1. Adult craft night at the library, we made mini books! 2. I volunteered for The December 5th Fund this weekend. 3. Whisk bakery on Cherokee Street. 4. Alexander, the man who knows. A great poster in an antique shop. 5-6. More antique shop views. 7. New pen nib from South City Art Supplies. Happy Monday x
Here are some things I am liking this fine Friday – I have been using smoked paprika a lot in recipes lately and I love to put it on fries, especially with an egg. Yums! Zines and handmade books are the subject of a new Creative Bug class which has totally made me want to make a zine or two. I have been making sketchbooks lately and the zine format is very appealing. The book I am now reading is Harmless Like You by Rowan Hisayo Buchanan and I am enjoying it so far. I started a couple of books which I gave up on, but I think this one is a winner. Neocolor II crayons are my art supply of the moment. I used water soluble crayons in art collage about a hundred years ago but I have not revisited them until very recently. I have a handful of colours and I love to use them with a little water or gesso to spread them around. Handmade jewels used to be something I made all …
I set out this week to follow some ideas from the tutorials over at the Get Messy website as well as a prompt or two. I even wrote down some ideas of things I could do in my sketchbooks. Lots of contrast was achieved I think and I almost managed to leave part of a page blank, but I ended up with some gold and a black gesso ‘hole’ on it instead. I had a go at contrasting patterns in my mini Moleskine and a page of black and a page of white with a little red flower. There are some contrasting colours on the last page which is in my ‘The Shape of Towns’ altered book and I decided to cut a circle out of one page to reveal the head of a statue on the previous page. Of course once I had the head, I had to sketch in the rest of the statue onto my page. I wandered off from the prompts a little and even got distracted from the tutorial I …
21. Choose a page from a magazine and cover part of it with white paint or gesso. Cover half the page or just make a circle in the middle. When the white is completely dry, get a black pen-Posca pens are my choice-and make a pattern in the newly painted area. 22. Find an old used book at a thrift store or a yard sale. Use it as a sketchbook! Draw and paint in it as you would a regular sketchbook. 23. Pick an object. Set a timer for 1 minute. Draw! 24. Very loosely paint a group of trees along a riverbank on one side of the paper. Fold over the other side to get the ‘reflection’. I used coloured inks to make mine. Remember to work quickly before the ink or paint dries before you get the fold done. 25. Use dashes across the page to create wave-like movement. I used coloured pencils in a close colour palette. 26. Cut a photograph out of an old book, use an original vintage photo, or …
One photo this week! I can’t believe I have not taken any pictures apart from photos of stuff for the 100 day project to post on Instagram. I clearly need to get out more! I took this very bad shot because I am having my hair cut this week and I have decided to get lots chopped off. Not super short but most likely jaw length, maybe a little longer. So I thought I would have a look at how it looks now before the cut! I never ever ever wear it down because it gets in the way and I will tie it up within minutes and I am not sure about the long grey hair look for me. The grey hair in a ponytail or wrapped into a mini bun I like, but I want something different, so that means a few inches off. I can’t believe I have kept it long for such a long time, I usually grow it down to about shoulder length then get it cut short then grow …
Isn’t it strange how seeing things or using things within a different context alters your approach and attitude? I have been whining on about how I never know how to use inks and I can’t get to grips with them especially acrylic inks. I really want to use them because they have such great colours but I don’t know how – whah whah whah. Today I watched the lovely Amy Maricle on the Get Messy tutorial page demonstrating a lovely technique using circles on a journal page. She uses Neocolor II crayons and I only have Neocolor I which are the oil pastels and not at all what we need for this. So I racked my brain, do I have anything else I could use? Way back when I was a twenty something fashion student, I used some chunky water soluble crayons which I adored, so I went to dig them out. In the same shoe box they were stored in were some card making supplies I used to make little cards to sell and …
The 100 day project started on April 4 and I am still going strong! My little library of vintage cards with ideas on them is growing nicely. Here are cards 11-20 11. Go to the library and find a picture book in the children’s section. Pick one with illustrations you love. Sketch some ideas from this book – patterns, creatures, lettering, anything. Pick another book and repeat. Some of my favorite children’s books for the illustrations are by Lauren Child, Oliver Jeffers, Chris Riddell, ‘Gaston’ by Kelly DiPucchio and illustrated by Christian Robinson and ‘A lion in Paris’ by Beatrice Alemagna. I just discovered the Welcome to the Museum series and ‘Botanicum’ is just gorgeous, so don’t forget to check out the non fiction books too. 12. Take yourself for a walk around your neighbourhood or favorite place. As you go, notice all the circles and make a note, a sketch or take a photo. How many circles did you spot? Did you notice anything new about your neighbourhood? 13. Give yourself permission, allow yourself …
1. Mushrooms hiding in a fallen tree. 2. More mushrooms. 3. Dandelions and dandelion clocks at the park. 4. A lovely blue door spotted this weekend. 5. Ant art! 6. I went to a lecture given by the wonderful Stephen Jones this weekend at the St Louis Art Museum and it was so interesting. I could have listened to him all day. 7. A bridge at Forest Park golf course. Happy Monday x
I let this page guide me as I made it and I love how it turned out. Almost the opposite to last week where I layered and layered, this page has lots of white space left which I like. I started by making some plain gelli plate prints using the colours I had chosen. I printed blocks of colour on dry wax paper and old book pages. Once I had my pages I cut out some shapes as neatly as I could and I tore some shapes to contrast. I wove the green and aqua torn strips, both of which were on wax paper to make the grid on the right page above. The aqua circles are torn out and also printed on dry wax paper. The copper and gold shapes are cut with scissors and were printed on the book paper. I like to see the pages close up, the gelli plate gives an interesting print even with one or two colours. Thanks to Get Messy Art Journal and Jules Tea for the inspiration! …
This year will be my third time at participating in The 100 Day Project and we are at day sixteen already. Having said that, sixteen seems very ‘still at the beginning’. I am keeping up which is a marvelous thing, I have a little list of ideas which I jot down as they come to me, so that if nothing pops into my mind, I can refer to my idea bank. If you want to see my project as it emerges day by day, you can follow along on Instagram at 100daysofcreativeideas. Here are my first ten days of ideas – 1. Take up challenge. A monthly or a daily challenge. Search Instagram, it is full of them. Don’t be discouraged if a ‘challenge’ has finished or is part way through, do it anyway. The 100 Day Project is a great one. Other challenges I have done are Tinkersketch drawing challenge, Rae Missingan‘s mark making challenge, Fat Mum Slim hosts a daily photo challenge and Susannah Conway also has lovely photo challenges. 2. Go to the …
Clare Davis Etheridge 