I don't usually like a lot of shit (I use shit in a loving way) hanging off my journal. One or two things is enough for me, that and tabs, god I love me some tabs. I should do a video on how to make tabs for your art journals… (ideas)
Anyway. Check out this journal with super cool uneven pages, shit (like I wrote above, shit in a loving way.) hanging off of it from all sides and little tabs for flipping through it with ease. It's good stuff.
Rhomany introduced me to Daisy Yellow's concept of "Slow Journaling." I've been reading the daisy yellow blog off and on for some time but had missed the slow journaling post. If you've not read it yet, check it out. IT's a great idea, especially if you are like me and have seriously crappy handwriting or a background is just not speaking to you.
The concept is that you write very slowing, really thinking out each work and letter and it fills the lines.And the lines are lines you create. Basically you doodle lines on a page, make them thick and thin, wavering, spirals, circles etc… Make them how you like them, but make them. Then get out a pen and fill them, slowly. You can make whatever kind of letter appeals to you, outlines, shadows, in black ink, in pencil, in paint, whatever. Just write.
I'll get some pics up on here of the pages that I've done. You can vary the technique to whatever materials you have on hand. I've done these pages with a ballpoint (space pen), with a martha stewart permanent marker, paint pen, and sharpie pen. Each style of pen gives a different result. It feels different in the hand and on the paper. Also you can really vary the LOOK and feel of a page by varying the lines. I did a few experiments. I had one page where I wanted to fill the page fully with ink, so I did, flooded it right to the edge of the page. I had another I boxed the page off, giving myself a border. On yet another page, I glued some papers down and worked around that. THE final experiment was to take a background, draw squares and rectangles on it and then added the lines inside the shapes. the floating squares on a background was my favorite spread of pages so far.
Warning. This is a very slow and careful technique. A page where you might spend 5 minutes scribbling down a similar sentiment in plain writing might take 25 to 45 minutes with this technique. It's not something you can rush, but it's a technique to try.
I'll get some pictures of this up in my flickr account ASAP. Once you see it, you'll want to try it.
I love resist techniques. They always leave you ready for a surprise. I love that this video shows that you can use colors other than the standard old colors. Lots of fun!
I'm not usually into pastel colors but these are pretty saturated. the texture in the colors is nice.
This guy likes to paint nudes of women and abstracts then write poetry in his journals. Just goes to show that EVERYTHING goes in your art journal.
Another good vimeo find. A sketchbook flip.
sketchbook flip #2 from Luiza Holub on Vimeo.
unusual art journal on youtube. Not so cheery and happy. I like that.
I'm running a sale in my artfire shop for the next 30 days. Use coupon code NEWYEAR at check out for 50% off your order. Head to my artfire shop to see what I've got listed and get some good stuff cheap. Feel free to comment here if you have a question about a particular journal and if it would be good for your style of journaling. I'll get you back and answer ASAP.
Again more chronicles by Woman on Fire via vimeo
book 22 vol. II (summer – winter 1995) from womanonfire on Vimeo.
I've not been a big fan of the holidays since I began working retail. There is something about working in a retail setting that sucks the joy and fun out of the holidays. Working until close the night before any holiday blows unmentionable items more than anyone who doesn't work retail can understand. Imagine taking your usual routine of shopping and either having to do it far in advance, for which the retailer penalize you with full retail prices and no sales OR waiting until the last minute and chancing not getting gifts. And then imagine all those places where you are shopping and having to be the one dealing with all the last minute shoppers. The common mantra of the over worked retail wage slave is "Your lack of planing is not my emergency." Now take a deep breath and open your eyes, the nightmare is over. So now you can partially understand my lack of holiday spirit. Some holidays are worse than others as the wage slave could end up working until midnight the night before the holiday. If the wage slave is lucky they live in a state with blue laws. The blue laws force the retailers to close before certain hours before certain holidays and force the retailer to be closed for certain holidays.
So for those of us who work in a retail setting (yes I'm in HR but I'm expected to work the sales floor during rushes and holiday sales times.) the holidays can be doubly stressful. Though I'll admit there are some people who truly enjoy retail.
I am not one of them.
Up until this year I've not felt that Christmas excitement, the build up until the holiday. The wonder of what is in store for the day of the holiday. The cooking, the getting ready for family and friends to visit and eat, drink and be merry. I've not had a proper holiday party for some years, about 6. So this year when my Mom had her surgery it was the most recent holiday that I've spent with my family doing much of the cooking and this past Christmas my mother wanted to go simple and do a ham with some sides, but not too much.
This year I felt the excitement. Christie and I were in charge of the ham and buying the pecan pie.I had done much of my shopping in advance. I have different ideas of shopping than many. In that I look for thought rather than dollar amount. This year was the first time in nearly 6 years where the shopping wasn't arduous to me. It didn't seem an insurmountable task. I took JOY in it. I had a plan and I stuck to it and the gifts were some of the more interesting that I've found in years.
In short I found a lot of joy in this holiday season. I'm glad to say that my Mom is doing well, my father is doing well, both my brother's are doing well and even my brother's girlfriend and her son are doing well. So I'm thankful that this year I was able to spend a good amount of time in Maine with my family and that the company I work for has been really really good to me concerning my time off to care for my Mom. Which was perhaps, the best early Christmas gift ever.*
Now I'll be happy if I don't have to make the damn trip to Maine again until…. Summer time. 6 hours is too long to spend in a car.
*well… My Mom did buy me a Cricut machine and a food saver vacuum sealer. Those rank pretty high on the "best gift ever"scale of things.