Tag Archives: create

Rule #1 Process NOT results

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An art journal should be a safe place to explore feelings, ideas, art techniques, educations, your belly button and everything else in your life. In your art journal you should be free and feel free to do that. If you are focusing on the end product you lose the point of keeping an art journal and that is to explore all thatI listed above. What the page looks like at the end doesn't matter as much as getting it to that point and HOW you got to that point. Don't approach the page thinking of how it's going to look at the end. Start working on the page without thought.

Write.
Draw.
Paint.
Scribble.
Scrub.
Glue.
Do What feels right.
Do what feels wrong.

Try new things in your art journal. No one else needs to see it, unless you want them to. Be happy. Be sad. Angry. Melancholic. drunk. Introspective. Think about yourself. Your family. The world. Politics. Mass Media. Hysteria. Your friends. People you don't know. Think it out. Write it down. Draw it. Paint it. Doodle. Scribble. Wax. INk Stamp Charcoal. Scrub. Brush. Sand Emboss.

Try things.

Single Signature Books, 1 month of Journaling

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The first book most binders are ever
shown is the simple pamphlet binding. Its fast easy and can be made
pretty. There are 2 variations that I'm fond of, the 3 hole and the
figure 8. Each is exactly what it sounds like, the name does not
deceive.

Here are some links to good references
on these bindings:

The stuffy Stanford treatise:

http://aic.stanford.edu/sg/bpg/annual/v06/bp06-13.html

Hey Lucy's version of the traditional 3
hole Pamphlet stitch:

http://heylucy.typepad.com/heylucy/2007/06/tools-for-bookb.html

This a link to a hand out using the
hole stitch and a single sheet of paper folded.

http://www.scribd.com/doc/10497493/Pamphlet-Binding-Stitch

TJBookArts has a great list of
tutorials, many are single signature, perfect for a months
journaling:

http://www.tjbookarts.com/otherlinks.html

Hey Lucy's instructions are the easiest and could be adapted to anything you want, but I like the Stanford, though stuffy,  it's shear amount of information and 2 signature options a the best for the art journaler.

Hump Day Prompt: Ink Wash

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HDprompt

Get 3 waterproof containers. In the first put 3 drops of ink, the next 5 and the last 8.
Add to each jar 1oz of filtered water. Mix well.

Start with the lightest shade and start an image.
Work your way through an image, adding darker darks until you work your way up to straight india ink.

Try a springy liner brush and a small mop.

Ink wash is fun and forgiving.

Book Review Monday: Celebrate Your Creative Self: Mary Todd Beam

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Celebrate Your Creative Self (CYCS from here on) is a book that is for "artists" it's supposed to help you unleash your inner artist. There are 25 exercises in this oversize book that if you are in an artistic rut that if you read and DO them that can help get you out of that rut. (Sort of like when you get your car stuck on ice and you use your car mats to get unstuck…) The key here is that the ideas within are EXERCISES. That means you have to get your materials out and use them. That's the hard part.

The exercises are easy and can get you working sort  of in that automatic writing style. Once you get going you "get going."

This book is easily found just about anywhere and is easy to read but it's a studio book and not a bed side book.

I give it 3/5 binder's needles and 1 paint covered thumb up, only because I like my art instruction separate from my inspiration. This is a great book if you like the 2 mixed. You can get it here.

Here's a video from Millande with a short clip about the book. Turn your volume up, otherwise you won't be able to hear her audio.

Good idea for plein air painters or those who want to start

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This blog has a great idea on how to make a watercolor or gouache pallet out of an altoids tin and old milk caps. It's seriously very cool. I was thinking and I think I've seen out there a blog with instructions on how to dome something similar with sculpy or fimo clay. The milk caps are the fastest I've seen thus far though. How easy is it to simply hot glue those in? I've also seen one where the guy used tin snips and created dividers with sheets of metal.