It’s Not So Commonplace

I’m not sure when I first learned of a Commonplace Book. College maybe? I know my first serious girlfriend had a journal she jammed quotes from books and movies into. I don’t know that she ever called it a Commonplace Book, but it was.

Carefully copying over sections of text seemed painful to me. I had always hated copying over sections of text when I was younger, why would I recreate that for fun?

I liked the idea of collecting quotes but not if I had to copy them over.

Fast forward to now, I read most of my books on a Kindle and highlights are saved in a digital notebook. If I read something online I can collect it in Google Keep or Milanote* or some other service. Through digital services I’ve been able to collect these scraps of info that hit me in a moment as I read and then never look at them again.

Well, until now.

In the past I’ve printed off some of these quotes with my regular letter size printer, trimmed that down and then slapped it into my Every Thing Every Where (ETEW) book and called it good. Then I got my small thermal printer and that opened up the world of slapping quotes into my ETEW Book.

I started out with the regular thermal paper and a glue stick. Then I became aware of thermal sticker paper and I started to print off quotes and stick them in my pocket notebooks. My poor Field Notes was thicc with quotes, spine straining under the bulge.

Last night I sat down with my thermal printer and a roll of white sticker paper and printed out some quotes from a variety of books on creativity  and creative processes and made pages in my ETEW Book. The quotes are neatly arranged and legible. A feat never accomplished when I had carefully copied over important info with my handwriting.

This has made me think of other styles of journaling that I have not used because it required a lot of copying or writing. Things like working from prompts and prompt cards.

Put in the Work came from a coffee bag! It seemed appropriate for this journal.

*Milanote link is a referral link, I get extra storage space if you sign up. I just started to use it and like how I can arrange things like it’s a sheet of paper on my screen. It’s great for my visual thinking style.

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Working with Budget Art Journaling Supplies

It doesn’t make a lot of sense to buy all kinds of budget art journaling supplies if I don’t use them? Or show them in use. I’ve made a series of follow up videos using all the supplies I’ve picked up at Dollar Tree, Walmart, Target and 5 Below. NOt all the videos are live yet, but these are. Enjoy!

Link

Link

More to come!

Do you like these videos? Check out my ko-fi page and think about buying me a coffee. It helps me purchase supplies for these videos and keep the content flowing.

Budget Art Journaling Series

I’ve been working on my creative YouTube channel, attempting, seemingly in vain to remonetize it. One of the thing that was asked of me repeatedly and often before I stopped making videos, was, “How do I get started with art journaling without spending a lot?” I always answered this with the idea of buying one or two of a material instead of a giant set of them.

But I considered that there might be another option.

I thought about what I need to work in my art journal and I came up with these items:

  • A journal of some sort, a composition book works a sketchbook works
  • a black ink pen. I need black ink for sketching.
  • Something to add color- doesn’t matter what, this can vary
  • An adhesive for adding in ephemera and other collage elements.

I then decided to visit a few shops to see what I could get for $10, $20, and $25. Not big budgets but enough where you can get the basics if you shop carefully.

I visited Dollar Tree, Walmart, Target and 5 Below. The videos document what I chose to get with my money and then there are follow up videos using the materials in an art journal so you can see that I’m not just blowing smoke.

Here are the videos of the shops:

Link

link

link

The 5Below video is upcoming and in the rendering queue.

Like I Thought I was Going to be a Famous Artist

A friend of the blog wrote a few things to me awhile back. She wanted to divest herself of some supplies and I always accept supplies for myself or work. If they are supplies I’ll use, I use them, but I always let people know that anything I can’t or don’t use I will then take to work. (You can also donate directly to my workplace if you are so inclined, this person wanted to specifically give ME supplies.) This started years ago when I packed up some of my excess supplies and took them to a local middle school and did a post and video about it. I was never going to use them, and we all know that some supplies dry out or go bad. In my case I had some acrylic paint I hated, notebooks, and hundreds of pencils left over from reviews.

Anyway, this triggered a series of correspondence. In one of her letters she wrote, (I’m paraphrasing) “I don’t know what I was thinking, buying all these art supplies. Like I thought I was going to be a famous artist or something. I’m not and never was gonna be. What a waste of money.”

