Title: "Smack!"
Title: "Say That's Pretty Good"
Title: "Lucy Perplexed"
Title: "Linus Map"
Title: "Charlie Brown and Lucy"
Technorati Tags: artist trading cards.
Thursday, December 28, 2006
My Artist Trading Cards: Peanuts Comic Themed (Part Two)
Here are the other five Peanuts themed artist trading cards that I made today for a Swap-Bot.com ATC Swap.
Title: "Smack!"
Title: "Say That's Pretty Good"
Title: "Lucy Perplexed"
Title: "Linus Map"
Title: "Charlie Brown and Lucy"
Technorati Tags: artist trading cards.
Title: "Smack!"
Title: "Say That's Pretty Good"Title: "Lucy Perplexed"
Title: "Linus Map"
Title: "Charlie Brown and Lucy"
Technorati Tags: artist trading cards.
My Artist Trading Cards: Peanuts Comic Themed (Part One)
I made these today for a Swap-Bot.com themed swap. We had to use elements from a Peanuts comic strip.
Here are the first five that I made.
Title: Peanuts Characters
Title: Nyahh, Nyahh
Title: Lucy's Wish
Title: Charlie Brown, Lucy and Snoopy
Title: Charlie Brown and Snoopy
Here are the first five that I made.
Title: Peanuts Characters
Title: Nyahh, Nyahh
Title: Lucy's Wish
Title: Charlie Brown, Lucy and Snoopy
Title: Charlie Brown and Snoopy
Swap-Bot Has New Category For ATCs
Swap-Bot has a new category for “ATCs”. This now makes it easier to find all of the ATC swaps.
Previously ATCs were mixed in with several categories depending on what the host had chosen, such as “art” or “paper goods”.
To view the swaps currently available to sign up for, go to Swap-Bot.com and then “view all swaps”. If you want to see just ATCs (or some other category) use the drop down menu labeled “Search By Category” to select the category.
Previously ATCs were mixed in with several categories depending on what the host had chosen, such as “art” or “paper goods”.
To view the swaps currently available to sign up for, go to Swap-Bot.com and then “view all swaps”. If you want to see just ATCs (or some other category) use the drop down menu labeled “Search By Category” to select the category.
Wednesday, December 27, 2006
Working On An Artist Journal
Just quickly checking in to say that since December 19th I have been drawing in my artist journal (a cheap spiral bound sketch book) daily.
I finished reading “The Creative License” by Danny Gregory, finally. But before I finished I took Gregory’s advice and began practicing drawing a little each day. I have been doing this while in bed at night that is the only time so far that I have been able to squeeze it in, the rest of my time I am distracted to do other tasks.
My children and also (gasp) my husband says my drawings are coming out well. They do chuckle sometimes at the mistakes. I don’t feel badly as Danny Gregory has me all psyched up to not get mad at myself for making errors or bad drawings while practicing.
I am drawing with a roller ball ink pen. So far that is it; there is no embellishment with color on the page in any form.
So far this is fun!
My younger son is interested in learning to draw again and so his sketch journal is out and he made a drawing the other night.
With all the holiday prep going on last week that is all the art I had time to do last week.
I finished reading “The Creative License” by Danny Gregory, finally. But before I finished I took Gregory’s advice and began practicing drawing a little each day. I have been doing this while in bed at night that is the only time so far that I have been able to squeeze it in, the rest of my time I am distracted to do other tasks.
My children and also (gasp) my husband says my drawings are coming out well. They do chuckle sometimes at the mistakes. I don’t feel badly as Danny Gregory has me all psyched up to not get mad at myself for making errors or bad drawings while practicing.
I am drawing with a roller ball ink pen. So far that is it; there is no embellishment with color on the page in any form.
So far this is fun!
My younger son is interested in learning to draw again and so his sketch journal is out and he made a drawing the other night.
With all the holiday prep going on last week that is all the art I had time to do last week.
Made A Dozen ATCs Yesterday
The day after Christmas was designated “making art and having fun and relaxing day” by me, for me.
So I had a leisurely day with only one family medical crisis (my paternal grandmother). That was handled so far, by phone.
The fun part of the day was had working to make more ATCs to finish swaps that I signed up for on Swap-Bot.com.
I made six ATCs with a challenge to use a children’s book illustration as the main subject of the ATC. I made six ATCs with a challenge to use a product label as the major part of the ATC.
I have scanned the ATCs and when I can Photoshop them to prep them for uploading to this blog, I’ll do that.
