Art & Everything Else

and then some art

2012-01-23T10:54:00.000-08:00

Mixed Media - St. Metalhead of the Outdoor Concert

Acrylic sketching

Ducks can't read

2012-01-23T10:40:00.000-08:00

These are from Friday literally just a couple of hours before it very suddenly warmed right up, began raining and all the snow departed. Victorian winters! The extreme barometric changes have played hell with my head all weekend and today the migraine monster won. That spiky bastard.

Icy

2012-01-22T21:23:00.001-08:00

Playing with the blues

2011-12-30T18:40:00.000-08:00

I think I'll call it "Get off my lawn!"

No hiking

2011-12-04T22:06:00.001-08:00

I broke my toe on Friday. Boo! Boo, I say!
This guy amply illustrates how I felt at being confined to walking Bean in the neighbourhood parks all weekend.

The Noble Bean

2011-11-26T15:58:00.001-08:00

Blog slacker

2011-11-21T06:23:00.001-08:00

"Blog Slacker" sounds like a mythical beast that I would slice'n'dice with my dual swords in Skyrim instead of me just being too busy to post. Lots of arting and hiking and... other fun things going on to take my attention off the computer. Which is new. The computer that is, not my attention being off. I managed to kill the old XP machine - both mine AND the one spare we had kicking around. I have a mini-tower now that ought to do the trick for a bit. Lost every single photo I had, though. Le sigh.

Here's a few new ones.

T'is the season to be fungal

2011-10-29T13:47:00.000-07:00

I'm hoping to keep hiking all through winter, but Mt. Work had me wondering this morning. It was so chilly when I started out, though by the time I hit the summit I was warm enough and then some.
I don't have any spectacular fall foliage to share; my eye got dragged downward and I discovered that fungi were have a big old party all over the mountain. Once I started looking for them, they were everywhere!

Most boring meeting EVER

2011-10-26T12:35:00.001-07:00

Lots of doodling was accomplished, however.

Sunset with Bean

2011-10-25T22:00:00.000-07:00

Captured on my phone again.

Autumn at the LG's

2011-10-24T12:28:00.001-07:00

Lunch in the gardens

Clearing out photos from my camera

2011-10-23T14:33:00.000-07:00

... and a bit of art.

Yesterday's hike was a wet one, though I'd been lulled into a false optimism by early morning sunshine. I didn't want to risk the Nikon, and I hadn't properly charged the phone, so this is all I got:

Witty's Lagoon Oct 22 2011

I take a lot more urban photos with my phone and I like how some of them turn out.

Early morning Douglas St

One way... like most streets in the downtown core

Pioneer Square

I've been working in my art journals a lot. Finished a couple and bought a new one to celebrate. Here's the front cover and inside front:

Front cover - extremely mixed media

Inside front - one of my carved stamps and a sketch.

Fog on the Brain

2011-10-17T06:23:00.000-07:00

My head feels foggier than these hill shots this morning and I wish I were off hiking instead of off to work.

Colour Riot

2011-10-16T17:26:00.000-07:00

The only kind of riot I fully endorse.

Stream of consciousness in Pitt pens

Experimenting with watercolour on fluid acrylic

Pencil crayon on top of fluid acrylic, iirc

Much love for Daniel Smith water colours

2011-10-13T22:42:00.000-07:00

... especially Natural Amazonite and Serpentine.

A little zombie and demon as we gear up for Hallowe'en.

Green Thanksgiving

2011-10-11T06:32:00.001-07:00

Light

2011-10-09T11:52:00.000-07:00

John Dean Park Oct 8 2011

Fall Fell

2011-09-26T06:31:00.000-07:00

Saturday morning with the Bean was very obviously The First Hike of Fall. Nature was being really over-the-top about it with the colours, smells and mist everywhere.

I found a free download of GIMP and so far it's pretty decent for something that makes me think of the uncomfortable scenes from Pulp Fiction. Especially since it's free and not seventy bajillion dollars like Photoshop.

Tonight I'm hooking it up to the scanner to see how it works for art stuff.

September Sunday

2011-09-18T21:02:00.000-07:00

I've been trying to cut back on the amount of photos I take on my hikes. East Sooke Park really tests my resolve... and then breaks it into tiny pieces and scatters it to the winds. I think I took over 200 shots and I still have no photo editing software. Brilliant planning on my part! Good thing I live with graphics geeks.

New carved stamp of some generic carp-like fish... in white ink on canvas book cover.

Part of another book cover that's too big for the scanner.

Phew!

2011-09-12T20:12:00.000-07:00

My blog attendance over August has been abysmal, but I see from my blog roll that I'm in good company. We finally saw some summer-esque weather around here in the past few weeks and I've been wringing all the sunshine out of it that I could. This Friday's hike showed signs of fall, even if Saturday's kayaking burned my poor shoulders to buffalo wings. I wish I had photos of the kayak trip, but neither of my cameras nor my phone are waterproof in any way.

Maple leaves on Jocelyn Hill

Here's my sign of impending autumn, though.

I'm still without Photoshop cd... I believe it eloped with my blue sock and my last working fine line black marker. If you see any of them, please let me know.

Until I break down and start looking for a cheap alternative I have to steal moments here and there on Axel's machine so I haven't too many art shots. Nature photos are a lot quicker to edit, for some reason.

