Sure, the topic is crappy but the image pops like whoa! The black on the bright colors really keeps me looking. RcannonP does great things with color.
Flickr Find Friday: Deadbeat Dad
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Category Archives: Journaling
Flickr Find Friday: FakeGlue
Another journal page that resonates with my style of journaling: Collage, sketch then add a dash of color. LOVE IT. When I add the ephemera from my daily life to myjournal I'm recording my events not the events of some big company churning out what they THINK I may want to record. Nah, that ticket fromt he raffle I didn't win records the dissapointment of loosing.
Anyway FakeGlue does a great job of that with this spread.
Technique-I-can’t-wait-until Tuesday: Mini Polaroids with the Pogo
I was over here reading Crafty Moira’s site and I stumbled upon her tutorials, this one caught my eye– pogo printer yes, making it look like an old school mini Polaroid, why yes thank you very much.
After checking it out, I realized it would be cool to have the pogo print the square image and then simply trim off the excess. (read, I'm too lazy to go get my white cardstock.) After some trial and error I figured some stuff out.
First. Don’t work the actual 2×3 inches of the print, you’ll get a grainy print. You need to work larger than the print size so the pogo can compress it down, or something like that. I chose to work in GIMP (a free photoshop clone that kicks butt) with a “canvas” size of 4×6 inches, which is the same aspect ratio as the pogo print, which is 2×3 inches.
Then I opened a photo, I cropped it square and then cut and pasted it to my 4×6 blank “canvas.” It was over sized, I then selected “resize layer” and resized the image to 3.375 inches square. This will give you a 1/8th of an inch border around the sides of your image, and about 1 inch at the bottom. After this you have to flatten the image and then save it as a jpeg. Now send it to your pogo.
When it prints you’ll notice several things. First the pogo has a hard time with square edges, the top edge of my images are all just a hair off square. I don't mind this, but if you do you may wish to go with Moira's original instructions. The second thing you’ll notice is that the bottom part of the image is really long. You’ll need to trim the bottom so that it is ½ an inch high or so that the whole thing is 2 3/8ths tall. Trim with a ruler and an exacto and voila! You have a mini Polaroid, from a Polaroid Pogo. Sawweet.
In Journal Revolution there are instructions on how to make a Polaroid mat from cardstock for a perfect polaroid full sized image. It looks awesome too.
Some tips for printing you want the image to be at 300dpi, if you let the program autoselect 75 or 150 dpi the resulting print will be pretty grainy. I’m pretty sure it has to do with how the pogo processes the images to its format. In any case the higher the DPI the better the pogo print will be. Also be sure that you save it as a jpeg, if you don’t the pogo will not print it at all, its little lights will blink at you, you might get frustrated because you don't understand it's blinking light, unplug it and then turn it on and off*.
So as I was doing this I realized that I could really add any color to the back ground. I remember Polaroid did some neutral gray and black bordered polaroids at one point, but what’s to stop me from making the background any color I want? Or what if I wanted to add some text to that little area below the photo? Or what if I tweak the image in GIMP to create a pinhole effect?
There are so many alternatives to this that it’s crazy.
Here are a few of the images I made, ready to go for anyone's pogo.
If you don't have a pogo you could create your blank canvas as 4×5 inches and then scale it to the "correct" Polaroid size of 3.5×4.25 inches. Then you can print it on any printer or load it to a thumb drive and take it to CVS/Walgreens/Walmart/or anyother store with photo printing. (Walgreens has a service where you can load a bunch of photos to a website, place them on an 8×10 sheet of photo paper, and then print the whole thing for a couple of dollars. All you have to do is pick them up at the store in a few hours, they will ship to you for a few dollars.)
Technique Tuesday: Golden’s Tar Gel for Cult of Stuff
This week’s Technique Tuesday is an additive. I’m combining TT with the Cult of Stuff workshop on AJ ning. My choice of stuff to experiment with was Golden’s Tar Gel. It’s an additive that you mix with a liquid paint to get stringy lines that stay raised, think of Jackson Pollock, and you have the right idea.
I’d read that Tar Gel takes forever to dry, I don’t like my art journal to be out of commission for that long, so I grabbed a board and did one of my automatic continuous line drawings on it in sharpie. I’d had paper and thread glued to this board previously so there is a lumpy bumpy texture already in place.
I filed in the face portion of the drawing first with warm colors then added a flat dark blue background. To this I added the strings, bloops, blobs, drips, drizzles and splots. I mixed a good amount of color with the medum, so that it was thin and runny. I then loaded up my palette knife and dribbled away. It was fun to try and control the medium, as it really had a mind of its own. Sometimes large blobs would run off the knife, sometimes thin streams.