Friends that is a loaded statement.

As someone who has spent thousands of dollars on art supplies and other “useless” things, I feel that statement a lot.

I know I’ll never be a “famous” artist. Hell I’ll likely never be a well known local artist.

But I don’t know that I ever really wanted that. That’s a judgement from others. A toxic little tidbit I absorbed over the years- that to be a successful artist I needed to be in big galleries, have shows, get on the covers of magazines, and sell all my art. Be famous and jet set around the world, making and selling art. Drinking wine in galleries full of my art.

I think that is all mostly bull shit.

I think for those of us who are GenX/ Millennials and older that we were fed a line of garbage about what it means to be an artist. At the very basic core- we make art. But growing up, artists were portrayed as that list of stuff I wrote about above. Movies showed artists as rich guys who did all sorts of interesting things. Women swanned around gallery spaces with a flute of champagne chatting up people to make sales.

The hard work of making art wasn’t portrayed.

The often messy, ink and paint covered fingers… and most of my clothes. Walking around with my left hand stained in blue ink because I cleaned my ink pens and spilled ink on my hands… Or the tedious cleaning of the studio space. Or having to stop making art and move all the shit in my studio around so National Grid can come in and replace the meter and then my studio smelling like rotten eggs for a week.

None of the real part of making art gets shown.

But what of those of us who never want to sell their art?

What about the satisfaction of making art in a journal just for you? Just for a little peace of mind and self expression?

“Who do you think you are?”

The kids I work with repeat this, and I know it’s a thing their parents said to them. It’s a thing I heard on occasion growing up*. I’ve had friends tell me their partners have said this to them.

It’s one of the most toxic and low key abusive things a person can say to someone who is testing something out. There are so many ways a person can ask “What are you doing? Why are you doing this?” Without it bringing shame and humiliation?

When we repeat these thing to ourselves, we replicate the harm again and again. It sucks.

I wish I could remember the article where the researchers showed that when we talk badly to ourselves or repeat negative phrases- engage in negative self talk, that it’s more harmful than someone ELSE saying the exact same thing. It’s easy to discount someone else’s bullshit, but it’s much harder to discount your OWN bullshit.

I started practicing reframing my own negative self talk when I started therapy. It was a large part of my initial focus. Learning how to be nicer to myself was truly life changing.

Art journaling and journaling isn’t done to share it on the internet or to become a famous artist. It’s done to self soothe, calm your brain, expand on ideas, explore thinking and thoughts, and solidify thinking.

FWIW If a partner asks you, “Who do you think you are?” That’s a big ole red flag.

Continue reading

Composite Images with the Thermal Instant Print Camera

I have written here on multiple occasions about my love for David Hockney’s work. I’ve been fortunately to see a couple of his shows when they’ve come to the east coast. One that stands out was when my friend Jane and I met up in Portland, Maine for an artist’s date and decided on a whim to go to the Portland Museum of Art. I don’t know if Jane knew there was an exhibit of Hockney’s work there or not but I was delighted to go into a relatively small room and see a number of his works, including a favorite, Pearblossom Hwy.

Done in 1986 he used a point and shoot 35mm camera to take multiple shots of the same scene. Which he then pieced together into a 48×64 inch collage. He’s also got a series of works done with a Polaroid arranged in a grid.

really interesting stuff.

My friend Erik went to a recent Hockney show and snapped a picture of Pearblossom Hwy and sent it to me said he wondered what I could do with one of the thermal printing cameras.

And hot damn, I set out to test out the idea. I wanted something more interesting than just a landscape. I headed to the Willows for one of my morning constitutional walks and thought I’d do something with one of the benches or buildings.

Instead I was presented with a ripe opportunity- someone had discarded a Little Tykes Cozy Coupe, in faded red and blue; at the recycle and trash bins. It was backed into the bin like it had been parked there purposefully and not illegally dumped. I decided this was weird enough to be my subject. So I set about snapping a whole range of photos, 5 up and 6 across. A total of 30+ images.

I learned a lot with those 30 images. First off, space my images out a lot more. And don’t move my feet, much. To keep things in the same perspective I tried to keep my hands at the same level and played with just tipping the camera.

