Playing with brown and grey paper and lettering

Strathmore has these really lovely books. I wish they were coptic bound instead so the page spread would lay flat, but that's my only complaint so far.

Bee Paper has a 9x9 spiral bound brown paper book that I've been really inspired by lately.

My grandfather... Papa, as I always called him, passed away very peacefully last Sunday. He was the first person to show me calligraphy and used to let me doodle on his graph paper. I have his old desk in my art room. After his funeral yesterday I went to the desk, did some lettering, listened to some piano concertos on CBC and drank tea.

Art catch-up

It's been a while...

First some journal covers.

Back cover of "Dither" a square hemp book I'm fond of.

Front cover of my Global Hand Book. Second iteration because I didn't like the first go.

Front cover of my small Strathmore mixed media book.

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Then some journal pages...

Techniques from the 2013 workshop with Robert Joyner in my small square hemp book.

Exploring the doodleverse. My journal pages are often messy doodles like this.

My current favourite saying.

Tree Troll. Heavy mixed media in my brown paper journal.

 I've been playing with techniques from the 2013 Strathmore journal workshops. I love free workshops. I can take the techniques and do whatever I want with them. No pressure.

Lettering has captured my interest lately, so I've been doing a lot of that too, and digging up interesting quotes.

The Ditherer & Instagram nonsense

The cover of my latest art journal - The Ditherer

From my Mill Hill hike this morning

From my Matheson Lake hike last weekend

Sushi in the window

In between packing and cleaning and more packing and more cleaning...

Fun with Instagram and my phone camera

Bean wonders if flowers are in fact cheese.

A white rose in Devonian Park, left at the bottom of a huge tree

A grey and church-y kind of day.

Her Royal Sushi-ness.

Fun with art journals

A flying grannybug and her prey.

Watercolour sketching

Easter Weekend

I am kicking myself for not taking the Nikon with me today. I wasn't expecting to discover a new trail, which is actually a very, very old trail. Can't believe I was born and raised here and hadn't heard of the Barde Knockie Trail before. It was apparently cut through the forest by Sooke settlers in the 1850's and is one of the oldest BC trails still in use. It was amazing and I'll have to go again soon with proper equipment.
So instead of amazing Barde Knockie photos, here are a few pretty Devonian Park photos, the cover of my latest little journal and an Easter imposter.

No, I'm not giving you the easter baskets. You're fooling no one!

Playing with the blues

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

No hiking

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.

Clearing out photos from my camera

... 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.

Colour Riot

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

... especially Natural Amazonite  and Serpentine.

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

Untitled Title

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

Some random hiking shots.