Trust in the Magic of New Beginnings

Good morning, Happy New Year and welcome to 2021 and the first day of a brand new year.  How’s that looking for you so far?  It’s very cold and snowy here and I am currently wearing a coat! Inside my house!  I was out, and then I came in and I couldn’t bear the thought of taking it off, so I didn’t. Before we get started I should warn you that I am in the middle of site redesign.  I had planned to do it over Christmas break but somehow that didn’t happen so I’m tweaking it bit by bit and changing things as I decide on them – one day a font, next day something else, but nothing that will cause any disruptions.

So today, being January 1st and a time when we think about new everything (new you, new me, new year resolutions, turning over a new leaf) and lots of new beginnings, I have this art journal page to share with you inspired by new beginnings and it’s my DT project for the new MTW January Challenge.  As I was thinking about this challenge, images of leaves kept popping into my head so I decided I would paint some and see what happened.  This is the result of that!

I started off painting the green/blue leaves on the left using watercolours, but then for some reason I decided to switch to a warm palette for the leaves on the right. I left them to dry and discovered one of them had run into the centre of my page, making me wish I had checked on it earlier.  Ah well, never mind, it will be fixed later, haven’t decided how but it is watercolour and there are options.

So the next day, I grabbed some pens and took my journal to another room and started doodling on the leaves while I watched some festive show or other.  I outlined them in black and started to draw veins inside them.  Then added some white dots.  I also experimented with some gold dots but they didn’t show up as well, and ended up being covered by white dots later on.

You can compare the white and the gold dots below.  So far not impressed with this gold pen.

Here’s a closer look at the green leaves.  I like how the little round ones look like Earth and now I want to fill a page with little planets!

So another day passed doing festive things and thinking about what to do to finish my page, and then the answer arrived in a box – new paint!  I used this gorgeous turquoise to paint over my white background on one side and the gold to paint over the background on the other side.

I came up with a quote that I liked about beginnings and magic, but where to put it?  The solution was to paint a big leaf shape to write on!

I drew the quote on by hand using black and white paint pens and then edged the leaf with black to help it stand out.

Here’s a closer look, click for bigger views.

Here’s a look at some of my washi collection.  It’s a “collection” because I hoard them in these wooden boxes and don’t use them often because they can be hard to replace.  So I tend to only use the ones that I have multiples of or the ones I don’t like that much lol.  Most of them are proper Japanese washi tapes and they tend to be more expensive and also harder to get here.  I like the ones made by MT especially.  Some of the others are cheaper and/or not real washi tape, so they would be the ones I use more since they are not as “precious” to me.

Here’s a better look at the green leaf page and that lovely turquoise paint – and my leaf washi!

And here’s a look at the gold side of the page.

Here’s my DT inspiration photo which you can find on the challenge announcement post today.  Click for a much bigger version.

Challenges

DT inspiration for More Than Words January Challenge – Beginnings and Washi

Ingredients

My handmade journal
watercolour paper, watercolours (Jane Davenport Bright palette this time), iridescent gold and turquoise acrylic, paint pens, hydrangea flowers, black pen, washi tape

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Abundant Art Journal Page

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