Obviously I need to test this out some more. but what a really cool little range of images I got from one set of 25 images.

 

 

Later That Week: Further Explorations

I headed back out to the Willows to see if the Little Tykes Cozy Coupe was still next to the trash, and it was. What luck. I moved it back to the same spot where it had been. (It had been moved around.) I then set about to take more photos of the scene. I took what I learned- move the camera more between images and move to the sides and above more.

IN this image you can see I took many more images, probably close to 50 or 60. I did not use them all, but having more was better than too few. I also used this as an example and working piece to figure out some more stuff. More on that.

I also tried another scene, this one of a do not enter sign, and another of the parking area for Blue Bikes.

 

I think this telephone pole and fire hydrant is super cool and really shows how the camera can distort and tweak the image.

With this one I focused my attention on the do not enter sign and getting a clear image of that leads to distortions around it. There’s a metaphor there.

For the notes:

  • Take more pictures than you think you need or want.
  • Print some of the images, then print more as needed.
  • Use a glue runner or other film style glue instead of glue stick- glue stick tends to curl paper and not stick to the plasticky coating of the paper.
  • If you pick a focus point you’ll get distortions as you move the camera around, this can be very cool.
  • Use a heavy weight paper or put it in your journal.
  • The time stamp  can be very distracting in some areas of the image. I like it in most of the image so I work around it.

With this last image. I shot maybe 100 pictures but only printed 50 of them to start and printed more as I needed to fill in areas, but I REALLY wanted to play with the idea of perspective and distortion around the edges. So I really worked with keep my feet planted and moving my upper torso around to take the shots. I then realized I could keep one foot planted and ROTATE my other foot around it. I chose to keep my left foot planted and rotate around on the ball of that foot. This worked REALLY well at creating the warped perspective I was looking for. I think I could go back and fill in the empty areas with some more shots. Either way this piece is much larger than the others. The others are about 6″ square while this one is about a foot and a half high.

Anyway I really dig this.

 

This is the camera I have been using for this exploration. It prints a little more slowly but it’s black and doesn’t draw attention despite being pretty large when compared to the other cameras I have.

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Cyber Monday Deals on Thermal Instant Printing Cameras

I decided to talk a look at the ‘zon to see if any of the brands of thermal instant print cameras had any cyber Monday deals. A few did. Some of these are about $10 off. Others have a 20% off coupon. I’ve said it in my videos and I’ll write here again, when looking for these little cams, looks for sales and deals.

These are all cams I like and use.

Links are affiliate links to the ‘Zon. Bezos and his crew toss me a few coins out of the sale price if you purchase through the links. The price won’t be higher for you. I just get a few cents. (quite literally in most cases.)

These deals are listed for Cyber Monday 2023. Prices are current as of this posting.

This is a solid cam style- it’s modeled on an Instax but does the kid cam thermal instant print. Mine does a good thermal image and takes pretty clear shots that can be loaded to my computer.

At $32 it’s about 20% off the usual price. 

This is the only instax style with a silicone sleeve that I’ve found that is not pink or blue- but green. I have one of these in pink and another in blue. These are sturdy little cams and I let the kids at work use them. Hundreds of photos later and they still print clean and clear.

The green one is $32.

This particular camera only prints in the dot style and not a grayscale, it also prints more slowly than some of my other cameras. It is available in black, which is nice especially when I’m shooting in public. It doesn’t draw stares or double takes. It’s roughly $41 right now.

This cam takes nice shots that can be loaded to the computer and prints really well. Its got a cute jellyfish on it too. The 20% off coupon brings it to roughly $37.

The purple and yellow version of this cam is on a cyber monday sale of $32. The rest of the colors have a 20% off coupon. This cam is one of my favorites. It’s a very simple machine and takes decent pics and prints them reasonably well.

New Video on Thermal Instant Print Cameras

In this video I explore some of the cameras in my collection. I look at the different body types, different operating systems and how they print. I’ll be shooting another episode going deeper into print settings and why I like using them.

Here are links to all the cameras in the video, these are affiliate links.

Amazon affiliate links.

All prices listed are from the time I wrote/posted.