It was fun to work on the ATCs yesterday.
My older son laughed when he entered the kitchen yesterday. What he saw and heard was my music playing on the CD player, a scented candle lit, and the kitchen table filled with ephemera and art supplies. He said that I turned the kitchen into a “haven”. Then both of my kids launched into a discussion about where I could have a studio space. I had said in the past that in my dreams we’d renovate the unfinished attic into a third floor studio space for ME because no room in this house is just for me to have fun and to make my own space for my own pursuits. My kids want that space for a playroom but the thing is they already use what is supposed to be a fourth bedroom for a playroom! And they use their bedrooms and the living room to store toys and to play in also! Enough is enough! I’d love my own well-lit, clean, heated space (so the unfinished dark and spider-y basement is not a place I want to have a spot to make art on, sorry). For now the kitchen is my studio.
So I had a leisurely day with only one family medical crisis (my paternal grandmother). That was handled so far, by phone.
The fun part of the day was had working to make more ATCs to finish swaps that I signed up for on Swap-Bot.com.
I made six ATCs with a challenge to use a children’s book illustration as the main subject of the ATC. I made six ATCs with a challenge to use a product label as the major part of the ATC.
I have scanned the ATCs and when I can Photoshop them to prep them for uploading to this blog, I’ll do that.
It was fun to work on the ATCs yesterday.
My older son laughed when he entered the kitchen yesterday. What he saw and heard was my music playing on the CD player, a scented candle lit, and the kitchen table filled with ephemera and art supplies. He said that I turned the kitchen into a “haven”. Then both of my kids launched into a discussion about where I could have a studio space. I had said in the past that in my dreams we’d renovate the unfinished attic into a third floor studio space for ME because no room in this house is just for me to have fun and to make my own space for my own pursuits. My kids want that space for a playroom but the thing is they already use what is supposed to be a fourth bedroom for a playroom! And they use their bedrooms and the living room to store toys and to play in also! Enough is enough! I’d love my own well-lit, clean, heated space (so the unfinished dark and spider-y basement is not a place I want to have a spot to make art on, sorry). For now the kitchen is my studio.
Monday, December 18, 2006
My Postcard: Mystery Poem Postcard # 5
I was working on an artist trading card swap using only junk mail so I had saved the junk mail that arrived in the last few weeks.
The entire background including the black color and the gold edging was from a DKNY advertisement.
I needed an image of a man who this woman might not be attracted to. I selected this man’s face from The Wall Street Journal. I left the charts to show that he possibly is a boring business man who this sexy woman may not be attracted to.
I wrote the poem on the computer and printed it off on the printer. It was too stark white so I added color with a Ranger brand distress ink applied with a stipple brush.
A top coat of Golden acrylic gel medium in soft gloss was added. The scan of the postcard shows little lines and those are just the lines of the clear gloss sealer, in real life those are clear and those are just brush strokes. I wanted to seal it so that it would be more durable in the mail.
The size is approximately 4x6 inches.
This was for a swap-bot swap. You can read more about the rules and how the poem's words were found in my other blog entry, here.
Technorati Tags: collage, mail art, swap-bot, postcard swap.
My Postcard: Mystery Poem Postcard # 4
I was working on an artist trading card swap using only junk mail so I had saved the junk mail that arrived in the last few weeks.
The entire background including the black and the gold edging was from a DKNY advertisement.
I needed an image of a man who this woman might not be attracted to. I selected this man’s face from The Wall Street Journal. To change the cast from grey to a warmer tone I added distress ink from Ranger (color: vintage photo).
I wrote the poem on the computer and printed it off on the printer. It was too stark white so I crumpled it up and then used distressing ink from Ranger to color it, then spritzing it with water.
I thought the whole thing looked too glossy and dark. I used sandpaper to distress it. However the pure white that came through was not appealing to me. I then took the distress ink from Ranger and dabbed it all over the postcard, then rubbed it all around with a little piece of paper towel.
A top coat of Golden acrylic gel medium in soft gloss was added. The scan of the postcard shows little lines and those are just the lines of the clear gloss sealer. I wanted to seal it so that it would be more durable in the mail.
The size is approximately 4x6 inches.
This was for a swap-bot swap. You can read more about the rules and how the poem's words were found in my other blog entry, here.
Technorati Tags: collage, mail art, swap-bot, postcard swap.
