Author Archives: leslie

seriously limited edition one of a kind journals

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I've been working on some special journals. What I've done is take one of the posters I make the jotters out of, cut it up into smaller pieces and then I've journaled on it. So each chunk looks like a giant page out of one of my journals, or is a giant journal sheet. It's what I've been working on over the last few days which explains the lack of real blogging, tweeting and facebooking I've been doing. I'm really excited about these journals.

I'm working on 4 of them right now or rather I've got 4 covers completely finished. So far I've got one book completely finished and one more almost done. They are filled with 50lb, 100% cotton bright white sketchbook paper, 200 pages of it and are stitched with a linking long stitch. I used bright red Irish linen thread for the stitching.

The journal art is sealed with clear acrylic varnish, that allows you to feel the texture of the art but wipe it clean with soap and water if you spill coffee on it, and the art should be undamaged.

I'm still working the details of the pricing out but they will eb listed on my artfire account this evening.

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The journal picture is titled "Super Star." I've got more pictures up on my flickr page.

SamanthaKira: Sticking pages

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It's a well known issues for art journalers, like myself, who work with heavy body acrylic paints- liquitex and golden that they stick to the previous page if there is one ounce of acrylic on it. And forget it if you apply heat. The pages are done. Samantha gives some good tips. I've got a few of my own. First If you work in acrylic go over the page with watercolor crayons, a think layer spread out with water on a brush helps to keep the pages from sticking. As will a layer of nupastels, artstix or colored pencil. In the art journal I did previous to the current journal I used layers of a 50/50 mix of bee's wax and parafin. I made a palm sized cake of it and would rub it over the top of my dried pages. After that I would buff it into the page with a rag. If I wanted a really heavy layer of the wax I'd heat the page with my heat gun and rub it onto the warmed page, then I'd heat it again and buff. I get very little sticking in that journal and I worked some pages very impasto.

Get Past the White Page Part 3

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Probably my favorite technique is to write on a page with sharpie, it can either be previously gesso coated, acrylic painted or raw paper. It doesn't matter.  After that you go over the sharpie wriitng with gesso. As the gesso dries part of the sharpie writen text is visible through the gesso. It lifts into teh gesso and is slightly purple. It works with red sharpie as well, and several other colors that I've tried. It works with the liquitex gesso I use as well as the clear. Sharpie will also lift into heavy body acrylic paint. You can then write over the gesso or treat just link a gesso coated page. I like to then add more layers over the top of the writing.

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Here I used a page I had coated in liquid acrylic and gesso and stamped some random round shaped onto. I wrote ontop of that with a standard fine tip sharpie.

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This is still partially wet, as the gesso dries more the purple will lift into it more. I was too impatient to take a pic of it fully dry. I ended up adding more to the image before I could ge another pic.

Sketchbuch on flickr

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Originally uploaded by Sketchbuch

I'm in love with this guy's work. I"ve just spent the last 20 minutes clicking through the links on his flickr stream and I really suggest hat you do to, the pages are simply wonderful. I've put his work up here before but that doesn't mean something great shouldn't be repeated, and it's tribute to how much I really like his work. follow the link and check it out.

Rule #6 Look for Inpiration Everywhere

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Seriously, everywhere. Look at your morning coffee, your egg mcmuffin, the trash on the ground, dirty dishes, your pen/pencil/brush, your hand, alarm clock, lamp,air conditioner, car/truck, train, train pass, dollar bill, debit card, credit card, the internet, the TV, cat, ferret, dog, a tree,a park, a movie, your family, homeless dude sitting next to you on the bus, the newspaper,a magazine, office, your job, your home, birth control or lack of it, your best friend, your most hated enemy, your ex, a funny website, youtube, your mom, air filters, dust, dust bunnies, a spider, a mouse, the vacuum an etc…

In short anything can inspire you to write/draw/paint in your art journal. Where do you let it take you? That's what matters.

it’s not too early Secretly I hate Christmas

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I don't but what I hate is trying to find unique gifts for my family for Christmas. My family is notoriously hard to buy for and this year I'm taking the handmade plunge and going all out and getting only handmade Christmas gifts for some of the hardest to buy for people on the planet.

I got out of my Mom's birthday easy with some handmade beads for her troll bracelet. For Dad's birthday we got out of it easy with a thick book on drying foods. (He's a farmer) Last Christmas I scored with a reusable shopping bag full of thrift store wool sweaters and a vintage polish coffee percolator. The middle brother got something I don't remember and I copped out and got my youngest brother a…. gift card. I hang my head in shame with that one.

So this Christmas I'm going handmade. But what to get. For my Mom I'll probably get her something again for her bracelet- there are a lot of artists selling really cool lamp work beads for troll bracelets.

I'm not sure what to get Dad or Matt. Allen, well, I'll look for something World of Warcraft related or iPod touch and that will be easy.

I have to start early or I"m left scrambling around in the last week looking like a moron at the mall nearby wandering the aisles with all the men who waited until the last minute. My goal is to buy everything handmade this holiday season!

#5 Any media/ medium is okay

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What speaks to you? Crfayons? If so use them. Do you only like to write in blue, purple or green? That's okay too.

Do you like:

Sharpies?
Caran d'ache?
Charcoal?
Acrylic?
Watercolors?
Colored Pencils?
Collage?
Gouache?
Ink?
Rubber stamps?
Pastel?
Watercolor Pencils?

If so use them.

Do you hate any of the above? Then don't use it.

Do you like to use more than one? Use whatever you like. Mix 'em up.

Use what you like there is no one (but you) to stop you!

Inspiration and technique: Susan Cornelis: Soul Collage

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I really really love Susan Cornelis’s work. She does some images of chickens that I simply adore, but I”m also a fan of her collages and sumi ink drawings/ paintings that she calls Soul Collages. It looks to be something of an automitic drawing process that involves sumi ink poured onto a wet page, manipulated with various tools and then collaged on with color added. It would be a great way to work out ideas, get inspiration and to work yourself out of a rut. This could easily be adapted to working in a spread of a journal- smooshing pages together to manipulate the ink. Reminds me of a rorshack test.