Slow Drawing journal - double page spreads

Following on from my previous blog post about slow drawing, I have been working on a journal to put some of my slow drawing pieces into for a little while now. It's one of those things that I do every now and again.  There are lots of interactive bits, like flaps, doors, pockets, windows etc, but I have a number of double page spreads that I would like to decorate without any of these, as the journal is getting quite chunky!  So I decided to use some of my favourite patterns.  Above is Poppy.

If I have the name of the pattern, I will add it in. This is Burst.  I really enjoy slow drawing as it uses minimal supplies (watercolour card, pen, ink, watercolours) and the whole point is to slow down and concentrate on what you are doing.

This doesn't have a name, just marks made with a paintbrush.  

Here is Blossom. I really enjoy patterns like this with lots of repetitive lines.

This is one of my own patterns, although no doubt influenced by other slow drawing patterns.

Here is Crowd, which took me about three or four sessions to complete as I needed to rest my eyes often.  It does look really good though.

This is Artichoke.  I enjoyed how this pattern seemed to move depending how I drew the shapes.

This was a Youtube video pattern and I am not sure what the name is.

Here is a bigger version of the Dot one I did for the Smallest Things challenge.

Finally, we have Holes, done with a nice fat Quill brush, which gave the thin and thicker lines.  It reminds me of water drops.

I still have another eight double pages to fill, so I shall keep going!

Making my own labels - a mindful activity

Two of the makers I follow on Youtube have been using a stamp set (Stampers Anonymous - Tim Holtz - Curator) to create their own labels.  One was Alison Bomber from Words and Pictures here (from around 46:39 minutes in) and the other is Toni from Crafty by Toni here (at about 4:00 minutes in).

I stamped the image and then used watercolour to colour them, which was very relaxing and enjoyable. I have done some more neutral colours using Payne's Grey and Quinacridone Gold, but here I wanted some more colourful ones.  I have since had a lovely time cutting them all out and now I have a good selection for whatever I want to add them to.  I can thoroughly recommend it as a mindful activity!

A present to myself

I recently treated myself to some hand made metallic watercolours from The Art Spirits, who have an Etsy shop as well as their own website.  The paints just contain pigment and a binder and are made in the UK.  I had previously bought a silver and a gold watercolour from them so I knew they were really good quality, creamy, easy to use paints.  I used the gold a lot last year and it was so much better than any of the branded gouache/watercolour paints I have.  I decided to go for a twelve half pan set and happily chose my colours from 'glistening darkness' to 'true silver'.  The paints came beautifully wrapped and packaged, with a few extra little surprises added in.  Even the paper that the individual pans are wrapped in is really pretty, and is linked to the colour inside.  I shall use the papers in collage work this year. 

So, here is my selection, all unwrapped and ready to try.  The pans have a magnetic strip on the base, to stop them sliding around (or falling out).

There are little flower shapes attached to the inside of the tin ready to have the colour swatches added.

Here they are all filled in.  Of course, the photo gives no idea just how metallic the paints are, but they are wonderful!  (I think you can tell that I love them.) 

New and inspiring books and courses

 I have been enjoying Sketchbook Revival, hosted by Karen Arbend again this year.  It is a free 15 day inspirational set of videos - two per day -  from different tutors with ideas for adding to sketchbooks/art practice.  They all offer a free gift, which usually involves signing up to their websites, but this is no hardship for those that particularly interest you.  I was reminded about this by Amy Maricle, whose weekly slow drawing tutorials I follow, was offering a video again this year.  The videos are available until 19th October for free but if you would like access after that date, you will need to pay.  I have made lots of notes,  as there are many techniques and ideas from the teachers that I would like to try.  

One video was by Lucie Duclos and it was really inspiring to me. I found that she has a book out, so that was straight on my list.  She has a mid-century vibe and uses collage and doodling to create her art works.

Here it is. It is certainly one of the best books I have bought as the images are eminently do-able (and I have all the materials required) and her step by step guidance is really good. Of course, it looks simple, but is all about the placement of the collage, which will no doubt take time to really be good at.

The vase collage she showed in the video is in the book and isn't it fabulous? I am really excited to be able to create pictures (and cards) like this.