Carved rubber stamps - wild rose and fir cone

I have been arting a fair bit and having huge fun carving my own stamps still. The two pictured were inspired by some of Patti's amazing botanical photography.

I do have more shots, but Blogger is burping on these two as it is. I'll hopefully get some more up later in the week. Probably not, though. ;-)

Testing...

2011-08-25T06:43:00.001-07:00

So I discovered the blog app for my Android phone and, crazy as this seems, I'm currently typing this up at the bus stop while I wait. ;-)

I get such a kick out of this phone, plus it takes pretty decent shots.

I have yet to find a decent free photo editor app but I'm still looking.

Okay I'm going to hit publish before my bus arrives and see if everything shows up in proper order.

Hiking in the Clouds

2011-07-16T16:44:00.000-07:00

It was raining so hard this morning that not even Bean would come out with me today. I'd planned for Gowlland Todd but ended up at Mt. Work instead and climbed to the summit through a forest-scented soup of warm fog and rain. I ended up drenched from head to foot but was still too hot to wear more than one layer of clothing. A proper summer morning in the rainforest! I left the Nikon at home, so all of these photos I took on my Samsung phone.

Carving rubber in the sunshine

2011-07-01T23:10:00.000-07:00

I was out hiking at Matheson Lake early this morning with Bean and a friend, and then out to Patti's for an afternoon sitting outside by her pond and carving stamps in the studio. A pretty good Canada Day, really.
Here are a couple of pages from my small Strathmore journal showing two of the new stamps I made: the messy, messy pattern, and a long cloud. I put them over top of an existing background and then played with pen and pencil crayon.

And here are some shots from the Matheson Lake hike.

Playing with white lines

2011-06-26T23:58:00.000-07:00

Watered down fluid acrylic background with green Pitt pen and white gel pen.

Fun with phones and Project Noah

2011-06-25T20:47:00.000-07:00

I caved and got myself a smartphone... not for the phone part, but for the apps and the email. :) Yes, I'm very silly.

Anyway, one of the free Android apps is for Project Noah which is an online database documenting wildlife and biodiversity around the world using the photos uploaded by its members. It's way too fun, and Bean definitely does not approve, as it means even more stops to take photos. With my phone I can take the photo and automatically upload it to my PN page from wherever I am.

For instance this honeysuckle:

I now know its scientific name of lonicera ciliosa. I'm such a nerd. :)

Here are a few more shots I took with my new phone:

What a strange week it's been

2011-06-24T20:15:00.001-07:00

So have some strange art.

The next lot is from my graph paper Moleskine journal which travels with me everywhere in my backpack, usually with a pack of Pitt pens.

Have some random hiking shots from last Saturday to go along with them.

My dog is the cutest dog in the universe.

2011-06-11T22:27:00.000-07:00

I enter into evidence, Exhibit A:A spread in my small Strathmore mixed media journal... I have no clue what's going on here. I was playing with stamps and it got out of hand.

And some shots from my hike today with Bean.

This post has been brought to you today by the letter: B!

Untitled Title

2011-06-08T22:15:00.000-07:00

I'm preferring drawn people to real people lately. Both of these are just dip pen, acrylic ink and markers.

Some random hiking shots.

Weekend update

2011-06-05T22:46:00.000-07:00

My thoughts go out to Patti whose lovely Keiko passed away. Keiko gave the most lady-like dog kisses ever. No slobber for that girl. She's greatly missed.

Working on my ancient desktop with alternate photo programs makes scanning tedious, but here's a bit from a new journal spread.A confused blue landscape. Acrylics and gel pen.

It's been a gorgeous weekend, weather-wise. I've managed two morning hikes and I'm hoping for a third tomorrow. Here are some shots from my hike today in Gowlland Tod on the Cascade and Timberman trails.

A lovely long weekend

2011-05-23T15:35:00.000-07:00

More from Matheson Lake

2011-05-22T16:58:00.000-07:00

Mourning the laptop

2011-05-22T11:00:00.000-07:00

It's dead, Jim.
I've resurrected my old desktop (which is still running XP) but Photoshop is corrupt and I do not feel like a) finding the disks and b) uninstalling and reinstalling. I did manage to fix up a few of my shots from hiking around Matheson Lake with Bean yesterday, and scanned in a little something before my laptop shuffled off this mortal coil.
So here's a quickie pencil sketch of my favourite piece of clothing ever: the awesome shoes of awesomeness (which sometimes squeak). They have taken me to some amazing places and saved my feet from maiming when I had to move house.

And here are the shots from around Matheson Lake trail.

More hiking with Bean

2011-05-16T14:55:00.000-07:00

I took Bean to Witty's Lagoon and brought the Nikon again. I'm going to use some of these as painting inspiration.

My thoughts are elsewhere...

2011-05-15T21:58:00.000-07:00

My thoughts are with Patti right now who's going through a tough time. I hate when people I care about are dealing with tough things and I can't do anything about it. So after our studio visit I kept my hands busy painting with gouache. I was inspired by Roz Stendahl who's leading the latest online workshop by Strathmore.


Jeannette - sketched with brush and ink, painted with gouache and finished with pencil crayons. Background is acrylic and some tissue scraps				.

