Category Archives: Journaling

Always Someone There to Remind Me

When I was a pre-teen my Dad bought a beat up Ford Ranger. It had a tape deck that the previous owner claimed had a tape stuck in it. That tape was a copy of Naked Eyes Burning Bridges. I managed to get it out of the tape deck and then proceeded to listen to it on repeat.

Pre-teen me loved Brit synth pop. I think I wore that tape out.

Also I wanted that truck.

The title I used for this post is a riff on one of the songs on that tape- the actual song was “Always Some THING There to Remind Me” and apparently it has been recorded by quite a few artists.

Anyway, after that intro…

I was reminded today of how there is always someone there to remind me about what they think about me, my art, and how they think I should also feel about all that. And generally they don’t rate me or my opinions very highly. There is always some fool out there ready to tear me down.

And frankly it’s really hard to weather that storm.

Their garbage opinion always seems to rain down when I’m at my my fragile. When the scaffolding of my self esteem is constructed but don’t have the support braces installed yet.

These people, they are jealous of success. When they sniff out success they want to take a dump on it. When they see my joy they want to dump on it. This pic has a fun little glitch in it. The wheels do not look like that IRL! I wish I knew how to make it happen again!

These are the worst kinds of people. They just dump on everything and everything. They don’t really care who they dump on, they simply want to tear down people in a misguided attempt to build themselves up.

I use a generic THEY here because we all have a dumper in our lives. I’ve referred to these people as Dream Dumpers before. These are the people when you tell them about your favorite new cheese/ TV show/ art material/ movie/ hobby/ etc… they just dump on it.

Their capacity for finding the worst in everything is mirrored by how awful they feel about pretty much everything- they hate their boss and their job, as well as just about everything else in the world. But mostly they hate themselves.

I write this not to find empathy, though I do have empathy for people who hate everything. I write this because it helps me to think about the hate that these folx spew outward, they also spew it inward.

Imagine how horrible I/you feel about what these folx say to you either in person or in a social media comment. Then imagine them saying it back to themselves over and over and over again.

How awful.

Garbage in. Garbage out.

It gives me some perspective. But also it helps me to see that the Dream Dumper, their perspective is skewed. They can’t see the joy because all they have is hate. They dump on good happy things out of jealousy, even if they don'[t know they feel jealous, how can they actually know how they feel when everything is shrouded in hate?

Dream dumpers suck the joy out of pretty much everything.

Re-post from my Ko-Fi page, get my posts much earlier there.

Gear or Supply Guys

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A type of dream dumper that I especially loathe is the Gear Guy. (It goes without saying that the Gear Guy is a gendered joke and the GUY can of course be a GAL or just person.)

The Gear Guy is that person who asks you what you are using and then smirks and tells you they have the newest model of your beaten up used piece of equipment.

It’s a wallet wag.

I see this so often when it comes to cameras, watercolor brushes, and bicycles.

I use my action camera for everything. Because it eliminates shake it’s great for taking pictures. I can also adjust the settings and get a nice shot. I have added a step up ring to it it so that I can use close up lenses and filters! Cool. Nifty hack!

Most of all, I know how to use the action cam, and I have it with me all the time.

I also always have a toy camera in my bag. I won’t write here about my undying love of toy cameras, but I looooove them.

Anyway, I was out with some people I know and I pulled my old trusty modified Osmo Action 3 out, slapped on a 2x close up filter and took some pictures. A Gear Guy came over and asked me about the cam. I explained the ring and filter situation. He smirked and held up his Canon with a $1600 lens.

Me being me, I lifted up my camera and snapped his picture. I laughed as I walked away.

His attempt to make me feel small didn’t work because I disarmed it with humor.

But it still grinds my gears.

Having the money to buy a thousand dollar camera body and slapping a $1600 lens on it doesn’t make him the better photographer. (I am a shitty photographer and I know it.) It means he has more money and more tools to prop him up.

Expensive tools aren’t a magic wand to make better art.

Cheaper tools used well can make great art. Yes cheap tools can be frustrating to make with, but if you are careful and buy well, you can find good cheap tools. Even if you aren’t, I’d rather see someone find an amazing cheap tool and brag about their deal than listen to some Gear Guy brag about his $150 water color brush he flew to Japan to buy.

This is why I suggest cheap journals/sketchbooks. Fill them up, burn through them with all the messes and then buy another one. Feel no guilt for using cheap sketchbooks as your journals.

