Today’s
page started with me trying out the pencil then erase method I tried a
few days back. I really liked the destructive nature of the technique
and how it kind of wipes out the writing, this can be effective
mentally.  if you’re looking for that sort of thing. It was just the
thing for today’s writing.

After
erasing much of the pencil leaving behind just a trace of texture I
transferred a print of my brain drawing. I then layered turquoise
watercolor and while it was still wet used magenta on the underside of
the brain. This moved and blended with the turquoise and created a
vibrant purple.


I
don’t know why I hadn’t thought to create automatic drawings and then
collage them onto a page. I love it. New favorite thing ever! In this
case I wanted to show a disconnect between the slightly confused looking
face and the brain. Yet it’s connected through the stormy
jellyfish-like tentacles.

This
page makes me really happy because it perfectly encompasses my thoughts
and feelings on this day. Our dishwasher is on the fritz, the washing
machine decided to fill, but not drain or agitate and it makes a nasty
electrical smell when it tries to agitate. The dishwasher I can
(probably) fix but sadly  the washing machine is beyond my capabilities.
With that negative there comes positive, my upside down tomatoes are
awesome and the slow drip fertilizer system I created works perfectly. I
turn it on for 5 minutes every day and the tomatoes each get just the
right amount of organic liquid fertilizer and none of it drips out and
is wasted. The plants have doubled in size over the last 2 weeks and are
looking strong. My hardy kiwi plants are covered in blossoms and are
gorgeous plants. Due to our cold and wet weather my pink lilies are a
few weeks behind their usual point but this means the blossoms will be
bigger and more amazing. See, lots of good stuff… Also I’ve been
making books like a mad woman, after all, washing machine repair bills
aren’t cheap, hell, a used washing machine on Craigslist isn’t cheap.

The finished image is 5×7 inches and is available matted and ready for framing on etsy here.

I
started this page by writing with a watercolor pencil. I then traced
circles  in 3 colors and a pattern on the page. I scribbled in each
circle to fill it with color. I then wet the circles with a brush. I
sprayed over the whole page when the circles were still damp.

I
wanted to integrate another automatic drawing into the page, so I
grabbed another sheet of paper and started to draw. I then cut that out
of the page and adhered it with a glue stick.

After
that I wanted to do a transfer of a brain on the page, so I grabbed my
chartpak ad marker and transferred the brain image. It transfered well
enough over the watercolor pencil. I wanted it to pop a bit so I added
magenta watercolor to the brain.

I’m really enjoying making the automatic drawings and then sticking them on a page, I really like how they look.

The finished image is 5×7 inches and is available matted and ready for framing on etsy here.

I
made a few hand stitched jotters. This is notable mainly because I usually use a machine to stitch my jotters. Since I've adjusted my machine for use on fabric and can't take a chance of messing it up with paper right now, I stitched these by hand.. All are hand stitched with sturdy hemp
cord. I omitted the beeswax so they are vegan. The covers are my usual
recycled advertising posters, these are made of heavy cardstock that has
been printed with various advertising images. I filled them up with 48
unlined pages of fountain pen friendly HP laserjet 24lb paper in bright
white. I’m totally digging this paper for all my pens, the ink and pens
do so well on it. (Review here.)

They
are sized like Field Notes, Moleskine Cahiers, or BanditApple Carnet
Peewee notebooks. They fit perfectly in GoodKarma*, Davis Leatherworks or
Pelle covers. Even without a cover these covers will wear perfectly and
look great throughout their lifetime of use.

I’ve got a couple of sets up as well as offering random singles on etsy.

*I supply GoodKarma with notebooks for her fabulous covers. Her's are fabric and handstiched. She encorporates lovely textures and colors into her work. I have one of her covers that doubles as a wallet, and it's perfectly lovely.

I
started by mixing a large puddle of Payne’s Gray watercolor. I used a
very fine liner brush to write. This gave me a large variety of
linewidth and was hard to control. I had to repeatedly dip the brush to
reload it for more writing. After this was dry I used a brush to flick
watercolor on the page in small droplets. I used a small spray bottle to
spray a fine mist over the page to spread the flicked paint. It also
blurred the writing more.

After
this dried I grabbed a print off of my heart drawing and my Chartpak AD
marker. I wanted to see how it would transfer over the dried
watercolored page. It gave an uneven transfer, much lighter than it
would usually transfer. Of course the background was much darker, might
try it with a layer of lighter watercolor and see how that works.
I
wanted to add a face to my page but I didn’t want to add a print out of
my face. I grabbed a spare sheet of paper and did a quick automatic
drawing with a Faber Castell PItt brush pen in black. I then cut that
from the sheet and adhered it with glue stick.
After
the face was adhered I wanted to make the heart more visible and the
face stand out. I grabbed my Prismacolor Art Stix and started to
scribble around the face and the heart with red and yellow. bingo! Both
stood out even more and they looked more unified as if they were part of
the while, the heart a shadow maybe?

I’m
pretty happy with how this turned out, really dig the automatic
drawing. I need to remember to integrate it into my art journal more
often.

The finished image is 5×7 inches and is available matted and ready for framing on etsy here.

I’m at the halfway point for the 30 in June and I’ve learned a few things.

