I’ve
been working on some bookbinding. It’s a perfect task for a cold rainy
day. I put together a few journals, not all are listed on etsy yet.

These
have a thick coverstock paper that is perfect for sketching, light
watercolor washes, collage, pen and ink work, as well as pencil. You can
throw a ton of material at this paper and it just keeps on going. There
are a generous 240 pages to these journals. They are FAT and can expand
even more to take in all of your collage work.

They
are bound with tough hemp, which can take a beating. I’ve omitted the
use of beeswax, which makes these journals 100% vegan! The covers are
made of old vinyl advertising signs stitched to cardstock advertising
signs. These signs are tough and ready to take anything you throw at
them. Don’t like the colors offered? This vinyl takes acrylic paint like
a dream, so go ahead, decorate them.

These
journals have all the same attributes as the above, but instead of
heavy coverstock they are filled with 18# vintage IBM green and white
dot matrix printer paper. One side of each sheet has green and white
lines and the reverse is white. These journals fare best with rollerball
and gel pens but can still handle items being glue sticked to the page.
Again, they are filled with 240 pages of this lovely vintage paper.

This
page was started by creating gray lines with a pentel pocket brush pen
in a 6×8 inch Stillman & Birn Epsilon sketchbook. The lines are J. Herbin Gris Nuage Ink in a Pentel Pocket Brush Pen
.

I
then used a pale pink Derwent Watercolour Pencil
to write an entry. I
was reminiscing about this girl I used to work with at the grocery
store, back when I was a florist. She used to wear prom dresses to work,
and she was a bagger. The kid was hilarious, she’d find a $20 1980s
prom dress at the thrift store and decide to wear it to work. So funny.
You look at the registers and there would be this kid in a puffy pink
prom dress, all satin and lace. Customers would ask her, “Is there a
formal tonight?” and she’d reply, “Nope, I just felt like wearing this.”
After
I was finished writing I flooded the page with clear water. I added
magenta to the left edge then allowed it to flow over the wet page.There were a few larger drops of water, I blew on them to create spatters and runs in the color.

I
then colored a self portrait with blue watercolor. Then a brain drawing
with pink and purple watercolors. Once dry I cut these from their
backings and positioned them at various points on the paper. Once I
found a spot I liked, I wanted some watercolor drops around the brain to
add emphasis. I mixed up droplets of color and added them to the page. I
wanted them to drip so I blew on the drops through a straw.(I forgot to take pictures of thisstep.) After
allowing the drips and drops to dry I adhered the self portrait and
brain drawing.

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 attaching a mask to a page in a 6×8 inch Stillman
& Birn Epsilon sketchbook I then flooded the page with red and
magenta watercolors. After that I let it fully dry. I used my Pentel
pocket brush pen loaded with Platinum Carbon ink to draw some waves. I
used a white china marker to accent the tops of the waves.

After
that I wanted to create some radiating lines from the heart areas of
the sheep. I used a ruler to mark off the radiating lines. I then filled
every other section with dark blue  watercolor crayon. I wet the
crayons and then scraped it off. I don’t like the effect.

I
had wanted to keep the sheep white, but I took the mask off too soon,
so I’ve got traces of everything I used on the page within the sheep..

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

This
page was started by writing with a fountain pen loaded with red ink on a
page in a 6×8 inch Stillman & Birn Epsilon sketchbook. After
writing I put a red watercolor wash on the page. After that dried I
layered a magenta wash over the top of the red.  I forgot to take a pic
of the writing. I got excited by the creation process.

I used caran d’ache watersoluble crayons to color a die-cut sheep.I used watercolors to color a brain bright orangey red.
I used an UHU gluestick to adhere them to the page. (forgot to take a pick of just the sheep and brain not glued to the page.)

After
that I realized that the brain melted into the background. I really
wanted it to pop, so I grabbed my white china marker and added circles
all around the brain.

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

This
page was started by flooding a page in a 6×8 inch Stillman & Birn
Epsilon sketchbook with turquoise watercolors and then dropping purple
into the still wet color. After that I let it fully dry.

I
then colored 2 of my die-cut sheep a deep dark color by layering sepia
and indigo watercolors. While
I waited for the sheep to dry I also colored both a brain and heart
print of some of my drawings. I wasn’t sure which one I wanted to use. I
cut both out once they were dry. I allowed the sheep to dry fully before adhering
them to the page with glue stick.

