All posts tagged: 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, …

Super Saturday – The Creating Edition.

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Are you a creative person? I bet you are.  Creativity is in the air at this time of year, from baking a batch of cookies to choosing Christmas cards all the way to making the cards yourself featuring your own art or photography.  All creative and all satisfying. Currently I have a loaf of bread in the oven with 15 minutes to go until it is baked and I am all ready to go to a sweaty cardio/strength class at the gym, the bread I created (ok, mixed up and baked, which counts right?) and the gym session will dust my cobwebs off and get my brain moving as much as my body.   Later I need to work on my Christmas cards and make a new art journal for a December daily project and make a Christmas cake!   This month in the creative department, I have been hand carving some stamps, I have a small collection of little Christmas trees which I am using on my cards.  I also made a very simple …

Frames and mini poems. Get Messy Season of Ubuntu Week 5.

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I have now filled a mini sketchbook and we are only at week 5 of the Season of Ubuntu over at Get Messy Art Journal.  Not too difficult really as my little book is only four and a half inches by three and a half! These last pages incorporate prompts and tutorials from the current season and I really enjoyed making them. I will be making another mini journal to carry on this season of art journaling! Happy creating and happy Thursday x

Practicing with my sumi brush and ink in an accordion journal

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  I wanted to practice using my sumi brush and my sumi ink with no pressure but on nice paper and in a small journal so that I wasn’t worried about having to fill a whole book. So, I folded a piece of Arches hot press watercolour paper into an accordion journal, grabbed some ink and a cup of water and got to work.  I filled the little book really quickly in fact it was only waiting for the ink to dry which slowed me down. Talking of slowing down, I also made a conscious effort to go slow as I used my brush. I experimented with adding water to the ink and using it full strength.  I am often guilty of rushing through any artistic endeavour and I am aware that if I slow down I do much better. Because of this I made sure I used the brush to it’s full potential (and my ability), with just one brush you can get nice thin lines and juicy fat strokes too.  Add some water …

How many projects can I spin at once?

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April is here and where I live spring missed the memo and winter is snickering in the corner as the weather is still freezing cold with a sprinkle of snow every so often.  I am sure someone will poke spring shortly and we will warm up a little. Not too much though, I don’t need ninety degrees and high humidity just yet. Anyway, along with a new month and season I have decided to take on possibly too many projects!  Three of these are ongoing and the other three are shorter than the first in duration, but they still add to my daily quota. My ongoings are the 365 day of random art in my Moleskine planner, make a colour swatch each day for 365 days and Get Messy Art Journal projects and community.  These are all going swimmingly and I am enjoying all of them. The new kids on the block are as follows The 100 day project – started on Tuesday April 3rd and consists of me drawing freeform mandalas every day for …

Old photos and why I think they are fabulous.

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I started collecting old photos one at a time, carefully selecting each one.  As I have carried on gathering other people’s family photos, my greatest finds are a box or an envelope full  of photos to explore.  An ancient album from the turn of the century to marvel at the fashions and cars of the time is a happy few minutes of browsing for me. I just love to look at the characters in the photos and where the photos were taken, some photos I have are from the St Louis area and it is cool to see landmarks then and now. This group is so full of characters, I wonder who or what they are all looking at. I feel like this picture is a novel waiting to be written. “Don and me” written in biro on the front of the photo. I want those silver sandals! I love the photos with the cars of the time and the way people took the photos to highlight the vehicles. Two meals at the same table …

Handmade sketchbook for the Season of Nature

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I am beginning to get a bit obsessed with making books!  I love to make all the sketchbooks with different papers in different sizes with fold outs and accordions.  The more I make the more ideas I get for another one or two or three. We are about to start the new season over in the Get Messy Art Journal community and it is going to be The Season of Nature.  I found a book called ‘A Field Guide to Animal Tracks’ not long ago and thought it would be perfect to make into a sketchbook for The Season of Nature. Once the pages were out I was ready to go! I made two signatures and stitched one to each inside cover of the book so they open away fro each other.  I used pamphlet stitch to fasten them onto the edge of the cover. I have made a pretty backwards book which started by stitching the papers onto the opposite side than expected, but I like the way the two books are working together …

‘I like’ Friday, a Creative Day Out.

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Last Friday the library where I work was closed so I took myself on a creative day out.  I jumped on the Metro Link and headed to my favorite magazine shop to start my day.  I picked out a couple of mags and went on my way.  Along with my magazines I also had the little sketchbook which I literally made right before I left along with a few pens and a water pen filled with ink (one of my favorite things to use).   Back to the train and off to Forest Park and the St Louis Art Museum not forgetting to stop off and get a rosemary brown sugar latte (so good!) to walk across the park with. The sun was shining and the trees were in their fall colours as I walked across the park to the art museum. Once at the museum I made sure I kept my eyes and ears open.  You never know what you might hear in the galleries!  I made notes in my book and little sketches …

Gelli Plate Leaf Prints.

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While out walking the dog today I saw and snatched some fern leaves which I brought home to use with my gelli plate and the ever faithful Paynes Grey acrylic paint. While I was at it, I popped across the road from my house and snipped some frothy grass which I thought would print well too. I used my large rectangle gelli plate and my small circle to pull prints of the outlines of the leaves as well as prints of the details of the leaves. I always start with a layer of paint then I put down the leaf.  To get the reverse silhouette print I press down the paper and smooth it out as carefully but as firmly as possible to get as much outline as I can. Once the paper is pulled off, I remove the leaf and press down a fresh piece of paper to get the detail print of the leaf left on the plate. If there is enough paint left on the leaf itself I press it onto the …