Living in the Moment: An Art Journal Painting Tutorial on Denim

Do you ever find yourself surrounded by distraction? Living in the moment is not always easy, but is an important habit to cultivate. By being present in the moment we can find enjoyment and peace in the small and precious moments in our lives. Art journaling can be a useful tool to help us practice living in the moment by writing about what we experience in these moments.

Why Living in the Moment?

I recently had the opportunity to visit Banff National Park. It was a day to enjoy the outdoors and practice photography. Visiting the park with my husband we both commented on interesting behavior that we saw as we were watching the people around us.

We were in beautiful areas with great mountain vistas, but it seemed like we were some of the few people that were enjoying the view. We noticed that many people would barely glance at the mountains. They would take a quick glance, then spend the next 10 minutes posing for their next social media photo.

It wouldn’t have been so strange if it was just a few people, but it was the majority of those around the lake. They would spend a lot of time checking their hair and makeup and almost no time enjoying the beauty around them.

Enjoying Our Surroundings

I say this not in judgement, but more as an observation. There is nothing wrong with being in your own photos, but it was the lack of living in the moment that I found interesting. There was so much focus on getting the photo over enjoying the beauty of the place.  

Seeing so much distraction made me feel sad. I find so much rejuvenation, peace, and restoration in nature. It felt like the people around me were missing out on special moment. When we take time to pause and live in the moment, this can create such beautiful memories and experiences.   

Finding Awareness

So how do we start living in the moment? Finding awareness and being intentional in our experiences can help us stay present in the moment. Stopping filling every hour of our days can help us move away from a rushed life.

One way that I keep from being rushed is by giving myself more time for each of the activities in my day. Instead of planning three or four activities in a day, I’ll plan one or two. By slowing down the pace, this gives us time to stay present in the moment.

Slowing down the pace is a choice. It only comes from intentional planning. Sometimes it means saying no to things that I really want to do or experiences I would like to have. But I find that the art of going slow helps me savor and enjoy each experience so much more.

Living in the Moment Art Journal Page

I wanted to remember this experience by creating an art journal page about living in the moment. In this art journal painting tutorial, I focused on mountain and floral imagery to express the idea of living in the moment.

Preparing the Journal Surface

I decided to challenge myself and use a denim page out of my Dina Wakley Blue Media Journal for this project. I find denim hard to create on but was determined to use this page for the project.

As the denim does absorb paint easily, I added a layer of Liquitex clear gesso to the denim before starting the project. This still gives the page a denim texture, but the paint will stay on the surface of the denim requiring you to add less paint to your project.  

Choosing Focal Images

Start by choosing your focal images. For this project, I am using mountain imagery for the background and a meadow and sunflowers for the foreground. For the sunflowers and bees, use the Wild Whisper Designs Strength of the Season stamp set to stamp images with archival ink. Use an electronic cutting machine or scissors to fussy cut out the images.

Use pencil crayons to color the bee images. For the sunflowers, color these with a variety of Distress Inks. For more details on how to color the sunflowers, please visit this article “How to create a Wine Bottle Flower Vase”.

Painting the Mountains Using a Stencil

Arrange the Nicole Wright Designs Get Toasted mountain stencils on the page. Add white gesso through the stencil using a foam applicator. Add layers of white gesso to both the mountains and the sky. Try to vary the coverage of the paint as this will add variation to the background.

If you would like to have more shadows and depth to the page, try adding grey paint in places to the mountains and the sky.  

Painting a Meadow

Using a square paint brush, add green paint in a pixelated pattern to the foreground. When creating a pixelated pattern, use only the broad side of the brush and move in vertical and horizontal directions only. Layer different greens from dark green to light green onto the page.

When applying paint, try not to cover up all the denim surface. By leaving some areas with the surface color, this creates more interest and texture.

Add Grass Stenciling to Meadow Area

Add grass stenciling to the meadow area using a Ciao Bella stencil. I only used the bottom part of the stencil as I did not want to have bull rushes in my background. The intention is not to have a perfectly stenciled image, but to create detail and variation to the meadow. Use a variety of green acrylic paints to apply color through the stencil.  

Painting the Sky

To create a more painterly feel to the sky, use the pixilation method to add lemon yellow and greyish blue paint to the sky. Also add in some white gesso while the paint is wet to blend the colors in the sky. If the mountains are losing definition, add more white paint close to the mountains to create contrast.

Adhering Focal Images

Add the focal images and words to the page using your favorite adhesive. The typography for “Living in the Moment” was created using a Brush Script stamp set and Distress Oxide Squeezed Lemonade ink. The letters were outlined in black paint pen and cut out with an electronic cutting machine.

Drawing in Flower Stems

As the flowers are not grounded, use a black paint pen to sketch in stems and leaves. Sunflowers have strong stems and each of the leaves have their own stems. Try sketching these leaves so that the position of the leaf stems is at an angle between 1 o’clock and 3 o’clock.

Painting Flower Stems and Leaves

When painting flower stems and leaves, do not paint the entire leaf. Add highlights and shadows in some areas of the leaves to add dimension and separation from the background. The feel of this page is a bit more painterly. Having a looser painting technique in the flowers adds to this painterly feel.

Questions?

Do you have any questions about this art journal painting tutorial? I hope that this has given you a few ideas on how you can use your stencils and paints in a different way on your journal pages. If you have any questions or comments on the techniques I shared, please comment below, or contact me directly.

I would love to see your work! Please use #hopalongstudio when posting on Instagram so that I can like and comment on your project. I hope that you have a great week and take some time for creative self-care!