 with Barbara Roth, November 12-13, 2011
On a wet, rainy morning 17 enthusiastic students began a fun 2 day workshop with Barbara Roth, an artist, teacher and children’s book illustrator. We were there to learn how to start and continue art journaling. She stated that “journaling is not about making a perfect painting. It’s about recording your moment in time. It’s about documenting your personal history to recall memories and perceptions.”
Handouts were given and examples of journal pages were shown. We then began with pencil drawing exercises, some timed, to get us loosened up. We saw it doesn’t take long to get a quick sketch, a very useful skill for on-the-go journaling.
Several well-informed demos took students through techniques and tricks for drawing and painting trees,  buildings, beach scenes, people—(ask us about carrot people), and cats and for mixing paint colors. Composition and page layout was touched upon. She showed us how to make a view finder, angle ruler, an Altoids box paint set, and a grid. Discussions on various tools and paints used were included throughout her demos.
A guided painting activity started day 2. We used a grid to transfer a picture of a French country house to our journals. Then she took us step-by-step through painting the scene. She suggested working big to small, light to dark, adding layers until you have light, medium and dark areas in your painting. All our pictures came out different and uniquely ours. Success was in our hands.
As we finished the weekend, Barbara encouraged us to practice our newfound skills, reminding us that the art we create does not need to be perfect and that everyone’s style of journaling will be different as well. All in all, we had an enjoyable and informative weekend.
By Jean Igoe
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