Wordy Wednesday Add-on image

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So I usually let wordy wednesday posts gowithout an image. But Last night I was writing in my journal and doing some slooooow journaling and I came up with this:

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This little nugget of mental wisdom came to me as I wrote down my thoughts and an incident that I'm rying to figure out the best way to describe for a loooong blog post. It deals with positivity and negativity and how people interact around the things we love. And I san't seem to find hte right words. Eventually I'll figure it out but until then you get the picture above!

Wordy Wednesday: Thinking about Positive and Negative

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Paul wrote about his (anti)business plan over here.

Dale wrote about negativity over here.

I’ve been feeling the negativity. It’s a scary time. The US is at war, again. Japan is a disaster zone. US politics is a god awful mess. Then I’ve got the personal is political thing going on with my old HS deliberating a GSA group. Add to that my 2 recent car accidents and my sewing machine being FUBAR, and well, you can see a recipe for disaster.

Sometimes I get sucked into it.

But I look at the whole of my life and realize, I’ve got it pretty darn good. Sure, I need another $500 that will need to materialize, but I’ll get a new sewing machine eventually and the car will get repaired.

I think to next month and I’ve got an art show coming up and should have another during the summer.

I have to think that’s pretty darn sweet.

Paul’s thought’s ring true. I do the blog for free, yeah there are ads but they don’t bring in much and I’ve gone over why I have them here before so I’ll avoid talking about that again. When I started to screen my adds so that only comics, Etsy shops and a select few make it through, things got better. It makes sense for me to allow Etsy and artfire sellers to advertise here. ArtJournaling.ning.com is free. It will be free for as long as I’m in  charge of it. Why? Because I want it to remain being the best place for people to learn about Art Journaling.

And #10 on his list rings true. I’ve noticed that some of the blogs that I’ve loved and some of the other stuff have boiled down to schtick and are no long honest representations of the person behind the scenes. When I STOP being me on my blog, I hope someone will call me out on it. Point it out to me and tell me I’m not being me.

On her blog, Dale, wrote about unfollowing negativity. This is something I’ve put into practice. On facebook I went through a culled out the most negative people. People I no longer wished to read their hate and vitriolic posts. People with whom I felt only negativity. They seemed to respond to only stuff they didn’t like and sent out barbed comments. Unfollow. Unfriend.

Who needs that?

I realized a few months ago that I can invite negativity into my life or I can close the door on it. I’ve chosen to close the door on it.

 

Drawing-a-Day: Forever and a Day

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“Forever and a Day” measures A5 or 5.75×7.5 inches. I did a quick sketch with pencil and then used a couple of fountain pens filled with Noodler’s Black and Nikita. The blue is is Private Reserve Electric DC Blue.

Cost is $25 USD, shipping to CONUS included.





Wordy Weekday other than Wednesday: Rethinking

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So I did a satirical drawing of someone.

This is not unusual.

I posted about it on FB and a friend messaged me to let me know some of my info might not be right. So I asked her to fully explain.

I decided to wait until I heard back from her to post my drawing-a-day from yesterday.

Why? Sometimes it's not time to draw the guns until they are needed. (That'll be another drawing a day subject!) So I'm waiting until a descision is made before I publish my piece.

I stand by the quote I was given, that part is true. But posting at this juncture will do no good. So, in a week or 2 the drawing will go up.

Am I censoring myself? Yes. But, for right now it's for the good of the cause.

Normally my satrical work is less in the middle of the issues than this piece. In this case the final descision hasn't been made and posting the image in question, while I certainly don't think it will sway the choices the board makes, certainly won't garner the group any favor.

I bite my tongue.

Drawing-a-Day: Waiting for now

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I’m removing this image until I get confirmation that my info is correct. I shoudl know by this evening . I intend the piece to be satirical and thus want to be sure that my info is correct and not misinformational.Sorry for the inconvienence.

“the Big Bad GSA” measures A5 or 5.75×7.5 inches. I did a quick sketch with pencil and then used a couple of fountain pens filled with Noodler’s Black, Nikita and Eternal Brown.

Drawing-a-Day: Smoking Kills

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"Smoking Kills" measures A5 or 5.75×7.5 inches. I did a quick sketch with pencil and then used a couple of fountain pens filled with Noodler's Black, Nikita and Eternal Brown.

Cost is $25 USD, shipping to CONUS included.

 

A little story about this image. I don't smoke. Every piece of trash that is tossed onto my street blows into my yard. I have found parliment, kool and various other cigarette packages in my yard, along with a plethora of butts. I dutifully clean this shit up on my days off from work. I hate smoking. My grandfather died of lung cancer which was directly linked to his 3 pack a day smoking habit. I look at my having to clean up cigarette butts as some sort of evil eff you from the universe.

I also have to clean up styrofoam Dunkin Donuts cups, paper bags from McDonalds and Dunks, assorted lids from take away places. My neighbor's recycling tends to blow out of their recycling bins as they aren't secured. This all ends up in my yard in some weird wind vortex of recycling hell.

Review: Pilot Parallel Pen 6mm

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I’ve been looking for a pen that would let me lay down a wide swath of ink without dipping a brush into my ink bottle. I’d seen the Pilot Parallel pens for sale through John Henry Booksellers but I haven’t placed an order with them in awhile. On my latest perusal of the GouletPens.com site I noticed they were carrying them for $10 each. That is a great price. I decided on the 6mm pen for the widest line of ink possible.

The way this pen works is like a fountain pen with a feed that flows between 2 sheets of thin springy steel. You can use the full flat side of the pen for a wide stroke or the corners for a very fine line. The pen feels a lot like a brush and lays down a very wet line. The fine line is very fine and adds a lot of versatility to the pen.

So far I’ve done about a half dozen drawings with the 6mm pen and frankly, it makes me want them all. It’s easily one of the most versatile pens I’ve used in a long time. It lays down a wide wet line of ink that covers anything well. The pen is really great especially when you look at the fact that it was only $10. Essentially it’s like getting a extra fine pen and a 6mm in one pen. In short it’s a good value.

Here are some examples of what I’ve done with this pen.

 

 

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The negative aspect of this pen is that it feels really cheap. Its pearlized gray plastic is light and is very slick in the hand. The grip area is also very smooth but clear. The cap is a funny shape and does not post. The corners of the nib do tend to lift fibers and can get blocked. They provide a special cleaning sheet that does a good job of cleaning the nib.

I’m not sure if the pen is a good candidate for turning into an eye dropper due to the threads. There is a gap on one side. I’m not sure that silicone grease would fill it well enough. I will try this and see what happens.

I got mine from GouletPens but it’s also available from JetPens and Pilot’s online store.