An expensive journal won’t make your art journal better. Only time and effort will pay off. Spend time to find your favorite art journal. Most of the time the journal expense will be somewhere in the middle of the cost range.

Re-post from my Ko-Fi page, get my posts much earlier there.

What Do I NEED to Create?

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Back in the day I used to soak up videos and blog posts about art making gear. Everyone’s equipment fascinated me. Part of this was curiosity about processes but also wanting to know HOW to use that equipment.

And when I write equipment I mean everything from paint to brushes to paper to cameras and software used to edit the very video I watched.Yes, I picked up an eScooter. Yes it’s probably too dangerous. But holy hell is it FUN!

I have a theory that most of us who get caught up in GAS (Gear Acquisition Syndrome) are like me- just want to know all the things about the things we use to create. I want to know your processes so I can develop my processes.

As I work on my latest videos and possible zines, I have been asking myself how do I create and write a tutorial that doesn’t feed into the GAS making machine?

I have been asking myself the question: “What do I need to create?”

I ask this as I reach for materials.

I have access to every material I could possibly want and then some. If I don’t have it in my home studio I have it at work. If I don’t currently own it or have access to it I can order it and have it here in a few days.

GAS and SABLE (Stash Acquisition Beyond Life Expectancy) are two reasons I started to tell myself and say in my videos and posts, “Use what you have.” “Buy singles when possible.”

But really when you dial it down to basics what do we need to create? I think this is going to vary for everyone.

I need a sketchbook of some sort and either a pencil or a pen.

That’s it.

It’s simple.

I also think I make some of my best art when I strip it down to simplicity, and allow myself to fully embrace that material. Then when I open up and add in color and wash and more, it feels decadent and alive.

Every art piece is a way to learn more about myself and my interaction with the world around me. Even when it’s “just” in my journal, it is important.

Anyway, the scripts (we can loosely call what I’m writing scripts) for my tutorials encourage people to strip back their practice to the most simple they feel comfortable. Pen. pencil. Simple. Add color to the mix later. Explore black and white then add color.

Simple.

The difficult thing is that simple is never easy.

Re-post from my Ko-Fi page, get my posts much earlier there.

Blog Updates

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I just spent some time performing a lot of behind the scenes updates to the blog. a lot of things were broken and frankly I did not have time this spring or summer to do these updates.* I decided to buckle down and do those updates today. So apologies for the many posts in one day.

You will see cross posts from my Ko-fi account happening here. Posts occur on my ko-fi page first and then a week or so later are posted here. There are supporter only posts. Depending on the nature of those posts, they may or may not be cross posted. I like to make sure that the people who support me get a lot of benefit for doing so.

I am working REALLY hard to remonetize my youtube channel. So please click any links to YouTube and watch some videos, even if all you are doing is letting it play in the background as you work.

Also, I use Amazon affiliate links in these posts and on Amazon. If you are thinking of doing ANY shopping on Amazon, click one of my Amazon links even if you aren’t going to buy that particular item. I’ll get some small portion of your purchase if you do that. ** he affiliate program really helps to keep this blog and my YT channel going. I don’t make a lot from it (usually around $25-50 a month.) But it is enough for me to pay for the occasional art supplies and for all the hosting fees I use to keep this blog up.

I’ll make sure to announce my YouTube videos here the best I can, but if you are interested in art making and art journaling head over to my channel and his subscribe. I post videos about art journaling, making art and some reviews of budget conscious art journaling products.

*i.e. I did not find the time to do the updates, I am working on work-life-and own work balance, my health has become a priority for the last few years which means I have to lean my balance to life.

**Do this for any of your favorite creators, it helps us immensely.

Figuring Out This Balance Thing

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It’s been a hot minute between posts here. It seems i Have trouble balancing my life.

Every summer it is the same thing, it gets warm and I have fewer work days with kids and time off, so I ride my bike. Which, excuse the drama, has saved my life in the same way journaling has in the past.

I know I’ve written a bit here about my health struggles with Type 2 Diabetes, but riding my bike has allowed me to get down to one med for my blood pressure and one med for the diabetes. Wild. My blood sugars are generally pretty even and my blood pressure has been good enough that my doctor said I don’t need to come in and see her until next year, unless I have an emergency.

All summer long all I really wanted to do was ride my bike. I had a great time doing it. I’ll hit 1100 miles ridden this week. 1000 of those miles on a modified Walmart bike. The rest were on a vintage Kona mountain bike.

