Do you ever get a strange nervous feeling and you don't know why? I know some people don't, but I do (probably something to do with being the parent of teens). I decided to call it Random Freefloating Anxiety. The other day, I had one of these attacks of RFA, and in the process of getting rid of it, I had the idea for this drawing.
I've been working more on my Art Journal, but have been still working very timidly, and I wanted to explore a more purposeful style. In all my art classes in high school and college, I learned to sketch, to pencil things in first, but I've been seeing and hearing about just drawing without sketching, and I wanted to try that out for myself.
So this drawing is both a visualization for me calming my brain, and an experiment with a technique I don't usually use.
The Boy Friend Forever said "it's not your usual style...I like it" LOL Those are two separate statements, and I knew it when he said it, but it sounded funny. I like it too. And it's not my usual style. But I do want to explore this style more.
Showing posts with label art journaller. Show all posts
Showing posts with label art journaller. Show all posts
7/17/08
Alphabet Brainstorming Exercise
I’m working on making a prompt jar, I found the idea in the Art Journaller section of Art Scouts, but I’ll bet the basic concept has been found other places as well. The concept is to create a bunch of prompts for yourself that will be jumping off places for ideas. Art Journals, writing, pretty much any art form or even meditation can be sparked by prompts. There are sites that help provide prompts, there are books, and even cards to prompt you. But there is a difference in being prompted by others and being prompted by your own ideas. Ideas beget ideas. So I’m working on creating a set of my own prompts that will spark my own brain.
In thinking about how to make a large set of words for prompts, I came up with this idea that I thought I would share.
I found it very interesting to find what popped into my head. Of course, the words I had already thought of led to the next words, so it was interesting to see how the going up words differed from the going down words.
In thinking about how to make a large set of words for prompts, I came up with this idea that I thought I would share.
- Write the alphabet in a column on a large sheet of paper
- If you can orient it ‘landscape’ you’ll be able to fit more words
- You can skip X &/or Q if you want
- Start with A, write the first word that pops into your head, then go down to B, then C, and so on
- When you get to Z, start again at Z and go back up
- Don’t edit yourself-just don’t write the same word twice
- Keep going up and down, writing one word for each letter, until you’ve filled the page
I found it very interesting to find what popped into my head. Of course, the words I had already thought of led to the next words, so it was interesting to see how the going up words differed from the going down words.
7/7/08
Make Me!
I love when something demands to be created. That happened to me this past weekend. I’d been using my duct-tape wallet for a few months, liking it, not loving it, and the past couple weeks, I’d been thinking about what to replace it with. Thursday morning at work, the idea overtook me, and I had to stop working for a few minutes to draw out the plan: a small felt wallet, embroidered with beads, with a zipper and two other pockets. This morning before work, I transferred my important things into the completed new wallet.
Granted, it was a long weekend, and I was able to work on this project more because of the holiday, but I have a feeling that whenever this project had demanded itself to me, I wouldn’t have been able to do much else until it was finished.
Don’cha just love when that happens? When a project refuses to go on the back burner, jumps into your head shouting "MAKE ME", and just about puts itself in motion without you.
I’ve mentioned that I have been feeling a little noncreative lately, so it was even more exciting for me to have this priority project hit me. Through my noncreative-feeling period, I did keep working, mostly crocheting, and kept watching blogs and flickr for ideas, and researching on Etsy. A week ago or so, a quote inspired me, and I dug my Art Journaller supplies out from the bottom of the stack of crap on my desk, and moved it to my bed stand. Most nights since then, I've doodled, nothing spectacular, but just kept working.
I guess that's the key, do the projects that inspire you, and even when you're not feeling so inspired, keep working until you're inspired again.
Granted, it was a long weekend, and I was able to work on this project more because of the holiday, but I have a feeling that whenever this project had demanded itself to me, I wouldn’t have been able to do much else until it was finished.
Don’cha just love when that happens? When a project refuses to go on the back burner, jumps into your head shouting "MAKE ME", and just about puts itself in motion without you.
I’ve mentioned that I have been feeling a little noncreative lately, so it was even more exciting for me to have this priority project hit me. Through my noncreative-feeling period, I did keep working, mostly crocheting, and kept watching blogs and flickr for ideas, and researching on Etsy. A week ago or so, a quote inspired me, and I dug my Art Journaller supplies out from the bottom of the stack of crap on my desk, and moved it to my bed stand. Most nights since then, I've doodled, nothing spectacular, but just kept working.
I guess that's the key, do the projects that inspire you, and even when you're not feeling so inspired, keep working until you're inspired again.
2/7/08
More On Sadie
Don'cha love it when your different projects or interests blend together almost as if they were meant to work that way, without you really even doing anything? I do.
I was working on the second project in the Felt Underground kit, a monster pencil case, and I was going to use my own colors for this one, but I wasn't inspired to make it a monster, and wasn't sure about their directions. They started you off with two big rectangles, and one small one for the bottom (they had it standing up). They didn't have a ton of step-by-step photos, and I wasn't sure how they planned to make the one smaller rectangle work as the bottom, but I liked the zipper in the center, so I got started.
