This article is written by Francesca Albini

I am always exploring ways to organically blend digital with traditional media. I love the versatility and portability of digital, all its different and new brushes, the infinite palette, the possibility of integrating text and images, but often I find that digital art looks very flat and cold when printed.

On my latest trip to America, I thought it would be fun to keep a digital journal, more practical, quicker, less messy. But messy is good, it’s tactile, three dimensional, just like travelling. I felt that I had to find a way to bring to life my digital journal, so that it would be true to my travel experience, the emotions and adventures.

So here are two “pages” of my journal. Originally I drew the car with a ballpoint pen in a notebook. I photographed it and digitally coloured it in and framed it. Then I imported it into the journalling app and added text and marks. For the second journal page, I used various photos I had taken with my mobile phone.

I decided to use stretch canvas as support, printed the digital journal pages and other photos on printable canvas, glued them to the big canvas with pva, and then added all the paint splashes and details that I felt communicated the heat, the light, the atmosphere.

Lastly I also painted a self portrait as a dreamy observer . I am satisfied that the digital elements in these two pictures have a warm, natural feel about them, and gel well with the acrylics and paint markers.

Perhaps keeping a journal on stretch canvas is not very practical, but one or two meaningful pages per trip could turn the walls of your home into an inspiring memory lane.

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Francesca is a visual artist using pretty much everything she finds around her to record and relive feelings and memories of places and emotions. She collages, paints, draws, photographs. Francesca loves mixing modern technology, such as mobile phone apps, with the simplest of tools such as glitter glue, crayons and other children’s art supplies. Read her blog at franjournal.blogspot.com

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