After
looking at placement of both the heart and the brain I chose to use
only the heart, as it fits my mood and the thoughts I’m having as I work
on this page. I uge UHU gluestick to attach it to the page.
I
picked a center point in the heart to use as the starting point of
radiating lines. I then used a ruler to mark off the lines coming from
the center. I used yellow and white colored pencils to fill in the
lines.
After
the page was finished I burnished the colored pencils to give it a
bright shine. Unfortunately I cannot take a decent picture of this
effect as I’m getting too much reflection from the page.
The finished image is 5×7 inches and is available matted and ready for framing on etsy here.

Continue reading →

I wanted to get in on the Friday link love so here's my 1st Link Love post!

First, some props to Jessie for being bold and jumping in on the 30 in June challenge.

Check out the Pen Addict for pen reviews and some serious enabling on your pen addiction.

Check out Tammy over at DaisyYellow for more link love and loads of art journal inspiration.

Check out Eveline's sketches with watercolors on her blog. Amazing work.

Check out this post about ink in summer heat on Inkophile. Be aware of mold!

The June carnival of pen, pencil, and paper is here.

Don't forget to check out the 30 in June posts!

Also, You should watch this again:

This
page was done in a 6×8 inch Stillman & Birn Epsilon sketchbook. I
It’s got this awesome smooth plate finish, smooth enough that pens are
great on it but tough enough I can work several layers and use
watercolors. The finished image is 5×7 inches and is available matted
and ready for framing on etsy here.

I started by transferring an image of a sheep to the page with a Chartpak AD marker.

I then wrote my entry with a colored pencil.

After that I colored in some wedges with blue and teal colored pencils.

Then I used watercolors and covered over the writing.And added an outline of yellow around the sheep.

This
page was start in a 6×8 inch Stillman & Birn Epsilon sketchbook. I
It’s got this awesome smooth plate finish, smooth enough that pens are
great on it but tough enough I can work several layers and use
watercolors. The finished image is 5×7 inches and is available matted
and ready for framing on etsy here.

I started this page by using a pencil and a ruler to create a grid on my page.

I then colored a sheep die-cut with my favorite blue turquoise  watercolor. Then I glued it to the page. I then used my Chartpak AD marker to transfer an image of a brain to my page.

I used a terracotta Derwent Pastel Pencil to write.
I obscured the writing by using a similarly colored watercolor over the top, in this case red oxide.
I wanted the brain to stand out more so I use light cadmium yellow watercolor to color the brain.
I
have a thing with lines radiating out from a fixed point on my pages. I
wanted somethign subtle on this page. I used a white plastic eraser to
remove some of the watercolor and some of the writing, in lines
radiating out from the center of the brain. Some of the lines were still
dark so I used a stick Sanford Magic Rub Eraser to remove more of the
watercolor.
After that I used stencils to add the word BAA to the body of the sheep.

Continue reading →

This
page was done in a 6×8 inch Stillman & Birn Epsilon sketchbook. I
It’s got this awesome smooth plate finish, smooth enough that pens are
great on it but tough enough I can work several layers and use
watercolors. The finished image is 5×7 inches and is available matted
and ready for framing on etsy here.

This
page started with a 6B Eberhard Faber drawing
3800 pencil. I
chose it because it’s soft and dark and sharpens with ease. I wrote a
page full of musings on coffee and some of my first memories of the
delicious substance.

After
the writing was completed it was too dark to draw, sketch or even
doodle over. I wanted to remove some of the graphite yet leave the
writing. Using a kneaded eraser
I started to lightly erase the pencil. I
erased until I liked the amount of pencil left on the page. The kneaded
eraser is great for this as it is a delicate eraser and complete
removal is difficult but will leave the page unharmed.  I carefully
removed the graphite moving the eraser gently over the page.

I
wanted to add one of my self portraits to the page. It was a happy
memory so I used a favorite turquoise blue to color in the the face.
After the face was dried I cut it out.

I used my 2 way glue to position
it on several areas of the page. Once I found a spot I liked I decided
it needed 5 colored circles around it. I used a small bottle to trace
the circles onto the page. I painted them red, orange, yellow, green and
blue with watercolors. This allowed the text to show through the color.

Returning
to my thinking motif, I carefully sketched a gear onto the page. I used
watercolors to paint around the gear. I considered painting in the gear
but I really liked the idea of it being a loose shape and something
less defined.

Continue reading →

This picture is funny. The artist is working on the portrait  in a frame? LOL

it's a good publicity shot.