First,
I’m starting to feel constrained by the chosen size of the page, this
is causing me to work in my other art journal a lot more. I’ve been
working about 8×11 for the last year, up from my usual 6×9 or 4×6 inch
journal that i’ve always used.

I
find that because I’ve been working larger for about a year that I’m
working in a different style that I used to when working in the 5×7 inch
size. It’s much looser and free. I’m using big bold colors, big bold
brush strokes, and a lot of color opposites.

I’m
content to stick with watercolors and my usual supplies. I thought that
after a week or so I’d be reaching for acrylics, but I’m not, which is
surprising to me.

Layers,
I’m loving layers more than ever. A layer of collage, a layer of
watercolor, layer of collage, a layer of writing, a layer of colored
pencils.

I
usually work on pages in my art journal over the course of several days
or weeks, adding watercolor and collage in layers, flipping back and
forth between pages and adding bits here and there. I can’t do this when
I’m posting a page a day on the blog and Etsy.

I like that I’m forcing myself to work on just one page a day. It changes my methods and shakes me up a bit, in a good way.

Things
I’ll change for next year? I’ll probably work larger. I’ll pick one
image per week as a minimum to load to etsy, this will allow me to work
on several pages at once and in my usual method.

I
started this page by coloring  three each of my self portrait and heart
drawings that I’d printed off on a laser printer. I colored them with
watercolors. I played around with placement on the page before adding
color to the background.

I
then wrote my entry in light blue colored pencil. I used a big looping
cursive for the writing. I allowed the loops of my writing to pass over
the previous layer of writing. I also allowed the lower loops to go way
below the usual area of underhang. I washed over that with Payne’s Grey
watercolor. I allowed the color to pool in areas of the paper.


After the page was completely dried I used glue stick to adhere the colored collage pieces.

While
this page is simple the writing is pretty heavy. I wanted to indicate
the heaviness of the writing by using the darker watercolor to create a
stormy looking background. The light blue of the writing shows through
to highlight the hope I feel surrounding this heavy subject.

The finished image is 5×7 inches and is available matted and ready for framing on etsy here.

Check out the 30inJune going on over here.

Check out this journal page using personal ephemera.

Inspiration from art dolls, some are dark.

Diana Trout is one of my favorites and she gains inspiration from more than just the page.

Danny Gregory, of EDM fame, has a video describing his approach to drawing complex things.

Roz does some amazing things with faces and gouache.

Take a look at some of my journals on etsy.

Or take a look at my art on etsy.

An old video but a good one:

I
started this page by coloring a printout of one of my heart drawings
with pink and blue watercolors. I allowed this to dry while I split a
page in my art journal in half. On one side I wrote part of my entry in
big loopy cursive witha  watercolor pencil. I picked a different color
for the other half and used the same big loopy cursive.

I
applied water to the writing and allowed the colors to blur and blend.
After this was dry I decided that it didn’t work in the way I wanted
with the heart, so I washed similar colors of watercolor over the top of
the writing. This made the colors pop against the heart image.



I
used a glue stick to adhere the heart image to the page. I was
rummaging through my stash of stuff and I found the Karma Coffee logo
that I’d colored for a previous page , but decided not to use. It fit
with my writing, so I attached it with glue stick to my page.

This
is a very simple page but I really like how it works, opposite colors,
lots of exploration of thoughts and ideas with some graphic colors.

The finished image is 5×7 inches and is available matted and ready for framing on etsy here.

This
entry started a little different than most of the pages in this series.
I wanted to break things up a bit so I headed to flickr, specifically
the Florida State Archives to search for an image to draw from. They
usually have some nice portraits. I found this guy.

I
grabbed my sketchbook and pentel pocket brush pens; one loaded with J
Herbin gris nuage and the other with platinum carbon ink and started to
draw. I used the gray ink first and found the areas of shadow. After I’d
done that I grabbed my black PPBP and started to load in the details.

After I finished the quick drawing, I added some red watercolor to the background.

Then
I wanted to add a touch more detail, so I grabbed my Platinum Carbon
Desk pen and added a few dots and lines here and there to complete the
image.

The finished image is 5×7 inches and is available matted and ready for framing on etsy here.

Continue reading →

This
page was started by using a Chartpak Ad Marker Colorless Blender
to transfer a printout
of oine of my brain drawings to a page in a 6×8 inch Stillman & Birn
Epsilon sketchbook.

Around
the brain image I flooded the page with a cad red medium watercolor.
While that was drying I colored a self portrait print with blue
watercolors.

I
wanted to use only the eyes of the colored self portrait, so I tore
them from the portrait. I used a UHU gluestick
to adhere the piece to the
page.
I
used  a compass to create a circle around the brain and the eyes. I
then created radiating lines coming from the center of the brain. I then
used a watersoluble crayon to color in every other ray. I wet these and
moved the color around with a brush.


After
that was all dry I realized the eyes seemed to sit on top of the image
and didn’t really seem like part of the whole page. I added Sharpie China Marker
circles around everything. Leaving the eyes without circles.
Once
the circles were added I didn’t like the brain. I wanted add some
yellow to the orange of the page, so I brushed a wash of light cad
yellow over the top of the circles. The china marker resisted the
watercolor and allowed the color to pool in some places. I really like
the look.


The finished image is 5×7 inches and is available matted and ready for framing on etsy here.

Continue reading →