Monsters!

I turned my back on my Artfire shop for two seconds, and what happens? Monsters take over!

Here they are:


These little monsters are actually ACEOs ,Artist Cards Editions and Originals. They are all 3.5" x 2.5" (or 8.9 cm x 6.4 cm), the same size as regular trading cards. Their size is all they have in common. You can find ACEOs in any medium, from water colours to fabric, from oil paint to metal work and anything else you can think of.

ACEOs are highly collectible, and make cute gifts or nice bookmarks. They can be kept in trading card albums, but will look best framed on their own or in a group.

You can collect ACEOs by artist, medium, theme, colour scheme, style, anything you like. And before you know it, you'll have a whole bunch, and it won't cost you an arm and a leg.

These ACEOs were inspired by the knots in the woodpanels of my wardrobe. Those of you who've been following this blog for a while might recognise them, because I first showed them in my Art Journal. They were done on cardboard, in coloured pencil and a tiny bit of gesso.

Run over to my shop to see all pictures and collect them all!

You don't need all that stuff

The other day I was talking to Leslie of Comfortable Shoes about how easy it is when you start out Art Journaling to get lost in collecting more and more and more supplies. You watch a couple of videos, read some blogs, and all of a sudden you feel like you can't live without certain acrylics or glazes or stamp pads or patterned paper, or that you have to have tons of stamps or at least a Moleskine because everyone's got one...

Like Leslie said on Twitter the other day and like she said on her blog, you don't need all that stuff! If you just get your art journal, which does not have to be a expensive name brand journal, and a mark maker, you're set to go. Use a pencil, a marker, a pen. Just one. It's enough to art journal. Having tons of stuff staring at you while you're waiting for inspiration might even stop you from creating anything at all. Especially if the supplies are expensive, and you feel like you have to wait for The Right Moment To Use Them, you might never get to that point.

Here are two pages in my brand new art journal, both done in BIC pen only. Well, on a pre-gessoed page, but still..

The first page is about the loss of a girl on the eating disorder forum I work for. She's been there for years, went through an awful lot and seemed to be doing slightly better.. but not everything is the way it seems. The other day she was found after taking a overdose, and she was already gone...



The second one is a very happy page, it's where I write about how four years ago, I moved to England to be with my Love. It's amazing how time flies!



I quite like the rawness of these pages. The 'this is all I've got and it's all I needed'. All it takes is a journal and a pen.

Now it's your turn! I would love to see what you can do in your journal with just a pen or a pencil or some markers. And be sure to show Leslie, too!

Another Flip-through video!

I finally finished my latest journal, Art Journal number seven already!
I made this one during Less Herger's workshop on Artjournaling.ning, using pages out of an old book I found at the car boot. You can still see the pictures and text shining through on some of the pages, which makes for a cool first layer I think.

At the end of the video I give you a quick look at my brand new Art Journal I made the other day. I used the covers of the book I took the pages out of to make AJ7 and added file folders, bounded in a way Samantha Kira taught in this video.

I already have a feeling that at least the first couple of pages aren't going to be all pretty. I have some personal stuff to work through and where I used to keep that out of my Art Journals, dear old no.7 taught me not to. Thank you Art Journal Seven!

Anyyyywayyy.. enough talking, here's the video. (Completely filmed and edited while Tye was asleep. In fact, he is still sleeping as I write this and he has no idea I just uploaded a brand new video. Woohooo! I'm so proud of myself!)

30 Journals 30 Days

If you haven't been to Dirty Footprints Studio lately, you have been missing out.
Connie has started a fun project called '30 Journals in 30 Days', in which she features a different Art Journal artist every single day for a whole month.

And yesterday it was my turn. (And of course yesterday my internet connection decided to be poopypants and not allow me to check it out, much less blog about it...)

Thank you soooo much Connie for including me into this amazing project!

Ohnooo!! Sticky page!

