#AtoZChallenge, B is for Buy a Butterfly

Happy Saturday, all! The perfect day for some art journaling and for today's topic: Buy a Butterfly, or, Sometimes it's Good to Shop.

In yesterday's post I emphasized the importance of using as much FREE STUFF as possible for your journal, but today I'm singing the praises of treating yourself to a trip to the hobby-, dollar-, thrift-, or art supply store. Nothing fancy, mind you, but every now and then your journal could use a little store-bought item or two. And taking yourself to buy some supplies makes the perfect Artist's Date.

My favorite way to do this is to set a budget of about $10 - $20 max, and then drive off with no expectations whatsoever, just an open mind and a sense of adventure. Some of the things I'll look for include: 

• Bags of collage goodies: from paper scraps to die-cut card pieces, such as the butterfly featured above. I've bought collections that are based on a theme, such as beaches and ocean-side designs, or vintage clothing and Victorian sayings. Other bags have included a variety of fascinating but totally unrelated items; one bag I bought even had tiny little clothes-pegs and safety pins in the mix. None of these bags cost more than $5.00 and they were jam-packed with inspiration.
• Old and very-bad-condition books. These are excellent for tearing up and re-using the pages of text and/or illustration for journal backgrounds. (Note: if the book isn't completely falling apart, it can be turned into your actual journal as an "altered book.")
• Bags of ribbon scraps.
• Pre-cut fabric quilting squares. These are usually bundled into small color-coordinated packages.
• Stick-on pearls, rhinestones, and other blingy-type thingies.
• Jewelry-making components such as pendants and miniature printed pictures for inserting into clear pendant-cases. (I don't know how to exactly describe these pictures, but they're wonderful for collage. Each sheet usually has about 20-30 different designs.)
• Stickers! So many to choose from!
• Scrapbook pages sold in tablets or as individual sheets. (The tablets can be pricey, but they're often on sale, especially at the discount stores.)
• Origami papers.
• Craft magazines. Good for inspiration and cutting up for a wealth of words and images.

And that's just for starters. After I come home with my treasures I usually sort them into different categories of size, theme, or color. I then keep everything in a series of cigar boxes for the smaller pieces, and photo-storage boxes (decorated of course!) for the larger bits.

On today's page I've used a background of watercolor crayon, some leftover strips of a scrapbook page, four pieces of die-cut card from a purchased package, and a lovely quote from a lovely member of my writer's group. She had included these in our Christmas cards a few years back and I always knew I'd use mine in some meaningful way down the road--like today. 

For the written part of my journal, I'm going to continue with "I remember. . ." recalling the time my first-grade teacher brought caterpillars to class and we placed them in an aquarium filled with leaves and branches. I'll never forget watching the "worms" (I was a rather squeamish child) form their cocoons, and then the wondrous day when the butterflies emerged to fly out the window. Some things stick with you forever, with or without the glue-gun.

Tip of the Day: The next time someone asks what you'd like for a birthday or holiday gift, why not suggest some supplies for your art journal? I love it when someone surprises me with a grab-bag of notions and "puzzle pieces." Not only does it give me some interesting insights into how other people think (i.e., why they chose particular items over others), but I enjoy the challenge of using things I may not have picked out for myself. Wishing you all a creative weekend!

#AtoZChallenge, A is for Art Journal

Hello, everyone, and welcome to the first day of the A-Z Blogging Challenge! As promised in my last post, my theme for the 2016 A-Z will be art journaling, with a new entry for every day of the challenge.

My plan is to base each of my journal pages on a letter of the alphabet, giving myself about 30 minutes a day to put together a visual page (the part I'll be sharing) from the easiest and cheapest materials available, and another half hour to freewrite about what I find in the images. All along the way I'll also be providing tips and ideas for you to create an art journal of your own.

But before we begin: If you're a first-time art-journaler, please don't think you need to go out and buy tons of supplies. One main point I want to demonstrate over the month is how little you need in both materials and time: an hour at the most broken up into several 15- or 20- minute segments, a journal or notebook, some glue sticks, a pair of scissors, some junk mail/every-day ephemera ("The Moon" is torn from the bottom of a sheet of postage stamps), old magazines, some colored pencils, felt tip markers or watercolors, and optional decorative papers which can range from gift wrap to plain papers you paint and decorate yourself. Chances are you probably have everything at home already; even if you don't have a journal, you can just use individual sheets of paper and staple, sew, or tie them together at a later date.

