I
picked up one of the Journal Junkie recommended journals, a Daler
Rowney hardbound and uh, it’s not going to be the one I use for the
JF365. I really want to use some of my fountain pens for the writing and
this paper feathers and bleeds like crazy. I might try a few more pens
before I deem it useful for only my scraped paint techniques… But
dayum really bad.

Update:
Just tested everything I have inked right now and wow, bleeding is so
bad. Not a single fountain pen performed well, nor a single ink. All
feathered and bleed through.

As a result I cannot recommend the Daler and Rowney Simply… series of sketchbooks for anything other than dry media.

Because
of the feathering issue in the D&R sketchbook I made another trip
to artist and craftsman to see if I could find a budget friendly 8.5×11
inch sketchbook. That’s my compromise size for the JF365 challenge. they
recommend a 11×14 but I can’t lug one of those in my bag but I can get a
8.5×11 inch book in there. Normally I carry a 6×9 inch but decided to
stretch myself a little further, after all it is a challenge!

What
I found was the $10 Canson Art Book One series of sketchbooks. They
come in a variety of sizes and are filled with 100gsm or 67lb paper. The
paper is smoother than the D&R but not so sooth as to be slick. I
tested it out with all of my currently inked fountain pens, some spray
ink and a few pitt pens. The results are that I now have a new go to
inexpensive sketchbook. The paper performed really well, no feathering,
no bleed through and the colors look crisp and clean on the paper.

It’s
not as good as a Stillman and Birn Alpha bound journal but it’s also
much lower priced. The binding is good, the cover is stiff but falls short
of the kind of quality that stillman and birn’s journals exhibit. For
sub $10 it’s a great journal.

I wrote about my bookmarks in my last post. The cricut did admirably with the thick bristol board I was using, hardly board weight really, but more heavy weight paper. Canson XL bristol to be exact. I get it in 11×14 inch pads for a decent price and really like how it works with my recent paint scraping and stencil work.

As long as the paint layer was thin enough the cricut did just fine, if the paint was slightly thicker not so much. Also the paint and paper dulled the blade quickly, though the blade was already pretty dull anyway. I had to mess around with the pressure (high) and # of cuts (2) and speed(fast.) It also did okay with medium pressure and 3 cuts on fast speed.

Of course right after doing bristol I tried to cut thin painted paper with the same blade, not my best idea. After cutting bristol and painted bristol i'm pretty sure I'll need to change blades everytime, but I haven't tried it with a brand new blade.

If you make a really awesome stencil.

And you make a lot of really awesome stenciled cut outs.
And you clean the stencil off between copies in your book for just such things.
Make sure you don't forget it when you're done, 'cause your stencil will glue itself to the page and getting it out without damage is impossible. 🙁

Over
15 years ago I did a stint of wheatpasting at my university.
Wheatpasting is an interesting thing. Messy and yet unlike spray paint,
removable, albeit with some work. All it takes is some hot water, soap,
scrub brush and some elbow grease to get the images off what they’ve
been glued to. In my youth I primarily pasted up feminist slogans.
Posting up “real art” wasn’t on my agenda.

Lately
I’ve been wanting to do some wheatpasting. Unlike what I did when I was
20, I want to paste up my art. I’ve been sitting on the idea of this,
where would I post it? Am I too old to wheatpaste stuff? What would
happen if I got caught?

I’m
taking it as a sign that a friend of mine from Bangor, ME posted about
this guy on facebook. I really enjoy his message and that he makes these
cool little drawings and sticks them up for everyone to see. Of course
the alternative is that it is a total pain in the ass to get these
images off their walls and buildings. Some people see his images as
crass (one of his pigeons sits in front of a bottle of bud.) while
others find them cute and still others see the social commentary in
them. I was surprised to see that there were relatively benign and
intelligent philosophical discussions going on in the comments section
of the local Bangor paper, something I must say isn’t common.

Anyway, I find the idea fascinating, but don’t expect me to become a famous street artist anytime soon.

Get yours here:

Put it on Paper: Put it on Paper Vol 1 #3

 

More work with glazes. This time with details added.

In addition to the stencils I've been cutting I've also been messing around with glazes. They are allowing me to work in lovely dreamy layers. I've always been a fan of glazes but these last few days have been a new lovel of love.

I start with a mix of 50:50 paint to regular gel medium. I mix that well and test it for tranparency. I then add satin liquid glazing medium and airbrush medium in even porportions, a small amount at a time until I get a consitency of pudding.

I've been working on a few things that have taken up all my time in addition to all the life activities. I think I may have mentioned that my maternal grandmother passed away a month ago. Her rememberance and service was over a weekend and I traveled to visit my family. Anytime I visit my family I expect to get sick the week after, this was no exception.

Anyway. I've got one last portrait for the Chipin Campaign and then I'll be able to send them all out. As I search fo rthe face to draw large I've been sketching in a cheapo sketchbook I've been prepping the pages with acrylic. I like the process so I've started to try it on loose paper. Same journaling style process but on nice apper. So far I really dig it. I started out with covering some old images, okay, all the old images from the Face Experiment. I was surprised at how little the watercolor lifted into the white paint and the subsequent colors. I'm using a lot of stencils and also pressing off the excess paint on the stencils onto pages. I'm really enjoying that printmaking like look.

Anyway, here are some pics:

I had to travel so I packed a few art journaling things. I tried to keep it lighter than usual with bringing just a few sharpies and my ancient Primacolor Nupastels. this forced me to work differently, using marks and pressure to create more texture.

The pages were prepared before I left in the manner I wrote about in my last post. The layers of color add a lot of texture to the final image, and are a lot of fun to draw on. I noticed that areas where I drew with my 2 colors of copic the acrylic paint became quite sticky but that the stickiness cut down after a day or so.

Tha tlast few weeks have felt like a jumbles mass of images. I'm working hard on the Chipin campaign images, which is way more work than I imagined, but the good kind of work that I love. Witht he Chipin campaign images I'm thinking more carefully about the faces themselves and really only drawing faces I love. It's taken more time to find those face than expected.

In the midst of all this my maternal grandmother had a massive stroke and a week later passed away. I'm just now starting to form the words and being able to address the feelings I have on this subject, but for now, that's private and I won't be sharing that here. Eventually I'll post some art journal pages about it, but not for now.

I'll be heading to Maine for a rememberance later this month.