And for something light, here are some more shots of Bean on the trail yesterday. Hopefully tomorrow I'll have some more. It will have been two weeks since he tried to pierce his own tongue, so I might try that beach again. Just to see what it's like without the horror-filled climb back up!

Bean hates being posed for photos. So I do it to him a lot.

Oh all right, you can go.

Wait... waaaaaait...

Okay go!

Everyone send some good thoughts over Patti's way, she's in need of them.

Faces

2011-05-14T20:33:00.000-07:00

I was given this link: English Russia and fell in love with the faces. I've been sketching them a lot, and these two turned out well enough that I coloured them a bit.

Today I took Bean and my Nikon D70 to Gowlland Tod again and tried out the Rowntree Loop before going back and hitting the Ridge Top Trail to Holmes Peak. I usually take my little point'n'shoot because the Nikon is so damned heavy. The difference in picture quality is rather noticeable, though

Blue doodle and last weekend's hike

2011-05-14T20:25:00.000-07:00

I am officially very disappointed with Spring 2011. It's been expensive, cold, damp and annoying. Summer can arrive any time now.
While I wait for the warm, I've been hypnotizing myself with these doodles.
Yet again issues with spiral bound books and my scanner. Meh.

And here's a few shots from my hike last weekend doing the Timberline Trail at Gowlland Tod Park.

Hospital Doodle

2011-05-05T22:12:00.000-07:00

I spent most of my morning in hospital waiting rooms and, knowing ahead of time that I would be, I brought along some pens and my little Strathmore mixed media journal. After I was admitted I ended up in a waiting room with a bunch of others, also in hospital gowns, and I took out my book to doodle and pass the time. Did I ever get some weird looks for it. Apparently it would have been much more acceptable to be texting my thumbs off, but I have no cell phone, no one to text, and I Twitter not, neither do I tweet. Here's the result of my lack of texting.

Hospital doodle - gel and Pitt pens on acrylic and collaged paper

The usual Saturday fare

2011-04-30T17:46:00.000-07:00

More arting and wandering. I am unbelievably lucky that this is my usual Saturday.

Dread pirate Sal - mixed media in my small Strathmore journal

Some photos from my hike today. Sharmon asked where I am that I get to hike in these amazingly beautiful spots... these are all parks from S. Vancouver Island. They are all within an hour's drive for me, most of them much less than that, actually. As I said, I'm really lucky. :)

A little red

2011-04-24T00:13:00.000-07:00

A carved stamp I did up tonight. It's pretty large... if I'd really thought about it, I probably would have made it smaller, but I do tend to work big if I don't plan ahead.

I got quite a lot of sun today, so the octopus isn't the only thing that's red. Who could resist being outdoors on a day like today, though?
Some photos from my hike in East Sooke park this morning.

I love vacation days

2011-04-21T15:18:00.000-07:00

My most recent carved stamp is showing up with alarming frequency in all of my journals now. This is my favourite of today's batch. I love it in the crimson ink.

This morning I do believe Bean and I had the best view for our elevensies of anybody around. I had my coffee and muffin looking out over this.

I can't say it was exactly easy to get to, holding onto my cup of Timmy's without spilling any (or falling off the mountain entirely).

Bean helped, though.

I've been having such a great week off, full of arting and wandering about.

New stamp

2011-04-20T22:42:00.000-07:00

I am really enjoying carving stamps, and this one especially. It makes me giggle. I like the slight 3d effect I got from stamping it twice with different colours.

My two-headed queen was an interesting experiment that taught me a few tricks with the lino cutter.

Oh and some more photos from hiking with Bean and Co. - not mine, this time.

Playing with stamps

2011-04-16T22:41:00.000-07:00

I picked up some Speedball carving rubber a while back and made a couple of my own stamps. One's just a chunky spiral and the other is a stylized face with scarf and wild hair. I played with them both in my watercolour journal, and drew some dried seed heads that I have sitting in with my paintbrushes, using white acrylic ink and a dipping pen.

More hiking photos from McKenzie Bight.

I'm calling it done...

2011-04-10T21:31:00.000-07:00

... both the weekend and the landscape.
I think this is a partial success. I had wanted to try it as a "pure" watercolour, but I just didn't like it that way and before I knew it the pen was in my hand. Oh, and I know I'm supposed to leave a border... oops. Not that I was likely to frame this one anyway.

Inlet - mixed media

And a very happy birthday to my "little" brother... one of the only people who reads this. Hi Andrew. ;)

"Little" sister Kate came too, but she doesn't read this as far as I know, so I'll show her modeling the funny socks on her enormous feet. Hi Kate. :)

It's so unfair that they got the tall genes.

Saturday Mix

2011-04-09T13:52:00.000-07:00

First up, a piece I did on the backside of an 8x10 canvas. My scanner doesn't like the 3d aspect to it and keeps blurring out the sea sponge in the background. I'll have to get a decent shot of it at a later date.


"Comfort sings but Anxiety listens with infected ears." Mixed media

And here are some shots from my hike today. The little white lilies are a native species, I believe, and they were everywhere.

An odd couple and more moss photos

2011-04-02T21:37:00.000-07:00

These two would be a handful.

