Artshecried interviewed me! I'm always amazed when people want to interview me about art journaling and art. You can read the interview over here.
I was Interviewed!
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Author Archives: leslie
Issue #3 of Evidence
I have loaded up issue #3 of my zine Evidence. This issue is the first where I switched from a big sketchbook to a small sketchbook. Instead of 20 pages there are 32 (33 with the cover) and some of the pages are in color. Each page of the zine is ascan of a two page spread from my journal. So the 32 pages are really 64 pages. Whoa. Yeah. the whole journal. Lots and lots of drawings and some writing.
Here are a few images from inside. Get a copy of your own it's only $5 and you can download it directly from etsy.
Technique Today: Writing
I don't always write in my art journal. Often when I do I paint over it. Sometimes, writing in an art journal is an absolutely essential part of the process.
If you have issues viewing the videos here on my blog please click the title of the video on the upper left of the video and it will open up in YouTube for your viewing pleasure.
Discus
Soooo. I've decided to go with the discuis system for commenting. You'll need to set up an account but once you do no more annoying code or other crap. I've been using it for other blogs for awhile now and it's much easier to use. Sorry for the hoops but now that typepad offers it, I've decided to start to use it. Now that I've made the change the comments will be down for about 24 hours. Sorry!
Now if they would just get off their collective arses and make an app for android I'd be much happier with them.
EDAJC: Bullet Pencils
Over the years I’ve developed an appreciation for vintage things. The patina that only time and use gives to an object is something I look at and enjoy. I’m not sure exactly when the love of vintage took hold, perhaps it was when I realized that many of the new tools I purchased were not made as well as things I purchased as a kid, or perhaps it was simply an acquired affinity for the unique patina that only time can bestow. Regardless, I have been acquiring a few simply, low priced objects that are old, and I’ve begun to love. One of these object is the simple bullet pencil.
I purchased my first on eBay, but received it after I received my second purchased bullet pencil.* the first to arrive is a lovely restored chrome plated steel bearing the advertising info for “Collingwood Grain Company.” It’s a dusty blue color with bright chrome and a fresh eraser planted in it’s sturdy ferrule. Inside the old pencil has been replaced with a three inch nubbin of a Palomino Blackwing 602. It’s a lovely piece of American history, that I intend to cart around in my pocket.
The second to arrive is an aluminum barreled “Badger Fertilizer Company” pencil. It arrived unrestored and in need of a little work. the eraser was glazed over, and though I could have simply carved off the glazed exterior, or flipped it, I chose to remove it and use it as a pattern to carve a new eraser. I’ll do a different post about how to do that later. The body of the pencil is in good shape. I merely wiped it down with a damp cloth and the bright red-orange of the advertising was good to go. The aluminum needed no care. Inside I swapped out the dry and brittle pencil with a three inch chunk of regular orange Palomino in H.** The bright orange of the Palomino paint goes very well with the red orange of the Badger logo.
Why do I like these pencils so much? Well, there are times when a pen just won’t do, and in those cases when you look for a pencil, you can have one, in your pocket and ready to go in a moments notice. This low tech and simple solution to being able to carry a sharp pencil in your pocket works remarkably well. A testament to their effectiveness as a tool is shown through the fact that they were an advertising staple from the late 1800’s until about 1980. Their sturdiness is evinced by the fact that so many of them are still around in good condition.
While it is easy to refurbish one of these into a usable and cool tool, there are sellers who sell them already refurbished. This is the easier option. You can also refurbish them yourself. You can find lots of them pretty cheaply on eBay or if you go junking. I found some lots of dirty bullet pencils on etsy as well. Prices range from a buck a pencil to way more. Some of the vintage pencils go for a lot more money if they are of collectible brands. Myself, I looked for interesting colors. I like dusty blue and red-orange. You can also plug in any 3 inch chunk of any regularly sized pencil. I used a serrated knife to cut off a chunk of Palomino.*** (Don’t cry.)
Anyway, for those of you looking to flesh out an EDAJC**** this is a good way to carry a pencil in your pocket without stabbing yourself in the sensitive bits of your body. It’s compact, lightweight, and adaptable.
Technique Today: Composition
One of the questions I get pretty often is about composition. "How to make a good looking art journal page, that is composed well?" It's one of those questions that usually annoys me, because I dislike the idea of planned out pages in an art journal. But as someone who has studied composition for art and photography, I intuitively arrange what i'm doing around the rule of thirds and the golden mean. I no longer think abotu composition, unless I'm working on a specific project.