Somewhere in the not understanding their instructions, and wondering what I would use this for, it being rather thin, it hit me to put a thin strip all the way 'round, to make it an actual 3D rectangle with the zipper turning into the most beautiful monster mouth as soon as I turned it sideways. ;p
Where she's from, the moles and facial hair are signs of true beauty. And her name just popped into my head as I was sewing her eyelashes on, it's a derivative of the song Sadie, Sadie, Married Lady from the movie Funny Girl.
The most perfect part about how she morphed, is that she is now the perfect place for my Art Journaller supplies, and that's another step closer to my Art Scout button!
I was working on the second project in the Felt Underground kit, a monster pencil case, and I was going to use my own colors for this one, but I wasn't inspired to make it a monster, and wasn't sure about their directions. They started you off with two big rectangles, and one small one for the bottom (they had it standing up). They didn't have a ton of step-by-step photos, and I wasn't sure how they planned to make the one smaller rectangle work as the bottom, but I liked the zipper in the center, so I got started.
Somewhere in the not understanding their instructions, and wondering what I would use this for, it being rather thin, it hit me to put a thin strip all the way 'round, to make it an actual 3D rectangle with the zipper turning into the most beautiful monster mouth as soon as I turned it sideways. ;p
Where she's from, the moles and facial hair are signs of true beauty. And her name just popped into my head as I was sewing her eyelashes on, it's a derivative of the song Sadie, Sadie, Married Lady from the movie Funny Girl.
The most perfect part about how she morphed, is that she is now the perfect place for my Art Journaller supplies, and that's another step closer to my Art Scout button!
2/2/08
1/29/08
Art Journaller : Gathering Supplies
I'm working slowly on getting started on my Art Journaller project. Partly because I started this right in the heat of the holiday season, and I had to take baby steps, but partly, honestly, just because of being nervous about starting something. At this moment, I have actually done two pages. (WooHoo-right?) But I'm feeling like I'm getting the momentum going, and I'm almost to the down hill side.
Of course, I wanted new or fairly new things for this Art Scout button, special things just for this project. I had purchased this set of watercolor colored pencils a few months ago, and had only tried them out once, so they will be part of my supplies.
Side note: I love colored pencils, I have the set that I first got in college still, with lots more colors added. I love watercolor. I love using my colored pencils with watercolor. I had been working on a funky technique with colored pencils and watercolor a couple years ago. So I thought I'd love watercolor pencils. When I bought these, I wasn't too impressed. I did pick a very inexpensive set, but I think Prang is a good name. Maybe it's just because I had never tried them before. They are part of my Art Journaller supplies, and I will give them another try.
The other thing I bought new, was an artist pen. Back in college, I had a set of four rapidiograph pens, and after college I did not know what a great thing I had, and I let them move on to a new home. So at this point, I was not going to spend a bunch of money on pens. I thought I'd look for maybe a felt tip kind of pen, do they still make Flair pens? I looked at several stores, and didn't find anything like that. And then we had to go to the office store, and this one I knew had a very small section of decent art supplies, I had even seen really good colored pencils there. So when we were looking for mailing supplies, I took a look, and I was very surprised to see some good artist pens as well. I remembered that Amy at CMP has talked about Pitt pens, and there were many sets in a few different colors. I didn't want to go that far just yet, but it would be exciting later on to get a set of 7 different sizes of Pitt pens. Luckily, I found some singles, and for a very nice price.
Next time: What will I put my supplies into?
Of course, I wanted new or fairly new things for this Art Scout button, special things just for this project. I had purchased this set of watercolor colored pencils a few months ago, and had only tried them out once, so they will be part of my supplies.
Side note: I love colored pencils, I have the set that I first got in college still, with lots more colors added. I love watercolor. I love using my colored pencils with watercolor. I had been working on a funky technique with colored pencils and watercolor a couple years ago. So I thought I'd love watercolor pencils. When I bought these, I wasn't too impressed. I did pick a very inexpensive set, but I think Prang is a good name. Maybe it's just because I had never tried them before. They are part of my Art Journaller supplies, and I will give them another try.
The other thing I bought new, was an artist pen. Back in college, I had a set of four rapidiograph pens, and after college I did not know what a great thing I had, and I let them move on to a new home. So at this point, I was not going to spend a bunch of money on pens. I thought I'd look for maybe a felt tip kind of pen, do they still make Flair pens? I looked at several stores, and didn't find anything like that. And then we had to go to the office store, and this one I knew had a very small section of decent art supplies, I had even seen really good colored pencils there. So when we were looking for mailing supplies, I took a look, and I was very surprised to see some good artist pens as well. I remembered that Amy at CMP has talked about Pitt pens, and there were many sets in a few different colors. I didn't want to go that far just yet, but it would be exciting later on to get a set of 7 different sizes of Pitt pens. Luckily, I found some singles, and for a very nice price.
Next time: What will I put my supplies into?
12/29/07
Art Journaller : First Photos
Sage words from my past self found in my new art journal. (Don't ask me what was up with the doodle, I have no idea!)
The paper is nice, a thicker than regular typing paper, about the weight of the card stock we buy to put through the printer, but the paper in the journal has a nice texture to it, as well.
