I think in a previous life I must have been a magpie or something because rarely do I come home from a walk without a few leaves, a stone, bit of rusty metal or stick in my pocket. I may be a little obsessive about it even to the point where I carry a little bag with me just for that purpose!
These things usually end up on my inspiration shelf until a time when I might use them in some project. Alot of the time I might photograph them or scan them into the computer to keep as collage images, especially if they’re fragile like leaves or obviously bulky like wood. I take lots and lots of photos when I’m out too, mainly of trees and things from the forest floor, or like here, mosses or rusty posts.
All of these things can become colour schemes or shapes and patterns.
I use these as inspiration for colours or themes in my journals and sketchbooks.
For example, I took the little collection above and created a colour palette with my watercolours.
Another thing I like to do is create collage papers to use in my journals too either using the scanned images or the colours as inspiration. The collage papers are made from tissue paper, brown paper, book page, anything really which I can paint on and is thin enough to use on a journal page. This idea isn’t mine I have to add, I’ve seen lots of people on the internet do the same thing so I can’t take the credit for this one! For example check out the work of Laura Horn on Instagram or Pinterest as I love what she does.
I really like the colours in these two mossy photos. When you look closely enough you don’t just see green but pinks and purples too. If I was smart I’d have a colour generator app on my phone perhaps to make the process faster. I’m sure it must exist?
I work abstractly most of the time and the journal page below is an example of how I’ve taken inspiration from the mossy photos above.
I decided to go with more of the pinky purple tones and use the green as accents which is the opposite of the photo. I added my collage of papers, cut some of the photo into thin strips and the washi tape ended up being a perfect match not only in colour but after tearing it up I found it almost looked like the moss, happy accident!
So inspiration is all around you, all you need to do is look.
Have a great weekend
Jaine x