So what have I got here for this first entry? Scraps! For instance, the green piece of paper in the background up there is a leftover from cutting out some star-shapes for another journal project. I kept it because I liked the unintentional design and also because I'm a great fan of "waste not, want not." The little colored pencil piece I glued in beneath it is a practice drawing on vellum from last year that seemed to fit the overall design in both shape and color--especially as I could then title the piece "A is for Apricot"! And that, along with "Reach for the Moon" is going to be my writing prompt for the day. 

Hint: Apricots always remind me of my childhood in California's San Fernando Valley. A great way to start off your art journal, especially if you're feeling a bit stuck or uninspired is to begin with those wonderful words: "I remember. . . "

Tip of the Day: Did you know cabbage leaves, kale, and collards make excellent journal pages? Oh, okay--April Fools!! See you tomorrow with the letter B.

A to Z Blogging Challenge Theme Reveal: An Art Journal Page a Day

Hello, Everyone! Today I'm revealing my A to Z theme: An Art Journal Page a Day. For anyone unfamiliar with the challenge, the idea is to blog every day during the month of April except for Sundays, and to base each post on a letter of the alphabet. 

This year I'll be creating a small art journal for the month along with tips so you can try something similar yourself. I can't promise it will be a fantastically beautiful journal (see Help, I Hate My Art Journal!), but it will be fun, and it will be a good discipline to collage and journal on a near-daily basis.

To get us all in the art journaling mood, I thought I'd share some pages from past journals. 

I used an actual piece of papyrus on this page. I'm not sure why I associated
Paris with Egypt, but it might have had something to do with the Louvre.
Whatever, to me art journaling is about emotion, not precision.

I found these Betsy McCall paper dolls on line.  I loved
Betsy as a child, but she was a difficult role model
to live up to. My mother had an even more difficult time
trying to understand why I couldn't be as band-box perfect
as dear Betsy, even when I explained to her Betsy was a doll, while I 
was a real little girl. The story of our entire relationship.

This particular collage was in memory of my grandmother. The
picture of the little girl isn't of  her, but reminds me of her all the same.

I put these maps together for a short story I was writing at the time.
My favorite technique was coloring in the black-and-white photocopy of rocks
and sea with colored pencil.

I created this spread after reading a novel set in Africa.

I made this page after I finished writing my novel, Overtaken. 
The bracelet had been one of my  initial writing prompts 
that fueled much of the story.

After Overtaken was published, I wanted to do something with the
old manuscript pages. So I did this.

Using old, failed, watercolors in a new way.

These two pages were created months apart. I was first intrigued enough by
"The Lady in White" to consider using her as the model for a
possible novel set in Egypt. Then when I came across her again in an orange
sweater, I knew there really was a story to write. Currently it's still very much
a WIP, but I'd like to return to it one day. These pages
are a good inspiration and starting point.

So start collecting your junk mail, magazines, ribbons and bows and get ready to journal. See you on April 1, and don't forget your glue sticks!

Urban Sketchers for Writers, Potters, Designers . . . Everyone!

I don't think I'm alone in being a writer who's just as passionate about my artwork as I am about my writing. Clay, collage, pencils, watercolors, beads . . . they're all poetry to me. Each one of these mediums and disciplines informs and inspires my writing life, and I can't imagine dropping any of them.

But one of the things I've struggled with for a long time is finding the right kind of art group, one that matches my wonderful writer's group: a free-form meeting of women with interests that range from screenwriting to structured poetry to pithy vignettes. When we meet every two weeks, it's to write, not critique. We freewrite for about 30-40 minutes, and then we read aloud to each other. Our very informal meetings conclude with conversation and a chance to catch up on each other's personal news. It's a great system, and I've been trying to find that same kind of experience in an artistic environment. Enter: Urban Sketchers!

