All posts filed under: Creativity

Sketchbooks

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I have been working and practicing in my sketchbooks a lot more this year. While I am still in love with mixed media and art journal type pages, I am really trying to improve my sketching, in an actual drawing type way! I have signed up for some classes, a couple I have completed and some (ok many) are in process and some (ok too many) are waiting to be started. Are you a class taker? Do you feel they benefit your skill building? I find that some do and some don’t. I particularly enjoy classes which are vague enough to let you run with your style and preferences and provide ideas and inspiration. Classes I try to avoid (no always successfully) are the ones where you end up with a very similar body or piece of work to everyone else in the class including the teacher. One of my favourite ways of working and learning in my sketchbook is the weekly (Friday at various times) art club held on Instagram live by The Good …

Creative Block Removal in 100 pages of Mark Making.

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I have been feeling less than creative of late, I want to make all the things and get all the ideas but nothing is happening, I feel like I am achieving nothing. Instagram pals are doing all the amazing art and I am thinking I should be doing this too, but I am not. Yesterday I decided on a whim to get 100 pieces of paper, from old book pages to watercolour paper, and just set myself the goal of making marks on each until all 100 had something on them. I kept it simple and focused on black and white medium. I seemed to zoom through the first 50 pieces, sloshing ink and paint about and making marks with posca pens. The middle was slower, I was still trying to do something ‘new’ on each piece. Once I let myself follow one idea across a few pieces of paper, I got back into the flow and the final bunch were soon finished. I ended up with 107 pieces of paper with marks, paint blobs, …

The 100 Day Project 2021

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Ok, this year I am going to finish. This is my 100 day project mantra to be repeated from January 31st when the project starts until it finishes, er, 100 days later, I haven’t looked at the finish date!! I have completed the 100 Day Project at least four times in previous years, so I know I can do it and this year I will. So what to do for 100 days? I mean I could literally choose anything from knitting to yoga via mono prints and oil paintings. I had a few ideas which started with painting with watercolours which evolved into painting with watercolors in series of 10 themes. This further evolved into ‘100 days of series’ which would be series of themes/media such as collage, watercolour, gel printing etc. Then as I walked back from Target today I thought maybe I would enjoy ‘100 days of collage’ but as a series of themes, so the 100 days would be broken down into 10 sets of 10 days and each group would have …

Things I am doing and reading and making.

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What are you doing in these strange and new times we find ourselves in. What are we all doing to stay sane, to use our time wisely and productively? I have been working on a few projects for the library (where I work part time in the normal world) but is of course closed now until we don’t know when.  I like to have the focus of these projects because they are not optional but still fun to complete, not a class I found on Instagram which I may or may not finish.  Having said that I have found so much goodness on the inter webs and most of it via Instagram. I made sourdough bread from a starter my friend shared with me and I have sown zinnia seeds given to me by the same lovely lady!  It is nice to be in a time of sharing and helping, I have made  some sketchbooks and given them to friends and shared novels when I finished them.  I do like to think that most of …

Get Messy Season of Reflection week 1

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For this season I explored the Japanese stab stitch book binding technique.  I have to admit that I have always looked past this method as I didn’t think it would be a great journal binding as it doesn’t lay flat readily.  I always thought it looked too bulky to work with the papers I like to journal on and I was right, it would not work very well with a  watercolor paper even though I am sure it could be persuaded to open flat. So I explored some different papers. I followed the advice of the experts and went for the four hole binding to start with and I used a soft unbleached mulberry paper and my trusty waxed linen thread.  It opens nicely and I like the folds at the outside edge of the book. This technique does not require folded signatures, you can use single sheets or folded sheets with the fold at the spine or the open edge.  I am thinking of all the possibilities to be had with this book binding …

Get Messy, Season of Habit pages from my Art Journal

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When I made this art journal a couple of months ago, I was sure of two things, I loved the look and layout of it and it has way too many pages to fill in one season of Get Messy. Turns out I was correct on the first one, I loved this journal every time I worked in it. It transpired over the course of the Season of Habit that my second assumption was very wrong, I filled this treasure up with maybe one page to spare.  Not only did I fill it, I added a pocket full of art cards and two mini accordion books. I used all of my favorite techniques, starting with making the book itself, machine sewing, collage, simplicity, spray painting through old doilies and using old photos.  These are a few of the pages from my completed journal. Happy Sunday x  

Ways to use Vintage Fabric in my Art Journal.

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I found a fabulous length of lacey vintage fabric at an estate sale this weekend which I think must have been used as a tablecloth.  I snatched it up with my mind already planning things to do with it. So here are a few ideas for using vintage fabric in your art journal. Sketch it in as much detail as you want. Trace through it, follow all the shapes or just a few. Print with it, using a gel plate. Photocopy and add to your journal page. Spray paint through it and use as a background. Dip it in some ink and sew it into your journal. Cut out a section and stitch it in, use matching thread or a contrast colour, hand sewing or using a sewing machine. Add a piece of fabric as an extra ‘page’ by sewing it down the edge or the middle of an existing page. I added this section of the fabric by sewing it into the existing page of my journal with the original ribbon which I used …

Making Artist Trading Cards.

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I started this project completely backwards!  I cut out my nine cards and then promptly put them back together into a rectangle in order to paint and play on them all at once.  I really should have done all the painting and stenciling then cut them up, but that is what happens when there is no plan, just the decision to make something. As it has turned out, putting them all together on a cutting mat, held down with masking tape, is working out and I this way I can take them up and rearrange them to carry on mark making. Now I have painted, spray painted and stenciled, I am going to mix the cards up and see what marks I can make. Layering is not usually something I do, but I am enjoying this and I am excited to see where it ends up, I am also slightly nervous that I will add a layer and wish I could remove it! Let’s see what happens. Happy Wednesday x    

Weekend Finds.

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I have been a little remiss in writing for a while and I have no rhyme or reason for this, I seemed to grind to a halt in posting the 100 day project this year.  I finished my 100 day Project – 100 days of Creating with Blue and you can find it here on Instagram if you fancy a peek. This weekend our local antique shop was open for the first 7 days of the month, so today being the first of the month, we went to see what was there. I found a few things to use in my art which always makes me happy! No this awl is not broken or worn down, it is a teeny spike! Perfect for bookbinding.  The nib pen is a Esterbrook No. 7 Drawlet dip pen and works very nicely, it is a thick line to write or draw with but very smooth, so no complaints. I am always on the lookout for doilies to use with the gelli plate, so I thought these were  a …

Holiday art journal/sketchbook all filled up.

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I filled my holiday sketchbook!  I made the sketchbook before I went on holiday at the beginning of June, the post about that is here. I didn’t put a million pages in because I wanted to be able to fill it and I could have done with a few more to be honest! On the inside cover I swatched the paints I took and for the inside ephemera I used books I found in the ‘outside’ section of Parnassus books in Yarmouthport, MA.  This is where the less worthy books reside and prices don’t exceed $3.00. Bargain! I bought a 1938 book called Gloucester and Cape Ann for $2.00 and The American Almanac Year-Book Cyclopedia and Atlas for 1903 for $3.00. Both full of pictures I could use. I also found a tub of vintage photos at the Wellfleet flea market, so I used some of them in my art journal along with stickers and bits and bobs I found along the way.  I even managed to get a print from a crocheted doily I …