A new journal is like...

... discovering a whole new world with creatures and plant life that you've never seen before!
I realized last night that it's been one year almost exactly since I first started working with art journals. Pattio and I hit Island Blue Print yesterday at lunchtime and I bought the successor to the first little hemp journal I bought in July 2008. I was tempted to get another just like it, but then Patti and I found some awesome, ready-made half-lined/half-blank hardcover books from Daler-Rowney's Cachet line. Mine's an interesting 7"x10" size which is bigger than the hemp one, but still smaller and more manageable than the rest of my current "stock".
I had meant to not do anything with it til I went to Patti's place tomorrow for some arting, but... BUT... Last night the cover called to me with an inspiration I couldn't ignore, and since I do have this wonderful new black gesso that does NOT smell like it's associated with the devil's nether regions (see my post about Jo Sonja's black gesso ewwww), I went ahead and played.
So first is the new cover where I taped off the outer third, sanded it to get rid of the shiny and then painted it with the black gesso. Then I took my favourite Speedball nib and some white acrylic ink to draw the main outlines and finally a very sharp Sky Blue Light Prismacolor pencil to do some of the detail. Eventually I'm going to wrap the dragons and clouds around the inner side of the cover as well, but by the time I'd finished this much, it was 2am. Oops!
Second is the cover of my first art journal, where I discovered the joys of phthalo green, blue shade, for the first time. It makes me remember being in Patti's studio and being in awe of how comfortable she was with EVERY single art medium known to mankind. Heheh.