Indigo blue

 I've recently discovered Sennelier ink, and Indigo is my new favourite. Found this totally chaotic art shop in Mallorca when I was there recently, full of beautiful paints and paper and packing boxes and mess, but spent ages exploring it, and even longer salivating over the Sennelier ink selection. Could only afford one, so a huge selection was narrowed down to one. Though my lovely sister bought me one more for my birthday - happiness! Unfortunately I dropped my nearly new Indigo bottle so now the studio floor a much nicer shade. Manged to save some of it but it meant going online and ordering more and spending a fortune in more art supplies that I'm sure I really didn't need...

 A lot of fingers and nails and ends of brushes were used in these drawings, just trying to get a feel for the ink and how it works. Been reading some comments about how they last in light, some good, some bad, so I guess its just a case of wait and see and leave some in the window to see what happens. In the meantime, I've ordered six new colours which I couldn't resist, so watch this space. Unless they all end up on the floor....

Sandy Williams -- I surrender, for now!

Where did the summer go!? The time and the garden seem to have gotten away from me!

A Secrt Garden Gate?

Secrt [Sic] Garden Door
M. Graham Watercolors
and Ink
3.5 x 8.5 inches

As we walked to the trolley each day in New Orleans, we passed this really cool doorway. It led to someone's backyard. There was a house, a garage and other structures back behind the doorway, but for my purposes, I chose to edited them out.

I've always been enchanted by the idea of a secret garden. Maybe it has something to do with Alice In Wonderland or Harry Potter's adventures.  Whatever it is, I seemed to be drawn to unusual doors and gates—they are a portal for my imagination.

The title "Secrt Garden Door" is a typo. My right brain was writing creating and it doesn't know how to spell. So I've decided you have to know the "proper" spelling of secret to gain into into my "secrt" garden! Who needs that extra "e" anyway?!

(And as a wise woman once shared with me...if you can't fix it, feature it!)

This was completed with M. Graham watercolors and ink in my NOLA sketchbook. If you're interested in joining me for a real adventure in New Orleans, please click HERE for information about NOLA Live!

For those of you who are interested in learning more about creating journal pages and using watercolors, Artful Journaling: Foundations and Explorations has been added back to the schedule over on ImaginaryTrips.com. Click HERE for more info on the journaling classes.

Happy Weekend, Y'all!

Pool Party Birthday!

This was the new Noodler's Flex nib pen with watercolor...Platinum Carbon Black ink.

You do need to wait a minute or so when you're using a heavy application of ink, on this paper (Fabriano HP) to let it dry thoroughly, because it doesn't sink into the paper.

 

I do love those lines!  

Here's a comparison with my beloved old vintage Waterman 152, from the 1920s...it was almost out of ink, so the lines are lighter, but you can see almost the same variation in line is possible...

Overall, very happy with the pen, as well as with that ink!

Quick Sketch with my Lamy Joy pen

We went to see our godchild Molly Hammer in Sister Robert Anne's Cabaret Class in Amana, Iowa, over the weekend, and stayed, happily, at Rose's B & B again.  I had more time to sketch this time--by design--and even to the last minute, as J. was checking out and packing the car, I was squeezing in one more quick sketch!

I loved this tiny shed, and knew I didn't have time for color, so I whipped out my Lamy Joy pen with the 1.1 calligraphy nib and jumped right in there.  I added a few details with my regular Lamy with the EF nib, which is somewhat more controllable.  Loved the morning shadows here...as J. was putting the last of our stuff in the Jeep, I took a quick reference photo...

As I noted before, I would REALLY like a fountain pen with a good flex so I get a variation in my lines, but so far only the antique ones really fill that bill, and they're temperamental and sometimes want to leak. So if I turn the calligraphy pen in different directions, as Laure suggested in her wonderful little video, I get some thick and thin!

I've got the Lamy joy with a 1.1 nib and also a couple of regular Lamys with the EF nib. Again, the charcoal seems to be smoother than the silver nib. (My Lamys are both Vista--that's the same as the Safari only transparent--I can see when I need to think about refilling, instead of just running out of ink.)

