Category Archives: Journaling

Starting off the Grand Experiment

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I picked up a selection of needle point and ultra fine point pens from Uniball to use as part of the experiment Jane and I are conducting for the next issue of Put it on Paper as well as a regular blog feature. I can’t wait to tell you more about it. I had planned on using them ONLY for the experiment, but, well, I’ve gotten addicted. Damn these things are crazy fun. I could use my rapidocraft pens but these are so much smoother and I can use them at an angle, which means I can sketch more comfortably. The ink is gel style so it doesn’t feather, spread or bleed. I get a perfect smooth line. Better yet, it’s pigmented, fade resistant and waterproof when dry. Which means I can slosh watercolors on it ASAP.

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I think I’ve died and gone to ink heaven.
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I’m pretty stoked.
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Within this post are a selection of drawings done with the Uniball Signo bit 0.18 and Signo DX in 0.28 and 0.38. (With a smattering of brush pen and watercolor added, because I can’t restrain myself.)

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Spring Fever

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Spring. I love it. The weather gets warmer, the grass gets green, everything goes into blossom and then I can’t breath. I’m always torn between going outside and soaking up the sun or staying inside so I don’t have to take all kinds of medications to just breath. Sometimes I just go outside anyway and then feel the pain for days afterward. Pain radiating out from my sinuses, my eyes watering and my throat feeling like it’s going to close off from all the post nasal drip, nauseated from the dripping and then being unable to sleep from the pills, or alternatively being unable to stay awake or drive from the other pills. Worse yet, I can’t think straight, I can’t focus on anything for more than 5 minutes thanks to the medications.
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It’s not surprising that my head gets kind of messed up in the spring. Love it or loathe it, I end up on an emotional rollercoaster where I’m trying to stay awake and work on my goals and then there are days when my goals seem so unattainable that I feel like giving up on everything. I think, “Why bother? I don’t have the energy to work on anything anyway. It can never happen because I don’t have the energy and thus don’t have the time.” I stop working on the stuff that matters the most to me, the blog, my classes and art.
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I go to work. I come home. I try and sleep. Or I sleep all the time.
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Attempting to make time to walk or eat right go out the window. I fall into bad habits and start to feel worse. I start to think, “Why bother?”

It’s that one thing that is the pin to all of this. Without the allergies I wouldn’t feel like this, so terrible.
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And then things ease up, all the trees aren’t in blossom, the allergy medications start to work better as I’m not fighting off the pollen from everything. My breathing is more even and not raspy in my throat. My face doesn’t feel like someone tapped me with a baseball bat. Finally I can think again.

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Another Midori Traveller Notebook Knock Off Idea

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I wanted to add 2 more journals to my MTNKO. I saw a blog post somewhere, I cna't remember the blog that added a additional pockets to the notebook through the use of a rubber band. I decided to use that idea to add 2 more notebooks. I wanted to have my general idea notebook, a notebook for PioP and another sketchbook. To do this hack you'll need the following:

A medium length thin rubber band or a loop of the elastic you used to make you MTNKO

2 Notebooks

Slide the rubber band through the center of one notebook then the other,so they are attached spine to spine. Slide one notebook under the notebook already in your MTNKO.

Here's a helpful video of the process.

 

 

State of the Weekend: An Everything Journal

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I was given another glimpse into just how powerful art journaling can be last night. I had an idea for Put it on Paper, something that I had rolled around in my brain once before and pushed off as not possible and not a very good idea at the time, but I’d made note of it in my art journals, made some doodles and wrote it down.

I quickly flipped through the last 2 journals where I knew the info to be, tabbed those pages with a little Post it flag, and then used my iPoo Touch to snap some pics, shelved the books and took the info with me, in my pocket. I sketched out a quick idea in my art journal of what I thought this idea could look like and emailed it to Jane. As I relaxed into bed, I reviewed the pages on my iPoo and made some fresh notes and doodles about the content of the proposal.

How amazing is it that I can carry 4 journal’s worth of info in my pocket? I read somewhere that someone scanned their notebook pages into their computer and used a specific program to make them searchable. How cool is that?

If you have an art only journal consider carrying an everything art journal with you everywhere, it will prove itself to be indispensible in short order. (Check out a variety of pockete sized notebooks for this, or make your own pockeet noteboook using my tutorial here.)

