Creating a Watercolour Art Journal

I watched YT videos of Brenda Swenson who has created the most beautiful art journals that I have ever seen. They aren't the rushed doodles and quick sketches that many artists put in their journals but, instead, works of art to be admired. She inspired me to start one a journal of my own. 

I am using a Strathmore hardback journal for watercolours which has quite heavy paper and which can be spread flat for ease of use. Swenson frequently creates a painting across the entire two pages as shall I in time. 

The paper did not buckle much under a fair amount of water but its surface is not as tough as the paper I am accustomed to, so I found it difficult because my style of amateur painting is to put it on, lift it off, put it back on again—you get the picture! It also behaves like a cross between hot and cold press. Even so, the fault was not the journal's paper but my own lack of expertise. It got roughed up a bit.

I decided, in order not to ruin my journal journey from the offset, to create a painting in the middle of the book as I am not concerned with it being in chronological order. The painting was taken from a photograph of mine of white Zantedeschia (Calla Lily), so I had to ad lib a bit with the colours. Although I know it could have been better, I'm not displeased with the way it turned out being in mind the difficulties of an unfamiliar type of paper. It flattens out nicely when dry. 

Zantedeschia in watercolour journal

I traced the image from my photo by bringing up the picture on my desktop computer. I had reversed the image using Photo editing software so that, when it was traced and placed face down in my journal, it would be the right way around. I disabled the computer's the touchscreen facility, stuck some tracing paper over the screen using tape, then traced around the image using Faber-Castell Graphite Aquarelle which is a water-soluble pencil thus making the lines disappear when water is applied. I placed the tracing paper on the journal, graphite pencil side down, and traced the lines using an ordinary, inexpensive, pencil.  Hope that makes sense. 

To create the letters, I typed the word in a word doc and traced that too. 

White Zantedeschia (aka Calla Lily)

The brand of paints I used was Schmincke Horadam, my favourites.