My Postcard: Mystery Poem Postcard # 3
I was also working on an artist trading card swap using only junk mail so I had saved the junk mail that arrived in the last few weeks. The base of this postcard was an invitation to a charity fundraiser. It had a great ecru color to it.
I looked through the junk mail for images of a man and a woman together. I was looking for either an image of a sexy couple or else a woman laughing. Since this poem was a bit sexy I was looking for attractive people. Since the word ‘sleek’ was in the poem I was looking for something to illustrate that word.
This couple was in an advertisement for upcoming live stage performances at the Shubert Threatre. This couple performs contemporary ballet dance shows.
As a coincidence the color of the leotard was a main color in the large brochure for all of the upcoming performances at the Theatre. I cut out some blocks to make a collage with, mostly to cover up the invitation’s writing that was showing.
I wrote the poem on the computer and printed it off on the printer. It was too stark white so I used distressing ink from Ranger to color it, with a stipple brush, before cutting it out and adhering it to the collage.
I didn’t scan the back but it had more text on it. To cover that up I randomly ripped pages from another piece of junk mail which was absent of text and glued that onto the back.
A top coat of Golden acrylic gel medium in soft gloss was added. The scan of the postcard shows little lines and those are just the lines of the clear gloss sealer. I wanted to seal it so that it would be more durable in the mail.
The size is approximately 4x6 inches.
This was for a swap-bot swap. You can read more about the rules and how the poem's words were found in my other blog entry, here.
Technorati Tags: collage, mail art, swap-bot, postcard swap.
My Postcard: Mystery Poem Postcard # 2
For this postcard I started with a recycled food box as a base.
I was also working on an artist trading card swap using only junk mail so I had saved the junk mail that arrived in the last few weeks.
The main image of the woman laughing is from a DKNY ad. I started with that.
It looked very plain so I crumpled black tissue paper and adhered it to the right side of the paper. It is bumped up and has texture.
The image of the man is from the Wall Street Journal. He looked very stark and grey from the shade of the newspaper so I added distressing ink from Ranger to darken it.
It still looked very bright so I rubbed sandpaper over the image of the woman, then used the Ranger distressing ink on top.
A top coat of Golden acrylic gel medium in soft gloss was added. The scan of the postcard shows little lines and those are just the lines of the clear gloss sealer. I wanted to seal it so that it would be more durable in the mail.
The size is approximately 4x6 inches.
This was for a swap-bot swap. You can read more about the rules and how the poem's words were found in my other blog entry, here.
Technorati Tags: collage, mail art, swap-bot, postcard swap.
My Postcard: Mystery Poem Postcard #1
For this postcard I started with a pasta box with a clear window in it. My goal was to use the window in some way or leave it transparent. (That did not work out in the end, more on that later.)
I was also working on an artist trading card swap using only junk mail so I had saved the junk mail that arrived in the last few weeks. Everything on this except for the comptuer generated poem words is from junk mail. Two different ads for DKNY products were used.
I made a collage of the advertisement cut-out's. I wrote the poem on the computer and printed out the words and glued them to the clear part. I then realized that perhaps in the mailing process the plastic window might rip and the poem would be destroyed. So I glued an image onto the back side.
A top coat of Golden acrylic gel medium in soft gloss was added. The scan of the postcard shows little lines and those are just the lines of the clear gloss sealer. I wanted to seal it so that it would be more durable in the mail.
The size is approximately 4x6 inches.
This was for a swap-bot swap. You can read more about the rules and how the poem's words were found in my other blog entry, here.
Technorati Tags: collage, mail art, swap-bot, postcard swap.
Tuesday, December 12, 2006
Finished A Mystery Random Poetry Postcard Swap
I have been working here and there on five postcards for a random poetry postcard swap. Here were the instructions and rules.
Get a mystery novel and go to page 15. Write down the 15th word on the page. Go to the next 15th word and write that down. Repeat until you have 15 words.
Keep the words in that order OR rearrange them into a more pleasing arrangement.
Make art on a postcard and put the words on the postcard.
We could make all originals or we could send high quality photocopies.
Day 1: I went to the library to get some words because I don’t read mystery books so don’t have any on hand.. I used three books to get words from.
Day 2, 3, 4: I worked with all three word groups to make poems as I didn’t like the original order the words were in. I don’t usually write poetry so this was a challenge for me. I found I could only do a little then leave it alone for a while then look at them again with fresh eyes worked the best. My intention was to use all three poems.
Day 5: Rearranged a formerly ‘finished’ poem to something even better. Liked this one the best and decided to use just one poem for all of the postcards.
