create. And it can be easy, it can
be light, it can be joyful. Lo the green of this paper, this is from a note pad
I got from Y studio. I like working on
colorful backgrounds too, so that I have some
contrasts with the paper. In this case, the book I've
made is on this cream paper. Even white will
contrast against that. I like that distinction
when I'm collaging to have a difference in
the colors of the paper. Let's see, Just real quickly, I like that word, simplify. But I don't need everything else lead like that. I don't
need a ton to work with. I think I have enough
here to start. I don't want to
overwhelm myself. But I like that I have a
mix of sound imagery and some marks that I've made that will give me a
lot to work with. I'll feel very free
to cut these up, they don't feel precious
or too elaborate. And I think I'm ready to start the clash phase once
all of the stuns. So I will meet you next.
6. Collage Play: Cut, Layer, Glue: Okay, friends. Now it is time to play. That's what I want your
intention to be at this time. It is time to play. This
isn't a time to overthink. It's not a time to question. It's just a time to explore, to be curious, to
follow your intuition. I have my afford book here. I've got some scissors. If I wanted to, I could
find an Exacto knife if I was going to get really detailed with things
that I'm cutting out. I have my stack of goodies I've collected and I can always
bring more into this. One thing to think about now with an accordion is
you do have both sides. You have an option, you could
paint back of this solid. You could just
glue some paper to it if you want a
texture or a color, or you can work on both sides. You also might want to think
about if you're going to have a cover to this
in a back cover, or if it's just going to
be simply front and back. This doesn't have to
be all decided now. It's just something
to keep in mind. I'm still not really sure. I do think I may
want some cover, but might want that to come from the creation process itself
to see what this book needs. But I do know I want to
start gluing things down, start cutting things out, and start playing just to
see what I might like. I have this that I think I
would like to incorporate. It is a little wide, but maybe this is something
that could go on the cover. So I'm just going to keep it in mind and set that
one to the side. I've got my different
texture and marks that I've created
that I'm really enjoying. I've got this that
I think already. I want to cut some of this out and get it down on the paper. The nice thing about this is some old letraset Panton paper that I acquired over the years. I'm always collecting this, actually peels off and sticks. I really like this shape.
I'm going to peel it off. Normally I would play
around and see what works. But I like the idea
of just putting something down without
thinking too much, Not even knowing
where any of this is going to go, was that easy? Although this doesn't
stick perfectly, it looks like I may
still want to glue, but I'm going to leave it for
now because that gives me permission to readjust later. But yeah, that's not sticking
super well, that's okay. I have some pieces
and scraps already. Cut those to the side. At the ready, I'm
going to start cutting some things that I was drawn to. Some of these are ready made things that I
was attracted to. Again, this is just for me. It doesn't have to be a
polished work of art. You can see I'm not even
cutting very precisely. I like things to be in polished and imperfect when
it comes to collage and when it comes to these personal little
sketchbook altars that I'm creating for myself, I never discard the scraps. I have this box
here and I'm just going to collect the
scraps because you don't know what you might
be drawn to later. This aside for now, some of these bigger pieces
I'm not really ready for. This is already interesting. This was just in my drawer hanging out for some
unknown reason. But I like already
the contrast of the white and the cream there and the repetition
in the shapes. I'm really interested
in something like that. If I do use it back, some of these larger swaths
might be interesting. But I like too, how I'm getting this arch shape right now. I'm not even gluing things
down or deciding anything. I'm just playing, playing
on the page Again, I've got some of
these bigger pieces. Maybe I just want to cut
some smaller elements down because I am working
rather small with this. I was really drawn to
this glass object. It reminded me of some vessel or container space to contain some of the things I want
to hold in this season. As I'm making this, I'm not sure I'm going to cut that out. It might be the scale might
be a little large for this. But I'm just going to see, I think you're drawing just this little
box shape as well. I collected some of these
pages. I don't know. I like this prompt of do I like, I also like this here that says affirmation because this is something I'm
creating for myself, almost like an invocation of things I need in this season. I think there might be space
for an affirmation here. I'm going to cut
that out as well. Maybe I won't end up using it. I don't need to worry about the final selection
process right now. I'm working with
what I collected and finding my way through
it by picking it up, cutting things out, scoring words can be really
