Know Your Bone Art Journal Page

I had an entire blog post written about bones and something inside me said it was just to damn wordy. Most likely, it was my bones, ;) 

Do what you love. Know your own bone; gnaw at it, bury it, unearth it, and gnaw it still.

Henry David Thoreau

This page below didn't speak to me. The images, the text, nada. The only thing I decided to keep were the white faced figures, some of the reclining nudes, and the ladies face on the right page for my journal entry. You can view the finished page below. 

As an artist, what is your bone? What is that thing you love to do over and over and over? Is it the use of a color, a mark you make, the layering of words, the expression of text? What is the one thing you LOVE to apply to your artwork? If you can identify that as one of your bones, you are one step closer to finding your own artistic voice. 

Once you learn how to find your first bone, you become more adept at finding your other bones. Through practice, you will discover more bones. Sometimes they will be obvious, but other times they will show up more subtly and appear repeatedly. 

When I art journal my 'BONES' are praying, making marks, using transparent layers, strong value and contrast, drawing weird figures, and writing. An art journal page without those bones would not connect to my heart so I use them: 

Every

Single

Time

Give your bones permission to learn what your heart wishes to say and express that on canvas. The world needs YOUR VOICE, not your copy of someone else's. 

START COLLECTING YOUR BONES BY DOING THIS:

Pray,Paint, Practice,Play, Repeat. 

Pay attention to the techniques that you use without thinking, the marks that show up over and over, and then consider adding in a few unexpected ones to see how your heart responds to them. Most importantly, look for these bones when you are not mimicking or learning a specific style. YOUR bones show up more often when you turn the computer off and paint from your inspiration and yours alone.