Comfortable Shoes Studio

Inspiration: SamanthaKira

I like what SamanthaKira has to say in her videos and her techniques are great, her journals aren't overly cutesy but not overly dark either. She talked for the first half of the video and the music in teh second half needs to be shut off, but I think that's because i'm old. I like her idea of filling pages with collage and paint then going into to  work on them later... Oh wait that's very similar to my technique.

Inspiration: Traci Bunkers, proof that cool doesn't have to be cute

I'm glad to say that Traci BUnkers has stuff up on youtube now. (I'm sure she's had it for awhile but I just found it.) Everyone should check out her videos and her website and check out her very cool stuff for sale. Her rubber stamps are too cool and really something I lust after and I'm not that into rubber stamps for the most part, I carve my own but own very few commercially available stamps.

INspiration: PaperBag Studios Feeling free

RobenMArie on youtube creates a journal page that is super cool, lots of layers, colors an djournaling and uses my most hated image:the butterfly without being hooky or cheesy. And she's using a cool spray on ink that I need to find out more about... Anyway watch this great video.

Quick Imagery- OneMinuteMuse Art Journal technique

I'm into a big fan of using mass media images in my art BUT I see some possibility in this particular technique. In this video she takes an image from what looks like a fashion mag, glues it into her journal, gessos over the top of it and then colors it by hand. Because the features are muted and dulled it would be very easy to turn that image into a zombie or dirty it up pretty fast. I'll try it out and see what I get. Zombies. Yeah. I love zombies. Killer fashion zombies. So cool!

Oh wait where am I'm going to find fashion magazines? We don't have any in the house.

Fun Texture additions for your Art Journal

MIllande does some very very good texture and printmaking stuff in her art journal series on youtube, her stuff is very informative, not cutesy nor pandering. I love it.

The Results here:

business cards

business cards
Originally uploaded by Sketchbuch

Sketchbuch hits it out of the park again, with these little business card drawings, they are very cool, esp when you consider the size!

Make food not war

Make food not war
Originally uploaded by Mattias Adolfsson

I love everything Mattias Adolfsson does on flickr. Everything is just slightly outlandish and yet ever so believable. I'd love to spend 20 minutes rooting around in his brain just to see whats really going on in there.

Get Past the White Page Part 3

Probably my favorite technique is to write on a page with sharpie, it can either be previously gesso coated, acrylic painted or raw paper. It doesn't matter.  After that you go over the sharpie wriitng with gesso. As the gesso dries part of the sharpie writen text is visible through the gesso. It lifts into teh gesso and is slightly purple. It works with red sharpie as well, and several other colors that I've tried. It works with the liquitex gesso I use as well as the clear. Sharpie will also lift into heavy body acrylic paint. You can then write over the gesso or treat just link a gesso coated page. I like to then add more layers over the top of the writing.

Here I used a page I had coated in liquid acrylic and gesso and stamped some random round shaped onto. I wrote ontop of that with a standard fine tip sharpie.

This is still partially wet, as the gesso dries more the purple will lift into it more. I was too impatient to take a pic of it fully dry. I ended up adding more to the image before I could ge another pic.

Rule #6 Look for Inpiration Everywhere

Seriously, everywhere. Look at your morning coffee, your egg mcmuffin, the trash on the ground, dirty dishes, your pen/pencil/brush, your hand, alarm clock, lamp,air conditioner, car/truck, train, train pass, dollar bill, debit card, credit card, the internet, the TV, cat, ferret, dog, a tree,a park, a movie, your family, homeless dude sitting next to you on the bus, the newspaper,a magazine, office, your job, your home, birth control or lack of it, your best friend, your most hated enemy, your ex, a funny website, youtube, your mom, air filters, dust, dust bunnies, a spider, a mouse, the vacuum an etc...

In short anything can inspire you to write/draw/paint in your art journal. Where do you let it take you? That's what matters.

it's not too early Secretly I hate Christmas

I don't but what I hate is trying to find unique gifts for my family for Christmas. My family is notoriously hard to buy for and this year I'm taking the handmade plunge and going all out and getting only handmade Christmas gifts for some of the hardest to buy for people on the planet.

I got out of my Mom's birthday easy with some handmade beads for her troll bracelet. For Dad's birthday we got out of it easy with a thick book on drying foods. (He's a farmer) Last Christmas I scored with a reusable shopping bag full of thrift store wool sweaters and a vintage polish coffee percolator. The middle brother got something I don't remember and I copped out and got my youngest brother a.... gift card. I hang my head in shame with that one.

So this Christmas I'm going handmade. But what to get. For my Mom I'll probably get her something again for her bracelet- there are a lot of artists selling really cool lamp work beads for troll bracelets.

I'm not sure what to get Dad or Matt. Allen, well, I'll look for something World of Warcraft related or iPod touch and that will be easy.

I have to start early or I"m left scrambling around in the last week looking like a moron at the mall nearby wandering the aisles with all the men who waited until the last minute. My goal is to buy everything handmade this holiday season!