Transcripts
1. Intro: Hey, guys, I am Sherry Burbach, mixed media artist, and I want to tell you about a project that helps you fit more art into your day and also uses the stuff that you might be throwing out in your home. This project takes the recyclable cardboard that you have in your pantry and the stuff that you put in the bin and uses it to create a small art journal that you can carry with you. I like the idea of this project cause it reuses things that we would normally throw out. And it also allows me to create small, many art journals that I can carry with me and that allows me to fit more art into my day. And who doesn't like that?
2. Supplies: for supplies were going pretty simple on this. The purpose of this project is reusing things we would throw away. So first place to look for the supplies Is your recycle bill been or the garbage? I am using boxes from my pantry, things that you know, I would have cookies or snacks or dog treats or pasta things like that. Small boxes that I can cut easily with a scissors. So that's the next thing you'll need. Just a regular old house scissors is just fine. I'm also using Jess. Oh, because that's how we're gonna prep the cardboard surface. And I'm also using gel medium and a foam brush. If you've got some papers that you want to collage with, that's optional. But you can go ahead and do that. Now I'll show you how to prepare surface that way as well, and also some duct tape. I'm using purple duct tape, but you can use any color cause we're gonna be covering it for the most part on. And it's just regular old duct tape from the hardware store
3. Securing the Journal Pages: to start. Gather the cardboard that you have and cut it into the same size piece on, and you wanted to be a small piece. You want it to be small enough where you can carry it with you. Put it in your purse. Put in your school bag, you know, carry it along with you when you go to the coffee shop. Something like that very small, and it doesn't need to be precise, and the pieces do not all need to be the same size, but they need to be similar. So cut them into small pieces and just begin gathering them. Your books can be very thin, like maybe 10 pieces of cardboard or a little bit thicker, maybe 20 pieces of cardboard. But it's up to you. And also you can decide on. You know, if you've got just a few pieces of cardboard you want to start. Their, uh, the length and thickness of the book is really up to you. We're adding the pieces one by one so you'll be able to decide how thick you like the book as you begin to make it. Something between 10 and 20 pieces is usually good So when you have gathered the pieces of cardboard and you have enough to make a small book, lay the 1st 2 pieces and to end and place a piece of duct tape equally over each end. This will help create the binding for the book. I'm using purple duct tape for this. When you secured the 1st 2 pages, flip the page over and then add another piece so you'll be doing the same process, which is taking a piece of duct tape on placing it equally over those two pieces of cardboard. Continue this process until you can flip the pages over and you have the size book that you would like in the thickness that you would like. The goal is to have a book that you can flip over, so be sure your pages flip over and that there secured. When you get through with gathering all your pages, you might decide that some of the pages air a little bit too long and you want to trim them up again. You can do that with a regular household scissors. It's totally up to you. The pieces don't need to be perfectly matched or perfectly the same size, but that's up to you.
4. Adding Gesso: now that we've got the pieces of cardboard put together into our little book, we want to make sure that we prepare those pages so that we can paint or doodle on this book because, after all, that's the purpose of doing this. Art Journal is that we can take it with us and then begin to draw or paint in it to prepare the pages I'm using. Jess. Oh, just always something you can get really nearly anywhere. And I got my particular brand at a big box store, so you don't need to get fancy, but it's readily available in art stores, hobby stores and places like that in order to apply the just So I am using old paintbrush that I have. Jessel is very sticky, and it's sometimes hard to get out. So I like using an old brush that I really don't care that much about, uh and I like using a brush that's a little bit bigger, because I'm not worrying about technique here. I'm not trying to get fancy. I am just wanting the Jessel to be equally placed over the entire cardboard and that duct tape, so make sure that the entire surface is covered. The key here is allowing enough time to dry for each page, so you leave your book open, make sure it's completely dry before you flip it over and do the same process on the next two pages. If it's not dry, of course, the pages will stick together, and therefore you'll have a rough surface and you won't be able to apply paint as easily. So you want to make sure you give it enough drying time. You'll repeat this process over and over until you've covered all the pieces off your book , all the pages since you do need a lot of drawing time for this. One strategy that I use is to just have several books done at once. I kind of wait until I have several pieces of cardboard and then I'll create three or four books, for example, and I will do the same process one by one kind of an assembly line on each one. So I'll put the books together, put the pages flat, put the just so on one book, go to the next one, do the same thing and the next one, and then I'll allow all of them to dry and then flip them all over and do the same process . That so that I get all the way through the book, each one of the books, and this then allows you to create maybe three or four at once a little bit quicker than if you were just doing one at a time and letting it dry. Another way that I like to work on these, especially if I only have one or two books. Maybe that I want a complete is. I'll open the pages, put the just so on and then just place it aside and go back to whatever I'm working on in my studio or if it's somewhere throughout the day, up with the dress Oh on, Leavitt said. To go make dinner, come back. You know, it is a process that needs drawing time, so I try not to just do it and like, wait for it to dry. I kind of do it as a side project so that it's not taking up other time where I could be doing art. Drying time is always a challenge with any mixed media project, and this is, I would say, mixed media using collage and cardboard and duct tape and things like that, so drying time is key