Day 6: Received one postcard in the mail from another swap on swap-bot which was all falling apart due to poor construction (a bad adhesive method and product). Decided to not make all originals as others are using photocopies so why don’t I?
Day 7: Made one postcard using all junk mail and collage. I printed the words using the computer and added them. Original plan at that point was to make high quality photocopies of this to send to the five swap partners.
Day 8: Received two postcards in the mail with all original art on them. Felt guilty at the idea of sending a photocopy.
Day 9: Made three more originals using recycled food product boxes and junk mail. Sealed them and am letting them dry.
Day 10: Made the last postcard. Let them dry.
Day 11: Wrote down what I wanted to say and the addresses and adhered it to the postcard with Golden Acrylic Gel Medium Soft Gloss. Let them dry. Scanned the postcards.
Day 12: Mailed them off. Noted in Swap-Bot that I mailed the postcards.
I am busy with Christmas prep and typical family life. I hope to add the scans of these postcards here on my blog when I can squeeze in the time to do so.
About the Poem
The words were from “Murder in Three Acts” by Agatha Cristie. The poem reads more like a sexy poem, I think. Here it is.
I didn't give it a title until just now. I'll call it:
The Tease
No attraction in
straight man Oliver.
You play,
his very sleek
raising.
Laugh about it.
Technorati Tags: postcard swap, mail art, swap-bot, poetry.
Get a mystery novel and go to page 15. Write down the 15th word on the page. Go to the next 15th word and write that down. Repeat until you have 15 words.
Keep the words in that order OR rearrange them into a more pleasing arrangement.
Make art on a postcard and put the words on the postcard.
We could make all originals or we could send high quality photocopies.
Day 1: I went to the library to get some words because I don’t read mystery books so don’t have any on hand.. I used three books to get words from.
Day 2, 3, 4: I worked with all three word groups to make poems as I didn’t like the original order the words were in. I don’t usually write poetry so this was a challenge for me. I found I could only do a little then leave it alone for a while then look at them again with fresh eyes worked the best. My intention was to use all three poems.
Day 5: Rearranged a formerly ‘finished’ poem to something even better. Liked this one the best and decided to use just one poem for all of the postcards.
Day 6: Received one postcard in the mail from another swap on swap-bot which was all falling apart due to poor construction (a bad adhesive method and product). Decided to not make all originals as others are using photocopies so why don’t I?
Day 7: Made one postcard using all junk mail and collage. I printed the words using the computer and added them. Original plan at that point was to make high quality photocopies of this to send to the five swap partners.
Day 8: Received two postcards in the mail with all original art on them. Felt guilty at the idea of sending a photocopy.
Day 9: Made three more originals using recycled food product boxes and junk mail. Sealed them and am letting them dry.
Day 10: Made the last postcard. Let them dry.
Day 11: Wrote down what I wanted to say and the addresses and adhered it to the postcard with Golden Acrylic Gel Medium Soft Gloss. Let them dry. Scanned the postcards.
Day 12: Mailed them off. Noted in Swap-Bot that I mailed the postcards.
I am busy with Christmas prep and typical family life. I hope to add the scans of these postcards here on my blog when I can squeeze in the time to do so.
About the Poem
The words were from “Murder in Three Acts” by Agatha Cristie. The poem reads more like a sexy poem, I think. Here it is.
I didn't give it a title until just now. I'll call it:
The Tease
No attraction in
straight man Oliver.
You play,
his very sleek
raising.
Laugh about it.
Technorati Tags: postcard swap, mail art, swap-bot, poetry.
Sunday, December 10, 2006
Copy Left ATC Editions Site
I remember looking at the Copy Left site when I first got involved with ATCs.
Then while reading Lisa Vollrath’s site GoMakeSomething.com this weekend I saw a link to the site mentioning a swap.
GoMakeSomething.com has very good basic instructions for making ATCs for newbies, by the way.
If you go to this page on their site you can see the directions for a Copy Left Editions Swap. The way it works is you send in 20 of your own ATCs and then you will get 15 back in return. They are mailed to an address in Switzerland. There is no mention of who pays return postage so I am confused about that.
I would love to do a swap with them but probably will have to wait until after Christmas when I have more free time to make ATCs.
Also if you go to this page on their site you can view ATCs made by other people.
Click on the names in the right hand column to view the ATCs which that person made.
I found the ones made by children in the Indiana Children’s Correctional Facility very interesting! There are 9 pages of ATCs to view there.
