Drawing my books

I always have a big pile of books (or two) beside my bed.  Inspired by this drawing, and again, in search of inspiration for the ‘journal challenge’ I drew some of my books. I was on a ‘B’ page of my altered book of dreams, so I left the original text about the meaning of a dream about books.

See the third book down – the biography of Patrick White written by David Marr?  Two nights ago I went to a this talk at COFA, and heard that David Marr keeps his piles of books in his lounge rather than his bedroom. It was a very interesting talk for many reasons. There was one philanthropist, one writer (David Marr) and one collector, speaking on the subject of ‘Why Art Matters’. I went along because David Marr was going to be there. Last year I heard him speak about the Henson case about which he has written a book. He is so intelligent, knowledgeable and witty.

Question time was particularly illuminating. A question was asked whether art for an upcoming art festival should be written about in ‘academic language’ or whether it should be in ‘plain language’ so that the punters could read it. It’s good to know that such esteemed and highly educated people as the speakers share my loathing of artspeak.

I’m not sure, but it’s possible that this talk may later be found on COFA Online

My drawing was done in a big rush with an Artline pen over Gesso, with Tombow pens for the colour, and watercolour crayons for the background.

Journalling Challenge

I am confused about journalling. What is it? Journalling is not a word we use in Australia, however I have a number of books about ‘journalling’ or ‘art journals’ that I got for inspiration & techniques for my artists books. Some of these books are really excellent, particularly this one  of Lynne Perella,  Artists’ Journals and Sketchbooks: Exploring and Creating Personal Pages which is worth buying for the page on image transfers alone. Her other one is pretty jolly good too  – Alphabetica: An A-Z Creativity Guide for Collage and Book Artists (Quarry Book) – it’s more a catalogue of lovely artists books/art journals by various artists, but with a showcase of unusual and interesting techniques.

What sparked this, is that I recently bought a book by another author, True Vision: Authentic Art Journaling which has similar techniques. Not that I mean they overlap, more that I mean they are collage, layering, other art techniques. These are just two of the authors that I have, but they ALL use these collage/layering techniques and I just don’t get how they’re a JOURNAL. Perhaps in some cases they may be a journal in the sense that the artist is sharing their innermost thoughts with the book.  Where I don’t see them as a journal is that the layers are very time consuming, so the ‘daily’ aspect of a journal must be missing except for the fact that, yes, you could work on them daily, but not finish a spread daily. And there is very little drawing.

Through an on-line art mailing list, I came across another artist in the USA who also remains ambivalent about journalling. We have a challenge to ‘journal’ every 2nd day in September. This is my first spread. I’m re-using a book about dreams, which is why I started with a dream I had.

My aim is to DRAW in every journal spread, but to use some of the techniques from my myriad of books to create an integrated page spread.

Even more birds at the museum & a terrific drawing book

Last week we went to the Australian museum again, not for so long this time. I am very happy with my gang-gang cockatoo. I’ve realised that my drawing from ‘life’ (taxidermed life in this case) is entirely different from my drawing from photographs. My drawing from photographs are rather drawings of photographs.

The gang-gang cockatoo in the museum was blackish, though the ones online are more grey and pink. I’ve never seen one in the wild – endangered I think. The rosellas, yes, all over the place.

I wonder if anyone else has read this book I just bought DRAWING FROM WITHIN: UNLEASHING YOUR CREATIVE POTENTIAL by Nick Meglin. My favourite book shop has a 10th birthday sale & I went in to see what was there & came away with two books. This book has really impressed me. It’s about the philosophy or mindset of drawing. It’s all common sense, and only took me about 2 hours to read. Now I have to read it again & put yellow stickies, or maybe even highlight some places (I NEVER do that).

There is no Artspeak. Pictures of wonderful drawings, but just for eye candy – not for how-to. Only one assignment per chapter, but the intention is to implant the habit of drawing. Nevertheless, although this book is very different to Danny Gregory’s books, the writer has much the same idea, that you learn to draw by doing.  It’s also a breath of fresh air after having had teachers in art school who preferred  anything rather than realistic drawing. This writer says there’s no bad or good. It’s all subjective. There’s no place for judgement – only constructive criticism.

The thing where his ideas perhaps diverge from mine, is that he says you should draw for yourself, not to show others. I like the ‘community ‘ aspect of drawing and communicating with others who draw online.

