Workshops

Sunday, May 11, 2008

Day Two With Katie: Play Returns



“When I create, I never have an end in mind.” Katie Kendrick

The second workshop last weekend with Katie, Free Spirit Journaling, was more comfortable for me. Perhaps because I had sweated out all my fear the day before, perhaps because it didn’t involve faces. Although interestingly enough, when asked to add a large image to each of the pages we were working on, I added a face on one of them – and no collage was involved!!

On both days, Katie had us begin the day with an exercise to get us loosey goosey. Both exercises involved using our non-dominant hand, always a boost to the ego. We were given plenty of time, just enough direction, and it was freeing and set the tone for the rest of the day. The materials we used were oil pastels, black paint, and gesso – later we added other colors, but the simplicity of the exercises had my inner critic running for the hills.




The bulk of the day was spent preparing backgrounds for journal pages: layers and layers of paper and paint. Katie suggested ideas for adding texture, had us create a large simple element to work around on the page, and gave us demos on distressing, dripping paint, and extolled the virtues of using gesso in every way imaginable.

The very beginnings of five loose journal pages:




I came away with the beginnings of several pages. I was once again feeling confident and cheerful . . . also a tad exhausted after two full days of creative play.



1 comment:

gl. said...

wow! you sure did a lot, dayna! no wonder it took so long to write about all of it! i'll bet you're really going to use these techniques. :)