The interesting thing with this medium is that the drips and dribbles stay raised. I tried the heat gun on them but it raised air bubbles and the medium did not seem to like it at all. So I’ve put a fan on it to attempt to dry it faster. Hopefully tomorrow it’ll be dry enough that I can hang it and get some decent pictures.
Cult of Stuff part 2
The initial anti-cult of stuff response is, of course, that you need less, but the more reasoned response is that you need to find the media that is most suited to you in your expression.
For years I used a fountain pen. I set it aside for a set of Sakura pens and then for a set of Pitt pens until 10 years later I’m back at the fountain pen. Why? It works for me. I like how it works; I love the lines I can get.
I also use acrylic paint, watercolors, as well as various other tools. Why? They work for me and I like the effects I can get.
It took me awhile to figure out what I liked and how I work. Even still a break from my usual pen and ink work to make gelatin prints to liven things up. A workshop or a class at Michael’s, AC Moore, or your local community college can really shake things up and get you out of your creative rut. What about finding an art buddy? Someone you can head to a coffee shop with, or walk the park with, or sketchcrawl that pretty town you’ve never bothered with?
It’s a lot easier to head to the craft store and buy some premade ephemera and slap it in your journal than it is to trek to a coffee shop you’ve never been to isn’t it?
I’ve been there.
My point is that we need to get back to the process part of art journaling. Step away from the scrapping aisle. Head to the “fine art aisle.” Look at all the stuff there. Student Grade. Artist Grade and the more recently introduced “Professional” grade*. Here’s the thing, none of the stuff in that aisle is going to make much sense until you get dirty with it. Sure you understand pencils, colored pencils and pens but what about those tubes of paint? Where do you even start? Head to YouTube, Google, or ArtJournaling.ning.com search through for some technique videos and tutorials. The internet is crawling with great (and shitty) advice.
- Try to avoid buying supplies on a whim**.
- Buy student grade if you aren’t sure you’ll like this media***.
- Don’t start with a full contingent of mediums and additives.
Make a promise to yourself that you will sit down with that one material and experiment with them in every way you think possible and a few ways you didn’t think were possible. Make notes. Get to know that material.
Get curious. Perform mad science in the pages of your art journal.
Ask yourself this question: What would happen if I did this? How would this respond to this?
Now that you know that material inside and out, add to it. Layer your spray inks over watercolor, and acrylic over that, glue down some ephemera from that coffee shop you tested out last weekend.
Now that you’ve read all this, you’re thinking, “I don’t have time, I just want results.” Here’s my answer to that, “You need to make time to experiment. You can’t get results without putting in a lot of time. If you take short cuts the only thing you’re doing is cheating yourself.”
When you decide a media isn't for you get rid of it. Craigslist and eBay are wonderful tools for getting rid of stuff you don't want anymore. Also consider donating unused art supplies to a school for use in their art room.
If you are new here, this is your first visit, please realize this is a (so far) 4 post rant on stuff. Feel free to head here to read the rest of my tirade. Also, please don't assume that I hate pretty pages or would sneer at your art. This rant is about empowerment not judgement.
Wordy Weekender: the power to blow my mind
Yesterday I was listening to a piece by the Vitamin String Quartet, a remake of one of my favorite songs from my youth, and it brought me to tears. I’m happy to say that I grew up with Nirvana and Alice in Chains and a variety of other great bands emerging. I was a closet music fan, not telling my friends about my Ass Ponys tapes or Pixies CDs, afraid that if I went too far out from their mainstream box they might judge. I had one friend in HS with whom I talked about music, Melissa, she was a metalhead and when I found Facelift I immediately made her a copy.
I had one of those moments while listening to the VSQ where I realized that I create art in the hopes it moves someone in the same way. Every now and then I get an email from someone telling me they found my stuff on youtube, flickr or art journaling ning and that it moved them.
Here are some videos from my youth. The Ass Ponys still rock.
There is something to be said for remakes of music done with strinq quartets.
This blows my mind.
Wordy Friday: Riding This Bus
I don't read a lot of blogs as religiously as I read Connie, Paul, and Lisa's. Why? Well, they post a lot of eye candy photos and words that I find relevant to my life, you know stuff that makes me think.
Thinking is good.
Connie recently posted this little ditty.
It made me think.
In some spots I disagree and others I agree.
I look at my time as the most precious thing, well, ever. I don't have a lot of it. I've only got this one life. I've only got the time that has been allotted to me. When people come at me with hate and anger I choose to ignore them and shut them out.
I have learned to make liberal use of gmail's block function and the IP address blocking ability of typepad.