Earlier Monday morning, I had taken time to do a longer watercolor...I'd imagined doing sketches all over town, Amana is so picturesque and the old homes and businesses just beg to be recorded, but there just isn't time for everything...

Because I knew how quickly the long, raking shadows of the morning would change,  I sketched in their shapes FIRST, with a pencil, then sat on my folding stool to add the details.  I used my beloved retrofitted Prang box, a 1/2" flat and a #8 round brush.

The sun was strong on my white paper, and my paint dried REALLY quickly, both on the paper and on my palette, so I worked very fast...

And again, shot a quick photo to freeze those shadows!  If I wanted, I could do a more formal painting of the garage/shed at Rose's...

Meet Nina Johansson--Interview #10

Meet our friend, Swedish artist and journal keeper Nina Johannson!  I was delighted when she agreed to be part of the book and subsequently, this blog.  Nina's work always has a clean feeling and beautiful design, as you can see on her website/blog. (More in our initial post, HERE--as always you can click on the images to see them larger.)

She experiments with new techniques, colors and tools, and generously shares with all of us on her blog--it's one of my favorites.

Nina records her travels in her journals, as many of us do...her skill really shows, and invites us right along with her.

I asked Nina to tell us a bit about herself...and here's her introduction:

”Hometown” is a tricky word for me. I was born in Gävle in Sweden in 1970, then then family moved north to Umeå when I was nine. If someone asks, I call Umeå my hometown, though I still have a soft spot in my heart for Gävle. When I was twenty six, I thought I knew Umeå by heart, and couldn´t quite find my future there, so I moved to Stockholm – a dream I had had for years then. Now Stockholm has become my hometown too, so these days it seems I am ”going home” no matter which direction I´m travelling in Sweden.

This is one of the wonderful journal page sketches from Nina's kitchen window...she draws it in all seasons.

I have always drawn, but my formal training in arts began in 1991, at a school north of Skellefteå. I went there for two years, at first mostly to try it out, since I didn´t quite feel at home in the natural science field where I had began my higher education. After that, there was no way back, I felt so at home. Almost all education I have gone through since then has had something to do with art or other creative stuff. I have gone through art classes, went through an education in digital image editing, pre-press and layout, and finally went through the Visual Arts teacher education program at University College of Arts, Crafts and Design (Konstfack) in Stockholm. Since then I have been working as a teacher of arts, design, computer graphics, film making and web design, and I keep drawing and painting as much as I can in my spare time.


--------------------


Thanks, Nina, good to "meet" you!  And now let's jump right into the interview...


Q.

How long have you been journaling? Did you always do an art journal, and how has it evolved?

A.
No, I didn´t always journal. I would say I started journaling, or drawing in sketchbooks instead of on loose papers, some time in 2005. I have always been drawing, in pads, on loose papers, on big and small surfaces, even in sketchbooks, but I only drew a few pages and then went on to some other kind of paper. But in 2004-5 drawing became more and more important to me, and I had a feeling that I should start working more consciously, and collect my drawings in a better way, keep track of them, not spread them around so much. And as soon as I started drawing in a book, and jotting down the date every now and then, it became a journal, not 'just drawings'. It became in a way a chronological record of my days. Not every day, and not
everything I do, but still.

And as every other person I know who draws in a sketchbook, I remember everything around the drawings, like the place I did them in, the weather, the smell in the air on that day, what people were saying around me and so on. I also started drawing much more when i switched to books, because it´s so easy and fast to just do a little drawing and then continue later if I don´t finish it. Drawing on loose papers often makes me feel like I have to finish something, or that the result should be of good quality. My sketchbooks are very free from pressure, I don´t try to accomplish that much in them.


Q. 
How does this kind of work complement your career or job?

A.
I draw a lot of inspiration from my work, since it has a lot to do with art and creative processes, and the sketchbooks/journals let me spill all that out in a simple way. I try out different techniques, I sometimes do my student´s exercises just to try them out, and I also pick ideas from my sketchbooks to my teaching. But the sketchbooks are also a place to let off steam. At work I have to plan everything, prepare material and be ready when a class starts. In my sketchbooks I hardly plan anything, I just grab a pen and start drawing. In many ways my work and my sketchbook habit are opposites, and I need them both. They balance each other.


