Cover Art

I am finishing up my Third Daily Journal today.

Someone asked what I do with the covers of these Moleskine Watercolor Journals. These Particular books are my favorite for my dailies.

I considered some different sketchbooks when I started but landed on these. They are a very portable size. They fit in my art bag or in my purse so I take them most everywhere. The pages are thicker than a usual sketch tablet. I sometimes watercolor on them, sometimes gesso them, use any pen or marker and all but one is perfect every time. My copic markers DO bleed through the page, which is my only disappointment. So I am careful to only use the copics on a page I have gessoed on.

I was so careful when I covered my first book. It kind of scared me! I was new to Mod Podge and wasn't sure how it would work on the cover.

Well, it turns out I didn't really have anything to worry about! 

I had just been learning some new techniques around the time I covered my second book. I used a Crafter's Workshop 6"stencil with Matte Super Heavy Gel for some raised diamonds.

 The Tim Holtz products I ordered in the spring...

tickets and tabs and Distress Ink...

and a set of cheap-o letter and number stencils from the drug store...

influenced my cover design choices on #3.

 Look at book four. I can't get over how different it is. I approached it totally different this time.

I love to layer my art.

I love colors and numbers and words peeking out from underneath.

I started this cover with a paper towel I blotted my paints and wiped my brushes with.

It was full of color and texture.

I mod podged scraps of paper and a pink border and a bar code.

I laid paint down and wiped it off again.

I dripped ink splats and rolled them around.

I glopped paint on and let it dry and crackle.

I stenciled over a screen, and then over sequin holes.

Then I glimmer-misted a #4 stencil.

There were times I did not like it at all and I was sure it was a ruined book.

Everyone says to walk away from it for awhile...

and Never Give Up!

Melody says you can add 76 layers if you want ;)

But it turned out great!

The layers are beautiful and Look at that texture!

Hooray for paper towels!

Most important? It was Fun!

And you can always learn life lessons if you look for them.



The other thing that makes this cover different is totally obvious to me, 

but maybe not to everyone else.

I am different.....

Therefore my art is different.

I evolve..... my art evolves.

I am confident... my art is confident.

What can I say?

This is life.

And life is good.

Be Brave, dear ones.

xxxooo



On My Table Today

 On My Table Today.

It was one year ago that Laura and Peter were married.

How sweet.

Happy Anniversary. May you have many more.

Also on my table......

It was so much fun getting my hands dirty again this weekend.

I am almost to the end of my Daily #3.

I ordered a new Moleskine last week and I am painting the cover now.

I've been preparing more canvases.

Life is good.

Be Brave.

Just Do It

 After I came back from Mackinaw City,

 I hit the floor running with preparations for a bridal shower at my house.

It seems like forever that I have made a mess at my table.

But I have continued to keep my daily.

I have an art bag that I throw my book and pens and markers into when I travel.

If you live a creative life you just need to create...

Any way you can... Any time you can...

Small scale...

Large scale...

In the kitchen...

In your garden...

In your decorating...

In a book...

With words...

With paint...

With markers...

With pens...

Just do it, Brave Ones.

Just do it.

Mackinac

It was a restful and relaxing visit with my three sister in laws up in the tip of Michigan's mitten.

Look at all the visual inspiration!

These are not the usual Mackinac photos. Yes. I have 35 photos of the Mackinac Bridge. And 20 photos of various angles of the lighthouses. But it is these others that I am inspired by.

 If I thought something was 'doodle-worthy', I snapped it.

 More later!

Inspirations

 Before I leave on a trip with my sister in laws, I wanted to show you what has inspired me lately. I am absolutely loving this gray and green quilt I had on my machine last week. After I was working on it I was spotting the gray and green combo everywhere. I had not really noticed it before. I will be using this somewhere! Not sure where it will turn up!



Found in a fabric catalogue

 And I have the most beautiful morning glories. The Blues are so Blue! I just LOVE them! Every morning I think 'God, You have totally outdone yourself today and it can't get any more beautiful than it is right now.' And then the next morning I go out to look at them and I am again blown away by their beauty! Seriously. They are my favorite flower. They live such a short life. In this heat they bloom for a few hours and then wilt away, sometimes by 10am. Later in the cooler part of summer and early fall they are sometimes open all day long.

My daily journal started out bright and colorful on Saturday. I was totally inspired by that blue and the contrasting green... but somehow it morphed into black and white zentangles. But thats okay. The colors will pop back onto my pages another day.

 Find what inspires you Brave Ones.

xxoo

Canvases

I am taking an online class called 21 Secrets. One of the first workshops I took was Child's Play by Alma Stoller. She shows how to make your own canvases with cardboard, newspaper and mod podge. I have felt compelled to make these little canvases for the last few months. And I mean compelled! I have at least twenty five little things here by my fan, in different stages of completion. This project suits my ADD!  I think somewhere in the back of my mind I know I am going to open an etsy store some day soon.... So I decided I better start painting these babies!

That's what I've been doing the last few days. Layers upon layers.

 Paint. Stamps. Ink. Words. Fun.

Art is Fun.

What I would like to do is make a piece and give it to my future daughter in law as a shower gift in a couple weeks. But it is hard to make something with meaning for a young couple just starting out.

A new life... a new home... a new routine.

Melding two lives into one.

Two styles...Different tastes.

Maybe I will let them choose?

I made it so it can hang easily. These velcro strips are genius!

Be Brave Dear Ones. Just Go For it!

A Special Day

July 11, 2012

On my table today.

Love to my kids, Happy Anniversary, sweet ones.

Blessings to you both.

Be Brave and stay married! In this day and age you are the minority.

XXXOOO

Accidental Retrospect

It was really no suprise when I went digging around in my books looking for something that I came across my old sketchbooks from high school and college. What's funny is that sometimes I do this very same expressive doodle in my present day sketchbooks. When I was young I wanted to be a painter. Then I refined that to wanting to be an illustrator. I idolized Arthur Rackham and Maxfield Parrish. I loved William Blake and Howard Pyle.

Ahhh Youth.

 So now it is 35 years since the above drawings were made. And without seeing those... this is what I added to my Daily this morning! :) The middle right drawing I had titled 'Tribute to Women With Tortured Toes'.  My feet must have hurt that day?  But see the little person in today's drawing? I crack myself up! Yes. Sometimes my toes still hurt!

This discovery made me go look through the collection of art journals I've made in the last 3 years. These look an awful lot like the top group! It's not bad to still be doing the same thing 35 years later. But I'd like to think I have developed some as an artist. I am certainly more creative than I used to be... and I do think 'outside the box' more. And these doodles fill a small fraction of my journal pages. I am definitely more confident compared to 35 years ago. I have even started thinking....who cares what anyone else thinks about it. I do my art for fun...and for me, hoping it inspires others,  the way other's works inspire me.

I will never be a 'fine artist' like I thought I would be in high school. I am not nearly the 'perfectionist' I used to be. Sorry Pablo, Vincent and Geogia. I won't be joining your ranks anytime soon!

I am still loving living a creative life! I love my beautiful mess!

Here's to being Brave enough to be who you are supposed to be.......