These two cameras are the same except one has a silicone case to protect it. The silicone case is in the shape of a pink unicorn.

Pink Unicorn (Instax style) Camera ($40): https://amzn.to/46Pf9KS Another pink unicorn cam ($40) https://amzn.to/3MELE6i

Blue Plain (Instax style)  Camera ($39): https://amzn.to/3Q8vxPe

This is another pink unicorn camera, the print quality is somewhat better and it takes slightly better photos ($40): https://amzn.to/46PbpsK

Another pink unicorn cam: https://amzn.to/47CVrSs

 This case will fit all of the above cameras and 3 rolls of paper plus some pens and stuff: https://amzn.to/3MhyagL

This camera prints similarly to the 2nd pink unicorn but is purple and yellow in color and has a shape clearly inspired by old Polaroid cameras ($15): https://amzn.to/3sdNhkA

Black Polaroid inspired camera ($40) https://amzn.to/47b7VAP

I do not recommend these:

This camera is yellow and orange and is also shaped like an old Polaroid. It prints out at 4:3 which I like, but when it saves the images it stretches them to 16:9, so the images are distorted. If, like me, you hope to use the images on your thermal printer this is a no go. This one also has a flippy lens for selfies. ($36): https://amzn.to/3FzCHr2

Bulbous pink unicorn cam: https://amzn.to/3unVMKq This has the same issue as the one above.

Green dino cam: https://amzn.to/40Nzs9g This uploads fine but has a forced wait before it will print.

This case fits the purple or orange cams plus a few rolls of paper and a cord: https://amzn.to/3QABndP

This is the paper that I use. It’s cheap and is nice and glossy and has good contrast when printed on. It’s also thicker than some of the other papers I’ve used and doesn’t have a plastic core. ($14)  https://amzn.to/3SdGWA8

This is the paper I bought for work, it’s much thicker and very glossy. https://amzn.to/3SzTp14

Colored sticker paper I use. https://amzn.to/47eQHTu

Alcohol Inks on Thermal Prints

Alcohol fades and somewhat whites out any images on a thermal print. I found that this happened on many papers, but not all and not on thermal print sticker papers.

So let’s dig into this.

Some examples of fading AND darkening. This paper came with the camera and had some intense reactions to the inks. This is all Sharpies.

Some examples of fading AND darkening. This paper came with the camera and had some intense reactions to the inks. This is all Sharpies.

You might think, as I did, that Sharpies and other alcohol inks would be the perfect tool for adding color to your thermal prints. We’d both be sorta right, and a whole lotta wrong. It turns out that alcohol and other solvents in alcohol based pens fade thermal prints. It can also lift the finish and blur the dark areas around. In other cases the solvents can blacken the paper.

This can be used to manipulate the images in a fun way.

These images were done with Artist Loft Artist Brush tip alcohol markers. Lots of smudging and fading and blurring of the background- what I particularly like about the effect.

These images were done with Artist Loft Artist Brush tip alcohol markers. Lots of smudging and fading and blurring of the background- what I particularly like about the effect.

Here we have Sharpies on thicker glossier paper. Notice that for most of the images that the darks didn't fade much at all. Only on one image- the one with green, do we have fading.

Here we have Sharpies on thicker glossier paper. Notice that for most of the images that the darks didn’t fade much at all. Only on one image- the one with green, do we have fading.

Letraset and Prismacolor markers are much more intensely alcohol and other solvent based, but wow do they manipulate the image in a different way. I used 2 very pale grey markers- I think 10 or 20% gray. Both cool greys. You can see the ghosting effect here. Also the tree images used the narrow point side of these markers to pretty good effect. It lifted and smudged the darks. Neat.

Letraset and Prismacolor markers are much more intensely alcohol and other solvent based, but wow do they manipulate the image in a different way. I used 2 very pale grey markers- I think 10 or 20% gray. Both cool greys. You can see the ghosting effect here. Also the tree images used the narrow point side of these markers to pretty good effect. It lifted and smudged the darks. Neat.

 

This is a close up of one of the images where I used the very pale grey Prismacaolor marker to fade out and ghost part of the image- in this case the cars in this parking lot. Creepy and very cool.

