Tuesday, May 31, 2011

The Cult of Stuff

Author's note: you will probably never see any of those cute and lovely art journal pages on this blog, my art journal is more sketchbook and test area than "art journal", I confine my journaling to writing  for which I have a separate journal. 

Leslie from ComfortableShoes is also the creator moderator zookeeper of the wonderful Art Journaling community on Ning.  I have been an absent member of Art Journaling since December of 2009 and really have not participated much, but I was recently drawn back into this community and, let me say, just in time.

Monday, Leslie announced two new free (yes, free) workshops.  'In the Sun' is guided by Natalie Malik the barista over at Awkward & Beautiful and 'Cult of Stuff' guided by Leslie.

If you have any hobby or interest that you have begun, you probably have experienced the overwhelming accumulation of stuff and not knowing what to do with it.  Leslie is challenging us to experiment with our stuff' and see what happens.

So, week one is to identify something in that vast array of stuff that we have all accumulated and test, play, experiment with it in our art journals.  For me this item is oil pastels.  I bought them, used them once and into the drawer they went.  I think part of the problem is all the dust that they create.

So, I pulled them out of the drawer, looked at them, looked at my journal, back at the pastels and I thought, hmmm - that watercolor ground from Daniel Smith might give them a good surface to adhere to.  I brushed in on with a really coarse, cheap, wide brush which gave my surface a lot of texture, then I applied the pastels, blending some with my finger, leaving some as is - I then applied a coat of Golden Soft Gel (Gloss) with a broad palette knife.

The result:


Not sure if I'll add to the pages or not, like a said, they normal "art journal" stuff is not really me, but I kind of like the results so I decided to do some mail art, for MailArt365, using this technique.  I think they turned out ok.







Weekly Challenge #24 "String Theory version II: Stripes"

Monday, May 30, 2011

Sunday, May 8, 2011

On going art journey

I have signed up for Alisa Burke's Sketchbook Delight Online class - the actual class ended some time ago, but that is the beauty of virtual learning, it is still there for me to access.

I am still working my way through Lesson 1, which is really just testing out all the media. This exercise has been very good for me - it helps be learn what I like, what works and what doesn't.  As someone with NO formal art training since grade school, this is very important.

So - here is my sketchbook so far.

Saturday, May 7, 2011

Win Online Workshops For Life

Julie Prichard and Chris Cozen are offering one lucky winner access to ALL of their workshops - FREE for LIFE!!!!

Watch this video or go to Julie's website to learn how to win.