And I loved these ATCs made by BuZ Blurr. See all three pages of them if you wish.
Technorati Tags: artist trading cards, ATCs, Lisa Vollrath.
Then while reading Lisa Vollrath’s site GoMakeSomething.com this weekend I saw a link to the site mentioning a swap.
GoMakeSomething.com has very good basic instructions for making ATCs for newbies, by the way.
If you go to this page on their site you can see the directions for a Copy Left Editions Swap. The way it works is you send in 20 of your own ATCs and then you will get 15 back in return. They are mailed to an address in Switzerland. There is no mention of who pays return postage so I am confused about that.
I would love to do a swap with them but probably will have to wait until after Christmas when I have more free time to make ATCs.
Also if you go to this page on their site you can view ATCs made by other people.
Click on the names in the right hand column to view the ATCs which that person made.
I found the ones made by children in the Indiana Children’s Correctional Facility very interesting! There are 9 pages of ATCs to view there.
And I loved these ATCs made by BuZ Blurr. See all three pages of them if you wish.
Technorati Tags: artist trading cards, ATCs, Lisa Vollrath.
Wednesday, December 06, 2006
My ATCs: "Number One" For Numbers Themed Swap
In October 2006 I sent these ATCs in for a themed number swap. I was assigned the number one.
I will briefly describe the technique then the image it applies to is below it.
1. This background was hand drawn with chalk. The image and the number is rubber stamped with chalk ink. The border coloring is chalk ink.
4. Tree image is a citrasolv transfer from a newspaper advertisement image, onto white cardstock. Number one is a rubber stamp. Cropped and placed on a background of black gesso'ed cardboard (recycled box).
5. Tree image is a citrasolv transfer from a newspaper advertisement image, onto green cardstock. Number one is a rubber stamp. Cropped and placed on a background of andmade paper (purchased at the craft store).
6. Background is hand painted with watercolor paints on watercolor paper. Rubber stamped images of sun with ink. Cropped and placed on background of handmade paper. Number one is again, a rubber stamp.
7. Background is hand painted with acrylic paint. Flower image by Hero Arts rubber stamp. Nubmer one is a rubber stamp. Light border coloring is ink from a rubber stamp pad.
8. Background is hand painted with acrylic paint. Leaf image and number one is a rubber stamp. Edged with color from ink pad.
9. Packing tape transfer of image of man from a tourist brochure (this is William Gillette the actor and builder of Gilettte's Castle in Connecticut). Bacgkround is hand painted with acrylic paint. Number one and text is rubber stamped images.
10. The scanner cut off this image (sorry). The background is acrylic paint. The leaf and number one are rubber stamped. There is some ink around the border, from an ink pad.
To be honest I had creative block with this themed swap. I had to sign up in advance, something I don't like to do. I then had a deadline to meet. I thought it would be easy to do this swap but it was harder than I anticipated.
When I sent these off I worried that the recipients would not like these. I hope they were appreciated. I did not receive one single response or thank you from people in this swap. Oh well. That was the last swap I did with that specific ATC Yahoo Group, by the way.
I will briefly describe the technique then the image it applies to is below it.
1. This background was hand drawn with chalk. The image and the number is rubber stamped with chalk ink. The border coloring is chalk ink.
2. Background is acrylic paint, hand painted. Rubber stamped images of the leaf and the number.
3. Background is acrylic painted. Image is from a tourist brochure and is a quick gel medium transfer. Number one is rubber stamped. Ink edges the border.
4. Tree image is a citrasolv transfer from a newspaper advertisement image, onto white cardstock. Number one is a rubber stamp. Cropped and placed on a background of black gesso'ed cardboard (recycled box).
5. Tree image is a citrasolv transfer from a newspaper advertisement image, onto green cardstock. Number one is a rubber stamp. Cropped and placed on a background of andmade paper (purchased at the craft store).
6. Background is hand painted with watercolor paints on watercolor paper. Rubber stamped images of sun with ink. Cropped and placed on background of handmade paper. Number one is again, a rubber stamp.
7. Background is hand painted with acrylic paint. Flower image by Hero Arts rubber stamp. Nubmer one is a rubber stamp. Light border coloring is ink from a rubber stamp pad.
8. Background is hand painted with acrylic paint. Leaf image and number one is a rubber stamp. Edged with color from ink pad.
9. Packing tape transfer of image of man from a tourist brochure (this is William Gillette the actor and builder of Gilettte's Castle in Connecticut). Bacgkround is hand painted with acrylic paint. Number one and text is rubber stamped images.