This is a close up of one of the images where I used the very pale grey Prismacaolor marker to fade out and ghost part of the image- in this case the cars in this parking lot. Creepy and very cool.

But on some papers the alcohol doesn’t fade or alter the darks at all, so you can add a flood of lighter color.

I tested Sharpies, one pale LetraSet, one light gray Prismacolor, and a set of artist loft alcohol ink markers. I tested them on a couple of different papers and images. I also tested coloring the paper and then printing. 

The cheapo paper I favor will fade with all of the above but less so with sharpies. With Sharpies it fades and seems to come back a bit.

sharpies

 

With the slightly heavier and more coated paper that I bought for work it doesn’t fade at all.

Tests of all the alc pens on heavier glossier papers

With sticker paper nothing alters or shifts either.

I also tested some Sharpies that were at least 10 years old, if not significantly older. Shockingly they worked. They also seemed to alter things more so than the newer Sharpies. 

I also sprayed some images with plain old isopropyl alcohol, and it faded things significantly even on the heavier glossier paper.

Important to note, color the paper the night before and let it dry overnight. the alcohol can make the coating sticky and it can bind up on the print head, it will eventually print but it will be warped. I like the randomness of this. Do this at your own risk.

Important to note, color the paper the night before and let it dry overnight. the alcohol can make the coating sticky and it can bind up on the print head, it will eventually print but it will be warped. I like the randomness of this. Do this at your own risk.

Another test was to color the paper with alcohol markers then print on it. The tests were fantastic and very cool.

Alcohol ink markers aren’t archival but neither are these photos. Part of the joy is that they are so disposable and temporary, they are the very definition of ephemera.

Note: I have provided affiliate links to the ‘zon items I have ordered in the past. With the ‘zon you may not get the exact same item I ordered. I’ve had this happen on more than one occasion. I order something I reorder it only to get a similar but ever so slightly different item. It is best to test whatever you get with the materials you hope to use to be sure it will react in the way you wish.

List of links:
This is the paper that I use. It’s cheap and is nice and glossy and has good contrast when printed on. It’s also thicker than some of the other papers I’ve used and doesn’t have a plastic core. ($14)  https://amzn.to/3SdGWA8
This is the paper I bought for work, it’s much thicker and very glossy. https://amzn.to/3SzTp14
Colored sticker paper I use. https://amzn.to/47eQHTu
Mystic Gem Sharpie https://amzn.to/3MAsPBl

This has been repubbed from my Ko-Fi page, if you have found this helpful or useful please head over and consider buying me a coffee so I can keep this blog useful. Want to buy art supplies and support me through affiliate links? It’s a great way to spend what you are going to spend anyway and have Bezos pay out a few coins. Click any of the links in my posts and buy through there. It doesn’t cost you anything and Amazon tosses me a few coins for providing you with a link. 🙂

Dry and Semi-Dry Media for adding Color to Thermal Prints from Instant Print Cameras and Thermal Printerss

One of the things I knew I wanted to do immediately with these cameras and prints was add spot color and colorize the entire image. To do this, I tried several things. Let’s start with the dry and semi dry media. Like colored pencils, markers, pens and highlighters.

I started with a range of prints and adhered them into my journal. In this case I’m using a Yoobi Composition book. I used my favorite fat Staples glue stick, which may not be available anymore. (sad face) Once I had the image glued down I let the glue stick dry for about 15 minutes. I want to avoid shifting as I work.

I then hit the image with a gel highlighter. I did the background of the image. The gel highlighter went on smoothly and easily. It also dried over night.

The next media I used was colored pencils. I used Prismacolors in transparent and bright colors. I used several layers of the pencils to get the color I wanted. I did notice that the color did obscure some of the darker areas of the image. Especially when I layered the color. I will note that the paper is very slick and doesn’t have a lot of tooth so colored pencils took some finessing to get to stick to the page.

I wanted to add back some white areas that grayed out in the image when I printed. I used a GellyRoll pen to do this. It worked great. In some areas of an image I wanted them darker, so I used my favorite UniBall 207 in bold but the medium point would work well too.

This led me to wondering what would happen if I used regular colored gel pen on these images?