I discovered Urban Sketchers while I was searching Pinterest for examples of travel journal lay-outs. Over and over my favorite illustrations came from Urban Sketchers' members and I was uber-curious to find out who they were. A few Google searches later, and yay, I found a chapter here in Albuquerque.

I've been attending their various events off-and-on now for about nine months, and I love the way the format follows that of my writer's group: a group of enthusiastic people gathering in an interesting place; setting off on our own to sketch; then meeting up again to share and discuss our morning's work. I particularly enjoy the positive, warm atmosphere of viewing the various sketchbooks without tearing them apart in search of perceived flaws or "mistakes."

I've grown to love Urban Sketchers so much that I want to spread the word to everyone I know--not just my artist friends, but with my writing friends, too, as well as those who are photographers, potters, jewelry makers--everyone. There's so much to be gained from being with creative people regardless of whatever medium you work with. For instance, even if you've never dreamed of doodling in the margins of your latest draft, you can still: 

• Take note of settings. Many of the places we've sketched in are venues I've never been to before. Making notes on all the fresh sights and sounds and smells, recording what I liked about the place (and what I didn't) has all gone into my sketch journals along with my drawing.
• Take note of details: Architecture, clothing, people watching. So much of what makes a story come to life depends on the details. Taking a few hours to really concentrate on every single little thing can only add to your next story project.
• Photography. Okay, let's say you really, really don't want to draw. Take pictures instead! Who knows, photography may become an entirely new vocation for you, one that fits your written work perfectly.
• Artist's Date: Before, during, and after. Most writers I know find the hardest advice to follow in Julia Cameron's The Artist's Way to be taking the "Artist's Date," probably because it involves a) going by yourself, and b) treating yourself to something fun. Writers are notoriously mean to themselves, especially when they feel they haven't written enough or to the quality they expect on any given day. Hence the need for the artist's date. Urban Sketchers allows you to start out in the security of a group, but then sends you on your way to discover your own unique path for a few hours. Take advantage of the time alone to do something that pleases your writer-self while feeding your entire creative being. (And you can buy yourself a treat somewhere along the way too!)
• Meet creative people. Who knows? They might be writers! (Or want to read your books, buy your jewelry!) Seeing the work of others is always inspiring.
• Get out of your comfort zone. Sketching, especially in public, might seem scary if you've never tried it before. But if you can get over your initial fear of "What will people think?" wow, imagine how confident you'll be pitching a manuscript, or cold-calling on bookstores. Or even starting a new manuscript!
• Sketching is meditative. Remember how much fun you had when you were a  little kid and able to zone out with your crayons and paper? Believe it or not, you were meditating at the same time. Giving yourself that same childlike joy for a few hours now and then can help you solve a myriad of character and/or plot problems. 

Some samples from my own meditations over the last two months include imagining myself as a cave-dweller at the Maxwell Museum of Anthropology:

Going back even further in time at the Natural History Museum:

If you do decide to visit your local Urban Sketchers, some essentials you'll need to bring along are: a collapsible camping-type stool, a set of color pencils (much easier and cleaner than fussing with watercolors or felt pens), a pencil sharpener, a sketch pen that you also like to write with, a hardback journal or sketchbook, hat and/or sunglasses, optional camera. Minimal tools for maximum fun.

Tip of the Day: Urban Sketchers is a world-wide phenomenon. Any Internet search will help you find a group somewhere in your area or close enough to travel to. Toss out your inhibitions and tag along--I know you'll be welcome!

Why I Write

I love bringing home old magazines from the library. They're where I find the majority of my writing prompts, drawing references, and materials for collage and art journaling. But sometimes I just love them for the articles, especially when I come across a copy of a magazine I don't often find, such as the December 2010 copy of Poets and Writers I was able to salvage over the weekend. 

One essay I particularly liked in this issue was titled "Why We Write" by Laura Maylene Walter. In the piece, Walter outlines her struggles and successes as a short story writer. In one paragraph she lists some of her reasons for continuing to write despite numerous rejections and setbacks: for practice, for fun, to discover, to explore, to play. And also: "I wrote because I was never more content than when I was sitting quietly at my writing desk, churning out pages."