10. The scanner cut off this image (sorry). The background is acrylic paint. The leaf and number one are rubber stamped. There is some ink around the border, from an ink pad.
To be honest I had creative block with this themed swap. I had to sign up in advance, something I don't like to do. I then had a deadline to meet. I thought it would be easy to do this swap but it was harder than I anticipated.
When I sent these off I worried that the recipients would not like these. I hope they were appreciated. I did not receive one single response or thank you from people in this swap. Oh well. That was the last swap I did with that specific ATC Yahoo Group, by the way.
Tuesday, December 05, 2006
My ATCs: Men and Time
I began this collage in June or July 2006 but finished it in November 2006.
This was a 5 x 7 inch collage which, when finished, was sliced into four ATCs.
The base is a piece of a box of some product or food item.
I then applied a piece of a wallpaper sample to it, using Golden acrylic gel medium as an adhesive.
I then added rubber stamped images of a watch and a decorative square image to the piece.
I then added a top coat of a tinted acrylic glaze over the top. I originally thought this collage was finished but it looked incomplete, more like a nice background image. I put it away for a few months.
Last month I pulled it out and contemplated what to do with it. I added a bunch of cancelled postage stamps from around the world with faces of men on them. This was from a collection from the Kenmore Stamp Company, where you pay $2 for 500 cancelled stamps (however you end up getting stamps sent to you that you then are either tempted to buy or must return to them by a certain date).
I liked the theme of the old fashioned watch, the old fashioned images of the men, and the idea of men and time and men working and sticking to schedules and such.
I still enjoy making a block collage like this and then cutting it into four equal parts when finished and having a bit of a surprise at the end to see how each individual ATC looks by itself. I try not to analyze that while composing the bigger collage.
The original concept for this was inspired by a themed ATC swap with the theme of “clocks” and “time”. However I didn’t finish the ATCs on time so in the end I did not sign up for that swap and did not participate in it. (I like to make the ATCs first then after they are made I sign up for the swap.)
Technorati Tags: artist trading card, ATC.
Monday, December 04, 2006
My Book Review: How To Make A Journal Of Your Life by D. Price
Title: How To Make A Journal Of Your Life
Author D. Price (Daniel Price)
ISBN 10: 1580080936
ISBN 13: 9781580080934
Full retail: $9.95
Publisher: Ten Speed Press
Format: Softcover
This small format book is entirely handwritten, and those two things make this book inviting. It reads like a journal. Hand drawings and photographs illustrate the author’s method of illustrating his own journals. This is not just a book about how to journal but we read actual journal pages from the author.
This book speaks to a person who always felt they should write a journal but were afraid to start.
Price gives encouragement along the way such as using the journal for positive thoughts not just for complaining. Journalists don’t have to be professional novelists before they can begin writing about their own life for their own eyes!
The addition of ephemera from the journalists daily lives is encouraged (ticket stubs, random paper clutter from our lives, etc.).
The end of the book features twenty pages of Price’s journals which were formerly published in 1991 to 1991, as a small independent zine called 'Moonlight Chronicles'. Later a book by the same title was published (I have not yet read it but want to!)
.
Previously I thought the only journaling that was done in our modern day was in fancy blank journal books and I assumed they were filled only with text in beautiful script. Other journals with writing prompts with someone else’s ideas of what we should be writing further discouraged me from beginning a journal.
I found this little book just the encouragement I needed to start writing a journal with whatever I wanted to say in it. It is alright for the journal to be imperfect.
Price journals in black pen. The journals are not highly adorned nor does a person need to take art classes in order to journal in this style.
If you like this book and crave more, I also recommend the similar and highly encouraging books by Danny Gregory. Gregory’s own journal was published as “Everyday Matters”. Gregory’s second book “The Creative License” further encourages non-artists to draw with pen and to keep their own journal to record their own lives.
Technorati Tags: journaling, Daniel Price, Danny Gregory, book review, artist journal.
Author D. Price (Daniel Price)
ISBN 10: 1580080936
ISBN 13: 9781580080934
Full retail: $9.95
Publisher: Ten Speed Press
Format: Softcover
This small format book is entirely handwritten, and those two things make this book inviting. It reads like a journal. Hand drawings and photographs illustrate the author’s method of illustrating his own journals. This is not just a book about how to journal but we read actual journal pages from the author.
This book speaks to a person who always felt they should write a journal but were afraid to start.
