Keeping An Artful Journal

Cynthia Mooney, of Hidden Nest Studio, was a special guest at my studio on Saturday when she offered her Keeping an Artful Journal class to a group of my friends. I had invited an eclectic group of women, most who did not know each other, and everyone immediately clicked. We spent the morning making journals under the patient and practiced guidance of Cynthia (who brought every single supply we needed!).








Lunch break! It was a fantastic potluck provided by the ladies.


We spent the afternoon playing in our newly created journals. Cynthia had us do some blind contour drawing (you draw an object without looking at what you are drawing and without lifting your hand from the page). We each selected a crazy little object to draw and then paint using only two colors of watercolors (although a certain someone in the group cheated and added a third color - no names).






Cynthia then moved on to teaching us some techniques, everything from painting with watercolors, to lettering, to layouts. She first demonstrated using watercolors, then had us do some practice pieces.




She offered a nice refresher on the color wheel and color mixing:


Tea staining:


Sharing some of our practice layouts with each other:






We got to spend some time putting into practice everything we learned throughout the day!



It was a wonderful day. This is a page I did on the first page of my journal -- unfortunately, I don't like it that much so I've cut it out and will have a new first page!