And here are some shots from my walk in Mt. Work park today

Glum Fish

2011-03-31T23:33:00.000-07:00

Glum Fish - white gel doodle on acrylics with yupo border.

Moleskine portfolio

Moss

2011-03-27T21:53:00.000-07:00

Without my own gardening space, I resorted to a small bowl of native mosses that I grabbed from Patti's place a while back. My gargoyle loves it in there.

Green weekend

2011-03-26T18:48:00.000-07:00

I've got a watercolour landscape on the go right now which is taxing my limited patience, so I take breaks where I just play in my journals.

Thanks once again to Patti, I got a much clearer shot of this cover.

Spring has finally arrived. I went for a nice hike with Bean this morning and I think I've got some more reference shots for later.

Far Away

2011-03-21T10:44:00.000-07:00

The cover of my newest sketchbook was blank for too long. Here's the back cover, no longer blank.

Mixed media with text pages, acrylics, watercolours, oil paint pen, gel pen, Pitt pens and pencil crayons.

Patti says it looks like he's spreading space cheese on a cracker... not sure I like the sound of "space cheese". o_O

Another productive Sunday afternoon

2011-03-20T20:49:00.000-07:00

Good company, good music, and happy dogs makes for great arting.

A detail from the inside cover of the large Strathmore mixed media journal

From my large hemp journal... I think he's related to Madame Frostbeetle.

A batch of new stuff

2011-03-15T19:40:00.000-07:00

Thanks to Patti for the use of her home-made photo booth and awesome camera.... these spiral bound books hate my scanner so much.

Pan & Syrinx in my small Strathmore Mixed Media journal... stamp pad, acrylics, watercolours, pencils, pen&ink.

Binary girl in the same journal... acrylics, paint marker, pen&ink, pencils.

Grumpy Hippy in my large hemp journal... honestly don't remember all the media I used on him, but trust me there was a lot of it.

A sketch of Janelle Monae turned into fun with gel pens and pencils in my large Strathmore mixed media journal.

Little forest dude in the small Strathmore journal... decorative paper from the Papery, pan pastel, watercolour, hand-made stamp, stamp pad, pencils.

Busybusy

2011-01-15T19:55:00.000-08:00

I have a couple of projects on the go that I can't share, but it's keeping me pretty busy. I signed up for the Strathmore free workshops (in the sidebar, there) before I knew that I'd be offered the latest project. Good thing, or I might have skipped the workshops and I'm enjoying it a lot! The gesso and pastel thing probably won't be something I use very often, as I find it a little anaemic-looking, but the texture sure is interesting. The idea of using my old artwork, though, I'm loving so much! The first one is in my Strathmore watercolour journal with fluid acrylic background, some die-cut paper and the sea monster is a print-out of one of my old pieces. The second one is in my little hemp journal. The page sat with just the paint on it for many months, but playing with the die-cut paper inspired me. :)

Strathmore Visual Journal Workshop 1

2011-01-03T11:35:00.000-08:00

I joined Strathmore's series of free workshops (see the link in the right-hand column) and week one of the first workshop with Pam Carriker started on Jan. 1. Collage isn't something I've done a lot of, and I don't think I've ever given thought before to recycling my own artwork, but that's what this workshop is all about.
I found it's a fantastic way to re-use my digital art... a lot of which has never seen the light of real day, due to a lack of decent printer. The only time I had anything printed off was for commissions, and it was a little expensive for just a couple of prints.
The other use I found for it was getting copies of spreads I've done in some of Patti's journals so I can have a completely different version in my own journals. Too cool. :)
I went out to Patti's studio yesterday and we spent about five hours playing with that recycling theme. As usual, it was incredibly productive and I came home with three journal pages for the week one prompt. All the images are my own, except for the dog tarot and text pages (which I got from Patti!).

Flying into the New Year

2010-12-31T20:15:00.000-08:00

It's a very chilly night, here... I'm tucked up on the couch, playing with the dog and doodling. I hope everyone's tucked up somewhere warm, if not now then soon.

Flying into 2011... here's a mixed media journal spread done with acrylic paint, decorative masking tape, Sakura paint pen, gel pen and Prismacolor pencils. I used a very dull x-acto knife to cut out the birdie.

Playin around

2010-11-29T01:15:00.000-08:00

Another really inspiring and productive day out at Patti's studio, today. Plus I got the chance to try out her lightbox and got some shots out of my large hemp journal, which is spiral-bound and thus challenging to scan.
The first one is a background from that book that is ONLY background, but I love the colours and the textures that I got playing with palette knives. The lightbox set up really captured the blues and greens well, I think. I dusted off my Wacom tablet to draw the fish in Photoshop. I'll have to do that more, because I'd forgotten how much fun that is.

This one started out as pan pastels, which I then painted over with clear medium, collaged on some nice paper, added some washi tape around the edge and sketched the birds in white gel pen.

And this one is so mixed and from so long ago now that I don't remember all the steps. o_O

A quick post...

2010-11-23T19:46:00.000-08:00

I really need to set up a light box like Patti has to take pictures of her work at night. I'm never home during the week until after dark, so without a light box you get a crappy scan instead.
It would be much easier if the book wasn't landscape format I suppose... and if I could work on just one page at a time instead of spewing my art over both pages. But where's the fun in that?

