I’m so excited to be Guest Host over on Art Journal Journey again and for one of my favourite months – October! I love October, it’s a great month for art journalling for me – last year I managed to create 41 pages and bound them into one book! This year I have no plans to make that many pages but I will be working from a list of daily prompts because I find that helps to keep me thinking and motivated. If you are interested in the prompts, you can find them at the end of the post.
My theme for this month is Fairytales, Folklore & Fables – Tell Me A Story. That’s a bit of a mouthful isn’t it but I wanted it to be broad and to give you options. eg if you don’t like fairytales, try folklore, if you don’t feel inspired by folklore, try fables. There are plenty of options to create great journal pages and to tell a story and to have a lot of fun with it!
Here are some definitions that might help:
Fairytales:
(fairy tale, fairytale, wonder tale, magic tale, fairy story) are generally are short stories with mythical creatures (dwarfs, unicorns, witches, giants, mermaids, dragons etc) and magic or enchantments. Fairytales never claim to have any basis in truth and have no moral outcome like fables.
Folklore:
Verbal lore like tales, legends, jokes, proverbs, sea shanties, folk music, urban legends, epic poetry, ballads.
Material lore like arts and crafts, food recipes, folk art, costumes, pottery, woodwork etc.
Customary lore like rituals and celebrations, weddings, folk dances, Christmas, Halloween, Trick or Treating, Crossing your fingers, Mime, Thanksgiving.
Fable: – a short fictional story, in prose or verse, that feature animals, plants, mythical creatures and always has a moral lesson at its core. (Aesop’s Fables etc)
In all of them, there is the opportunity for storytelling, so tell me a story on your page… or why not retell a story?
To introduce the theme, I have chosen to do just that, a retelling of a familiar tale, but with a twist. Normally the wolves would be chasing Red Riding Hood through the forest with the intention of making her into dinner at Grandma’s house, but instead the wolves are going for walkies and Red has the leash. This takes all the danger out of the story and turns it into a happy page with a girl taking her dogs wolves for a walk.
Today’s Art . . .
The page is mostly watercolour, starting off by drawing birch tree shapes, but very misshapen trees lol. Then painting in between the trees and leaving the trees unpainted. Then I drew the wolves between the trees with a black Pitt pen. For Red Riding Hood, I drew a rough outline and painted over it with white gesso, and then painted her red outfit with deep red watercolour over the gesso.
I wrote out ONCE UPON A TIME in tall skinny letters using a black Posca and outlined it with a white Posca.
Here are the prompts I will be using and you can probably tell that a lot of them are related to fairytales, but you don’t have to use them that way or you don’t have to use them at all. I will be attempting all 31 days but I may not make it and that’s OK too. The prompts are there if you feel stuck or in need of extra inspiration. For example for today’s prompt “little red cap” is the story of little red riding hood but you could focus on just the colour red instead. There are several prompts dotted throughout the month that have colours in them and can be used this way (little red cap, green man, bleubeard, goldilocks, black cat, poison apple, pumpkin coach). For day 4, Cosmos is the birth flower for October but also 4th October is the start of World Space Week so there is a double meaning there and you can take it either way. I will also be posting my pages on Instagram so there is a hashtag for that too if you like that sort of thing.
Or you can ignore the daily prompts completely and focus on the overarching theme for the month. The daily prompts are there if you want to make more pages but need some extra prompting. Hope you feel inspired to join in the challenge this month and have fun with it!
Let me know what you think in the comments. As always, thanks for reading!
Ingredients
my handmade journal, watercolour paper, watercolour, gesso, graphite pencil, poscas,
Challenges
Art Journal Journey – Fairytales, Folklore & Fables
Adorable journal page. Elle. I luv this months theme it give me an opportunity to showcase my children’s books
Much?love
Adorable journal page. Elle. I luv this months theme it give me an opportunity to showcase my children’s books
Much?love
Great page, Elle. Love the forest, wolves, and red. Even your words are super cool and well done.
Super theme and love that you including prompts!
Hugz
What an absolutely wonderful page – Red Riding Hood the wolf walker! Great idea! Thanks for the definitions. Now I’ve just about recovered from our journey home hope to get on with more pages. Hugs, Chrisx
What an awesome entry for the first day of October. I love your wolves because they also look a bit feline. What a wonderful reinvention of the Little Red Riding Hood saga.
Love your interpretation of the new theme Elle, you explain it so well with your picture and the writing you have given to us all. The prompts at the end are invaluable.
I love your Red and her wolves, gorgeous eyes on the wolves and so nice that they are friendly.
An absolutely beautifully painted page.
Hugs, Neet xx
Very cute, now I got the rules! Oh, this fairy tale has revivals here in Germany, sometimes you really feel with the poor, hungry wolf!
Your cats are even much, much cuter!
Darn it. I just gave away a book of fairy tales to my Nieces! It was a special one, one, I found in the street. They were from Croatia and other countries up there.
So pleased to see you hosting over at AJJ and your theme is perfect ?. I’m loving your first page too, the birch trees are gorgeous and provide a beautiful backdrop for red riding hood and her wolves – perfect! I’m looking forward to joining you. Wishing you a very Happy October! Hugs Jo x
You and I were thinking the same thing for day 1. Smile. Your page is wonderful. Your wolves came out great too. I like how you made them solid black. And those eyes are great. They are kind of spooky, but I like that. This is a very nice start to the new month, and I am glad you are joining us too. Thanks for your list of prompts; there were some ideas there that I hadn’t thought of or even remembered. October is a great month, and your theme is a nice twist on the usual October ideas. I’m glad you are here and have lots of pages made. Happy new month. hugs-Erika
Nice to have you with us at AJJ this month, Elle. Love your page today, very well made. Looking forward to seeing what you do day by day! Have fun! Take care and enjoy your weekend, Valerie