Five Day Art Challenge – Day Five

Posted on February 5, 2015 by Dana Burrell

Day 5… and final day… of my Five Day Art Challenge.

Today, as an homage to Roz Stendahl, and her creation, IFJM – International Fake Journal Month I’m sharing an image from each of my previous fake journals.

What is a fake journal? Well, it’s a chance for you to be someone else and keep a journal as that person. It doesn’t have to be a visual journal although that’s what I did for the last three years. Each year I’ve chosen an art goal and made a commitment to have an entry for each day in the month of April to coincide with other fake journalers.

In 2012 I had 2 goals – to sketch a person each day in ink and watercolor and create a narrative for my journal keeper. If you’d like to see my entire 2012 IFJM journal from the beginning start with my April 1st post and forward through the “next” posts.

2013’s goal was to work in gouache over pre-painted acrylic backgrounds and of course, have that all-important, at least to me, back story of the artist. Here’s the link to see how I selected my physical journal as well as the link for the first post of my 2013 Fake Journal.

In 2014 I used a small set of watercolor pencils in my journal and again my character had her own life lurking behind those pages. See my journal selection and the April 1st journal entry if you’d like to see it all from the beginning.

If you’d like to know more about International Fake Journal Month please visit officialinternationalfakejournalblog.blogspot.com to see Roz’s journals and get a feel for the whole experience.

And yes, I’ll be participating again this year… don’t have a goal or a character yet but it’s early… I have nearly two months to figure it out. Be sure to visit “me” or whomever I “am” at skylarkkarma.wordpress.com.

I hope to see you in April!

Five Day Art Challenge – Day Four

Posted on February 4, 2015 by Dana Burrell

I always loved the State Fair but now it means so much more. It means I can take my sketchbook and revel in the hay… just as long as I remember my antihistamines!

Come back tomorrow for the fifth and final day of my Five Day Art Challenge!

Five Day Art Challenge – Day Three

Posted on February 3, 2015 by Dana Burrell

As I was looking though my sketchbook/illustrated journals I was reminded that art is more than just images. I often write meaningful quotes in my journals, often with images, but sometimes the words themselves become the art. These came from a particularly difficult 3 week period.

Art heals.

I hope to see you tomorrow for day four!

Five Day Art Challenge – Day Two

Posted on February 2, 2015 by Dana Burrell

I’m a firm believer in documenting my travels; as I flip though my sketchbook I’m immediately transported. I went with family on a long planned Alaska trip almost 2 years ago. As I page though my travel journal I remember each place we visited.

I close my eyes and I’m in the hall where hundreds of these delightful wire fish sculptures were hanging, each one made by a student at the local school.

I can almost feel the cool breeze crossing the water.

And sense the bittersweet feeling I had upon seeing the glorious sunrise as we landed back in the lower 48.

All my photographs could be erased from my hard disk in a major computer disaster and I wouldn’t care… as long as I still had my journal!

Tomorrow… day three.

Five Day Art Challenge – Day One

Posted on February 1, 2015 by Dana Burrell

Have you heard of the Five Day Art Challenge? It’s been going around Facebook for a while. It’s premise is to post 3 images of your art for 5 days. A few weeks ago I was tagged by Roz Stendahl to participate. It was fun to go through my sketchbooks and look for themes and interests that emerged over the years I’ve kept my illustrated journal.

I may call what I do keeping a sketchbook but it’s much more than that. As I repost my images over then next few days I hope to give you a glimpse of how important these books are to me.

Today, day one, and I’ve chosen to show my first watercolor done almost 5 years ago. I cringe every time I see that gray blob that’s supposed to be a shadow!

These 2 were done just a few weeks ago. As you can see, fruit is still one of my favorite models but I’m also continuing to work on capturing a much wider scene.

Check back tomorrow for Day Two.

Dana Burrell… Art

… adventures in creativity.

Category Archives: Five Day Art Challenge