2010-11-12T13:33:00.000-08:00

Spiral bound books I find a bit challenging to scan... however, here is the inside back cover of my blue journal. Not done yet, but I do like the colours.

Blue journal

2010-11-06T17:35:00.000-07:00

Patti and I both got one of these mixed media journals from Strathmore and, oddly enough, I've been using its pages for sketching only, so far. I have managed to get a start on the front and back covers and took some shots outside.

The front.

The back.

Gargoyle reads.

Doodle

2010-11-04T22:00:00.000-07:00

Pencil sketch, originally... then I scanned it and played in Photoshop for a very small amount of time. Need more time! My evenings are too short.

from the depths of my desk drawers...

2010-10-28T21:54:00.000-07:00

... I unearthed a drawing of mine from 2001. It had a young elf cleaning her sword while a raven sat upon her helmet, and I really liked it at the time. Now, not so much. The arms are awry, the boots are weird and her helmet looks plastic. So I thought I'd try a fresh approach to her and re-draw the scene, but it kept not gelling in my head. Finally I realized that she needed to be done a different way, because I'm different now. Or at least I'm older. ;)

Watercolours, Pigma Micron pen and white pencil crayon.

I wonder what I'll think of this attempt in another nine years?

just goofin' around, that's all...

2010-09-30T14:41:00.000-07:00

(I miss the old This Hour...)

Here's a couple that I painted in Patti's gorgeous leather-bound journal. The paper was yummy! I love the way it took the sepia watercolour and it didn't buckle at all under the acrylics. Smooth, hot-press watercolour paper is my favourite paper evar. I do try to broaden my horizons, but keep going back to it. :)

My thanks to Patti for the great photos!

Because having a readership of one or two lets me get away with it...

2010-09-01T13:16:00.000-07:00

When I first found spaces that were strictly for art online I was a pretty happy camper. I love art, I love artists, I love reading about their processes, discouragements and successes. I'm neither talented nor confident enough to make a living at it myself, but it's always been my number one hobby since Nana stuck a broken crayon in my little fist.

I've never been a big fan of certain art types. Performance art, erotic art, and tagging, for example. I wouldn't seek it out myself but whatever floats your boat, dude.

Erotic art especially is something I am completely uninterested in, although I do believe it is a valid art form and can be practiced to the point where it's museum-quality. It can also be a 19 year old boy drawing his "fur-sona". Definitely not museum-quality, but should he be stopped from doing so and posting online? Who the hell cares?? I don't care. I don't have to look at it. I certainly won't be posting about him, or mocking him because what he does isn't to my liking.

This is all just ranting because one of my favourite stopping places online posted a really unnecessary bit about the art journal craze. Maybe if the writer wasn't a fairly well-known and working artist it wouldn't have rankled so much. As is, the whole post seemed so mean-spirited. Like the owner of a large restaurant going over to the hot dog vendor on the corner and laughing in his face for being poor. Not only laughing at him, but inviting all of his friends to come over and do the same thing. Just really poor manners.

It discourages me, probably because it hits so close to home (and because I'm fighting migraines and the office plague and I'm hormonal). I don't like thinking that one of my favourite artists would look at what I do and turn up his nose. It has happened to me before, though, when a friend encouraged me to send some things to a "real artist" for input. I was told I didn't even have the basics of artistic talent - that there was nothing in my stuff to even critique it was so bad. I did cry over that but it didn't stop me from making messes because I am literally incapable of stopping.

The message of people like Kelly Rae Roberts and Teesha Moore speaks to me because they're saying that I don't have to go into making art with the sole intention of Making Fine Art. It really is okay to just enjoy the process! That's what I'd been needing to hear for a really long time. I thank my friend Patti for first introducing me to the concept. A couple of times, being able to shut everything out and paint has literally saved my sanity.

I am not a sunshiny personality, I'm a pessimist and I don't believe that the sky is the limit. I believe if I followed my bliss that I'd likely end up walking off a cliff for lack of proper signage. The pages of my art journals reflect that. No one in the art journal community has ever told me that I'm not really creating anything because I don't use pink stripes and audobon birds. I certainly wouldn't tell them they aren't artists because they only use collage or only make jewellry. Do your thang. I have no reason to judge.

I guess that's what I want everyone to understand: you have no reason to judge. Let people do their thang. Especially if you're lucky enough to be able to make a living from your artwork.
Now I'm gonna go make messes with fucking finger paints. :P

Again With The Pretty Papers

2010-08-31T19:37:00.000-07:00

This is from my little square hemp journal which is currently in Patti's keeping while we swap. :)

Not yet finished... but I like his/her hair. Fluid acrylics and Pitt pens.

My sincerest apologies to any octopus enthusiasts. It's just a doodle and doodles are immune to anatomy.

I Do Like To Play With Pretty Papers.

2010-08-31T19:23:00.000-07:00

I've also been playing with oil pastels and matte medium a fair bit lately, along with Pitt brush pens, beeswax, masking tape, blended fibre paste, paper clay, and watercolours.

This is the front cover to my current favourite journal. Patti and I found two of them left at The Papery and loved the weight of the paper. It really stands up to a lot of abuse. The shiny cover was a bit of a pain to sand off, but enough matte medium could make a politician stick to his promises...