Last night on the Artistic Biker's Ustream show (I felt a bit silly about how I was slightly nervous before the interview started, because as it happens, I had nothing to worry about. The interview was soooo much fun, and I'd love to do it again! Missed it but want to see it? Check the recording here. My interview is about an hour into the show, but don't skip straight to it because you're going to miss tons of great information and a lot of fun!!) we were talking about pages sticking together, and what I do to prevent that...

I showed him, and everyone in chat, this page:


It's on the Vuvuzela, the annoying horn that people at the World Cup have been blowing and that makes it sound like you've got some angry bees stuck in your telly. I figured, ten year from now, I might remember the horns, but not the name, so I'd best put it in my journal.

And then I left my art journal out on the windowledge overnight, and forgot about it until the following evening... and when I opened it up I heard that horrible sound that I'm sure lots of art journalers are all too familiar with... the sound of having to rip apart pages that have stuck together..!

It even ripped a hole into the page!!

Now, I could've prevented this, but putting some waxed paper between my pages, or by not using too thick a coat of paint in the first place. But you know, it's my journal and I don't think about these things...

So what to do now?

You know what, I'm not sure. I might paint over it. I have already stuck a bit of paper on the other side to cover the hole up, so that would be no problem. But then I'd never get it the way it was, and it will look odd anyway.
I might draw over it. Lightly sketch the vuvuzela back and maybe add a bit of colour, and add the text that I have lost.

Or... I might just leave it like this!

In my written diaries I kept since I was about 10, I sometimes stuck bits of daily life stuff in with ordinary tape. And yes, it yellows and it doesn't stick anymore. But that's what happens. Like yellowing paper, you can't stop that unless you keep your journals in an air tight box somewhere and not take them out ever. But then what is the point.

My Art Journals will hopefully stick around for a long time. If I'm lucky enough to have children some day, maybe they will look at them and wonder what I was thinking and feeling when I did those pages. But I don't worry about using 'archival' materials. Paper will turn yellow, paint will crack, tape will lose its stickiness.

The word 'vuvuzela' is still visible. So the page still serves its purpose. The inevitable decay happened a bit early, that's all...

Very Important Announcement!

The show is tonight, July 8th 2010, from 7 - 9 pm Central (or 1 - 3 in the bloody morning here in the UK) and you need to go here to watch it and join in on the fun!

Twitter links:
@Blade21292 (told you I always get the numbers messed up) and @EvelineTimeless.

And ArtisticBiker/Blade's blog is right here.

See you tonight!!

Now where's that labrador of ours?

We should soooo teach him this!

It's good to look back

Here's a flip-through video of my very first Moleskine, only the second Art Journal I ever did. It's good to look back sometimes. I had forgotten about my three favourite pages, the little girl with her animal friends, the blue face and the fish. I had also forgotten all about the ugly stuff I did and how I sometimes did not even know what I was doing. I hardly added text in those days, and when I did it was silly stuff like 'I don't need anyones permission to be happy'. While that is true, it's also very sickly sweet and Hallmark-ish. Not something I would write in my Art Journal today. But it's nice to see how I've evolved as an Art Journaler and how I slowly become more confident and comfortable.

So here it is, the flip-through:


Lesson for today: it's not about the single page. What I find so much fun about flipping through an old Art Journal is the collection of pages all together. So don't get too worked up over 'ugly' pages and pages that don't 'work'. In the end, they're all part of the collection called Your Art Journal and they are just as beautiful for it as those pages that you do consider pretty.

It's too hot to paint....

so I just draw!

First lines:


and then comes the fun bit; adding shades and shadows.


But ohhmyyy hands are difficult!



So let's try that again!


Here I thought I was finished:


but even though in the picture I used you could not see two fingers on each hand, it looked 'wrong' in the drawing. So I added them:



When this sketchbook is finished I'll be sure to do a flip through video, so you can see the bad and the ugly too.