All of these reasons, and more, resonated with why I, too, write. The article got me so inspired that as soon as I had finished reading I had to run to my journal and create my own list:

Why I Write

• To find out what happens.
• Because if I don't write it down, the story keeps me awake at night.
• I love the Zen quality of a daily discipline.
• I love being in a community of writers.
• I am drawn like a magnet to journals, pens, pencils, sketchbooks, and anything that makes a mark.
• I enjoy the problem/puzzle-solving each new story provides.
• Writing gives me a voice.
• Writing provides a platform for so many spin-off activities: creating book covers and book trailers; making tote bags, T-shirts, and bookmarks; illustrating my scenes, settings, and characters. So many avenues for fresh creativity.
• Writing, aka "creative daydreaming" keeps me from needlessly (and unproductively) worrying about "real world" problems I can rarely, if ever, change.
• I can live vicariously through my characters--all those clothes, all that travel!

Going over my list, I was a little bemused that I hadn't mentioned things like "I write to sell books," or "I want to make tons of of money," or even, "to be super-famous." Maybe I should be thinking about those things, but that just isn't me. I write because I have to. On top of that, I can't think of a better way to use my time than to write, or to create artwork and other projects based on, or related to my writing. Which reminds me, I have a story to start from yet another series of magazine cut-outs I just collated . . . see you next time . . .

Tip of the Day: You don't always have to have a reason for writing or for any other creative outlet, but sometimes it's helpful to clarify exactly why you've chosen to do what you do. Set aside some time and journal pages to write down your answers, and be sure to leave an idea or two in my Comments section!

The Value of a Five-Day Challenge

My inspiration for writing today's post comes from a great magazine out of Australia that I discovered via my writer's group: Womankind. It's a lovely mix of artwork, personal essay, and interesting articles on all sorts of things, from the meaning of happiness to living in Tuscany (which I'm sure would make me pretty happy.) I bought my first copy several weeks ago, and one of the articles that struck me the most was a collection of progress-reports from readers who had taken a "Five-Day Creativity Challenge." When I first saw the heading of "Five Days," my initial reaction was one of skepticism. Like, "Anybody can do five days of something. Try NaNoWriMo or the A-Z Blogging Challenge if you really want to test yourself and suffer!"

But after I'd read the various entries on what readers had done with the challenge, I became intrigued: five days seemed like an excellent amount of time, just right for tying up loose ends starting something new, or returning to a neglected project. It seemed exactly what I needed to motivate myself into finishing half a dozen little personal projects I had set myself over the years and then subsequently abandoned in favor of bigger, more important efforts.

The first thing I did to start off in the right direction was to purchase the storage basket pictured above. I liked the way the inside fabric was printed with old letters and stationery, and I liked the way it was already labelled "storage."

My next step was to gather up the six projects that have been driving me nuts and making me feel guilty each time I start something new. I put some of them in plastic bags for safe-keeping, and then put everything into my basket.

Then I chose one project to finish:

The story behind this sketchbook is that I initially ruined it before I'd even sketched on a single page. I had read in an art journaling magazine that a good idea was to a) put watercolor washes down on every page before starting anything, and then, b) spray the pages with fixative. The watercolor washes were a great idea. But the fixative? That was a very bad idea. Oh, what a bad idea. The plastic-coated pages were completely resistant to most media. The only thing that sort of worked was watercolor pencil, but when it came to adding any detail, forget it, as I found out when I tried to draw a little cardinal and the beak just kept growing bigger and bigger. To salvage whatever I could, I started collaging and experimenting, and thus a little book of sorts began. I called it my Silly Little Book of Silly Little Birds:

I actually found myself enjoying the challenge of how to make those impossible pages work one way or the other, but after completing about 32 out of 56 pages, I just stopped. I'm not sure why. Maybe I became bored with birds, or I finally grew to hate those slippery-slidey pages to the point of admitting defeat and quitting. That is, until the five-day challenge!