One of the abused pages inside the journal du jour... Axel dubbed him Professor Erstwhile and it stuck. Must've been all the matte medium.

I had a wave of nostalgia the other day for being ten years old when I loved purple and reading the Oz books with all the John R. Neill illustrations.

What a good day

2010-05-07T22:16:00.000-07:00

Bean and I went for his first (but not last!) visit to Patti's studio and huge puppy fun was had by all! Patti's husband Tim Zurowski is an amazing wildlife photographer and he kindly offered to get some shots of His Bean-ness today. He needed all his skill to capture this puppy-blur! He just does not sit still unless he's comatose, and when he's comatose, he's snuggled next to someone. Not an ideal subject really, except that he's so damned cute!

What you can't see here are Patti and Tim's two standard poodles, Cody and Keiko, who are fantastic doggy hosts! Cody and Bean got along like a house a-fire and Bean was wooooorn out by the end of the day. He napped a couple of times in his kennel, so Patti and I got to art awhile too.We played with some awesome Japanese masking tape, from Pretty Tape and Happy Tape and pan pastels, mmmm.

I had a moment today where I was perfectly happy and finally felt that all the grief I've gone through up to now has been totally worth it. :)

Haven't had an awful lot of time to do any involved projects, but I've been doing a lot of doodling and painting of abstract backgrounds in my journals.

Here's a few of them.

A little distracted lately...

2010-04-27T08:55:00.000-07:00

... and here's why.

Meet the 4-legged addition to our family: Bean!
He's a border collie/black lab mix and, yes, we are insane for doing this to ourselves. ;)

And the latest piece

2010-03-16T20:02:00.000-07:00

I utilized charcoal and matte medium a lot in this one, as well as some clothing pattern paper.

Newest Journal

2010-03-16T19:49:00.001-07:00

I love my little square hemp journal so much that I got its big sister, my medium rectangular hemp journal... which somehow does not flow off the tongue quite as easily. This is the cover and a few of the inside pages. Still want to dropkick Photoshop.

Okay!

2010-03-16T15:47:00.000-07:00

Wow, what a lot of changes in so small a time-frame. New jobs, new house, new household accoutrements, deaths in the family, huge family dramas and my one and only kiddo getting her first job. Feels like I've been thrown into the deep end of the pool and I'm just now getting that first gasp of air after struggling to the surface! I sure do wish that life came with an instruction manual. I'm sure all of you have been in a similar position at some point.

ANYways. Art!

I finally got the scanner hooked up again, although Photoshop is running like a passed-out sloth on my old desktop for some reason.

There's so much to catch up on, it will likely take me a few days of scanscanscan-swear at Photoshop-scanscanscan.

Here's a few to start:

Not dead!

2010-01-14T06:36:00.000-08:00

I have not died! I am just in the middle of the most hectic, sad, happy, funny, frustrating 3 month period of my life. Apologies go out to anyone reading from iATC! I had to be a total flake online in order to keep it all together off-line. Maybe one day I'll have enough time to get back to it. In the meantime, I don't even have my art supplies with me, so pencil is having to make do.

I'm hoping that by February I'll be able to make a more substantial post.

Sure do miss art-blog-surfing. :(

Here's a quick sketch before I go.

Happy Hallowe'en

2009-10-17T21:04:00.001-07:00

A couple of Hallowe'en-y pieces from my little hemp journal. Text pages, watercolour, acrylic, oil pastel, coloured pencils, and more.

Maybekindasorta ATC addiction

2009-09-27T21:33:00.000-07:00

I think I have a problem. No, not really! I've just been really busy lately, so the small, small format is working in my favour. These are all for iATC trades

I really need to get around to finalizing a few sketches for a book idea of my Aunt Linda's, but I'm kind of intimidated and I think my initial drawings reflect that. Wish me luck in getting over my self-imposed drawing block! Oy vey.

Ghost Fennec ATC

2009-09-10T10:28:00.000-07:00

A custom card I did for someone over at Illustrated ATCs using acrylics, watercolours, Permapaque, gel and Pitt pens as well as some text pages.

One Bad Apple

2009-09-04T23:38:00.000-07:00

This is one of my masking tape ATCs. Everything but the apple and the text had been done quite a while ago and sat waiting to be finished.

Fire Seed

2009-09-03T22:19:00.000-07:00

I was doodling in my little hemp journal at lunchtime today in between perusing art blogs. I liked it and worked it up with some watercolours and Prismacolor pencils once I was home... never thought I'd be a fan of these colours, but I am now.

Flu week

2009-08-28T20:50:00.000-07:00

So, no mono thank gawd but I managed to catch a flu bug and it laid me out pretty horizontal almost all week.
Whilst being stuck on the couch I had my ever-patient husband set up a tv tray with some drawing implements on it for me, so I at least could work in my little journal and make some ATCs.

So not funny

2009-08-23T14:16:00.001-07:00

I may have caught mono from my sister. *cue much rolling of eyes* Even if I haven't, I have caught something and I no longer have a voice. I'm also feverish and achey. Bleah! Bleah I say!
In spite of it, I am fairly happy... I've joined up at Illustrated ATCs and found a host of really talented folks on there. I'm in my first swap which was based on Colour Lovers palettes. My group was Braving the Brain and this set of four ATCs is what I was inspired to do.