Anyway, if you want to hear and see more about my health journey you can check out my health and wellness channel, Less is More Healthy on youtube.

I was recently able to pick up the Osmo Action 5 action camera. This is great for the health channel and the art channel. First off, when I’m recording me drawing with a POV camera, the Action 5 is better than the old Action 3. But this also means that I can put the Action 3 into my overhead camera mount and leave it there.

This means a lot of things. First off It eliminates a lot of set up and take down that has stopped me from recording my art making in the past. Even though I set up a nearly permanent mount on the overhead rig where I can just clip the Action 3 in and out of. No one said that decision paralysis makes any sense. Now the 3 will just live on the mount most of the time, ready for me to hit record. This also means that I can record audio AS I WORK. My old Cannon doesn’t have an audio in port and the mics on the budget cams is trash.

While I love a voice over, sometimes it’s more intuitive to record as I work.

This also means that if I can get my shit together I can do some livestreams. I used to LOVE doing livestreams. Except for the trolls, but hopefully I’ve got those dudes all blocked.

I did some drawing this summer but not a lot. I drew some boats when I rode out to Manchester-by-the-Sea * and I drew trash while I waited for the train.

People aren’t impressed with my drawing trash. Which has brought up a lot of thoughts around the purpose of an art journal/visual journal and deciding NOT to draw pretty things. I may have to do another series where I draw used tea bags again.**

At work I fired up our Vandercook press and it was everything I’ve been missing in art making. So I’ve decided that all my groups will be making posters and using the press this year at some point. I can’t wait. This also means I get to use the press more. I REALLY can’t wait.

I’m also going to do a section on keeping a visual art journal.

Which brings me to my hopes for this Ko-Fi page and Comfortable Shoes Studio the YT Channel and blog. I’ve been working on a couple of classes which will include some hand drawn printables, possibly bundled into a zine, and a video series to support it. I’ve been writing my ass off and gathering ideas for this project. Yesterday I made myself a template to create the blank pages with non-photo blue pencil and I’m deciding how I want them to look.

I’m blocking up a little bit, because I want them to look like my work notebook/sketchbook pages and my Every Thing Every Where journal pages. I’m totally over thinking it.

My goal for this week is to loosen up and commit to making one of the pages of the handouts and zine.

*MbtS is almost as bougie as it sounds. It’s not as bougie as Magnolia, which has a corporation dedicated to keeping it’s private beaches private and keeping out of towners off the beach.

**Tea bags are a useful drawing model. First off if you make tea you will have them. Secondly you can easily pose them and they stay in place. Finally The forms involved are great- loads of shapes and lines to play with drawing. Yeah I just talked myself into it. I’m going to draw some trash.

Re-post from my Ko-Fi page, get my posts much earlier there.

It’s Not So Commonplace

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I’m not sure when I first learned of a Commonplace Book. College maybe? I know my first serious girlfriend had a journal she jammed quotes from books and movies into. I don’t know that she ever called it a Commonplace Book, but it was.

Carefully copying over sections of text seemed painful to me. I had always hated copying over sections of text when I was younger, why would I recreate that for fun?

I liked the idea of collecting quotes but not if I had to copy them over.

Fast forward to now, I read most of my books on a Kindle and highlights are saved in a digital notebook. If I read something online I can collect it in Google Keep or Milanote* or some other service. Through digital services I’ve been able to collect these scraps of info that hit me in a moment as I read and then never look at them again.

Well, until now.

In the past I’ve printed off some of these quotes with my regular letter size printer, trimmed that down and then slapped it into my Every Thing Every Where (ETEW) book and called it good. Then I got my small thermal printer and that opened up the world of slapping quotes into my ETEW Book.

I started out with the regular thermal paper and a glue stick. Then I became aware of thermal sticker paper and I started to print off quotes and stick them in my pocket notebooks. My poor Field Notes was thicc with quotes, spine straining under the bulge.

Last night I sat down with my thermal printer and a roll of white sticker paper and printed out some quotes from a variety of books on creativity and creative processes and made pages in my ETEW Book. The quotes are neatly arranged and legible. A feat never accomplished when I had carefully copied over important info with my handwriting.

This has made me think of other styles of journaling that I have not used because it required a lot of copying or writing. Things like working from prompts and prompt cards.

Put in the Work came from a coffee bag! It seemed appropriate for this journal.

*Milanote link is a referral link, I get extra storage space if you sign up. I just started to use it and like how I can arrange things like it’s a sheet of paper on my screen. It’s great for my visual thinking style.

