NaNo and Sketchbook

The proof

Yes, I was a winner in NaNoWriMo as those who check my Rohinval blog will know. Writing sort of took over my life for a bit, which was why I didn’t post here much during the last month.

Now, though, the dust is settling and I’m having a break from the writing whilst enjoying some relaxation time with Skyrim. Brilliant game and very addictive!!!

However, I have been continuing to work in my Sketchbook 2012 and am now within sight of the finish – just 7 pages to go, including the last where I plan to write a little about my art rather than draw. I’m hoping to complete the book in time to mail it back to Brooklyn before xmas. So here are the latest pages:

Pages 24 & 25. Holga photo of old raliway track, with drawing. And a drawing of a derelict factory in Sheffield.

Pages 26 & 27. An altered text page and a doodle!

The altered text reads: silent the fire grew by some magic fiery intense white heat violet and blue gold vermilion. The fire was a great pillar of black smoke, a column of some gigantic temple

Pages 28 & 29. Two photographs, taken with my digital camera, that have an almost monochromatic look to them. Because I like them and I thought it would add another perspective to the theme.

I’ve also taken a few more photos that I may show here and hope to add to my Flickr pages within the next few days.

 

Days 16 and 17

The finished mini printer's tray.

Yesterday I finished the mini printer’s tray, including painting the back and edges. In the end I decided not to add as many elements as I’d originally intended – the old adage of keeping it simple seemed to work best. Will certainly do another of these trays at some point, has definitely been an interesting project.

Zentangled "I" ATC

I also made another of the zentangled alphabet ATCs – the letter “I” this time. As with the last 2, I printed the letter onto card before doing the zentangles using Staedtler pens.

Today we went to the Barrow Hill Railway Centre near Chesterfield for a special event there with the Hornby Model Rail exhibition as well as the normal displays. As always I took my camera and luckily we did get some sun between the heavy showers, so I was able to make the most of the photo opportunities.

In fact, I took over 100!!! Well, there was a lot to see, lol. Here are just a handful to prove that I more than fulfilled my creative challenge for the day: I have plenty of images that I might well use as the basis for collages or drawings in the future.

Looking out from the Roundhouse Engine shed.

Engine driver spotted through the shed window.

Happy engine?

Wonder where the temporary trackway department is then?

Steam, trains and chimneys.

Through a steam train window.

The hand of a god...

The Mayflower. A beautiful engine, and one of the main attractions.

Day 13 of the art challenge

Autumn

The Heart Journal challenge for this week was to use one word as a focus. With the blustery winds of the last 2 or 3 days and the changing leaves, I chose Autumn as my word. I added pen drawings to the background that I did yesterday, some cinnamon paint and foam letters, also painted with the Viva cinnamon precious metal. The words were added using a silver pen.

the mini tray as it is now

I’ve also made a little progress with my printer’s tray, adding a couple more elements and glueing down the second frame. The tray itself came with 3 frames but I’ve decided that 2 are enough for this trial play at 3D, plus I have an idea for the third frame. So this is as deep as it gets! Still playing with the other elements, plus I need to paint the sides and back before adding any more.

More thinking…

Spot the differences from yesterday? This is just the lower frame on the base, as it will be covered the splodges of paint won't show.

Day 12 of the get-your-art-on challenge and I have little to show for my time: just minor changes to the base of my mini printers tray and a background done in my Heart Journal.

Mostly I’ve been thinking and planning. I know roughly how the journal spread will look, and have a mental note of the words.

Background for week 8 of the Heart Journal - acrylic inks.

As for the tray, I’ve decided to leave that for a while and continue to arrange and change things around until I’m happy enough to glue into position.

But the note-taking, morning pages, thought processes and the sorting through items are all an essential part of creating. Interestingly enough, my friend Jill is also at a thinking and sorting stage. As she says, without the preparation, there would be no creating

Day 11 – a thinking day

In this all items apart from the frames are fixed...

Being tired, and a weekend, and watching the final of the Shanghai Masters snooker means I haven’t done as much today as over the past few days. But my little altered tray has developed a bit and I’ve definitely fulfilled the minimum 30 minutes of the get-your-art-on challenge. Even if it doesn’t look as if I’ve achieved much.

Playing with elements... I've discarded the large raven from yesterday, still to decide on what to include and where.

What I have done is more painting, this time with Viva precious metal cinnamon paint (I adore the colour) and some glueing of elements to the base and lower frame. Much of the time I’ve been arranging, re-arranging and generally thinking on what to add (or not). For now, I’ll leave any more glueing and painting until I’ve made more decisions.

Although I’m used to building up collage and working in layers, this 3D tray, with the laser cut frames that stack on top to give the deep niches, is challenging my normal approaches. Which is good. Makes me think, explore and experiment. Great fun.