This author says you should just draw, never ‘make a drawing’. Not worry about how the finished work is going to look. I actually think he’s right. It’s just as ‘good paper’ inhibits many of us, we all want to come up with something that we’re happy to post online. If you’re not worried what the end result will be like, you’re more inclined to stretch yourself – take risks.

Borobudur coloured pencil & watercolour pencils

Borobudur…buddhist monument from the 9th century – discovered in Central Java in 1978. I went there when I went to Java some years ago. I took my photograph from up on the monument among the stupas. This is what the whole monument looks like.

It is very close to the hindu monument of Prambanan which I drew recently
This one was drawn in a non-watercolour Prismacolor pencil in the colour of Gris Froid (Cool Grey) then watercolour pencils after that. Fabriano Cold Press.

What I’ve been reading ( reading a lot lately) - Coronation Talkies This is a book set in an Indian hill station, by an Australian author.It’s a bit of a spoof – not unlike the books of Alexander McCall Smith, although in this case, the ‘traditionally built’ lady is Indian rather than African. I just loved this book – was discussing it with a friend at the weekend – she’d read it and ‘couldn’t put it down’.

Florence Street Scene

I was inspired to do this Florence street scene, because Borromini Bear (who went museum sketching with me) told me about this blog where they are painting a different city each month from Google Maps Street View. It seemed like a good idea to draw something different instead of going through my photos again and again as I have done since I started Kate Johnston’s Watercolour Pencil Class.

This street is in the Oltrarno area of Florence. It goes from the Ponte Vecchio down past the Pitti Palace.  Last time I was there was in July and Florence  was packed solid with tourists. To get away from the hordes we crossed the river and went to the Pitti Palace and walked around the small streets where many artisans (printmakers, shoemakers, etc) have their studios. Far more interesting than standing in queues to see the David again.

In the past year I have discovered the books of  Magdalen Nabb . These are detective mysteries. The hero is Marshal Guarnaccia, a member of the carabinieri, whose ‘police station’ is in the Pitti Palace. The Marshal doesn’t seem the brightest, and he’s Sicilian, doesn’t fit in Florence, and looks at it with an outsider’s eye, which I find very interesting. So I took Google’s little yellow man for a walk around those streets, to get the atmosphere.  I looked first at Sdrucciolo de’ Pitti which has the most marvellous name and is mentioned often in the books. I realised that I walked all around there, but I chose another view, because I wanted somewhere that was more open. Of course I was so busy with the course that I missed the end of June for the Virtual Paintout blog, and now it’s Barcelona. That’ll be my next drawing.

Australian Wildflowers and a book

In Kate’s watercolour class, we had to draw ‘fields of flowers.’ I searched some photo sites for Australian wildflowers and came up with this one. www.sxc.hu/photo/887153 I could work on this a lot longer (DARK=TIME) but I’ve cut my losses at the moment. I may go back to it. It’s on Fabriano Hot and I’m starting to decide that I like the Cold Press better. You can’t get too ‘precious’ and the rough texture allows you to lay more pigment down that this one will.

Last week I finally read The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society . I must say I really enjoyed it. It’s a runaway best-seller, and I guess the story of the war in the Channel Islands is new to a lot of people. Not me. I lived in Jersey in the 1970’s. This is where I used to work. It wasn’t so fancy then, though it looked the same from the outside. In the shops at that time were several books about the Channel Islands during the war,(the only part of the British Isles to be occupied) and I read them all. The one I liked best was THE SILENT WAR.by Frank Falla, a local journalist.I wish I had a copy of this one and I just must buy one.

So a  lot of the things in the best-seller were familiar to me, like for example, the Red Cross ship VEGA, whose parcels stopped the islander from starving. The ship’s name is carved into the pavement in Jersey. And we celebrated Liberation Day. We toured the German Undeground Hospital. I used to go to Guernsey for the day on the mailboat, so I knew a lot of the places that were written about too. I was surprised to find that the author of the book was American. I didn’t pick that, at all. It seemed to me that it was very well researched. The only thing that was missed out was Winston Churchill’s speech, referred to every Liberation Day,  “our dear Channel Islands are also to be freed today.” Perhaps, leaving that out, made it seem all the more authentic. Very much recommended!