powerful found too, because they're just calling to you on an instinctual
intuitive level. If you aren't the type, you really need to have a
plan when you start out. You can just collect and then see where you get
drawn to this bell. Again, it's this idea for
me in this season of being called to something being
woken up, being activated. Something about this
cute little bell spoke to me in that way. If you've downloaded
your collage kit that goes with this class, you can start cutting
some of these out. Another option is to tear. I haven't done much of that. Again, I like the
bold graphic shapes, but you could also be tearing little bits out here and there. You don't have to cut
out the exact shapes. You can get just little elements that you're drawn to with it. As you make your way through some of the
items you collected, this should give you an idea if you're ready to
start going down. If it's not coming together, maybe you need to
collect some more. Maybe it's giving you some ideas of what else to look for, but maybe you just don't
overthink it and begin. Anyway, I'm going to remove all the things again. I like some of this texture. I've just got a
simple glue stick, it's archival, I believe, and strong and fast. It's a little bit thicker so
we can cover large patches, can use any type of blue mode
pod, whatever you'd like. But I like a simple glue stick. I like the immediacy of it. I like that, it's not too messy. I just use a piece
of scrap paper so I can get to the edges. And I'm going to start
gluing down Now, you don't necessarily
need to fill the page with collage elements, you can leave some
space to interact with. Because in the next video, one thing I like
to do is come back with mixed media in pencil, different things like that,
and begin working in layers. Even right now, just
having added one thing, I might want to actually
bring in some other media, maybe some pencil to draw in some lines to have to
interact and engage with. Now I have something
to layer the top. At this, I can come back here, I can cut off that piece. One thing to add continuity is, maybe I bring this over here already. These are in
conversation with each other, calling to each other. I am really drawn to this
and I'm not even sure why. But I can tell already. I think I thought I would want to wait till
the end of this cover. But there are things I'm wanting to put on there and this is one. So I'm going to glue this down. I could hold this
here if I wanted. Instead of cutting this off. We found happy accidents. I'm going to think
in terms of color. I want some brightness, I want some contrast. I think it's time for
some of this opera pink. We have a lot of rectangular and square shapes
happening so far. I'm wondering either if I
want to play with scale, since we have some
bigger blockier shapes, or if I want to play with shape and do some type of curve. Intuitively, I'm feeling like smaller shapes playing
with scale rather than the form itself. I was going to do
individual strips, but I'm curious about leaving
some of that texture here. What would happen if this
isn't completely glued down? I'm not committed yet,
so I'm not going to actually put that down just yet. I think that feels good. There. There are no
mistakes in collage. You can always layer. You
can welcome the accidents. You can welcome
the imperfections. This is for you. It doesn't
have to be perfect. You'll create yourself
some nice AS MR. As you do this as well. I'm liking that even
though this mix, the rectangular form, it's
got the soft organic edges. And I think we need some of that to get this glued
down pretty firmly. Since it's one of
those base layers. I might even fold it now. So it takes that priests and we can see if anything needs to be
glued more firmly. You are free to pause
and ponder here. You don't need to
rush, but you can also keep your hands moving if you
want to outpace your mind. As you really lean
into this process, you start to find that flow state where you're
not having as many thoughts. You're just present
in the moment. Not worried about making
the wrong decision or messing this up, but instead just leaning
into the process. Now, I do have that circular, symbolic shape over there, and I could mirror
that over here. I've brought in some more
organic edges with this cut out shape that was left over from this shape that
I haven't even used. But something about
this was drawing to me. I want to create a
little scallop shape to continue some of these
more wavy circle forms, not worrying at all
about perfection. What I'm already
seeing with this is often the shape that's
left behind ends up calling to me more than the shape I was
intending to create. I'm actually going to use this. Yeah, I like that
with these shapes. I do working on a piece of
scrap paper and trying to get glue all the way to
the edge so that you don't have anything
coming up readily. Putting this piece down
really has me ready to start bringing in some mixed
media beyond the collage, working with some marks, working with pencil,
maybe bringing in text. At this point, I
think I'm ready to continue that process
in this stage, you really just want
to give yourself something to start with and remind yourself that this is going to evolve,
this isn't finished. If you want to work
on the back side, you could do that as well. I think for our
purposes we're just going to work on the outside
and maybe the cover.
