Photography Friday

It's Photography Friday again. Enjoy!

Spent my birthday gift certificates on art supplies....

... and books! So happy!

View over the pond near my house. I love this pond from every angle and in every weather.

A beautiful day, a blue sky and a white boat. What else is there to wish for?

The first really green tree I saw. It's like it came out of nowhere!

The dyke is getting quite green too and the dandelions are in bloom.

My completely useless assistant taking up space on my studio table while I play with my water colours.

Better weather means sitting in the dunes with my face in the sun. Mmmmm....

Still keeping my shoes on though. It's not that warm yet.

A little valley next to the forest.

A narrow path through the trees begging to be explored.

Useless yes, but oh so relaxed. He's the king of napping!

I cheated on my assistant with this dog. I'm so in love with her. She's my sisters.

Harlingen on a busy boat day.

Found the perfect containers for my alcohol markers. Yay!

Wishing you all a wonderful and artsy weekend. Mine will be three days long, so I'm pretty happy about that! Well...until June of course, then they will all be four days long, but that's for the future, right now I'll take what I can get. ;-)

Sketchbook pages

I like to show pages from my sketchbooks from time to time. My sketchbooks are just random books really. They are not about making beautiful art, but about practicing techniques, trying out materials or just...well...killing time.

First there are some spreads from my Small Book. It measures 15x15 cm (6x6 inches) and mostly lives in my bag. It goes with me everywhere. It's hard to keep open, so that's why my fingers can be seen in these pictures. ;-)

Sometimes I just like to colour for no reason. These different sized striped lines were perfect for that.

Doodling with felt tip pens. I'm not too crazy about these pages.

More doodling with felt tip pens and these I really like. I wonder why I do like these and not the previous ones?

The other three pictures are from my Studio Book, which, as the name already states, lives in my studio. It measures 25x25 cm (10x10 inches). This book is a real work horse. I keep everything in there from lists and notes to leaflets and try outs of materials. And sometimes I even make some art in it, like these:

This is what I call a leftover collage. It's done with things left over from other projects.

Practicing with watercolour. They are far from perfect, but I really like these.

I printed some faces I did with a drawing app on my tablet and worked them into these pages.

As you can see there is really no rhyme or reason to my sketchbooks. They will just hold anything and everything and that's exactly the way it should be as far as I'm concerned.

I hope you enjoyed this peek into my pages and even more I hope you use your sketchbook for all creative play and to just mess about. Make it your best friend and it will not disappoint you!

Wishing you all a wonderful and artsy Wednesday!

Freebies page added

I just wanted to let you know I made an extra page to link to all the freebies I have posted over the years and the ones I will no doubt post in the future. They are available through the labels, but I have a feeling they kind of get lost that way and I'd hate for people to miss out on them. So now they are more in plain sight.

Please check them out through the tab in the header and...enjoy!

Book review: Journal it! / Jenny Doh

Title: Journal it! - Perspectives in creative journaling
Author: Jenny Doh
Info: 160 p. - 2012
Rating: 7.5 / 10






Notes:
In this lovely book 19 art journalers share their thoughts on journaling, some of their techniques and of course their journal pages. This books includes people like Julie Fei Fan Balzer, Debra Cooper, Jill K. Berry, Roben Marie Smith and Zom Osborne.

The styles are quite diverse and that makes this book a joy to look through. There's plenty of inspiration for everyone who's the least bit interested in art journaling. It would be hard not to find at least one style that speaks to you.

As for techniques the artists show, the book seems more directed to beginners than experienced journalers, they are mostly quite simple and straightforward. This is not necessarily a bad thing, but if you are an experienced art journaler or mixed media artist you may not want to buy this book if you want to learn something new or revolutionary.

I think the same can be said for what the artists are saying. If you've read a couple of art journaling books or visit a lot of art journal blogs you've probably heard it all before. And yet...I couldn't help be inspired by this mixed group of people (there were even a couple of men involved, which is rare for art journaling books), simply because they show so many different styles and ideas. I like books that have more than one artist in them, because it proves the point that there is not one way to journal and also that there is no wrong way to journal.

The layout is quite beautiful too, but it does have a drawback. Every chapter (every new artist) is featured in a different colour lettering. This looks really nice, but certain colours are harder to read than others, especially in artificial light. I think it would have been better if the actual text had all been black on white instead of read, yellow, green or whatever other colour was chosen. I do see the attraction, but a reading text should really have a better contrast than was now the case sometimes.

All in all this book is an inspiration first and for beginners I think it would be a good place to start with instruction, especially because most of the techniques are simple. I would definitely recommend it!

From the White Book

Time to show you some new pages from my White Book, my current art journal. I have nothing to add to them really, except that I hope you enjoy them.

 

If you have any questions about these pages don't hesitate to ask. I still plan to do a step by step of one of them, but once I get going I keep forgetting about it, haha. I will though, I really will!

Wishing you all a wonderful and artsy weekend! 

Sampling

I have a lot of art materials and supplies. I admit it wholeheartedly and am not ashamed of my wonderful stash. I love everything in my studio and all the little annexes I have created in my house from my sewing room to my journaling table and even a little box under my coffee table and a tote in my backpack. It gives me great feeling of wealth to know I have so many possibilities just lying up for grabs. The same way I like it that I have a whole stash of books that still need reading and a nice collection of dvd's that still need watching.

It is good however to take a little inventory from time to time and to really get to know every little bit of your stash so you have at least handled every colour once and know how your materials respond to different ways of handling. A good way to start with this is to make samples. Colour samples and/or swatches can be really helpful when picking materials and colours for a project whether you are planning one or in the middel of making one. So today I thought I would give you some examples of my sample collection.