This is a repost from my Ko-Fi page. Posts here are posted there a week in advance for supporters. Some posts there are public at the start, other posts are for supporters only. Not all posts will be republished here. If you like what you read here, head on over and consider buying me a coffee.

Working with Budget Art Journaling Supplies

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It doesn’t make a lot of sense to buy all kinds of budget art journaling supplies if I don’t use them? Or show them in use. I’ve made a series of follow up videos using all the supplies I’ve picked up at Dollar Tree, Walmart, Target and 5 Below. NOt all the videos are live yet, but these are. Enjoy!

Link

More to come!

Do you like these videos? Check out my ko-fi page and think about buying me a coffee. It helps me purchase supplies for these videos and keep the content flowing.

Budget Art Journaling Series

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I’ve been working on my creative YouTube channel, attempting, seemingly in vain to remonetize it. One of the thing that was asked of me repeatedly and often before I stopped making videos, was, “How do I get started with art journaling without spending a lot?” I always answered this with the idea of buying one or two of a material instead of a giant set of them.

But I considered that there might be another option.

I thought about what I need to work in my art journal and I came up with these items:

A journal of some sort, a composition book works a sketchbook works
a black ink pen. I need black ink for sketching.
Something to add color- doesn’t matter what, this can vary
An adhesive for adding in ephemera and other collage elements.

I then decided to visit a few shops to see what I could get for $10, $20, and $25. Not big budgets but enough where you can get the basics if you shop carefully.

I visited Dollar Tree, Walmart, Target and 5 Below. The videos document what I chose to get with my money and then there are follow up videos using the materials in an art journal so you can see that I’m not just blowing smoke.

Here are the videos of the shops:

Link

link

The 5Below video is upcoming and in the rendering queue.

Like I Thought I was Going to be a Famous Artist

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A friend of the blog wrote a few things to me awhile back. She wanted to divest herself of some supplies and I always accept supplies for myself or work. If they are supplies I’ll use, I use them, but I always let people know that anything I can’t or don’t use I will then take to work. (You can also donate directly to my workplace if you are so inclined, this person wanted to specifically give ME supplies.) This started years ago when I packed up some of my excess supplies and took them to a local middle school and did a post and video about it. I was never going to use them, and we all know that some supplies dry out or go bad. In my case I had some acrylic paint I hated, notebooks, and hundreds of pencils left over from reviews.

Anyway, this triggered a series of correspondence. In one of her letters she wrote, (I’m paraphrasing) “I don’t know what I was thinking, buying all these art supplies. Like I thought I was going to be a famous artist or something. I’m not and never was gonna be. What a waste of money.”

Friends that is a loaded statement.

As someone who has spent thousands of dollars on art supplies and other “useless” things, I feel that statement a lot.

I know I’ll never be a “famous” artist. Hell I’ll likely never be a well known local artist.

But I don’t know that I ever really wanted that. That’s a judgement from others. A toxic little tidbit I absorbed over the years- that to be a successful artist I needed to be in big galleries, have shows, get on the covers of magazines, and sell all my art. Be famous and jet set around the world, making and selling art. Drinking wine in galleries full of my art.

I think that is all mostly bull shit.

I think for those of us who are GenX/ Millennials and older that we were fed a line of garbage about what it means to be an artist. At the very basic core- we make art. But growing up, artists were portrayed as that list of stuff I wrote about above. Movies showed artists as rich guys who did all sorts of interesting things. Women swanned around gallery spaces with a flute of champagne chatting up people to make sales.

The hard work of making art wasn’t portrayed.

The often messy, ink and paint covered fingers… and most of my clothes. Walking around with my left hand stained in blue ink because I cleaned my ink pens and spilled ink on my hands… Or the tedious cleaning of the studio space. Or having to stop making art and move all the shit in my studio around so National Grid can come in and replace the meter and then my studio smelling like rotten eggs for a week.

None of the real part of making art gets shown.

But what of those of us who never want to sell their art?

What about the satisfaction of making art in a journal just for you? Just for a little peace of mind and self expression?

“Who do you think you are?”

The kids I work with repeat this, and I know it’s a thing their parents said to them. It’s a thing I heard on occasion growing up*. I’ve had friends tell me their partners have said this to them.

It’s one of the most toxic and low key abusive things a person can say to someone who is testing something out. There are so many ways a person can ask “What are you doing? Why are you doing this?” Without it bringing shame and humiliation?