Chip off the old Midori Traveller

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I liked my large sized Midori Traveller Notebook knock off (TNKO) so much I decided to make a pocket sized version to hold a few jotters. Once I made it I realized I could wedge my Canson Blue Book into it and make my art and not taking need marry into one refillable slab of leather. And it works, marvelously, perfectly and addictively. I’ve sketched, journaled and made notes in nothing else* since I made this thing. Oh baby. I took the leather from the first incarnation of the 6×9 inch TNKO and recolored it with artist grade artist paints in a couple of shades of brown. Then impregnated, that sounds dirty, it’s not but it is kinda messy, the leather with cold wax and then straight up bee’s wax and heat. This leather is waterproof and so soft and smooth it’s awesome. I’m pretty amazed at how well it came out. I didn’t know what to expect when I hit it with some wax and light heat, I knew it would take it and take it well but I was shocked to see how well.
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I also stitched a pen loop and a pocket into the back, a pocket may end up in the front as well. I’ve started to stuff random things into the pocket- business cards, receipts, stickers and scraps of paper that I acquire throughout my days. Under the elastic my iPoo is comfortable along with a pen. It’s really allowed me to pare down my on the go journaling needs to a journal, a jotter and a pen or 2. I’ve got more to write about concerning pared down journaling and how it’s really opened my mind to possibilities.
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More on the Break

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I took a  bit of a blog writing and reading  break the last month. It was an unintended consequence of having the flu, then allergies and then the DayJob needing me to adapt my schedule. I realize I do this pretty frequently. I stop reading everything I can get on my screen and mindlessly wander Hulu in search of some mindless entertainment. I look at this as time for my brain to get calm from its typical go-go-go NorthEastern work ethic. Normally I wake up thinking and go to bed thinking. Non stop.
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Except during this typically brief sojourns from reading and writing blogs. It’s like my mind says to me, “Screw you, I CAN’T GO ALL THE TIME. I need a DAMN break. So I’m taking it now, even if it isn’t convenient for you.” And, so, my brain takes a break, greedily sucking up X Files and Grimm episodes and taking a break from things like, that fountain pen class which I’ve been researching and writing for too many months, or one of the million other things I’ve got going.
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Somewhere in the middle of all of it, I beat myself up about not working on the stuff that drives me, but then I realize this is part of my process. I need this time to creatively recuperate. My brain needs downtime from my art just as we all need downtime from our DayJobs. It’s just how it is.

I write this to encourage you to take the downtime you need and so you don’t beat yourself up about it.

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Midori Traveler Style Notebook

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I've been using a knockoff of the Midori Traveler notebook system for about a year now. I decided to make one for a friend and while I was working on it  I tried a few things and really liked how it turned out. I then decided to make myself  a new one and a pocket sized version.

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I really like how deep and dark the leather is and how supple it's surface is while remaining stiff. I can't wait to put these through the ringer! For the large I used an edge of the hide that had numbers and letters cut into the surface. I buffed a ton of cold wax into the surface, which I used a light iron to heat into the leather, to really deeply impregnate it with the wax

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This time instead of punching a hole directly through the center of the cover I made 2 holes, one on either side of the "spine" area. This lets me use a smaller knot and I like how it holds things together.

While I was at it, I figured I'd make myself a strap for my camera. I made it a touch too long but  I do like it. The hardest part was finding a heavy duty clasp to hold it to the camera.

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Some construction notes: For thelarge notebook I started with a 9×13 inch sheet of leather and then trimmed it once I had the cover constructed. For the small I started with a 6×9 inche sheet of leather, which I again trimmed down excess once I had the elastic installed. In both of mine I'm using my own notebooks but the small would hold any 3.5×5.5 inch notebook, like a Moleskine Cahier, Doane pocket notebook, Bandit Carnet, field notes etc… Any of the small pocket sized notebooks would fit in the small size, and likewise for the large, any 5.5×8.5/9 inch sized notebook would fit.

So Little Time So Much To Do

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I filled another journal, in 27 days. It’s that Canson Blue Book I’ve been tweeting about. I’ve got a review coming on it but it won’t be posted here, it’ll be published someplace else. (hint hint) I burn through a small 3.5×5.5 journal every spring, and I don’t see this slowing down anytime soon. I’ve been crafting a class around my spring journaling style. An anything goes sort of class using a small inexpensive journal and everyday materials, a pen and something to add color. It doesn’t get much more simple than this method. The difference is the approach. I’m keeping much of that to myself, but suffice it to say there is a reason why I return to this journal burning method every spring.

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In the stack of small journals that sit above my desk I shake the dust of winter out of my head, embrace the blossoms of spring and come up with some fantastic. My spring blaster journals are where I’ve had some of my best ideas and some of my worst. I can’t wait to bring the 2 classes I’m working on to ArtJournaling.Ning.com

Part of my spring funk blaster is daily journal work. Not just making a pretty page, but real actual digging deep into my head- drawing, mind maps, lists of ideas, observations and the like. I purposefully stretch my mind in this journal. I enlist my creativity and get art centered.
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It’s not a 5 minute a day kind of thing. It’s not even a 10 minute a day sort of thing. It's a mind kind of thing. I take this journal with me everywhere and I blast my way through it, spending every available moment working in it. That journal and a pen are ALWAYS in my pocket.

I’m very excited about this and the fountain pen class. The FP class is becoming a book with videos to further explain points. I have so much to do on it and so little time! I can’t wait to take my vacation so I can work on it for  full week with no interuptions!

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(This guy was drawn in a 10 minute wait for the train.)

Q&A on Youtube

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Every now and then I get a series of questions on Youtube and Facebook that warrant longer explanations via video. Here are the latest batch. Feel free to ask more art and art journal related questions in the comments.