7. Adding More to Your Collages: Now that we have our
initial base layer, we're ready to get more interactive work back and forth with making
marks on the page, adding more collage elements, and thinking about what
will bring this together. Another option would be for
you to pack this up and take it with you and just
add to it slowly over time. But for the purposes
of this video, I'm going to work
right here at my desk as the mid warning
light comes in. And we're going to
see what this means, But don't feel
like you ever have to get a point of feeling
finished with this. This is about just creating
something meaningful to you. A little pocket of joy, a reminder of your
own creative practice and process and way of
being in the world. It was this piece here that really called me to want
to make some more marks. I, I'm going to get my
ink back out and grab a brush with this little palette again, we have lotteries,
rectangular shapes, and I'm wanting some
more organic shapes that can even mimic some of marks that I made on
some of the texture paper. Again, I'm just building up this conversation
from within what's happening on the page and
working somewhat intuitively, I've got that pencil mark there, Maybe I'll add wine here, some weighted wine in
layering so that it's not just the cow shapes and
the shapes drawn on the page, but they're starting
to interact. We've got that
circular form there, and this one here, maybe we have something that goes
across the page here. Nothing is final. If I
don't like something, I can always cover
it up a layer here. I have different marks. I think it's time to maybe bring some text in to
respond to as well. I like this against the pink. I like these little prompts. What I may do is leave some space journal and reflect and capture
this moment in time. Again, less of a
polished art piece and more a vessel for
your curiosity, for the things you
want to keep, explore. It can be a visual
journal if you like. Do I like Yes, I like. I like that idea. Yeah,
this that I was drawn to, this shape could
echo right here. And again, you can
build this over time. If you aren't sure
where to go next, you could stop here
if you wanted. As I said, I'm thinking I'm
going to want to fill in this space in a different way, in a more journal like way. I am going to leave some
space here to think about, does this need anything else? Is this enough?
Can it be enough? I'm going to let this
dry for a minute. I actually do want to start
considering the back. I am feeling like I want more of some solid blocks of color
or something like that. I feel maybe striping shape, maybe I'm going to
use the ink and make some really broad stripes. It's a texture that
doesn't have to be overly collaged necessarily. We're just going to
do it. Let's dive in, let's explore the back of this. My desk isn't perfect, but I'm going to put
down just a swath, I do still think I'm going to do something different
with the cover, but I'm going to at least
add some of those marks on, so find a little brush rest. That's okay. Part of
the process, again, I want this to read darker, so I don't want to
leave a lot of space, but I am going to
work with a strike and texture and see
how that feels. I could have used even
a bigger, I wanted to actually, this is
bleeding through so it's going to give me
something more to react to. You can see it's on the
other side. But I like it. I actually, it's
a happy accident. It does have me considering if I want to do this at all
with the cover though, because this is
saturating the paper. Maybe I don't want to risk that I'm going to stop there. It continues a little bit, but we're not going
to go wild there. We're going to let this dry
and continue with our cover.
