Sandra Strait puts Stillman & Birn’s Zeta, multi media sketchbook paper through its paces. Checkout her thorough review and beautiful illustrations at Life Imitates Doodles.
Posted in Art Journals, Creative Tips, Journal Reviews on March 25, 2013| 1 Comment »
Sandra Strait puts Stillman & Birn’s Zeta, multi media sketchbook paper through its paces. Checkout her thorough review and beautiful illustrations at Life Imitates Doodles.
Posted in Art Journals, Journal Reviews, Miscellaneous, Pen Reviews, tagged art journaling, New Products, visual journal on March 5, 2013| 3 Comments »
This month’s carnival has some great posts featuring some of our favorite things. Visit the following blogs for great reviews and more. Art Journaling
Notebooks & Journals
Pens & Markers
Inks & Other Reviews
Submit your blog article to the next edition of Carnival of Pen, Pencil and Paper using our carnival submission form. Past posts and future hosts can be found on our blog carnival index page.
Posted in Art Journals, Creative Tips, tagged art journaling, arts, daniel boone national forest, sketchbook on January 21, 2013| 14 Comments »
I recently submitted a sketchbook to The Sketchbook Project. The Sketchbook Project is a global, crowd-sourced art project where participants from all walks of life are sent a sketchbook to fill the pages and return it for inclusion in a traveling exhibition and permanent collection at The Brooklyn Art Library. Anyone – from anywhere in the world – can participate in the project. This year the tour will head to Brooklyn, Austin, Atlanta, Toronto, Chicago, Portland, SF and LA!
My submission included modified, digital photos I had taken around central Kentucky. I created twelve two-page spreads, each representing a month of out of the year. Each photo was printed on an Epson Ink Jet printer onto watercolor paper, and modified using pens, markers, oil pastels, gels and other artist mediums. Once complete, the pages were bound into a book a wrapped with a modified cover photo of beautiful Cave Run Lake in Daniel Boone National Forest, Morehead, Kentucky. These are the pages in the book, starting with the cover, January, February and so on.
To see the massive collection of sketchbooks at The Brooklyn Art Library, here is a link to the details: Brooklyn Art Library. If you want to get a closer look at my journal once you are there, the call number of my book is 194.12-9.
Posted in Art Journals, Miscellaneous, tagged art journaling, Creativity Tips, moleskine sketchbook, Sketchbooks, visual journal, watercolor journal on September 22, 2012| 2 Comments »
Are you interested in participating in a collaborative Sketchbook Project? Check out this post by Mari over at CreateWriteNow.com for details of an exciting opportunity for creative journalers.
Attention all creative journalers! Your art journals, travelogues, memoirs, to-do lists, short stories and other masterpieces are wanted to join a traveling exhibit with the Brooklyn Art Library.
The Sketchbook Project , created by Brooklyn-based company Art House, is a global collaborative art project that encourages anyone – writers, artists, accountants, mechanics, chefs, children, you! – to take a blank sketchbook, fill it with personal thoughts, designs and emotions, then return it by January 15 to be included in a traveling exhibition and permanent collection. Talk about journaling on a global scale!
Here are the basic rules:
Interested in participating in the Sketchbook Project this year or in the future? What kind of journal would you create? Share your thoughts in the comments, and read more about the project
Posted in Art Journals, Featured Artists, tagged art journaling, moleskine sketchbook, visual journal on September 13, 2012| 4 Comments »
Posted in Art Journals, Miscellaneous on February 19, 2012| 10 Comments »
A friend of mine sent me this link to this journal/sculpture. I don’t know who created it or what it is made of, but I thought it was interesting and beautiful. If you click on the photo, it will take you to a larger version of the image so you can see all of the details. If you have any information about this piece of art or its maker, please leave a comment.
Posted in Art Journals, Journal Reviews, Past Work, tagged art journaling, visual journal on July 8, 2011| 2 Comments »
One of the journals in the Journey of Journals was themed “Journey”. I thought it would be interesting to create a spread that represented my journey of life in the form of a passport.