Price gives encouragement along the way such as using the journal for positive thoughts not just for complaining. Journalists don’t have to be professional novelists before they can begin writing about their own life for their own eyes!
The addition of ephemera from the journalists daily lives is encouraged (ticket stubs, random paper clutter from our lives, etc.).
The end of the book features twenty pages of Price’s journals which were formerly published in 1991 to 1991, as a small independent zine called 'Moonlight Chronicles'. Later a book by the same title was published (I have not yet read it but want to!)
.
Previously I thought the only journaling that was done in our modern day was in fancy blank journal books and I assumed they were filled only with text in beautiful script. Other journals with writing prompts with someone else’s ideas of what we should be writing further discouraged me from beginning a journal.
I found this little book just the encouragement I needed to start writing a journal with whatever I wanted to say in it. It is alright for the journal to be imperfect.
Price journals in black pen. The journals are not highly adorned nor does a person need to take art classes in order to journal in this style.
If you like this book and crave more, I also recommend the similar and highly encouraging books by Danny Gregory. Gregory’s own journal was published as “Everyday Matters”. Gregory’s second book “The Creative License” further encourages non-artists to draw with pen and to keep their own journal to record their own lives.
Technorati Tags: journaling, Daniel Price, Danny Gregory, book review, artist journal.
Currently Re-Reading: All the Back Issues of Art and Life Zine
The last two nights, before bed I have been re-reading and skimming the first five issues of Teesha Moore’s magazine, Art and Life.
This is great reading before bed as it winds me down. There is nothing stressful in these zines to upset me and to prevent me from falling asleep. I cannot say this for some of the novels I own or some non-fiction books I have here, nor of the newspaper or some of the magazines I subscribe to!
Also I have been in a creative mood again. I find that thinking of collage and actually imagining making collage pieces in my head helps me fall asleep. It is a non-stressful activity to do.
What I like about Art and Life is that it focuses on creativity in general. The attitude overall is that playing around and making art is a fun activity that should be done by everyone. We are encouraged to make art and to enjoy it. This is not a judgemental or critical attitude zine, there is no saying that art should be done this way or that way. They don’t glamorize fads or trends, either. Whatever anyone is doing is fine, the authors of the articles and the editor, Teesha Moore all just encourage us to do any kind of art that we want that makes us happy.
This would make a good gift for someone for Christmas.
I also recommend the wonderful back issues of the zine Play, also published by Teesha Moore, they are still available on her website. Play is in full color and is all scanned images of artist journals. Art and Life is in black and white and is mostly text with a smaller number of images.
This is great reading before bed as it winds me down. There is nothing stressful in these zines to upset me and to prevent me from falling asleep. I cannot say this for some of the novels I own or some non-fiction books I have here, nor of the newspaper or some of the magazines I subscribe to!
Also I have been in a creative mood again. I find that thinking of collage and actually imagining making collage pieces in my head helps me fall asleep. It is a non-stressful activity to do.
What I like about Art and Life is that it focuses on creativity in general. The attitude overall is that playing around and making art is a fun activity that should be done by everyone. We are encouraged to make art and to enjoy it. This is not a judgemental or critical attitude zine, there is no saying that art should be done this way or that way. They don’t glamorize fads or trends, either. Whatever anyone is doing is fine, the authors of the articles and the editor, Teesha Moore all just encourage us to do any kind of art that we want that makes us happy.
This would make a good gift for someone for Christmas.
I also recommend the wonderful back issues of the zine Play, also published by Teesha Moore, they are still available on her website. Play is in full color and is all scanned images of artist journals. Art and Life is in black and white and is mostly text with a smaller number of images.
Sunday, December 03, 2006
My ATC: Geisha
The background for this ATC was hand painted by me with acrylic (cheap-o brand) craft paints a number of months ago on a day when I painted a giant bunch of backgrounds for ATCs.
The geisha image is from Autumn Moon Paper Company. The owner of the company sent me some complimentary samples of her new collage sheets and asked if I would make some ATCs with them.
I had the idea to make the image into a packing tape transfer so that the beautifully colored background would show through.
I made this back when I was making a lot of ATCs and listening to some older Tori Amos music.
I decided that the lyrics to the song “Girl” applied to the geisha’s life. A geisha doesn’t truly get to be her own person, she is groomed and trained to work as a geisha and she is actually considered to be the property of the geisha house owner.
