Art Journal 2020: Found Poetry (a guest post)

According to Wikipedia, found poetry is a type of poetry created by taking words, phrases, and sometimes whole passages from other sources and reframing them. I spent 2 days exploring this in my art journal, using random pages from a book bound for the recyclers. As a journal, I use a recycled, stitched and bound hardcover fiction book. I glued 3 pages together with acrylic gel medium as I was afraid that the black markers would bleed through. 

I used Dala acrylic gel medium. I usually gesso the pages, but this time, I needed the text. I used Stabilo coloured pencils in the colours pictured above. They are wax based and have excellent blending abilities. Artline 725 and a fine Sharpie were used for the design and the zentangles. Silver washi tape, married the two pages stylistically. Any HB pencil and putty eraser is a must for planning a design. The white pencil depicted is a blender. 

Step 1: Choose the poetry from the text of any book page. You need to know a bit about poetry, especially rhythm. Highlight it by drawing a thick, dark box around it. Next, I drew a leaf design in pencil on the page. I divided the leaf into 7 separate sections, you can choose more or less if you like. Now you are ready to choose zentangle patterns. There are literally millions of patterns with their step outs available on the internet.

Step 2: Draw your zentangles with your Sharpie and fill in the black areas with the Artline pen as they are much cheaper to use in large areas. Make sure that you have no tiny, white areas that are left open, for this you need good lighting.

Step 3: Colour the area around your design with coloured pencils. I used an underlayer of yellow in certain areas and to darken, I used the dark blue tone to depict shadows. The blender was used throughout when I went from darker to lighter areas. Avoid overworking a recycled book art journal. The pages are not high quality, it simply cannot handle too many layers. 

Step 4: Apply Washi tape around the upper and lower edges to marry the two pages. I stencilled the wording on the side of the page. The opposite page was done in exactly the same manner, I merely used coloured pencils within the design itself, as the found poetry got a bit lost. A word of advice- use zentangle patterns with black areas, this will make the found poetry pop. 

The important thing is to have fun with your designs and colours. There are no rules, just your creativity which has no bounds.

Hope you join me next month, when I will be painting a Koi in watered down acrylics, paired with a zentangle whale.

“The desire to create is one of the deepest yearnings of the human soul."

Have a super creative month!

💚 Vanessa

To see more of Vanessa's art follow her on Instagram

Until next time!

💜 Linzé