A selection of images I created in CorelDraw and by hand were layered in PhotoShop to create a passport collage. I altered the illustrations to look distressed and to give the appearance of being hand-stamped. Once I was happy with the layout of the pages, I printed them out on my ink jet printer and pasted them into the journal. This type of collage can be created using any combination of photographs and images that you may have using PhotoShop’s powerful layers feature. The great thing about doing this digitally is that you can open it and make changes or additions in the future for similar or entirely new images.
If you click on the photos, you will see a larger version of the image.
Posted in Art Journals, Markers, Past Work, tagged art journaling, Moleskine Watercolor Journal, visual journal, watercolor journal on July 1, 2011| 7 Comments »
One of the journals in the worldwide journal swap I participated in was filled with nature inspired illustrations. My entries were of leaves, created with 2 types of markers, Copic Sketch Markers and Tombow Dual Brush Pens. Color blends were used in both images, but the Copic markers produced blends that were more translucent and ethereal in appearance, while the Tombow markers seemed bolder. Part of the difference may be due to the more graphic appearance of the first illustration, or maybe it is because the Tombow markers are water-based and the Copic markers are alcohol-based. Whatever the reason, the Tombow markers seem to produce bolder, sharper looking color.
Both markers are high quality, professional grade products but you may prefer one over the other depending on your project. The water-based Tombow markers are appropriate for use on paper-based surfaces and can be thinned with water like water colors. The ink is not permanent and will not bleed through your paper’s surface unless you you saturate the paper with too much ink. The permanent, alcohol-based Copic markers can be used on a variety of surfaces including paper, ceramic, glass, fabrics, metal, leather, plastic and more. Unless you are using Copic’s special marker paper, the Copic markers will bleed through most papers, however.
Posted in Art Journals, Journal Reviews, Miscellaneous, tagged art journaling, Journal Reviews, visual journal on June 9, 2011| Leave a Comment »
The June Carnival of Pen, Pencil and Paper is in swing at Note Booker, Esq. There are some really great posts this month. Sme of my favorites are:
Beyond the Pen: Fountain Pen Ink as Watercolor Wash posted by guest blogger Jamie Williams Grossman who has a sketching blog called Hudson Valley Sketches. She shares her techniques for creating washes out of saturated fountain pen inks and shares a list of her favorite inks.
Unquestionably The Coolest Notebook I’ve Ever Seen posted by Note Booker, Esq. introduces us to an exotic looking notebook purchased at Flax. The cover is part leather, part canvas and is filled with beautiful paper with a deckle edge.
Links to Artists Who Put Pens to Good Use posted by Inkophile who shares some great links to artistic journals and illustrations created with fountain pen ink.
Inside: A Ukrainian Sketchbook posted by Notebook Loves Pen shows us the inside of Ukranian artist’s Anna sketchbooks.
The Book Surgeon posted at Moleskinerie shows us some amazing examples of book art. Using knives, tweezers and surgical tools, he carves one page at a time, without adding anything but just cutting away some pieces of out-of-date encyclopedias, medical journals, illustration books, or dictionaries.
There are many more great posts, so be sure go visit Note Booker, Esq today. Submit your blog articles for the next edition of Carnival of Pen, Pencil and Paper using the carnival submission form. Past posts and future hosts can be found at the blog carnival index page, and you can read about the Carnival’s origins at Notebook Stories. Next month’s carnival will be hosted by Notebook Loves Pen.
Posted in Art Journals, Past Work, tagged art journaling, Oil Pastels, visual journal on May 3, 2011| 2 Comments »
Now that another journal has arrived home, I can post more of my journal entries made to Sue’s journal which was themed We Are All Unique. I found this topic challenging because I am constantly finding things I have in common with others and the world around me.
For my first spread, I wanted to express that while we are all unique, we are part of something larger. I decided to use embroidery thread in varied colors to create a tapestry, which included hundreds of individual threads which contributed to a larger picture of swirling spirals. In the center of each spiral, I glued small pearls to add some sparkle and dimension. Since the tapestry was so thick, I stitched it onto the spiral binding rather than glue it to the pages of the journal. I used the pages of the journal as a background to the tapestry. Pan Pastels were used to get a smooth, graduated color and press-type letters were added on top. The type behind the tapestry reads We Are All unique Threads in the Fabric of the Universe.
On the next 2 pages, I continued the thread theme by scratching words and a scribble design into a bold background of oil pastels.