Diving into to something new like art journaling will, of course, lead to internet searches of other art journal blogs. I was looking at painting styles, lettering styles and types of media used on paper.
Somehow I stumbled onto Carla Sonheim and fell in love. Something about imaginary creatures just resinated with me. So I began to throw down water color washes and sketch shapes from sidewalk cracks and photos I had taken of texture like the one below.
The textures above became line drawings.
On this page shapes were colored using pencils and copic markers.
I did some shapes by smearing pastel chalks onto watercolor paper and loved the results when creatures started to emerge.
I can’t even remember how I ended up with this pile of characters. All of the above are pastels with color pencil and white acrylic ink.
Before Carla, I had imaged a journal with some nature backgrounds and maybe some fluffy little birds. This is a departure but I love it.
I am now working on water color blobs and drips on paper. Results to be posted soon.
Angela Branon: A Lady's Home Journals 
How fun is this?! I think your characters are adorable, Angela! They remind me very much of the illustrations in Shel Silverstein’s books our son, and now our grandsons, loved. Your other artwork is, as well, superb. Are you an illustrator? I wonder if you could find demands for that through the Internet. Not that I know anything about this sort of thing, but in the meantime, you might consider a watermark to protect your work – it’s that good IMHO!
Hi Angela,
I loved the cat/dog/bird pile. It really gets a smile on my face.
Greatings,
Inge
I just discovered Carla Sonhein as well and absolutely love her books and exercises. Your drawings are simply DARLING! I love them! Keep up the good work!