NaNoJouMo 2015

If I have learned anything these past two months, it is that I really shouldn't commit to daily art projects.

In September, I signed up for 30 Days of Lists.  Really enjoyed it except I haven't quite completed all of my pages yet, partly because I headed off to Mexico for a week long workshop in the middle of it and fell behind and ended up with several scraps of paper with lists on them that are waiting to be made into finished pages.  It's not that I'm not going to finish putting my little book together, it's just that I haven't done so yet (and I'm relieved to learn that I'm not the only one!).

In October, I thought I'd do #inkOctober.  And I did do a sketch a day...some days.  I currently have several blank pages in my sketchbook in between the daily sketches I did complete and little post-its to remind me what I intended to draw on those days.  I am definitely going to finish these two projects but first, I signed up to do NaNoJouMo for the month of November.

NaNoJouMo is a creation of Dawn Devries Sokol, the author of several books about doodling and art journaling, including "Art Doodle Love", and the creator of the compilation books entitled "1000 Artist Journal Pages" (a copy of which I was thrilled to find recently at my local thrift shop - score!) and "A World of Artist Journal Pages". For the month of November, Dawn provides daily prompts in an effort to promote art journaling on a daily basis. She describes it best here, where you can also see the prompt for day one (which was my inspiration for the journal page in the photo above).

I wasn't going to sign up for this challenge, especially since I already have two consecutive months of unfinished projects behind me.  But I got hooked by this line:  "Even if you just draw a line in your journal one day, that’s art journaling."  I figured, worst case scenario, if I was in a rush or just didn't feel motivated on a certain day, I could just draw a line on a page in my journal and call it done.

To make it even easier on myself, I thought it would be a great time to make use of my "Leftover Journal".

This is a blank journal I've been keeping for a couple of years now. It's full of half-finished pages made using paint and inks and stenciled patterns "left over" from other projects.  If I paint something and end up with wet paint left on my brush, I clean off the brush in this journal.  If I have a puddle of ink left on my craft sheet, I mop it up with a page from this book.  As a result, some of the pages look like this:

I really like how this page looks, just as it is!

and some are a bit of an unholy mess, like this one:

At best, these half-started pages will be the beginning of a new journal page, if I should be so inspired this month.  Or maybe I'll just add a bit more bits and pieces here and there throughout the month. There are several blank pages left in the book as well.  Whatever I decide to do, there are no rules, so anything goes.

Stay tuned and see if I can do this every day, all month.  Better yet, feel free to play along!! (Did I mention, it's free to join?)  Tomorrow On Friday, I'll show you what I've been doing so far.