Oh no gesso - sticky pages

So there I was, gesso'ing away in my new Art Journal, letting the pages air dry before putting some greaseproof paper between them to move to the next spread. I managed a few pages like this a day, so I had my first section in my book ready to go, feeling all proud of myself.

Until......

I opened the book the next day and found most of my pre-gesso'd pages sticking together. WT..?? They had been dry before I took the greaseproof paper out, why were they sticking? And, more importantly: how to fix this?

And then Tye said 'But you like that distressed look, don't you?' He's right! I do!
So instead of 'fixing it', I figured out a way to keep it but make it workable.

I inked up the pages, and used a water/white glue mix (thanks to Rhomany's link on her Whimsical Workspace workshop for 'DIY Mod Podge'! But I used more glue than water so it would not be as liquid as it says on that blog.) to seal it.

Now the pages don't stick together, I don't have bits coming off anymore and I love the look! I might not be able to write or paint on it because the surface is so smooth now (and I don't want to add more gesso and end up right where I started) but I'll probably end up sticking stuff on there anyway so it's not a problem.

Meet Art Journal number 10!

I'm just about ready to start a new Art Journal. Number 9 took me a year (!!!) to finish, but then this is the year where I started to do more drawing and watercolouring, so I've been doing lots of art, just not as much in my journal.

So I was on the hunt for a new journal. I still had one that I had bound myself, but seeing as I had just used a similar one for my 'Week in the Life' book (still need to upload those pictures to Flickr..), I didn't feel like using that one. I'm already using a Moleskine for pen and watercolour work, so I don't want to use another one for my Art Journal...

And then I saw Paula aka Journal Artista's blogpost about her magazine journal. How cool! With that idea fresh in mind, I went to the magazine aisle and spotted one I liked, and when I got home, I realised it was the same magazine Paula is using: a Glamour. Not too big, not too small, with enough pages to keep me busy.

Paula in her post said that (Re-)Joyce, who uses a magazine for her daily journal too. Joyce puts lined paper in her journal as well, Paula told us. So of course I had to go and check out Joyce's Ustream to see how she did that. I have been using Number 9 for journaling a lot, so I think that's a great idea!

So the last two evenings I've been sitting here gluing pages together. Three or four, depending on if the next page was one I wanted to keep or not. I'd put a weight on it overnight so it would dry nice and flat (well, ish, because it's still thin magazine paper glued together..) and loving the result.

Last night, I was looking for some sturdy paper to stick to the covers to make them more durable when I decided on using the white duct tape I was going to use for just the spine. It took three layers before you could not longer see the original cover shining through, but that only makes the covers more sturdy so I don't mind.

So here you go, Art Journal number 10, who I'm sure will be as much an 'everything goes' journal as number 9 is:






Can't wait to start working in it! Thanks Paula and Joyce for the inspiration!

Keesha's new toy

We're currently enjoying our 'staycation' and that includes lots of time with Keesha, of course. The other day we got her a new toy, by the company Ruff 'n Tuff, who makes strong and durable toys. We love them, and so does Keesha, so we decided to give this one a go: the 'Eggstraordinary Baffler'.

It is a food dispenser or puzzle toy. You fill the bottom up with dry food, either kibble or treats, decide whether or not you want to adjust the gap through which the food will have to make its way to the top half of the toy, screw the top half on and then just sit and watch your dog have a great time.


(Can you believe she's 9 months now? Oh how time flies....)

I want to be these people when I grow up

Tommy Kane



Danny Gregory


Alisa Burke

And then there's the amazing Mattias Adolfsson and the supercool Miguel Herranz aka Freekhand.

All these people are such great inspiration! I love their use of lines and colours, how most of them draw from life but change it up a little according to taste, their amazing photos, how bright their work is without making your teeth ache, their eye for detail without getting all anal about it and feeling the need to have every single line on paper.

And I love you, dear Internet, for making it possible for me, and anyone who is interested, to soak up all this inspiration and then go out and create our own art work, using our own observation and our own favourite subjects to draw or paint.

Playing conkers, the arty way

Saturday morning I woke up to a new point and shoot camera. Tye picked one up from Tesco's on his way back from work. I love it when it buys me flowers, but a digital camera is much-MUCH nicer!

So that afternoon we went to Hylands House Park, taking lots of pictures as we went for a nice walk, to get to know this new camera, and of course so I'll have some reference pictures to draw and paint from during the winter or these grey and horrible days like we've been having.

I also stuck some plastic baggies in my bag, so I could bring back leafs and feathers and other things I found. I came home with three of them filled with things to draw from.

Even though I like to work in pen/ink and watercolours, I'm not confident enough yet to start off that way, so before I grab my pen I'll do a quick sketch in pencil, just to see where I am and really look at the object:




And then I did my pen drawing, using a Micron pen this time, and added my Koh-i-Noor watercolours. I did two paintings: one on sketchbook pad so I could take it out, and one in my Moleskine large sketchbook that I reserve for pen and watercolour work. For some reason, the loose leaf page got a Dutch text, and the one in the book an English one... I hadn't even noticed until I saw the two next to each other.





I think drawing and painting them is a much nicer way to play than using these chestnuts for a game of conkers, that truth be told I had not even heard of before moving to the UK. Strange people, these Brits...... ;)

The right order of eating M&Ms

It drives Tye mad: whenever we share a bag of M&Ms, I have to sort them out by colour and eat them by colour. I can't help myself, I've always done it, and the order never chances:

Blue - brown - red - orange - green - yellow.

I'd even go as far as to say the blue and red have a very chemical taste compared to the yellow, which is the best tasting one out of the lot. (But don't test me on this, I'm sure I'll fail horribly).

Do you eat M&Ms in order of colour, and if so, what order to you stick to? I'm sure I'm not alone in this, right? ....... right?

Playing with purple