The Super-Amazing O'Sullivan and Sparky

2009-08-18T22:31:00.000-07:00

Playing with pen and watercolour in my journal.

New book!

2009-08-17T06:35:00.000-07:00

I discovered since I finished my last little square hemp journal that I missed having the little square format to play with. So last week I picked up another one! Here's the front cover and inside front cover. Fluid acrylics, some gold shimmer, some scraps of pretty paper and oil pastels for the flowers, which I drew on text pages.

A quick journal spread

2009-08-14T06:46:00.000-07:00

Inspired by some leafy skeletons that Patti gave me and playing with green-gold fluid acrylic.

Some ATCs

2009-08-13T15:05:00.000-07:00

I have actually been doing a fair bit o' arting, but nothing totally finished. Plus, I have this rather large painting on the go that's sucking all of my attention. :) In the meantime, here's a few ATC's that I've been working with while other things dry.

Happy Birthday Patti!!

2009-07-31T18:21:00.000-07:00

It's my dear friend Pattio's birthday today and I hope it's been one long day of fabulousity!
Everyone (all three of you who read this blog ;) go on over there and wish her a Happy Birthday after admiring her journaling and arting prowess.

Aunt Linda and Tags

2009-07-26T12:09:00.001-07:00

I was out at Patti's yesterday with some plain manila mail tags. They are no longer plain!
And as is usually the case I came away even more inspired than when I started. You'd think that 5 straight hours of arting would leave me wanting to go play table tennis or something, but no. I went home and finished up a portrait of my aunt Linda that I'd started a while back and got stalled on. Somewhere on the road home it suddenly clicked in my head and I knew how I wanted to finish it. I love when that happens!
I used some of our Mad Hatter's Tea Party paper as a border... I sure get a lot of mileage out of our homemade papers.

Quick Lily

2009-07-22T21:52:00.001-07:00

I was on a roll tonight and just wanted to keep playing with the acrylics. So I did.

I know it's bad...

2009-07-22T17:10:00.000-07:00

... it's an aggressive, invasive and non-native species that should be eradicated from our Island.
But to me it will always be part of the eternal background of my childhood summers along with khaki-coloured lichen, dark grey granite, ochre grass and cerulean skies. When it was hot enough to make the road shimmer we'd start hearing the POP POP POP of the scotch broom seed pods. We would take the flower buds and coax them open to use as puppet heads, and we used the sticks as swords or magic wands or roof arches, as the need arose.
I know now that it's a horrid weed, but I loved them as a kid. Isn't that always the way?

Anyways, I was stuck home today with an ill husband. While he moaned dramatically on the couch I painted in my little, almost-all-done journal.

Professor Snorq - Another ATC

2009-07-18T22:34:00.000-07:00

Just finished this one tonight. Scanning it was a challenge because it's covered with iridescent gold, and the little edge squares are metallic red. Shiny doesn't render so well with my scanner, alas.

No title for you!

2009-07-18T15:47:00.000-07:00

I had a gigantic blast with Seth's Buried Treasure hunt. I now have far too many new blogs to keep tabs on because there were so many talented folks taking part in this. Thanks again Seth, you art enabler!

Playing with ATC's yesterday was fun and relaxing when it was so very hot outside. I'm also showing a spread from my journal where I played with scrap paper and paint and a ballpoint pen. I don't think any of these are "done" just yet, but they are at a good stopping point for now.

Resurrecting a fun post

2009-07-16T06:50:00.000-07:00

Seth from The Altered Page put out a request for bloggers to repost a favourite of their creation.
"Cat-Like-Thing in Tree-Like-Thing" is mine at the moment. It was fun to make and I still smile when I look at it. C&Ping the original post below:

This creature was inspired by a doodle from the sketching I did at the Vic Poetry Slam, oddly enough.
The media is so mixed that I can't quite recall all the steps I took with it. The original background that you can see peeping through the aurora strip was, if I remember correctly, a watercolour and chalk wash with chalk overtop and was done months ago. It sat in my book waiting for inspiration to strike. After the poetry slam, I knew I needed to draw the little creature, so I did and that sat for a couple of weeks. The bluey-purple nightsky and leaves are acrylic and I did that at Patti's place last weekend. The rest I did last night with my fave white pens and Prismacolor pencils. The photo sucks, unfortunately, but I can give the gist of it at least.

Art to soothe my aching head

2009-07-10T06:40:00.000-07:00

I was down and out with a horrid sinus headache yesterday (and still haven't quite shaken it today, but it is better) and didn't have the oomph to do much of anything except lay on the couch with pencils, paints and paper nearby.
So here's the rather-bare-bones illo for "chapter thirteen" done in acrylics, sepia ink and Prismacolors.

A Drive-By Posting

2009-07-08T06:45:00.000-07:00

Before rushing off to work I thought I'd share the first two pages of my new journal.
Oh, and don't forget that Patti over at Jazzgoil is having a give-away! Go take a look, it's awesome.

A new journal is like...

