I have taken a lot of time off from traditional tangling. Basically, since the beginning of 2019. Sometimes, you need to take a break to evaluate where you have been… and where you are going. Sometimes, roads take off in unexpected direction. Sometimes we set off the road entirely to explore new territory.
And then the roads, the paths, the discoveries come around to a new understanding of where you were before.
For the month of June, the Micro Art Journaling Facebook Group is doing an interesting challenge. There is a “cloud” of prompts. When you have a list, people usually start and the top and work their way down. With a cloud (the prompts are placed randomly positioned in an image) there is no starting, ending, or ordering. You can just choose randomly.
So, the first one I’ve done, is “a shoe”. I thought it would be fun to just do a super-high, bright red, strappy women’s high heel! It wasn’t difficult and lots of fun.
In yesterday's post , I showed you how I was changing a small book into a type of junk journal. Today, I’m continuing with how I created the new book. We left off with cutting out a number of new pages from all different kinds of paper.
The next step is to stack up all of the pages, and align them at the spine. Then use clothes pins or binder clips or something similar to hold all the pages tightly in space near the spine edge.
This is a small gift book.
It measures 82 mm wide by 11 mm high.
Here, the dust jacket has been removed and set aside to be used in this or another project! As you can see, the word “Wanderlust” is imprinted on the cover. I liked it and I think it will work well for a journal!
A major critera for making this kind of Junk Journal is that the pages must not be glued to the spine. When you open the book, there should be a space, as shown in the picture.
Remember this? (If you don’t, the post is here ).
If you’re already a member of the Micro Art Journaling group on Facebook, make sure you have a blank tiny art journal ready…. we’re going to challenge you during the month of June!
If you’re not already a member, but would like to play along, join the group (be sure to answer the question when you sign up!) There are tutorials to get you started in the Files section, including one on how to make a very basic, simple art journal!
This is an old, standard, school folder that I found in the process of rearranging the studio. I got quite a chuckle out of it.
You can see my daughter was into drawing blocks of patterns even when she was in grade school. Both of the girls had an assignment from me to begin creating their own cook books (folders of recipes they were learning to cook). To make this “fun”, they were encouraged to decorate the front of their folders.
Oh my! Studio One is somewhere under all this mess… I think!
I am taking advantage of the 3-day weekend to reorganize the big studio. Since I’ve been working in the smaller studio/office since the beginning of the year, things have gotten out of control.
I want to work on some larger paintings. It’s better to do wet media in the larger studio where there is a sink. So I want to set up all wet media in the big studio and dry media/paper projects in the smaller, office one.
Congratulations Matt! Class of 2019. Graduated with Honors in Art! I am so proud of you!
Occasionally I post some of Matt’s art. You can find it in the guest gallery.
One of my favorite things to do is use colored pencil to add depth and definition to a page.
If you compare today’s image with the one posted yesterday, you can see how the page is coming to life.
I used Koh-I-Noor Hardmuth Polycolor pencils. They tend to be a bit more opaque than some of the others. In addition, they will blend a bit if rubbed with a stump.
The next layer that I’ve added to the page in my sketchbook is text, or lettering.
Each block in the design is about a particular art concept. So I’ve added the key word that matches the text in each block. I tried to match something in the text design to the concept.
As an aside, you see a mistake in one block. When you want to add lettering, it’s a good idea to print out the word on a piece of scrap paper and keep it in front of you! I’ll be fixing this in the next layer or two.
Yesterday, you saw the first page I am working on in my new sketchbook. I had done a watercolor grid on the page, as an underpainting.
The next thing I have done is to add texture to the color block using handwriting. Each block is a description of one of the main elements of art. They are: line, shape, space, texture, repetition, value, emphasis and color. The actual text comes from the book "Abstract Art Painting: Expressions in Mixed Media" by Debora Stewart .
Last week, I did the Daisy Yellow Tiny Museum Workshop . It was a lot of fun and allowed me to try a variety of techniques while using watercolors.
I am switching to another project which will take up several months. For part of it, I’ve started a new art journal.
I am using a Bee Super Deluxe Mixed Media book.
I’ve used these books for years as my daily sketch book. I love the paper in them. The covers are really sturdy and I’ve even taken them apart by rolling out the spiral binding and then put them back together again without any issues.
This beautiful Zentangle tile was created by CZT Amanda Higbee. This design is based on Eni Oken's Fan String class .
I love the pink color and the way the shaping of the fragments adds to the illusion of curving segments.
Beautiful!
Fewer images to show you today because each one took more time.
These go beyond the workshop I am taking. I decided to go with some mixed media techniques. In addition to watercolor, I used markers and gel pens to add tiny details to these.
I have to say, I’m kind of in love with this technique!
The credit for the inspiration for these are: Artist Harriet Osborne, Cloth Paper Scissors Magazine, Japanese sashiko techniques.
For this lesson from Daisy Yellow’s Tiny Museum Workshop, we are using pictures as prompts. In some cases, I did a fairly literal copy and in others I copied just the feeling or shapes or colors.
This was a lot harder than what I had been doing, but it was still fun!
Another set of tiny, abstract backgrounds. I have to let these dry over night so that I can add more to the pieces without the base layer moving all around when it gets wet.
This time, I’ve used a combination of the Winsor Newton and Daniel Smith watercolors. They are working very well together. I find that the Winsor Newton box works just fine for most of the colors. It contains a larger selection of colors, there are 27 different ones in the box. That allows me more variation without a lot of mixing.
As I mentioned last Friday, I am taking the Tiny Museum Workshop from Daisy Yellow .
One of the short videos illustrates how to blend colors together. In the process, these curvy images are created. These reminded me of banded agate stones.
I did mine, again, on individual, tiny art journal sized pieces of watercolor paper, rather than on a large sheet.
I didn’t blend these as much as the video showed. It turned out to be more difficult than you might think!
I decided to take the Tiny Museum Workshop from Daisy Yellow ! It’s a lot of fun, and I can recommend it to anyone who isn’t sure how to work with gouache and/or watercolor. You’ll get plenty of practice using either (or both!) in this series.
I decided to take it because it looked like fun, and I wanted to learn more about working with watercolors to create tiny, abstract art journaling pages.
Keyword: Stamping
Technique: Stamping with Sponges
You will need:
gessoed or painted card craft paint a variety of sponges plastic craft mat Cellulose sponges, sea sponges, closed cell sponges, makeup sponges… There are all kinds of sponges, and each one is like a fingerprint: It will produce it’s own unique pattern when used to stamp paint. You could actually make an entire painting with just sponges!
The technique for this is simple. Add a drop of paint to the craft mat. Pick up a tiny bit of paint with the chosen sponge. Lightly tap the sponge in a clean spot on the mat to spread it out on the sponge. Then stamp the sponge on the card.
Keyword: Stamping
Technique: Stamping with Household Objects
You will need:
gessoed or painted card craft paint various household objects brayer, paint brush plastic craft mat There are all kinds of household object that can be used to transfer paint onto your project and create texture. I keep a cupboard in my studio that is full of odd things, such as a sushi mat, a plastic doily, some pieces of shelf liner, corks, and other things that you might question being in an art studio.