Day 10 of get-your-art-on

Today, something completely different. Much of what I’ve done has been planning what to do with the mini printer tray that arrived yesterday. I’ve been looking at these trays for a while thinking that they would be fun to play with. I finally gave in and ordered one. With an autumn theme in mind I ordered background papers at the same time. Here are images of what I’ve done so far:

the back card, with papers glued on

added stamp and decals

playing with ideas... the bird is a stamp, the cat, tiny bird and cage are from karen-marie-klip cutouts I bought in Germany

The layout and design will no doubt change from the above rough layout as I continue to look at various possibilities. I’ve also painted the top with Viva Deco amber gold paint, but the light faded before I could take a photo. So you’ll have to wait and see how it looks until tomorrow. Until then, why not check out Traci’s blog to see how she’s getting on with the challenge too

Doll and bag-book

Here is my art doll of Zentara Shadowsoul:

Full length...

Closer...

... and closer still.

She’s a card doll, dressed in fabric. Originally I planned that she would have blonde hair and was going to dye the feathery trimming that I used. However, when placing it I decided that she wanted to be wild and pink, so that is how I left it!

I’ve also made her a bag-book to hold small items she collects on her travels, perhaps some mini journals too. This being something I had never made, I looked at various instructions online before deciding on how to proceed. For the inner pages, I used bags from our local art gallery, collected for the purpose by purchasing several postcards, lol.

bags...

For the cover, I used a bigger and stronger bag:

bag used for cover

Once I’d folded and trimmed the bags so that they were like tubes, I covered them with various papers:

before stitching them together and adding embellishments. Here is the finished bag-book:

The front cover, with ribbon to keep the book closed.

Inside pages, with pockets created by the bags.

One of the centre pages - the flower can also be used as a pocket.

Bag, box and journal

During the last few days I’ve been slowly altering three items for the Travelling Artists’ Guild journey. The originals started off like this:

bag box journal

The journal is a Khadi paper journal, and a birthday present. I’ve been wanting to use it for something special and this journey is exactly the type of project it’s been crying out for. I know that, according to the guidelines, I’m supposed to make my own. And I still might do that, smaller ones for my notes (or Zentara’s notes, should I say) of her travels. But this one will be her main art journal. In the story, it will be given by her clan chief, as a reminder of life with the nomadic Zigandi. Thus I decided to draw and paint a caravan and horse on the cover:

Acrylic inks over pencil drawings.

The box is for Zentara’s journal and other small items that will be added during her travels. 7″ square, it was originally a cosmetic gift box, already padded. The material wasn’t easy to work with so I’ve left the inside, for now anyway. I used acrylic inks to colour the base; within the circle of beads I used fabric paint; added bought leaves to the top and ribbon around the lid. Finally finished off with a small ‘gem’.

Box lid - the autumnal leaves to remind Zentara of the season in which she started her travels.

Box from the front...

... and with the journal tucked inside.

The final item is a canvas bag that I bought a few months ago at an art exhibition. It seemed very appropriate for a travelling artists bag, with the paintbrushes already printed on one side. However, the canvas was far too plain and dull for Zentara so I used acrylic inks to liven it up, adding flower embellishments to one side and a ribbon around the top.

Colourful brushes...

...with a floral/ woodland scene on the other.

So now Zentara Shadowsoul has some items for her journey. Next I need to make her a doll. For now, though, you can read further updates of her story on her own blog – the above items have not yet been mentioned but I’m sure they will be in the near future!

Another long break…

Again, apologies. But I’ve done very little art since the last post, and have been in a rather hazy world for the last month or so. Hopefully, the mist is slowly lifting, so here are the 2 little creations that I have done.

The first is an altered matchbox for a rather belated birthday gift. Luckily the recipient didn’t mind about it being late, and seemed delighted with her little ‘treasure’ box.

Open matchbox with goodies

I made the 3 flower embellishments (one on the box, 2 inside) from air-dry clay; the other items in the box were from my stash. The box itself was decorated with paper and paints, including crackle paint, an item which I love using.

The other item I made was a quiltie for a swap. An interesting one, we had to base our design on a photograph taken by our partner. Here’s the original photo (I’m sure Alis won’t object to me sharing it here):

And here is my finished quiltie:

Mostly fabric-painted cotton. The bench itself was printed onto cotton after having been turned into a ‘drawing’ using PaintShopPro and painted before being stuck onto the hand-drawn background. Finished with hand needle-felting and stitching.

And that’s been my creative output for the last month, apart from a few doodles in my journal. Still, I’m working on a collage at the moment, so hopefully there will be more to share soon.

Rest and meditation

 This is the first spread in my Urban Snapshots altered book project.

Both of these photos were taken in Sheffield. The one on the left is behind a restaurant, where the chefs and workers go for a quick rest or smoking break (I’ve seen them). What appealed to me, I think, was how the barred gate and the bleak surroundings make the place look rather akin to a prison; hence the addition of mesh behind the photo.

In contrast, the Cafe Azure in the Millennium Galleries has a wonderful peaceful and open decor with light flooding through the large windows. Usually it is busy but on that morning only one person, seemingly deep in thought, occupied the cafe and I couldn’t resist taking the photo as I passed. I framed the photo with paper rope, the first time that I’ve used this material – wish I’d discovered it earlier as it’s relatively easy to bend and keeps it shape.

The background for both spreads is a photo of floor tiles from within the galleries, printed on normal paper then coloured with chalks and inks.