Persian Silk Tree

This drawing was done in my courtyard with an Artline pen and watercolour pencils. I’m still struggling with what to write in this ‘artist’s journal’. really don’t want it to be a diary – I am not the slightest bit interested in keeping a diary. I just want to draw, and add text. The text improves the drawing.

Goals for Artist Journal course & testing papers

In just a few days Kate Johnson’s Artist Journal class begins. In the past I have been sceptical about “art journalling”  – maybe it’s a language thing. I think that a ‘journal’ (US English)  is a diary, which is why I don’t see the work of many art journallers, wonderful though it is, as journalling, or keeping a visual diary, as I’d put it . Much of the work is so labour intensive, with all the layering, that there is no way there can be an element of a regular entry. I’m sure these artists do work on their ‘art journals’ regularly, perhaps even all day every day, but I do feel that the ‘diary’ element is missing. Maybe I would call them an artist’s book.

My goals in this course are to .. (1) improve the way I treat each double page spread (2) draw or paint, with only minimal relevant collage (3) find a way to speed up my drawing (4) form the habit of drawing more regularly (because faster).

These drawings are preparation. I have a number of handmade books all ready to start, but I wasn’t sure which to use, as I have a Stonehenge one, a BFK Rives one, and an Arches Medium one.  I plan to use the full variety of media in this course, so I wanted to test the papers. I ruled out Stonehenge as my current nearly full sketchbook was of that paper.

First, I tested watercolours on the BFK Rives. I know it takes wet media well, but just wasn’t sure about watercolour. It has a bit of a woolly look, but generally acceptable. Then  I tried watercolour pencils on the Arches Medium. Again, reasonable, but I prefer smoother for a diary, so I’ll put that one aside for when Kate does her watercolour course.

Both these images were from Google Maps street view for http://virtualpaintout.blogspot.com The first one is Belfast (which I missed the date for), and the second is Halifax Nova Scotia which is the November  location.

Drawing from the fridge

Persevering with the journal challenge. When in doubt I look in the fridge. I’d realised ahead of time that I would be short on inspiration and in a rush, so I shopped accordingly.

This is another gessoed page in my altered book of dreams. I drew very fast, almost like blind contour drawing. I used  an Artline pen (which I’m starting to prefer over the Pigma Micron) then coloured with watercolour pencils. The background was done with Aquash watercolour crayons, blue & yellow, then wet. Note that the collage has gone by the wayside. I’d had to get out too much stuff and spend too much time sorting through it. I’m 100% decided that collage in my sketchbook must be relevant, like this one. Then it’s easy – you have the stuff on the day & just glue it in.

Virtual Paintout – Lisbon

I went to Lisbon many years ago. I remember a beautiful city, with a castle on a hill, the Belem Tower on the water, and wonderful squares and boulevards with triumphal statues.

This drawing is in watercolour pencil. It is for the Virtual Paintout – we’re taking the little yellow man for a walk in Lisbon in September on Google Maps. He couldn’t get near Belem Tower. We were on a motorway it seemed, and there were trees blocking the view. At the castle I saw the queues outside, but only walls other than that.

This is a view in Alameda Santo Antonio dos Capuchos, looking across a park at some wonderful mansions.  I chose this view because I’ve done buildings and only buildings for Florence, London and Barcelona. Somehow I KNEW it would be Lisbon this time – where will it be next time?  Somewhere I haven’t been, for the first time?

As a reward for reading so far, I’m telling you that I can swear fluently in Portuguese. In Jersey, CI, when I worked at Hotel de France all the domestic staff and some of the management were Portuguese. We were IMMEDIATELY taught to swear by the hall porters.  I worked there for nearly 4 years, and in that time I learnt quite a lot of Portuguese. As I already spoke Italian,  once I learnt the pronunciation (which is VERY different) I could understand almost everything (which the hall porters learnt, to their cost.) I can still do swearing & food very fluently.

The journal is progressing – it’s just the blogging I haven’t caught up on. Watch this space.

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.

Google Streets of Florence -drawing

I was too late for the challenge for Florence with this one, but it was a GREAT image from Google street view, so I drew it anyway.  We’re going to be doing Lisbon for September. We haven’t drawn a city I haven’t been to yet.