Q.
What do you enjoy most?

A.
Oh wow, hard question... I think getting in "the zone" while drawing. You know, when you concentrate so much on what you do, that you loose track of time, it´s just you, the pen and that subject you are trying to capture. It´s very soothing, calming and afterwards I always feel like I wake up, or come back to the world, somehow. Must be what meditation is for some people.

Q.
Do you have a favorite medium or approach?

A.
Ink pens, preferably fountain pens, and watercolours are my favorites. I love trying out other techniques and materials too, and I often do, but I always return to ink and watercolours.

Q.

You do these wonderful composite/montage pages when you’re busy—your vecka pieces, etc. (Does that mean “week” in English?) What inspired you to do those?

A.
Simply lack of time. And yes, ”vecka” means ”week”. Sometimes it´s hard to find the time to do more elaborate drawings, because you´re swamped with work or whatever, and then I just thought it would be better to draw very little almost every day than drawing nothing for many days. And if I do that on the same page and keep to the same technique or some kind of theme for a whole week, I´m going to end up with something that looks very well thought-out even though it isn´t. And it´s really fun to see where you end up if you just keep on patiently working on the same page for several days.

Q.
You used stencils and texturing tricks in your paintings, do you ever use
them in your journals? (Any of the images you sent me?)

A.
I haven´t used much of that at all in my journals, though lately I have put a few tiny simple stencils in a pocket at the back of my sketchbook to see if I can do something interesting with them.

My paintings are quite different to my sketchbook pages. I´m sure there are things in both that make them recognizable as my work, but they ARE different. And I have been thinking a lot about how to combine these two ways of working, either by bringing my painting manner into my journals or vice versa. I´m trying to experiment with that now that I´m working on a new series of paintings.

Q.
How do you decide to design a page?

A.
I usually don´t decide anything, I just start drawing. After a while I might decide to have a line around the whole drawing, or a bit of text in it or whatever, but I never plan that ahead. Or at least very
seldom.

Perhaps when you're as talented as Nina, design just happens!

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As noted, Nina will be teaching at the second Urban Sketchers Symposium  in Lisbon this July. She'll be giving a workshop with fellow urban sketcher José Louro --it'll we be terrific!

For My Eye Doctor

After going through a "rough bit" along the road of life my vision is still improving. I've been trying to visually document my progress for my opthaneurologist as I go along. It's one thing to tell someone how I see things and another to show them an illustration. So. . . I did two illustrations --both views of my bedroom, the first how I think it would look with normal vision, and the second one trying to show how the graininess that I see actually looks when I see things. Please note that, joyously, the view out my window into the natural light is almost normal. I can see the branches against the sky and the bark on the trees. I'm wrestling with artificial light, but, slowly, that is improving also. It's been three years since I went nearly blind from bilateral optic nerve atrophy, and I'm grateful every day for the progress I've made. I hope somehow my illustrations will help someone or their families or doctors through a nightmarish time.

Day Pretties

Watercolor, Ink and Stamps
3.5 x 8.5 inches
Handbook Watercolor
Sketchbook

Have you ever created a page and it seemed lacking, like something was missing? Maybe it didn't have the oomph you thought it would have or it just looked unfinished?

This page was suppose to sizzle with all that fun, bold yellow pigment, but when I finished (before I added any background) it just didn't have it.

The most obvious fix seemed to be to add a background, but what? I had just created a page with amaryllis (here) and used text as the background and I didn't want to repeat myself. I let the sketchbook sit open on my desk so that I could see it each time I walked by.

Finally, I decided to go with stripes to help emphasis the long stems. As Kate says, "meh." I didn't much like the stripes. So out came the black pen and then I added black stripes. Still didn't like it.

Leaving the book open and continuing to study it, I had about decided it was going to have to live as it was. A little later, I was prowling around in my study on the hunt for an unrelated item when I stumbled across some stamps......and a light bulb came on.

I retrieved my sketchbook and went to work. I used tracing paper as a "shield" and stamped the background. In a few places, I drew in the stamp shape rather than try to cut a shield.

There are things I will do differently next time, but I really had fun with the process and evolution of this piece. Sometimes, we have to get outside of "normal" solutions and reach for something new to make a page successful!