Since I went with outer beauty and using stuff on hand, we'll see how well the pages hold up to different mediums. I already had decided to only do art on one side of the page, so the other side (the back of the page before) can be a place to write a little paragraph about the art. That's the idea as it stands right now.
Here's a close up of the awesome cover:
The paper is nice, a thicker than regular typing paper, about the weight of the card stock we buy to put through the printer, but the paper in the journal has a nice texture to it, as well.
Since I went with outer beauty and using stuff on hand, we'll see how well the pages hold up to different mediums. I already had decided to only do art on one side of the page, so the other side (the back of the page before) can be a place to write a little paragraph about the art. That's the idea as it stands right now.
Here's a close up of the awesome cover:
12/19/07
Art Journaller : First Objective
I officially started on my first Art Scout Button on Saturday. I purchased through Pay-Pal the journal to go with it, and got it today! (Why does Pay-Pal seem to take soooo long???) The journal is really cool, although I'm not sure how to fold it. I'm a dork. ;p
So far I've worked on two of the objectives, #1 selecting and naming your journal, and #3 researching examples of others' art journals (more on that one later).
Selecting an art journal wasn't hard, in fact the reason I picked this button to start with is because I had some journals I bought several years ago, and I had been thinking about starting an art journal for a while now, this was a good kick in the butt to get started. The journals I have are blank page books, about composition book size, with a kind of embossed cover (yeah, I'll take pictures soon), they were on super sale, like a quarter each, and "Made in India" which made them even cooler, so I bought maybe 7 of them way back when. Unfortunately, though I have been a diary writer/journaller off and on through out my life (I still have a Strawberry Shortcake key-opening diary from jr. high or high school), I somehow have managed to start with a fresh journal or notebook almost every time I get re-inspired. So I have probably a dozen journals with pages left, some day I will have to somehow chronologize them all. (is that even a word?) So the three of these cool journals that I can find, all had some stuff on the first few pages.
So Saturday, I pulled them all out, to see what could be salvaged, and which of these could be my new art journal. The first one I opened was definitely in my series of started-but-not-finished regular journals, and had a couple months worth of writing, too much to rip out, probably should use that one as a regular journal again. The next one, written in gold ink of all things, looked like my first failed attempt at 'morning pages' they could probably be taken out, even thrown away, so that one has potential for becoming an art journal. But the third one was maybe already meant to be an art journal. I had left the first two pages blank (of course for title page and table of contents-or wiping your hands on, but that's another story) then had a page with my name all done in a font I created back in high school, and on the next page, along with random scribbles, is the quote "If it's the right time, you will know." OMG. I don't remember where I got the quote, there's no attribution. Maybe it was just my own thought, a message from past me to present me. Very weird, and very cool.
And all this time, figuring out which journal to use, I was thinking 'name the journal?? that's kinda silly', I couldn't possibly think of a name, or how to come up with a name for an art journal. But when I found that little message that spoke to me at just the right time, I was struck by what a cool, random, perfect, co-inky-dink that was, and a word came to me that is now the name of my first official Art Journal:
serendipity
So far I've worked on two of the objectives, #1 selecting and naming your journal, and #3 researching examples of others' art journals (more on that one later).
Selecting an art journal wasn't hard, in fact the reason I picked this button to start with is because I had some journals I bought several years ago, and I had been thinking about starting an art journal for a while now, this was a good kick in the butt to get started. The journals I have are blank page books, about composition book size, with a kind of embossed cover (yeah, I'll take pictures soon), they were on super sale, like a quarter each, and "Made in India" which made them even cooler, so I bought maybe 7 of them way back when. Unfortunately, though I have been a diary writer/journaller off and on through out my life (I still have a Strawberry Shortcake key-opening diary from jr. high or high school), I somehow have managed to start with a fresh journal or notebook almost every time I get re-inspired. So I have probably a dozen journals with pages left, some day I will have to somehow chronologize them all. (is that even a word?) So the three of these cool journals that I can find, all had some stuff on the first few pages.
So Saturday, I pulled them all out, to see what could be salvaged, and which of these could be my new art journal. The first one I opened was definitely in my series of started-but-not-finished regular journals, and had a couple months worth of writing, too much to rip out, probably should use that one as a regular journal again. The next one, written in gold ink of all things, looked like my first failed attempt at 'morning pages' they could probably be taken out, even thrown away, so that one has potential for becoming an art journal. But the third one was maybe already meant to be an art journal. I had left the first two pages blank (of course for title page and table of contents-or wiping your hands on, but that's another story) then had a page with my name all done in a font I created back in high school, and on the next page, along with random scribbles, is the quote "If it's the right time, you will know." OMG. I don't remember where I got the quote, there's no attribution. Maybe it was just my own thought, a message from past me to present me. Very weird, and very cool.
And all this time, figuring out which journal to use, I was thinking 'name the journal?? that's kinda silly', I couldn't possibly think of a name, or how to come up with a name for an art journal. But when I found that little message that spoke to me at just the right time, I was struck by what a cool, random, perfect, co-inky-dink that was, and a word came to me that is now the name of my first official Art Journal:
serendipity
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