Finally! Expressex Journals are now here for pre-order through May 15th, 2020!
At the peak of COVID-19 I found myself reflecting and writing a lot more often. I had just been furloughed from my construction job and had a lot more time to think and write. As I was journaling, I realized that this would be the perfect time to figure out how to publish and produce my own journals for others to write in and enjoy. There is something about getting a fresh journal with a dope affirmation of art on the cover. These are those!
How Did I Make Them?
For fellow artists out there looking to produce their own journals, hopefully this will give you the information and a great place to start your journey.
Cover - What makes my journals different from others out there is the original artwork that adorns the covers. When I decided to make Expressex Journals, the covers were the first thing I started on. With my process, I first thought about what I wanted the collection to represent. Desert Flowers, the name of my first collection, represents surviving and thriving in harsh conditions. For me it was a metaphor for the current crises we’re in. The beautiful flowers bursting forth from cacti and other plants represents our beauty. There is nothing more beautiful to me than a good story of vulnerability and overcoming, and turning that into a spectacle of success and triumph. I get asked a lot about where I source some of my paintings portraits from. I take a lot of references from Pinterest. But not just any portrait. I take a lot of time to sort out compositions I’m in love with and the feeling I get from looking at the eyes. Wherever you get your source of inspiration as an artist, use that for the covers on your journals to create something unique for others to write in.
Once I painted the covers I sent them to Pushdot Studio for captures. Pushdot Studio takes my paintings and either scans or photographs them. I get the digital files and then those are used for my various products such as fine art prints and journals.
Now that the covers were done I focused on the guts of my journals. I used Canva, Word, and Google Docs. I’ve never like journals with too little or too many pages. I find satisfaction in completing journals, and ones that don’t let me finish my collective thoughts or go on too long bother me - so I put 97 pages of lined papers in my journals, enough for 1-3 months of consistent writing.
Now that I had the guts and cover complete, I was ready to take my journal to print. There are many different online and local options for printing. Recently I found out about Independent Publishing Resource Center, a PDX local publishing company and studio, which provides affordable access to space, tools, and resources for creating independent media and artwork. You can check them out here.
If you need your own journal(s) and would like to support a Black and Female ran studio, you can purchase your own journal or the entire collection set here.