When we repeat these thing to ourselves, we replicate the harm again and again. It sucks.

I wish I could remember the article where the researchers showed that when we talk badly to ourselves or repeat negative phrases- engage in negative self talk, that it’s more harmful than someone ELSE saying the exact same thing. It’s easy to discount someone else’s bullshit, but it’s much harder to discount your OWN bullshit.

I started practicing reframing my own negative self talk when I started therapy. It was a large part of my initial focus. Learning how to be nicer to myself was truly life changing.

Art journaling and journaling isn’t done to share it on the internet or to become a famous artist. It’s done to self soothe, calm your brain, expand on ideas, explore thinking and thoughts, and solidify thinking.

FWIW If a partner asks you, “Who do you think you are?” That’s a big ole red flag.

Continue reading →

Composite Images with the Thermal Instant Print Camera

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I have written here on multiple occasions about my love for David Hockney’s work. I’ve been fortunately to see a couple of his shows when they’ve come to the east coast. One that stands out was when my friend Jane and I met up in Portland, Maine for an artist’s date and decided on a whim to go to the Portland Museum of Art. I don’t know if Jane knew there was an exhibit of Hockney’s work there or not but I was delighted to go into a relatively small room and see a number of his works, including a favorite, Pearblossom Hwy.

Done in 1986 he used a point and shoot 35mm camera to take multiple shots of the same scene. Which he then pieced together into a 48×64 inch collage. He’s also got a series of works done with a Polaroid arranged in a grid.

really interesting stuff.

My friend Erik went to a recent Hockney show and snapped a picture of Pearblossom Hwy and sent it to me said he wondered what I could do with one of the thermal printing cameras.

And hot damn, I set out to test out the idea. I wanted something more interesting than just a landscape. I headed to the Willows for one of my morning constitutional walks and thought I’d do something with one of the benches or buildings.

Instead I was presented with a ripe opportunity- someone had discarded a Little Tykes Cozy Coupe, in faded red and blue; at the recycle and trash bins. It was backed into the bin like it had been parked there purposefully and not illegally dumped. I decided this was weird enough to be my subject. So I set about snapping a whole range of photos, 5 up and 6 across. A total of 30+ images.

I learned a lot with those 30 images. First off, space my images out a lot more. And don’t move my feet, much. To keep things in the same perspective I tried to keep my hands at the same level and played with just tipping the camera.

Obviously I need to test this out some more. but what a really cool little range of images I got from one set of 25 images.

Later That Week: Further Explorations

I headed back out to the Willows to see if the Little Tykes Cozy Coupe was still next to the trash, and it was. What luck. I moved it back to the same spot where it had been. (It had been moved around.) I then set about to take more photos of the scene. I took what I learned- move the camera more between images and move to the sides and above more.

IN this image you can see I took many more images, probably close to 50 or 60. I did not use them all, but having more was better than too few. I also used this as an example and working piece to figure out some more stuff. More on that.

I also tried another scene, this one of a do not enter sign, and another of the parking area for Blue Bikes.

I think this telephone pole and fire hydrant is super cool and really shows how the camera can distort and tweak the image.

With this one I focused my attention on the do not enter sign and getting a clear image of that leads to distortions around it. There’s a metaphor there.

For the notes:

Take more pictures than you think you need or want.
Print some of the images, then print more as needed.
Use a glue runner or other film style glue instead of glue stick- glue stick tends to curl paper and not stick to the plasticky coating of the paper.
If you pick a focus point you’ll get distortions as you move the camera around, this can be very cool.
Use a heavy weight paper or put it in your journal.
The time stamp can be very distracting in some areas of the image. I like it in most of the image so I work around it.

With this last image. I shot maybe 100 pictures but only printed 50 of them to start and printed more as I needed to fill in areas, but I REALLY wanted to play with the idea of perspective and distortion around the edges. So I really worked with keep my feet planted and moving my upper torso around to take the shots. I then realized I could keep one foot planted and ROTATE my other foot around it. I chose to keep my left foot planted and rotate around on the ball of that foot. This worked REALLY well at creating the warped perspective I was looking for. I think I could go back and fill in the empty areas with some more shots. Either way this piece is much larger than the others. The others are about 6″ square while this one is about a foot and a half high.

Anyway I really dig this.

This is the camera I have been using for this exploration. It prints a little more slowly but it’s black and doesn’t draw attention despite being pretty large when compared to the other cameras I have.

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