I rather like the simplicuty of this image from ilookhoo on flickr. Black, white and red. Coffee pot and mug. Steam connected to brain. Right. Exactly how I feel in the AM. Check it out big on flickr.
Some cool little pictures from littleblackbooks on flickr, head over to their stream to see a lot more of their work.
I’m pretty much in love with this moleskine:
Again ricefv does a great background tutorial for art journaling. I really like the photocopy b&w images of herself to personalize the journal.
Gesso.
It's a basic thing. I don't see it as a necessary start to all pages. Becuase it's just not. If you work with a heavier page you don't need it. It's nice, it stiffens the page and adds some texture. You can get gesso in a lot of colors now- black, clear, white various other colors. You can also mix regular white or clear gesso with colored acrylics to get any shade you want, and I'm going to tell you how to mix it with watercolor crayons later in this post.
I'm working in a great notebook my friend Jen made me for a Facebook craft exchange. It's a salvaged hardy boys mystery cover filled with recycled pages. the paper is a variety of weights- I assume around 18# and 20# bond paper, computer paper and the like Its cot some printed stuff on one side. This paper needs the love of gesso to stand up the the abuse I'm going to put it through.
So the first thing I do is get out my gesso. I use liquitex, its not too heavy and isn't too wet. It works for me. I put it on with a rather soft brush so I get a nice thin coat. The brush I'm using is a soft old watercolor wash brush, a cheap one that I've previously abused the hell out of.
thin coat done. Easy. I like to work on a bunch of pages at a time. I hate washing brushes. So I separate my pages with freezer paper or waxed if I have it, sheets of plastic, whatever I have on hand. I look at gesso'd and painted pages at this stage as part of the process, something to gain inspiration from.
Moving onto coloring the gesso. I grab my water color crayons and add a thin layer of crayon on, scribble it, no real pattern.
Here you wet your brush and thin the gesso just slightly, so it will wet the crayon and mix it. Spread it around and add more gesso until you get the color you like and the texture you want.
Coat a page with gesso, while still wet randomly drop a few drops of liquid latex paint (ore regular), just a few drops. And start brushing wildly around the page. Blend it in until you like it. I like to leave the areas of color unmixed. (I'm using making memories liquid acrylic. I snagged it on clearance with a set of sweet foam stamps. BUT it's not a bad liquid acrylic. and on clearance who can beat that price?)
Next installment: Paint on a page, sandpaper, and watercolor crayons
I'm a big believer in gifting especially when someone does something really good for me, I like to give that back in some way or another. I received a not totally random gift in the mail after doing something really simple. In the package were some not agreed upon previously gifts- including some moo cards (too cool) and a photograph. Very cool, all stuff I love. So I decided to gift that person with a journal. Not only is this person a photographer but they subscribe to the tenets of Everyday Matters- in that everyday you pick up a pen or pencil and draw, no matter how bad it is, you get in there and draw. So I figured what would be better than to send them a cool journal.
I don't know if the person is vegetarian or would be offended by leather, so I decided to go with my current crazy and stitched up a bastiano inspired cover. I received some jewelry in the envelope a few months ago and since I hoard anything packing related- envelopes, bubble wrap tyvek mailers etc to reuse, I found the perfect envelop in my stash. A small 5×9 inch envelop with some handwriting, labels and stamps. I started stitching with black thread. The pattern is like a doodle with the thread. To give it some stiffness I used a miss cut jotter cover. the needle passed through it with flying colors. Inside I stuffed a small jotter block. I trimmed it and added an elastic to hold it all closed. I'm pretty happy with it, I really like the cover but see that it's still just a riff on the elegant lines of bastiano's covers.
It's a gift and not for sale. If you would like your own check out Bastiano's flickr stream (link below) for some of his super cool books and for links to his etsy site.
Anyone know what the blue book on the back of the piano is? It's the complete works of a particular band….
So I've been working on some one of a kind books and not for sales. The stitched covers I've been doing are inspired by a journal I purchased. I don't feel right selling them as they have been 100% inspired by Bastiano. Which if you haven't seen his work you should follow that there link and go to his flickr stream and check it out. It's not often I find a book artist whose works stops me dead. I follow most other book artists on flickr through a group. Bastiano and very few other I added to my flickr stream. Yes. I have obsessively followed him since I first saw his work and when I saw Sverige I had to have it. Currently. Sverige (I love that my new note book/ journal has it's own name squeee!) sits on my desk right now, where I just look at it. Yes seriously, right now I'm not ready to use him (it's a he) and I just look. I've got 2 other journals in the works before I even crack the cover.
I am inspired by the cover and the interior. But I don't want to riff on it too much, which is why I'm sticking to making anything similar as gifts, I WILL NOT be the a-hole who buys and reproduces and sells. that isn't cool. What I will do is pimp his stuff here. And I as a general rule don't do that.
The last journal that I was working on- the one made of magazine pages that was pissing me off (shall be named PO for PIssed off) and I had to rebind it? I finished it. The last few pages are like those in every journal I want to finish to rush to my next- rushed and hurried but… Done, completely. Filled to full, brimming with stupid hipster art and color, and shit glued to it's pages. Thanks to the rebinding the spine isn't straining too much and the newly waxed thread sits on the slippery tyvek spine much more easily than before.
Okay so for this weekend:
I may take the evening off though. My allergies have been kicking my head around and I need a good long sleep, I may get home take my friday afternoon, after work nap and then go to bed, depending on how I feel. This weekend is supposed to be cooler and nicer here.
Daniel E. Kelm. American, 1951-Photocopy transfer and spattered acrylic on Moriki tissue and Canson paper, with leather, stainless steel wire, paperboard, cloth, thread, and wire edge binding. Collection of the Kohler Art Library, University of Wisconsin-Madison. Video by Kevin Derose and Jeff Derose, One Match Films.>> problems playing video?
via www.smith.edu
Check out the videos on his other books too. Great ideas for how to add things into an art journal or to create a while new artjournal using hinges and pins