Last week I gave myself five days to work solely on silly birds, several pages a day, with the goal of completing the book once and for all. Here's a small sample:

I finished on Friday, and now I only have five projects left in my basket. I might not be tackling another one for a few weeks yet, but in the meantime, the guilt over my little forgotten birds is gone and my "creative burden" is definitely a whole lot lighter. Feels great!

Best of all, I learned a lot from working on this project: I learned I could persevere through difficult conditions; I learned about picture-book layout, something that has always interested me; and I learned I really love birds! So much so, that I'll be adding them to many more sketchbooks and paintings in the future. A whole new take on Anne Lamott's classic Bird by Bird, for sure.

Tip of the Day: Five days might not seem a lot, but it's amazing how far they can go toward helping you start, finish, or continue a creative project. For example, how about a Five-Day Query Letter Writing Challenge? A Five-Day Outlining Challenge? Or a Five-Day Beading Challenge? Short and sweet and infinitely practical. Let me know how it goes for you.

Goal Check-in: One Book, One Picture at a Time

For today's post I thought I'd share how one of my goals for the year is going: Use one art book at a time completing ALL the lessons.

The book I'm starting with is How to Draw Buildings, by  Ian Sidaway. I chose it for a number of reasons: 

• It dovetails nicely with my other art goal and theme of drawing and painting doorways, especially those connected with my current WIP, Ghazal.
• It give me a good foundation (no pun intended) for my weekend outings with Urban Sketchers.
• I really, really want to learn how to use perspective better/correctly.
• Being familiar with buildings and architectural detail will help me with some ideas I'm tossing around for illustrating picture books.
• The more buildings I draw for practice, the easier it will be to sketch in my travel journals.
• And more than anything, I just love buildings!

I particularly like the way this book is structured. Each lesson is divided into three: first is the main example with several pages of instructions followed by the suggestion to "Try Another Medium," and ending with a third prompt, "Try Another Building." 

The first chapter, and the one I've completed, is all about drawing simple small houses, beginning with graphite on white paper. I used a new 9 x 12 inch Strathmore Recycled 400 series sketchbook I bought for just this purpose:

Once I'd finished the drawing, I then moved on to Part II: try another medium. For this I chose to use an ultrafine black Sharpie on a heavier sketchbook page (Strathmore Visual Journal) that I had already painted with a background using my Japanese Kuretake Gansai Tambi watercolors:

The last section, "Try Another Building" provided a photo of what the book called a "stern little house," which it certainly was. For this piece I chose a sheet of student-grade watercolor paper that I had previously experimented on last year by placing a piece of crumpled wax paper face-down on the surface and then ironing the whole thing with my craft iron. After removing the wax paper and letting the watercolor sheet dry, I then painted it with a light wash of Prang watercolors (my super-favorite, ever-so-cheap but excellent brand for art journaling, etc.). The result was an interesting resist pattern resembling bare tree branches that also matched the photo in this last part of the lesson. 

I drew the house and filled in the "trees" with Faber-Castell Polychromos color pencils and white charcoal--doing my best to make the whole thing as stern as possible.

So there you are, three houses, three ways, and all ready for the Three Little Pigs to move in! Another interesting option might be to write a story or vignette based on each of these settings. Anybody want to try?

I've set aside Sunday afternoons to be my "class time" using this and my other how-to books throughout the year. Next Sunday I'll be moving on to Lesson 2 and two-point perspective (the example shown on the cover of the book above). Already I'm feeling nervous which is exactly why I'm using this step-by-step approach. No more just buying books, looking at the pictures, and working on the "easy" parts. Instead, I'm "building up my courage" to go straight through from cover to cover, lesson to lesson. And because I've put that in writing, I'm now honor-bound to stick to my goal! (Taking a deep breath.)

Tip of the Day: What difficult phases of the creative process do you find yourself frequently avoiding and therefore never learning to the degree you want? For me it was never attempting the "advanced" lessons in my art and other reference books. I've found that breaking a task down into easy steps is a good way to overcome and/or work with anxiety. For instance, gathering all your needed supplies for a project a day before you start can be be one step. Setting a timer to work on a portion of the project for just twenty-minutes at a time can be another. Whatever you do, keep in mind that the only way to learn anything is with steady practice, not "instant genius absorption." Good luck and have fun!