Here's another one which looks really complicated, but is broken down into simple steps. She also gives ideas for changing the images and creating different pictures, so there is a lot to enjoy.

This is the other book I had to buy, as it combines abstract watercolours with doodling.  There a few 'flip through' videos of this book on Youtube, which give a good overview of the book. 

Here is just one of the pages, showing what she can do.  I love using watercolours and adding doodled elements will be very relaxing, I think. 

Now, I just need to make some time to play and practise.  I have signed up to some online courses; the Gel Printers Summit which starts tomorrow, the Gratitude Journal, which starts on 1st November and two others with one of the teachers from Sketchbook Revival, (Andrea Garvey), called the 'Travelling Sketchbook' and 'Colourplay'.  I am still doing my art journaling course and my Whimsies, Words and Watercolours' course too, so I have no excuse not to have something creative to do! (Fitting it all in is going to be the challenge but it is a nice challenge to have.)

Local Exhibitions

Last month we went to our local art gallery and museum to see some of the exhibitions on at the moment.  I was interested to see the watercolour exhibition, having had a little more experience of watercolours in my art journaling course last year.  David Remfry is a master of watercolours and I spent a long time looking at the picture which is on the poster above - called Anna. It was fascinating to see how he had used the paper and washes of colour to outline her face.  There were full length watercolours too and I haven't seen large scale works like that in this medium.  

We then headed to see the exhibition by Jeanette Killner, who was one of my teachers on the Foundation in Art and Design course I did.  She was the 2D tutor and encouraged me with my felt making.  Her own art involves aluminium drinks cans which she heats to bring out the rainbow-like colours.  Chris really liked the fish above, but that wasn't for sale.

All the work was based on nature.  We liked the enamelled flowers of the blackberry and the blackberries themselves, made using beads.

I loved the colours of 'Indian Summer'...

...here's a close up.

I was taken with the Wildflowers too...

...such a lot of work had gone in to creating these beautiful images.

She had even made a 'nature table' with a wire nest, metal feathers and leaves and a metal beetle in a jar.

This hanging piece was really impressive.

I called in to see this amazing Bronze Age pendant which was on loan from the British Museum. The decoration on it was beautiful and timeless - it looked as though it had been made yesterday.  It is lovely to be able to appreciate this wonderful exhibit, without having to travel to London! 

I really enjoyed seeing the exhibitions  and may well go back before they move on or close.
 

Wanderlust 2022 - weeks forty-three to fifty - Papers and Fabrics

Wanderlust 2022 has finished and I really enjoyed the final theme of Papers and Fabrics.  Week forty-three was about exploring different papers and substrates and then make a patchwork page, joining the pieces together with sewing.  I used walnut ink and paints, archival ink, stamping, stencilling, mark making and texture paste and I loved every minute.  I love the end result too, which is always a bonus.

Eco dyeing was the next focus and I used blueberries and coffee (not together).  The blueberry dye was a lovely purple, but when I added bicarbonate of soda, it turned a teal blue, which was unexpected but lovely.

Week forty-five was using Tyvek paper, which is a plastic paper which melts when you apply heat and can also create bubbly effects, which is what we were aiming for. I did melt a hole initially but tried again and got the bubbly texture.  This was used to make a Humanimal - a mix of human and animal. 

Week forty-six was time consuming but enjoyable and quite meditative.  After creating our own stencilled papers, we then had to tear them into small pieces to make a collage.  Adding stencilling over a block colour background helped to show the collage off.

Portraits in charcoal, ink and stitching was week forty-seven's task.  My portraits are improving and I found I enjoyed using the charcoal with water to create some shadows.  Continuous line portraits were also included and we then collaged together some of the different images we created.

Week forty-eight was a layered piece and I used a favourite illustration from The Secret Garden as my focal point, which also dictated the muted colour scheme.  This was a really enjoyable piece to create.

The final week of the theme was more collage but also including stitching into images for added texture.  Another very enjoyable piece to create, with similar muted watercolours to the previous week.  The squirrel was sent to Chris in happy mail and worked so well as a counterpoint to the bird.

The final lesson was about binding pages into a journal and decorating the cover.  

My journal was held together with binder rings, so all I needed to do was to decorate the cover and I chose to collage lots of bits that had been left over from weekly projects throughout the year.  

So now its the end of this year's course, what have I learnt?  