Currently the only colored gel pens that I own (at home) are the Uniball Signo DX extra fine 0.38 set I bought at Staples at the start of lockdown. This set is not ideal. While I like the extra fine point size for sketching in small pocket notebooks, it doesn’t have enough flow to lay down enough ink to grab on the super slick glossy paper of these prints. Also they tended to dry out on the coating which then caused them to dig into the damp areas of inky goodness. The coating would then chip in small amounts and leave pristine white blobs. No good.

I do have a few other colors of gel pen- red, orange, and green. I had similar problems with the pen not getting enough traction on the page, though once it got going it laid down enough ink for coloring the image. Nice. The downside is the creation of larger ink blobs.

This paper coating is not absorbent. The ink really sits on the surface and takes a long time to dry. I know you are thinking about a heat gun… But uh, it’s thermal paper, it’ll turn black. It takes at least 15 minutes for a light coat of gel ink to dry, and I really found that thicker coats smudged hours later.

A pen that did much better was my Pigma Micron FN- the pen style fiber tipped version of the old Pigma Micron. The tip is quite small so it takes some time to add in the color but it does dry, eventually.

A pen that I hadn’t thought about, mostly because I forgot I had it on hand, is the Staedtler TriPlus Fineliner.  It lays down an impressive amount of ink for a fineliner, but it would take forever to color an image with a thick layer of ink, so I think this is best suited toward scribbling in shading and cross hatching.

Most of the inks were still tacky after an hour. Though those that lay on the lightest coating were the least tacky- so the UniBall DX was the least tacky as was the Micron.

Some tips:

  • Try to get the smallest amount of ink on the image to create the coloration and tone you are looking for and stop there. The less ink on the page the better.
  • Keep an absorbent piece of scrap paper nearby. This will help you get the pen rolling again and clear off the tip of blobs and coating pieces.
  • Use the absorbent paper to blot the image when you are done coloring.
  • Use the absorbent paper as a shield to keep your hand off the images as you add color.
  • Try a test image before committing. Each paper works differently. Some papers have less coating and are more absorbent. Receipts are great for coloring!

Next I’ve got to try alcohol markers- Sharpies and other brands.

This has been repubbed from my Ko-Fi page, if you have found this helpful or useful please head over and consider buying me a coffee so I can keep this blog useful. Want to buy art supplies and support me through affiliate links? It’s a great way to spend what you are going to spend anyway.

Adding Color with Gel Plates

I wanted to see if my two favorites could be combined. Can I combine thermal prints with a gel plate? Will acrylic paint react with the thermal coating and turn my images black? Or will this work?Short answer is: yes, it will work, but you need to finesse it.

  • Use transparent colors.
  • Use thin coats.
  • Use a small plate.
  • Use images with a lot of contrast.

Those tips produced my best results.Too much paint and it obscured the image. Too light an image and details were obscured too much. To opaque a paint and you can’t see the image at all. Too much paint of a transparent color- image is obscured. I started with an excessively thin coating of paint. This produced a very washed out color. I did layer on a second coat of paint and the paper did okay but felt weaker. This paper is pretty weak compared to sketchbook or even regular printer paper. Let it dry completely between coats from the gel plate otherwise you risk tears.I found this really let me get a nice lovely layer of complete color over the image. I’m thinking of the usual ways I use a gel plate to create images- masking and stencils…. I’ll get more into that in another post.I’d suggest the 3×5 gel plate for this, but I think you could charge up a larger size and layout multiple images to get matching images for spreads in a journal. I think you could  also get a neat effect with the shaped set that includes the hexagon and rectangle.I didn’t spend much more than 15 minutes on testing this idea out  and I think it adds a lot to these images. There’s something about a pop of color that can really bring out an image. I can’t wait to play with stencils and masks with these.

This has been repubbed from my Ko-Fi page, if you have found this inspirational please head over and consider buying me a coffee so I can keep the inspiration happening on this blog. Want to buy art supplies and support me through affiliate links? It’s a great way to spend what you are going to spend anyway and have Bezos pay out a few coins. Click any of the links in my posts and buy through there. It doesn’t cost you anything and Amazon tosses me a few coins for providing you with a link. 🙂