I decided to put some of the automatic drawings on my Etsy and Artfire accounts. I'll be putting more up soon. Most fo the images I've loaded up thus far have not had their videos released onto YouTube yet. So if you thought it would be neat to see one of these in person, now is your chance. All are matted with a nice white beveled 8×10 mat, with a 5×7 inch window. Ready to frame or hang in a krystalphane bag. The colors are more vibrant in person than on screen or the camera can capture. They are priced to move at $20 with $5 shipping here in the US. (Hint hint- it might be a perfect gift for yourself for the holidays.)

Check out my Etsy here:

(Apparently I can't embed the Etsy mini here. Poop)

Check out my Artfire here:

Here's a gratuitous automatic drawing video:

For this automatic drawing I created a mottled field of color with my watercolors. I dried it out and then drew on top of the washy colors. I then added more color on top of the drawing to draw out some of the fun colors that were already present, it also helped to add emphasis to the drawing.

This is somethign I'll be trying out again and again. The watercolors added a really nice feel to the paper, a tactile sensation I really enjoyed. Also drawing on the color was fun too. Adding the darker colors of watercolor to various areas really allowed me to focus in on some of those neat bleeding effects.

Also take note that the sycophantic followers have thumbed down  the video. Awesomesauce.

Show it (and me) some love.

After a long cold day at the DayJob sucking down hot tea and coffee trying to stay warm, and awake, I came home and was unable to sleep. My buddy let me take a goofy picture o him and I decided I had to paint him from the photo. It's not the greatest image of him ever but it was relaxing to paint that night.

I've been making what I call "automatic drawings" since the late '90s. The idea is that I put a pen to paper and move it around in ways that come to me, subconciously without deep thought. Think of it as a drawing style similar to stream of conciousness writing. I've noticed that during different parts of my life different images and symbols arise from the depths of my mind. When I was younger the images were raw, emotional and largely symbolic of my life at that time. The symbols and the images have changed but the process is roughly the same.

Wildly differnt than what I usually post but still, I love the rough style here.

sketchbook flip IV from Luiza Holub on Vimeo.

sketchbook flip III Summer 2008 from Luiza Holub on Vimeo.

sketchbook flip #2 from Luiza Holub on Vimeo.

sketchbook flip from Luiza Holub on Vimeo.

I find a lot of inspiration in looking at images of art in a totally differnt style than my own. Take Jeff Claassen's art, it's got a graffitti style that is completely different from how I draw and paint. He uses lines in a way I wouldn't think to and that is where inspiration comes in. Check 'em out.

Sketchbook #9 from jeff claassen on Vimeo.

Random Drawings Done While Working At A Dead End Job from jeff claassen on Vimeo.

Sketchbook #7, Drawings, Art from jeff claassen on Vimeo.

This weekend I shot a lot of video footage and loaded a bunch of stuff to youtube. I have found a method of editing that takes less time than what I was doing and I’m doing fewer takes of each video. *PHEW* I was burning up a lot of battery life on all those takes.

I’m using was GlamourBomb refers to as “sandwich editing.” In which I have created a set intro and a set final scene then all I need to do is add the filling- the new videos. Piece of cake.

Add to that I have the boom mic stand set up in the office where I do most of my art journaling, it makes it super easy to stick the camera on the mount and start making art.

If you haven’t made it over to artjournaling.ning.com yet for the “New to Art Journaling” group you should certainly head over and check it out. I’ve added some exclusive content to the group that won’t be shown anywhere else. I’ll be putting out more content that is exclusive to the NAJ group. Head over, ask questions and we’ll see if I can answer them, or find you answer.

During my period of less tweeting and more action I went through my blog reader and culled out the following:

• blogs that seemed like adverts
• blogs that only focus on the pretty
• blogs that were product focused
• blogs that were focused on making the person out to me something they aren’t
• anything that didn’t inspire/interest me

I focused on blogs that I go back to and read again and again. Blogs with good instructional content. Blogs with great photos and discussion. Blogs about the messy part of art. Blogs about the hard parts of art. Blogs about exploration; of the world and mind.

I was left with a handful of good blogs, blogs I read every time they post, blogs that if they don’t post I wonder where they’ve been, and when they do post I think, “YES!”

There’s a ton of info out there to filter through and sometimes it’s overload.

I’m trying to filter it the easy way- using the tools I’ve got.

What do you do to filter the cacophony of info?

A little 2 part video series on everyone's favorite art journaling material, gesso.