People who send me hate filled rants via email want to waste my time. I've learned the hard way that giving them attention simply feeds the beast and distracts from things that add meaning to my life.
Another person's rage does not add meaning to my life.
Another person's anger does not add meaning to my life.
Responding to another person's rage and anger detracts from my life.
I refuse to give someone who thinks only with hate, power over my time and allow them to detract from my life.
While it's not up to me to determine who I bump into on this journey, I do determine how I respond and ultimately I decide who I allow on my bus.
gray
It's been gray and dismal here for almost a week and it's predicted that we'll get more rain next week. Yawn. The weather makes me want to crawl back into bed and snooze. So far we've had less sun this spring than we did in February.
I've been working though. I'm doing a review, tomorrow, on Liquitex Coarse Texture Gel and in a week I'm doing one on Golden Coarse Pumice Gel. Good stuff, adds a whole new layer of texture to a page or in this case a cover.
I'm also working on a technique tuesday where I alter a cover with modeling paste and build up layers of glaze to create an antique beat up looking cover. I've done one cover already and I'm pretty pleased with it. It's one way to take a boring composition book and make it super cool. The great thing about it is how cool it feels, smooth but rough. The other texture pastes and gels are the same way they feel really cool.
I can't wait to show some of the stuff I'm working on.
Also I'd like to ask who I pay off to get a little sun. I could really use some.
Friday Finds: Allie George on Art Journaling Ning
A week or so ago a youtuber contacted me requesting some more information about art journaling. I gave the info, and she ask for more. I direcrted her towards Art Journaling Ning. I don't plug the site enough but for those of you who don't know I started AJ ning about 2 years ago to create a free space where people could learn and share what they know about art journaling, pass techniques around in a safe environment. At the time it was the ONLY site that was dedicated to ONLY art journaling. As far as I know it is still the only site dedicated to only art journaling. Other sites have cropped up that cater to some aspects of art journaling but I think AJ Ning is the most complete and has the most members.
Anyway, Allie George signed up and immediately started to share her images. I'm glad she did. You see her journals are exactly what I see as "art journal." They are raw, have writing, have great images, collage and paint. You can tell she focuses on the PROCESS of creating the page and not on the idea of a pretty page.
So eff yes, Allie George.
Check out all her work on AJ ning here, and check out a few of her pages here:
Wordy Monday Evening: Snake Oil, Sharks, Resonate
Lisa over at LifeUnity put up this post earlier and it resonated with me, in part because I’m going through some of the same balance issues but also because it’s a very real post and that is something I feel like the blog-o-sphere has been lacking.
Today Connie over at DirtyFootPrints posted this, and it also resonated with me. It’s also a place I’ve been in my head lately, thinking of what is “enough.” What is good enough? (more on this later.)
Aggression and sharks.
Or as my Dad used to say, “There are assholes everywhere and some of ‘em, most of ‘em, are out to get you.” Often times my Dad meant this about boys (ha!) trying to get in my pants and people trying to take my money, but this applies to the wild internets*.
Let me back up here.
A few weeks back I decided I was going to cut back on what I allow into my internet and life. Every time someone put up a post on facebook or twitter that made me feel icky I unfollowed or hid them from my view. After another week went past I’d go back and check and see if their tweets or posts still made me uncomfortable, if they did, I unfollowed, blocked, and or unfriended them. It’s been about 3 or 4 weeks since I've been doing this and frankly the quality of my twitter feed has gone up, I’m genuinely interested in what people I’m following and I’m not burdened by reading stuff that offends me.**
Why do I do this? No one has the right to make me feel bad, When I allowed people to suck up MY time with their drama I was giving them power over my life and allowing them to waste MY time. Additionally I can't worry that I'm going to offend them, clearly they don't care if they offend me, so why am I concerned about offending them?
It’s as if I gave them permission to crap on my good time.
So I’m done with it. The drama and the snake oil sales, done.
That’s another thing that is getting to me lately, the snake oil sales. If someone is selling you a promise to unlock your deepest inner power, it’s most likely snake oil. The only person who can do that is you. I’m wary of someone who wants to whisper into my ear and ask me to do stuff that makes me feel icky. I’m not talking legit life coaches, teachers, licensed therapists and social workers who have been to school and trained to make you push your boundaries. I’m talking about the arm chair quarterbacks that want to tell me what to do when they haven’t put in the hard work themselves, the do as I say not as I do crowd.
I have made my way so far by listening to myself, going with what I feel is right. It’s why Art Journaling Ning is free and will always be free to join and enjoy with paid classes for those who are interested. I see this whole thing as living real.