For mark makers like pencils, pens, markers and crayons and such I have adopted a hot pink binder. It is about A5 in size and is filled with these punched pockets in which you can slide papers, which obviously I did.

I make colour charts for all my mark makers (I haven't done all of them yet, but I'm working on it). And if a material is watersoluble I will show that effect as well. With pencils I will show the differences in different amounts of pressure on the tip. This little book is slowly becoming a wonderful reference for all my mark making supplies. 

Another form of 'sampling' is making swatches. For now I don't really have the need to do this with papers, but I do have the need with fabrics. So what I did is this: I cut a small rectangle of all the fabrics in my stash and then stapled it to a card. In this case the cards were old library catalogue cards that I had lying around unused for years (they came with some old library drawers that I bought at a flea market). 

The hole that they all had for the catalogue system was just what I needed. I hung them on this iron ring and now have all my fabric samples together to peek in at a glance and mix and match without having to take all my fabrics out. The ring hangs from a storage cabinet in my studio, always at the ready. I'm thinking this idea would work with decorative papers as well. Other options that spring to mind are index cards in a box or a rolodex.

I hope I gave you some ideas for your own inventory of materials. If you know what you have it's more likely that you will use it (that and having it right on hand, which is why most of my mark makers are ON my studio table ready to use). Making such samples is also a great way to become aquainted with new materials. I will for instance always make a colour chart to put in a new box of paints. Especially water colours look very different on paper than in a box.

So maybe you'd like to sample some sampling. Or maybe you already do make swatches and samples from your materials. I would love to see them, so if you have any just leave a link in the comment section or just explain your personal 'system'. I'm fascinated by things like this.

Wishing you all a wonderful and artsy Wednesday!

Changes

Past weekend I received this letter:

It's from my employer and it tells me that my request for working less hours starting June has been approved! You may remember that I put in this request last January and I was (and am) very excited about it.

Of course unofficially I already knew it would be okay, since I'd had several talks with my boss and coworkers so we could figure out how to go about it and who would be taking over which tasks. But still I always have this little uncertainty within me where I don't really believe it until I see it in writing and...well... there you have it!

Starting June I will cut down my working hours so I will have four day weekends and three (long) day work weeks! How amazing is that? I will have more time to spend on my favorite pass times of which of course the artsy stuff is a big part. Not the only part mind you, I also look forward to reading more and going on more walks or visiting a museum from time to time more than I do now.

It seems that for the past several months this request for working less and adjusting my life more to my passions has affected other areas in my life as well. I have already mentioned how I seem to have caught the spring cleaning bug, the need to purge my possessions, tackle my jungle garden and my overall need to simplify my life. It feels good to think about these things and even better to really do something about them, even though it will probably be a long learning process and my to do list is so long it will keep me busy for a while to come.

My new and improved living room.

One of the consequences of working less of course is also earning less. This used to scare me a lot more than it does now. I guess my love for what I do has grown bigger than my need for the financial extra's. Still, it does mean I need to adjust my expenses and I'm in the process of deciding what to do exactly.

I won't bore you with all the details, but one of the things I have decided to get rid of is my regular phone connection and my tv-connection (both cable and digital). I will of course keep my cell phone and yes, I will also keep my television set. See, I love movies and some tv-series, but I never watch the news, reality shows or any shows that you really need to keep up with and more than that I am completely allergic to tv-commercials. I swear, these days when you turn on the tv the chance of a commercial being on are bigger than an actual program being shown. I have nor the time nor the patience for this.

I'm in love with my sliding doors now and the flowing curtains.

Besides that I find I use TV a little too easy as a thing to wind down with. After a long workday and at a low energy level it is far easier to watch a rerun of one of my favorite sitcoms than to kick back with a book or go to the studio and unwind with art. And once the damn thing is on, it's harder to turn it off. I'm not a television addict I think. I'm not one of those people that turns the TV on when she comes home and there are plenty nights now when I don't use it,  but it is an easy distraction when I'm low on fuel.

So I figured that if I really want to see something I can watch a dvd or through the internet and  then really enjoy it and otherwise the thing just stays turned off. Important events and unmissable things are very few and far between and will come knocking on your door soon enough. I guess you can tell from this I'm not giving up the internet, haha!

This is all that's left in the corner by the sliding doors.

Now the fact that my television connection and phone connection will be cancelled meant that last weekend I finally had the opportunity to change my living room a little. That's what the pictures in this post are about. See, the tv used to stand in the corner near the entrance to the sliding doors. My house is nice, but some things are very impractical, like where light switches are or where radiators are positioned and yes also, where the tv/cable connectors are. The corner where the tv and all sorts of other equipment stood was always a pain to me and a puzzle of numerous wires and plugs.

Now however all I need in that corner are my internet modem and wireless router. So I changed things around in my living room, moving the tv and dvd player and the couch and putting away some things I no longer need. The result can be seen in the pictures. It's so roomy now and calm. I love it!

I guess what I'm trying to say is that one decision can work through your life on so many levels, from the deeply profound to the material everyday stuff. I'm liking all these changes that are happening and that's what I wanted to share with you. Sometimes it's good to take a little chance and see where it might lead.

My assistant never noticed anything different, he immediately jumped on his spot on the couch, haha.

How it will all work out in the end is still a mystery to me too, but I feel I made the right choice. I will no doubt be bothered from time to time by the fact I have less money, I will no doubt have to adjust to my new work schedule and find a way to keep setting my priorities straight. And I need to figure out how to give art that even bigger part in my life that I want to give it. More time is nice of course, but it's not the end all solution to everything that frustrates me from time to time.

I will keep you posted of course in the coming year and you will see how and if I manage to find a new balance in my life. I looke forward to sharing it with you!
Wishing you all a wonderful and artsy week!