• I am now likely to say 'I'll try that' rather than 'I can't do that'.  
• My portraits have really improved and using a tracing to get the correct proportions is a good thing to start with.
• I really enjoy using watercolours.
• Serendipity often adds something special to a page.

I am looking forward to starting the new course in January 2023. The first theme is pastels - not one of my favourite supplies - but I am looking forward to learning and experimenting more with them.

Wanderlust 2022 - weeks twenty-nine to thirty-five - Watercolours

I have absolutely loved learning all about watercolours.  I had used them before but until last year's Wanderlust, I had never really felt confident with them.  We have used them with gesso, as in the page above.

We have used them with salt and isopropyl alcohol, to create watery effects.

On week 31, we used them through stencils and created collage papers, layering them on tissue paper.

Week 32 was all about abstract florals and using the paintbrush to do the work for you.  I was meant to stick to just one leaf shape but I got carried away making different leaves and I wanted them all in there!

This was an extra page using some of our practise florals and leaves.  I have since bought a book on abstract florals and shall work my way through it.

My best portrait so far, using just two colours of paint and layering the colours, letting the layers dry before continuing.  We drew the features with a black watercolour pencil, which couldn't be erased if we went wrong.  I was really thrilled with how this turned out.  

Week 34 was capturing shapes and colours on a walk, or in my case, in the garden.  This top flap includes photos from the garden and some leaf gel plate prints...

...and here's the page underneath, capturing the shapes of the bricks and various leaf and flower shapes.

Finally (and I am really sorry to have finished watercolours, although I will continue to explore them and what they can do) was this collage explosion of colourful flowers, using doodled flowers copied from books, random abstract rose-type flowers, lilac-type flowers and imaginary ones too, leaves and berries and a few stamped elements.  I found this process such a relaxing and joyful one.    

We now move on to inks and I am sure there will be lots more experimenting! 

I have signed up to Wanderlust 2023 as I felt I wanted to continue my artistic journey and with the way things are going, I may well need that creative boost even more. I hope you'll enjoy coming along with me.

Wanderlust 2022 - Weeks nine to fourteen - Image transfer and Texture paste

I am really enjoying this year's mixed media art journaling course.  Each block of seven weeks focuses on different media.  This block was about image transfer and texture paste/modelling paste.  The page above has image transfer using gel medium, image transfer using acetone and texture paste through a stencil.  The image transfer using gel medium was a new technique and one which worked well.  The big photo is of my granny's family, the small one is my Dad when he was little and the rather ghostly bride and groom are my Mum and Dad (that transfer was using acetone).

Week ten was all about texture paste.  We made marks in it and then added a tag and images around it.

I loved making this page, which was based around a gel plate transfer using a magazine image and words from a magazine.  Using the monotone colour scheme was not something I would normally choose but I loved it! I also added some mark making tissue paper pieces and stencilled letters in gold, and printed back to front to the collage.

Week eleven involved making our own flower and leaf stamps and using watercolour to stamp into the texture paste - something I had never done before.  The image has ended up with lots of texture, which isn't obvious from the picture.  We also stamped the leaf and flower shapes onto separate papers and used these to create the vase.

Week twelve was all about layers around an image transfer.  I didn't have a family photo big enough for this and as you need a laserprint image for this to work, I ended up choosing a magazine image to transfer using the gel medium technique.  I based the page on some of my Granny's interests which were nature and the countryside.  She knew all about wild flowers and trees and so I have incorporated these into the page.  I also used the leaf and flower stamps I had made from the previous week.

Week thirteen was based about texture paste through stencils onto tissue paper.  I also incorporated collage papers I had made on my gel plate.  this stencil is one of my favourites - It is Klimt Spiral pattern by Stamperia.  I have used it quite a lot since I bought it!  I hadn't intended using my Mum's two favourite colours, turquoise and orange (well, cadmium red acrylic paint actually with a bit of Spiced Marmalade Distress crayon for good measure).

Last week was based around a napkin which was applied around the edge of a page.  The texture paste was used to hold a pressed flower on the central cluster element.  However, my flower is still being pressed!  (I will add it in when it is dried and pressed and if it looks OK).  It's a very happy page.

The next material we'll be exploring is artists' acrylic paints.