So my initial response is that you should study composition. In school we spent a lot of time looking at art and photos. Looking specifically at how things are aranged on a page and how our eyes moved around in relation to those objects and color. I filled pages of a journal with little doodles based off the covers of magazine.Simplifying the objects down to simple shapes. faces became ovals, bodies triagles and rectangles. Works becames rectangles. And so on. Now when I work in my art journal I simply don't think abotu these things. So go to barnes and noble, pull a dozen magazines off the rack, grab a cuppa coffee and look at each mag, and block the cover and a few pages out in basic shapes. Think about how you look at the page. Do this a dozen times across the next 6 months. Composition will become much more natural to you over time.
If you have issues viewing the videos here on my blog please click the title of the video on the upper left of the video and it will open up in YouTube for your viewing pleasure.
Making Shitty Drawings
Occasionally I hit rough patches with my drawing. It’s not a block or a rut, because the desire to draw is still there, but nothing good will emerge from my pen or pencil. As I’m making these rough drawings I hear my inner critic shouting at me that my work sucks, my drawings are no good, and that I should just pack it all up and never draw again. That’s how the critic works. The asshole* in my head waits until my defenses are down and then starts to wail on my already frayed nerves. It’s not so much that I give up, rather I keep plugging away, filling up page after page with shitty drawings.
And that is what I’ve been doing. Over the last few weeks I’ve had a load of crap on my shoulders, real worry inducing crap. The kinda crap I can’t just take my mind off. It’s always there and pervasive. This is when I’ve found my pen starts to create shit on the page. Noses off, eyeballs in the wrong direction, proportions that would make Picasso proud.
The thing is, that this shit, is gold where art journaling is concerned. Shitty drawings give me a window into my head in a way good drawings don’t. I can see the weight of everything that is on my mind in my bad drawings. I’ve regressed 2 years back in my drawing habit. This has nothing to do with the goodness or badness of the art (the art itself is just fine) it has to do with what I personally see in the art. Yes, there are specific things like proportion, perspective, and other REAL problems in the art, but that makes the drawing neither bad nor good, it simply IS.
A art therapy guy named Shawn McNiff ** writes about having a dialog with your art. That you should have a conversation with your piece, and listen to what it tells you. While I find that idea a tad whooo whooo frou frou for my tastes, I do listen to my art, I look at it and gain perspective on what is going on in my life. Like reading your own tea leaves or tarot cards, listening to your art is focus driven and largely a meditative process.
I’ll get more into how I personally reflect on my pages in a future post.
It was good to identify why my drawings were turning out “shitty.” Being able to look through my book*** and see on this day my drawings were really off, and on this day this happened, it was really weighing on my mind= invaluable lessons. Once I identified what was weighing on my mind I was able to break through the barricade in my head and the drawings started to flow from my pen and onto the page in my usual style.
Technique Today: Colored Pencils
Colored pencils are great in an art journal. With just a few of the right colors you can get a lot of colors. Layering is easy with GOOD colored pencils. Though I've included a video with crayola colored pencils, I do not recomend them. They will only leave you frustrated. Get a 12 pack of colors in a good brand.
If you have issues viewing the videos here on my blog please click the title of the video on the upper left of the video and it will open up in YouTube for your viewing pleasure.
(More videos after the break, having all the videos load at once was making the page load slow.)
Make Art with Anything
I've ranted and raved about commercialism in art journaling before. (been under a rock or just discovering me now? Click here.) And I keep ranting about it. I've been gathering videos for technique today over the last few days. (It gives me a nice 20 minute or so break from reading heavy stuff.) It's becoming increasingly difficult to find videos with good solid art technique, if I stick to videos related to art journaling. I'm not usually too shy about looking at stuff that is art andnot art journaling related. But as I viewed video after video, it really hit me.
It's hard to find a video about art journaling that isn't a blatant ad for a product or process or linked to classes. All of it is trying to get us to part with our money. I'm wary of technique videos that read like a who's who of products. Tim Holtz this. Glimmer Mist that. Hellmuth's paints. Grunge Board. Glossy Accents. Spray inks. The videos don't teach us a technique but to be reliant on these products. They don't teach us how to make these product (though there are some old vids that do) they teach us to buy more.
Here's the deal, the secret, all you need to art journal is a pen and a journal. Call me a minimalist but my every day art journal carry (EDAJC) has been the following for the last 2 weeks: A Field Notes notebook, a BanditApple Carnet PeeWee, in a leather cover I made myself and a shitty ballpoint pen*. If I were to extend out my EDAJC I'd add a tin of watercolors in limited colors, a waterbrush, a camera**, a pencil and eraser.
I'm not making "great" art but I am making meaningful art. The art I'm making is helping me to remember the look of the sky as I waited when I picked up my partner. Or the jerking of the train as it rounded corners. Or calmed me after a busy class. This, to me, is what making and creating a journal is all about. It's not about the products I'm buying andusing. It's about the memories I'm creating. It's about my life.
It's real.
Question Stuff Constantly
The whole video is worth watching. But #33 is to question stuff constantly, that's at 35.43.
Words to live by.
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