Mixed Media Influence & Art Journals

I have always loved the look and hand crafted feel to any mixed media art and can remember making art journals with my older sister when I was younger, and I don't think I ever grew out of it! I started applying a more mixed media approach to my work for the current project, this happened shortly after my Guru Sam, suggested adding texture/marks to my collage work.

Ever since then I have enjoyed making my characters and backgrounds by collage and adding acrylic paints/marks to them to create more of a mood and slightly enhance my style.  There are so many different techniques that I have yet to learn and pennies to invest on materials & tools, although a lot of the imagery and paper can be sourced from old books and magazines.  After graduation I want to unleash and go mad with making lots of mixed media journals and applying them to surfaces such as candles, canvassed and greeting cards and then seeing how they sell.

Art Journals are really fun and expressive as you can just let go and juxtapose anything and create images by chance, and I think this is what I really enjoyed when creating my Circus Art Journal book as my sense of place, it really gave me lots of ideas and I didn't feel scared or reserved as I normally do when carefully placing a collage on the page and holding back. 

Below are some inspiring images that are just beautiful.