Journaling Workshops

How easy it can sometimes be! I love this ....and this is from my drip page, under whatever I was working on at the time!!!

There are many times when I am so thankful that I was born in an English-speaking country. It has provided me with the ability to get a job teaching English all over the world, to strike up conversations and new friendships easily, to watch films without struggling to watch and read subtitles at the same time, and, VERY importantly to enable me to enter easily into, firstly, the world of art journaling and, now, the world of some of my favourite artists. 

One way to do this is by doing online art and journaling courses. I love doing them. Not only have I learnt a lot and been motivated. Since I plucked up courage to join in the various groups, blogs and Facebook groups, I have entered a world of friendly people with a common interest, all over the world. This leads to more confidence and better work, I think! At the moment I am doing quite a few - 21 Secrets, a massive workshop involving a huge list of teachers and many lessons to choose from, Extreme Composition from another favourite arist and journalist, Jane Davies, and two from another person who really motivated me - Traci Bautista. One called Digital Canvas - now I can do much more with my ipad, produce journal pages, cut and paste, collage and much more. Also I am slowly working through Discovering You, where Traci guides us through the process of setting our goals and, possibly, turning our hobby into a business, whether by teaching or by selling. 

Ipad pictures - very first efforts..

The learning experience

Unfinished picture

I am toying with the idea of teaching online, or giving workshops locally here in Portugal. But recently I have been thinking of turning my house into a workshop holiday centre, with guests from abroad, and guest teachers as well. If I do some conversion work, I could easily sleep at least 10 people and have great plans for workshops inside and outside by the pool. Of-course, this could all be a dream - that will depend on how much I really want it!!!

Here are a couple of pages I did from ideas from Tracy Verdugo, a wonderful artist form Australia, as part of the 21 Secrets workshop. It's about our individual 'print' - starting off with thumbprints in our favourite colours, then using a previous picture of ourselves to extend the idea. I then had the idea that, as well as our unique thumbprint, what people really remember about us is our 'personality print'....