8. Front Cover and Finishing Touches: The back of my book has dried, and you can see the papers
a bit warped and imperfect. And I'm fine with that. If I wanted to, I could press this under some
books to flatten it out, but I'm going to keep
working with this for now. I'm going to leave
this, but I think I am going to do a front
cover and maybe a little embellishment on the back to even do some type of
clasp if I wanted to. I had this end paper I had
saved from an old book, and I'm thinking about
bringing that on, so I'm going to
cut that to size. I still have some
other pieces and elements as I work on the cover. I may add more in here as well. I'm liking how this
is coming along. As I said, I may write into this and embellish
it, carry it with me, and let it live
with me for a bit, and continue to let it be a living book
that I engage with. Our goal isn't to necessarily
finish something here, but to create something we
want to keep with us and that can spark our
sense of creativity, can call us back to presence. We'll see where we go from here. I'm going to start by
cutting out a bit for this loosely marked out with pencil where I want
the boundaries to be, because I want this in
the bottom right corner. Go ahead and weigh that down. Go ahead and add
some glue silly. Left my the top off of my glue stick so
it's a little tacky. Maybe you are less messy
than I am when you collage. I want a little more
of that to show. So I'm just trimming as I go. And and then I can trim off this excess again. If I wanted to, I
could fold it in. I don't think I want to do that. But maybe I'll leave
just a small bit of it and I don't really want
to muck up my scissors. I might actually get an
Exacto knife to cut this. You can use a
straight edge here. I'm just eyeballing it. I like leaving just
that little tap there, starting to feel like a little feel book
composition book. I like that we have the
continuity of this black stripe. But it's still, I
don't know if maybe I can do something to make the black feel a
little bit more grounded. Maybe adding some marks in here, possibly bringing in some
more collage elements. I think actual marks
might feel good. Also have this little bell
that I still didn't use, maybe that could go back
here with some text. You can see I'm just hopping
around at this point. Not necessarily working on
one thing or the other, but thinking about the
totality of it all. I'm imagining some type of
text or element below here. I do think I like the pink there. Okay, so I'm going to pull this
here as a reference, so I can invoke that. Style of mark, again, not being terribly
perfect with it. I want these two ****** to overlap so that it doesn't
feel so distinctive. I'm going to let the marks
be the bridge there. This piece I had
envisioned using here, and I'm not sure
if it fits or not, but I haven't given
up on it yet. I'm here, I'm thinking about
anything I want to add. I have this ink that's
spilled over from the back, and I think I'm
just going to add some marks to activate that and bring some
intentionality. You notice I've quieted
down. I've slowed down. It's a balance of determining what's enough and
what's still needed. So I'm just going
to keep playing, making subtle adjustments and explorations as I feel called over here, I'm
thinking about making this a little bit
more representative. Bringing a little life
with a simple plant form, a little potted plant. Still keeping things
pretty abstract, but adding a little
visual interest. A focal point. Again, thinking about how
I activate these ******. I like working with these
scraps of shapes and letting them call me
to the next steps. This is that letraset paper, so I have to peel it kind of satisfying.
Grown up stickers. Well, I like this moment where these are
starting to layer and the transparency is creating
an interesting effect. Maybe this isn't right. Maybe this is a space
for some war marks. Even though I thought I would
be doing a plant form here. It's really just a
suggestion of that. I like this idea
of through lines, keeping it simple and
minimal, but it's there. Maybe this becomes
less about journal but prompts I can remind
myself of things again. It's just
about feeling it out. It's starting to get
busy and I think it may be time to let
this be for a bit. I don't want the
words showing here. I really more liked the
shape I'm thinking about. Is there a color or something
that might fit there? But I'm also getting
this reminder to stop. That feels like it's a message
for this process itself. I'm really just that it's feeling like an
interesting landscape of marks of conversation. I like the simplicity
of this cover. Maybe I'll live with
it for a while. I could put the season or date, or maybe I'll put the date here. I like letting this be as it is. I like that this could exist on a mantel or a shelf
as a reminder, even that word yes is
really calling to me. I think I'm going
to carry this with me for a while, live
with it for a while. Perhaps I'll add to it. Perhaps it'll just
be a reminder. Maybe I'll layer more. But this is my reminder to stop. Take it in, to appreciate, to enjoy, and I hope you
can too, my friends.
9. Thank You!: It's been wonderful to share
the studio with you today. As you can see, my
own sacred sketchbook has found its home right
on my studio walls. It's been such a wonderful
reminder as I come in the studio each day of
what's possible for me. And it just makes me feel excited as I start my
practice for the day. And I wish that for you too. I can't wait to see
what you've created. So please post your
project below. And you can also tag me on
Instagram at Nikita Hung. You can find my other
class, Mindful Mark making. If you visit my teacher page
and you can visit my site, Ritual Morning Studio.com to follow along with my journey and find out the latest update.
Nikkita Cohoon, Designer, artist, tea drinker.
