The Wonderful Word for This Wednesday is ‘Intuition’
Have you ever thrown the rules, expectations, and opinions of others right out the window and played art with just your intuition to guide you?
I highly recommend you give it a try if you haven’t before. This is the purpose of an art journal. In your art journal, you simply play with your supplies, or an idea, and see what happens. You never have to show it to anyone, and there is no pressure to have a ‘finished product’ at the end. Playing art intuitively is where real growth happens and it’s how we find our distinctive voice.
Let’s find out how dictionary.com defines intuition:
- direct perception of truth, fact, etc., independent of any reasoning process; immediate apprehension.
- a fact, truth, etc., perceived in this way.
- a keen and quick insight
- the quality or ability of having such direct perception or quick insight
Synonyms include: hunch, instinct, discernment, feeling, inspiration, sixth sense
Antonyms include: knowledge, reason (hmm….interesting!)
Intuition as a Guide
Today I’m inviting you right into my studio. Come along with me as I create a mixed media page in my art journal with only my intuition as my guide.
This morning I began cleaning my desk off in order to have space to do some art journaling. Now this is quite an undertaking because if you like mixed media, you have ENDLESS supplies all around you at all times. I began piling things by category and projects, putting things away that have a ‘spot’, and what was left was a pile of scraps from various projects I’ve done in recent weeks.
The pile was a somewhat cohesive grouping of colors and was definitely ‘me’, so I thought to myself, “Self, here’s your art journal start for today, use these papers on a new page”.
I opened my art journal to a blank page, put on some music, and got to work just gluing papers onto the page intuitively, meaning quickly without much thought, and just put them where I wanted with no intention in mind.
You’ll notice that I didn’t use all of the scraps, AND that I included some that weren’t in the pile. This is because as I began to glue down scraps, I intuitively began to discard some and reach for some other supplies that I wanted.
At first, my only intention was to glue down scraps wherever they felt ‘right’. But when I started gluing down the thinner strips, I had the idea that they could be flower stems. At that point, the page started taking shape.
Next, I wanted to use a new color of acrylic ink that I purchased over the weekend, Naples Yellow Deep, so I just dropped a few lines in, sprayed water on them, and then tilted my art journal up so they could run and drip and do their thing.
After letting the yellow ink dry, I decided to use one of my new water soluble artist crayons in turquoise to add more color to the top and shaded it down into the yellow with water on a paintbrush.
Next, I used white gesso (an acrylic primer of sorts) to soften the edges of some of the collage papers. One of my favorite techniques is to use a palette knife to apply the paint as it makes a whole different look compared to using a brush or your finger. As I began, I thought, “Hey, what if I did the flowers with white gesso as a base using a palette knife so it’s kind of messy. I got to work and LOVED the results! You’ll notice I also added my favorite words as of late, “Open your petals and bloom”. Now the page had a theme.
Once the gesso was dry I used waterbased Tombow Brush Markers to shade in the thin parts of the flowers and watered the wet ink down so it was flowy and transparent. Lastly, I added some gold around the words and splattered some more white all over and viola! Done.
In the end, the left and right sides ended up looking quite different and I liked the left side all by itself best of all:
Perhaps this will be the cover on my next art journal?! Brilliant idea self!
In Conclusion
Sitting down to play art in an art journal with no plan and no intention for a finished product is pure gold. Allowing your intuition to lead the way is tricky for those of us who have control issues (you know who you are!), but it is freeing and rewarding. I now have a new flower making technique that came to me intuitively in the midst of this page and as far as I know, there’s nobody else who does it this way! I’m discovering my voice and my style by allowing my intuition to lead the way.
So, throw out the rules & expectations, get alone with your art supplies, and play intuitively. I promise, after doing this, you’ll learn new things about yourself and you’ll grow your trust in your own intuition.
Kimberly Snider, Virtuoso, signing off