5. Collage: Another alternative to using Jess Oh, is to collage to prepare your pieces of cardboard. And if you're a mixed media artist like me, you've got, you know, pieces of paper lying around different scraps of different types of scrap of paper, music pages, book pages and things like that. Any of those air perfect for collage in order to apply them to your cardboard, you do not need to. Just so first. If you're using the collage method, you would just prepare the page by taking gel. Medium. And I'm using regular gel gloss by Golden for this particular project and a foam brush, and you brush the cardboard with a thin layer of gel medium. Then you brush the back of your piece of paper with gel medium, and you would hear it to the cardboard, and then you put another layer of gel medium over the top to protect it. Gloves are always a good idea when you're using gel. Medium because it is sticky. They are optional, of course, but I like using them because it helps with cleanup again, you could use another layer of collage over the first layer, but I have found personally that when I'm creating these books, one layer of collage is more than enough to hold whatever else I'm going to put on this book, whether it is another layer of paint, some doodles or whatever else I'm putting on there. So one layer is perfectly enough. It's up to you if you want to add more. But remember, the same philosophy applies withdrawing time. Everything needs to dry completely before you move on to the next page. If you're doing ah, collaged are journal. You would do this same process than for every page. You let the 1st 2 pages dry, flip them over and do the next two pages with the same type of technique. Now, if you want to vary your art journals, no one says you need to do all just so pages or all kalash pages. You can vary them on and add different pages as you see fit. You can put some collage in there and some just so whatever you feel like doing. Maybe you've got just a few pieces of scrap paper. And so for some of the pages, you want to add some collage, and for others you want to use Jess. Oh, it's entirely up to you. And the good part about these types of journals is they're great for using up things in your studio. If you've got leftover painted, you've got leftover scraps. Whatever you have is great for than putting it into this journal and then creating something new from it. As a mixed media artist, I like to vary things anyway, so a lot of my journals have a combination of Jessa and collage to start out with.
6. Adding Paint: while creating these books is fun. The reason we do them is to allow us to fit art into our day in little doses. And so once the pages air all dry and your books are prepared, now is the really fun part in that you get to paint on them and doodle on them and really experiment with different ideas that you might have about pictures or different techniques . One way I love using our journals like this is just to use up leftover paint. Let's say I have been in the studio and I've got some leftover paint on my palette. I know that I'm not going to use this paint, and I hate to waste it. So what I do is I take that paint and put some on my art journal pages, and this gives me. Then, once that art journal page drives gives me a starting point, then if I want a doodle and sketch on it, or if I want to add more paint and do something else on it. But it allows these pages than to be decorated and prepared for me to use them whenever I feel like it. It's a great way to use a paint and also create something new from again, something that you would normally throw out when I have left over paint. I apply in a variety of ways, and I don't limit myself, so sometimes I might paint it on with a brush. Sometimes I might just rub it on with my fingers. Sometimes I might use a Breyer each way that you apply the paint onto the art journal. Page will have a different effect because the original pages, now that we've prepared them with cardboard just so collage, have a little bit of layering and a little bit of bumps and ridges. And you know each of the ways that we apply paint will be different and have a different effect. So when I'm doing this, I don't rush it. I just allow that to be another part of the creative process from having fun. I'm putting the pigment on the art journal pages, and I'm seeing how the different types of paint and application techniques change the look of the surface. Even that is part of the creative process. So take that in and enjoy it
7. Doodling: I like using our journals for doodling and just sketching out ideas for future pictures. And so one way that I like to use them is you know, I've have let's say I have a couple art journals that I've put paint and collage on and I've used these are journals. Just is a way to use up leftover things in my studio when I feel like I have the art journal filled up in that way where all of backgrounds air filled, I'll take that are journal with me to, you know, the coffee shop or Teoh Art Show that I'm doing or somewhere where I just want to fit in some art here and there. And I use ink, pens and sharpies and ah, variety of things to just doodle and kind of sketch out some ideas when you've prepared these surfaces with just so and paint and collage and things like that. They were great for them holding Inc or sharpies or pain pens. So try them out with a variety of surfaces. My favorite tools for creating in an art journal. Once I've prepared the pages with paint our India ink pens, eso those would be pit pens. Sharpies in a variety of sizes. I like sharpies that provide a really thick edge, and I like the thinner ones. I like sharpies of all kinds. They work great for our journaling, and I like white paint pens. Posca Paint pens are really great on guy. Really? I go for a variety of white paint pens, gelato zehr really good for this. They also work if you think thin them down in water and you use them on your art journal or you smudge them on their you rub them on their They're great for that as well. So charcoal works good pastels work. Good. Um, I usually just take whatever I have with me. And since I have sharpies always in my purse, I tend to use those quite a lot. But you could use whatever you have available because the purpose of an art journal is really just a experiment. And to have fun and work out ideas and really get into the flow of doing just a little bit of art every day. Even you know, those really busy, jam packed days when you might not have a lot of time and the best part is with these journals, you're also using up stuff you would normally throw away. So you're not spending a lot of money, so they're a good way to recycle and also do it on a budget.
8. Final Thoughts: when you finished with your art journal, you might want to put a cover on there. And to do that is the same type of process that you used to prepare the pages. Put some just salon there or collage paint, ink, whatever you have available and create a special cover. Actually, wait until I get an art journal filled, and then I create the cover based on whatever I have in the Are Charles. But of course it's entirely up to you. Now that you've seen how these air journals are created, I'm really curious to see what you've come up with. So share your creations in our class and thanks again for creating with me.
Cherie Burbach, Artist, Writer, Poet