2009-07-04T09:02:00.001-07:00

... discovering a whole new world with creatures and plant life that you've never seen before!
I realized last night that it's been one year almost exactly since I first started working with art journals. Pattio and I hit Island Blue Print yesterday at lunchtime and I bought the successor to the first little hemp journal I bought in July 2008. I was tempted to get another just like it, but then Patti and I found some awesome, ready-made half-lined/half-blank hardcover books from Daler-Rowney's Cachet line. Mine's an interesting 7"x10" size which is bigger than the hemp one, but still smaller and more manageable than the rest of my current "stock".
I had meant to not do anything with it til I went to Patti's place tomorrow for some arting, but... BUT... Last night the cover called to me with an inspiration I couldn't ignore, and since I do have this wonderful new black gesso that does NOT smell like it's associated with the devil's nether regions (see my post about Jo Sonja's black gesso ewwww), I went ahead and played.
So first is the new cover where I taped off the outer third, sanded it to get rid of the shiny and then painted it with the black gesso. Then I took my favourite Speedball nib and some white acrylic ink to draw the main outlines and finally a very sharp Sky Blue Light Prismacolor pencil to do some of the detail. Eventually I'm going to wrap the dragons and clouds around the inner side of the cover as well, but by the time I'd finished this much, it was 2am. Oops!
Second is the cover of my first art journal, where I discovered the joys of phthalo green, blue shade, for the first time. It makes me remember being in Patti's studio and being in awe of how comfortable she was with EVERY single art medium known to mankind. Heheh.

A quick update

2009-06-30T06:48:00.001-07:00

Had the worst birthday ever, last Monday, but some good news later in the week and getting myself two new paints made up for it! Art does wonders. ;)
The first piece is in my journal and is a mix of paper, acrylics, watercolour and ink with Esme The Vicious sitting there (maybe) temporarily. She might get a better background at some point. The second piece is in my small journal that I'm going to have to replace soon! It is on its last few pages. The background is built up paint and paper with leaf ribbon and even more paper on top. The chimera-type-dude was done on some japanese dictionary page. The third is an 8x10 canvas board with my two new acrylic paints and some cheesecloth and bubble wrap. I think I'll be putting a fish or two in there to finish it off at some point.

Catching up with my journal

2009-06-19T23:59:00.000-07:00

I've had some of these sitting and waiting to get uploaded for a while, but just haven't had time to take photos during the day. I still didn't have time during the day, so the photos aren't the greatest, but I'm crossing it off my to-do list anyway! Oh, and the side borders for the cat-like-thingy are from my pieces of the art paper we made at Patti's tea party. Neat, neat stuff.

Making Inspiration at the Mad Hatter's Tea Party Part Un

2009-06-15T11:04:00.000-07:00

Making Inspiration at the Mad Hatter's Tea Party Part Deux

2009-06-15T10:55:00.001-07:00

Having fun with letters

2009-06-07T22:59:00.000-07:00

Patti was teaching me some lettering techniques today!
I got a little carried away...
Hey, who let that cat in here?? Wasabi, this is not time for your close-up.

Not a totally wasted weekend...

2009-06-01T06:49:00.001-07:00

... but pretty darned close.

In between family obligations and mechanical difficulties that would be easy to fix, if we had any money, I at least managed one spread in my newest journal.

This was inspired by one of my husband's favourite songs, "Fairies In Boots" by Black Sabbath.

Wings and Stars in Aqua Tones

2009-05-22T23:30:00.001-07:00

Another very mixed media piece in my journal. My new art friend Rachelle reminded me recently of how much I used to love aqua colours. This piece flowed from that memory; thanks Rachelle!

The tag reads: "This page is dedicated to Rachelle & Sandra & Patti... my Art Friends."
Rachelle provided the inspiration, and Sandra and Patti's generosity is in there too.

Happy Weekend, all!

Finally Something New

2009-05-20T06:42:00.000-07:00

I do have more new stuff in my latest art journal, but haven't been sufficiently motivated to photograph it. Sadly my scanner and the art journal spreads don't work too well together! That's what I get for using both pages and not studying up on my photography. This piece is so mixed media... I started with a watercolour wash for the background, used some "Radiant Rain" to see what would happen (not much, really. you can sorta see it in the tree trunks but it's reeeeeally subtle), added some fun papers in there and used one of the textured ones dipped in sepia ink to make the kinda-burned looking patch. The critters were drawn on pages from a Taiwanese textbook I found at Value Village. Outlines with sepia ink and dipping pen and extra colour from my Prismacolor pencils.

The Wandering Cloud Finds a Home

2009-04-28T06:46:00.001-07:00

The cloud just didn't seem to fit the other page, but it has found a permanent spot overtop of those strange treetop monkeys. Good thing I'd only scotch-taped it in the first spot.

I had an invasion of family over the weekend, including my "little" brother staying with us for a couple of days. Luckily he's as artsy as us and while I didn't get any alone/down time, I did do some arting, as evidenced here.

What you can't see is that the monkey page is inside of my FINALLY stitched together new book. Also a couple of sketches from my too-big-to-fit-in-the-scanner sketchbook which will hopefully be worked up into something more than doodles, AND Opus had some of their 8.5x11 hardcover watercolour books on sale for $4.50, so I picked up one for myself and had to christen it.

Not the ideal weekend I'd planned, but it could have been worse.