After putting the packing tape transfer onto the ATC I was not sure if it was complete or not. It looked unfinished to me. I left this sitting for several months and took it out in November. I decided I liked it just as it is and so for now it remains still this way. Sometimes if an image is nice and simple and a message is simple that is enough for me. I don’t always feel the need to overly embellish everything I do just for the sake of using lots of craft materials. Sometimes less is more.
This is an artist trading card, it is an original and no copies have been made. This was not made to resell. Whether or not I have made a copyright infringement by using a line from a copyrighted song is unclear to me, especially since this item is a piece of 'artwork' and is not being sold or mass produced. I have hesitated to send this to Autumn Moon Paper Company because if they used it for publicity for their collage sheets I was afraid they'd get slapped with a copyright infringement lawsuit from Tori Amos! So for now I own this ATC, it hasn't gone anywhere yet.
Technorati Tags: artist trading card, ATC.
The geisha image is from Autumn Moon Paper Company. The owner of the company sent me some complimentary samples of her new collage sheets and asked if I would make some ATCs with them.
I had the idea to make the image into a packing tape transfer so that the beautifully colored background would show through.
I made this back when I was making a lot of ATCs and listening to some older Tori Amos music.
I decided that the lyrics to the song “Girl” applied to the geisha’s life. A geisha doesn’t truly get to be her own person, she is groomed and trained to work as a geisha and she is actually considered to be the property of the geisha house owner.
After putting the packing tape transfer onto the ATC I was not sure if it was complete or not. It looked unfinished to me. I left this sitting for several months and took it out in November. I decided I liked it just as it is and so for now it remains still this way. Sometimes if an image is nice and simple and a message is simple that is enough for me. I don’t always feel the need to overly embellish everything I do just for the sake of using lots of craft materials. Sometimes less is more.
This is an artist trading card, it is an original and no copies have been made. This was not made to resell. Whether or not I have made a copyright infringement by using a line from a copyrighted song is unclear to me, especially since this item is a piece of 'artwork' and is not being sold or mass produced. I have hesitated to send this to Autumn Moon Paper Company because if they used it for publicity for their collage sheets I was afraid they'd get slapped with a copyright infringement lawsuit from Tori Amos! So for now I own this ATC, it hasn't gone anywhere yet.
Technorati Tags: artist trading card, ATC.
My ATCs: Brownie Scouts
Here are five artist trading cards that I made in late November 2006.
The inspiration was a 1951 Brownie Scout handbook which I found at a library book sale. Actually I found two identical books, one was in pristine condition and the other was not in very good shape, each were $1.00. I bought both, I could not resist. I love old books and old images. I bought both so I could keep one (the nice copy) and the other I purchased so I could cut it up and use elements in artwork such as in these ATCs.
I used a base of a recycled food box.
I then adhered a vintage girls dress costume (bought at a thrift shop for 25 cents) as the background. I layered a few layers of it. The adhesive is Golden acrylic gel medium, soft, in gloss. I then cut out pieces from the book.
I then put the gel medium as a sealing top coat.
I liked the simple look to these and felt that no border coloring and no further embellishment was necessary.
One ATC has a packing tape transfer of some of the text in the book, while others are simply the original pieces of text from the handbook.
So here are the five ATCs that I made.
These activities are things that a Brownie Scout was to learn to do as part of her requirements for becoming a Brownie Scout.
I made these just for fun, this was not for a themed swap.
Technorati Tags: artist trading card, ATC, Brownie Scout.
The inspiration was a 1951 Brownie Scout handbook which I found at a library book sale. Actually I found two identical books, one was in pristine condition and the other was not in very good shape, each were $1.00. I bought both, I could not resist. I love old books and old images. I bought both so I could keep one (the nice copy) and the other I purchased so I could cut it up and use elements in artwork such as in these ATCs.
I used a base of a recycled food box.
I then adhered a vintage girls dress costume (bought at a thrift shop for 25 cents) as the background. I layered a few layers of it. The adhesive is Golden acrylic gel medium, soft, in gloss. I then cut out pieces from the book.
I then put the gel medium as a sealing top coat.
I liked the simple look to these and felt that no border coloring and no further embellishment was necessary.
One ATC has a packing tape transfer of some of the text in the book, while others are simply the original pieces of text from the handbook.
So here are the five ATCs that I made.
These activities are things that a Brownie Scout was to learn to do as part of her requirements for becoming a Brownie Scout.
I made these just for fun, this was not for a themed swap.
Technorati Tags: artist trading card, ATC, Brownie Scout.
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