Tag Archives: altered book

365 A Daily Creativity Journal – Day 28

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In the Garden

It’s going to take two years of posting at this rate. Ah well… it doesn’t matter in the least.

Today I prepared the page with clear gesso mixed with a little Golden Acrylics Titan Buff, which provided a nice semi-transparent surface. Sprayed a little diluted magenta ink then quickly sketched some poppies with Inktense pencils. Added text based on the highlight of the day, which was the discovery of a slow worm in the garden. Then I sprayed some water to get some interesting drip effects – didn’t quite come off.

365 A Daily Creativity Journal – Day 27

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Recycle

Another quick recap if you just landed on this page. This blog is (currently) assigned to a project inspired by the book, 365: A Daily Creativity Journal. Mostly my daily postings are of my attempts to alter the book, from a commercial, prompt journal to an experimental art journal. It’s where I try out new materials and supplies and where I make mistakes. It’s not pretty. Sometimes, my creative endeavors take place away from the book so I post them instead. Today I made bread… but that doesn’t count, does it?

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

I’m not sure whether this is just a background or if I will leave it as is. It is a simple torn collage of printouts of old journal pages. I’ll let it dry and see. I often print out previous pages and tear them into strips for borders or cut out an element that I know will be just perfect for a new page. Using your own artwork like this is much better than using other people’s. I’ve never seen the appeal of purchasing commercial collage sheets, although I do have some in my stash of papers that were included in kits that I bought a few years ago. Kits… why? It’s so much more fun to build your own treasure trove of resources.

Here, there are scans of collages, watercolors, rubber stamps, drawings by my daughter, buttons and journal entries.

365 A Daily Creativity Journal – Day 23

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Reinventing Myself Every Day

I managed to finish (they are never really finished) the journal page that was started yesterday. Pages were gessoed, then an acrylic glaze applied. There was some transparency, which I like because the original text and printing shows through. I like altering books but I also like their original character to show through now and then – it’s not an exercise in obliteration. Then collage, using one of my girl portraits and fabric paper. Rubber stamp alpha and text added in markers and pen. A little wax crayon to lift the borders. Done.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

If you are interested in the colored Zentangles I did, I also made this Squidoo page today: Zentangle With Color

365 A Daily Creativity Journal – Day 21 & 22

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I’m forever drawing bubbles…

Spent the weekend drawing colored Zentangles, like so:

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Taken an age to upload this – wifi is terrible this weekend. Again this was drawn with a Sakura Pigma Micron pen and color was added with Derwent Inktense and Studio crayons.

I’ve been working in The Book this evening but have had to wait hours for an acrylic glaze to dry. Using a hairdryer had no effect whatsoever. The page isn’t finished yet for that reason but I will post a progress pic so you can see that creating has been done. I printed one of ‘my girls’ and made use of the sticky acrylic to adhere her. Made her a t-shirt from a small piece of fabric paper. Added some more fabric paper border I intend to add some text tomorrow. If it’s dry.

365 A Daily Creativity Journal – Day 20

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Birds of a feather… should fly free

This is a scan and print of a Zentangle I drew last night. It has lost some of its intensity in the process. Pasted it into the book and journaled all over the page. I was annoyed with myself over some recent decisions regarding my son’s education and, while writing, was listening to another excellent talk by Sir Ken Robinson at TedTalks, ‘Bring on the Learning Revolution.” Well worth watching.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

I’ve just done a few colored Zentangles – so far I’ve avoided color as, up until now I have been a bit of a purist and thought they should only be black and white pen drawings with a little added graphite shading.  However, I might have changed my mind. Here is the original straight from my sketchbook.

365 A Daily Creativity Journal – Day 19

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Crayons – not just for kids

This was fun – one of the pages was pre-gessoed (clear) so I went at it with some Neocolor lls. This is a local beauty spot called Dunraven Bay. It is not usually this colorful! I am no landscape artists (oh really?) but I really enjoyed slapping down the colors and spritzing the page with water so that they merged and ran together. Once dry I attacked it with more layers and cheated with Neocolor 1s. The yellow blob on the left is part of the original printing on the page – you can also see some text peeking through.

 

365 A Daily Creativity Journal – Day 18

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Zentangle

Zentangle

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Not my usual style of Zentangle, it must be said. This one was done quickly with markers instead of pen and pencil. There was a sense of freeing up as I laid down the lines, like a kid scribbling. Forgot to post it on Saturday when I did it. I like to use Zentangles to divide up areas of text in my journals. Like the one below.

365 A Daily Creativity Journal – Day 17

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The Big Apple

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Am so enamored of clear gesso I thought I’d try it directly on The Book‘s very shiny paper. It works a treat. The text shows through perfectly but the paper’s surface becomes almost like a fine sandpaper and takes crayon like a dream. All the smudging is caused by a very soft graphite pencil and my messy way of working. Halfway through the apple, I noticed the instruction on the opposite page, “Look in the kitchen and work with the first fruit or vegetable you spot…”

 

 

 

 

 

365 A Daily Creativity Journal – Day 15

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Blooming!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

I love the vibrant cerise colour of this page and didn’t want to obscure it too much. It’s so zingy, especially juxtaposed with the green next to it. In a rush this evening so used a simple flower stencil with acrylics. I pressed it against the opposite page to give it an interesting texture. Once dry, I used some Neocolor pastels and a black marker to highlight some areas. Again this one will be added to, improved and adjusted in due course. The nature of an art journal/altered book is such that is almost never finished. There is always something to work on. I think some lime green and maybe text will be necessary.

 

365 A Daily Creativity Journal – Day 14

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An Abstract View

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

New Paint! New Markers! A chance to play with dabs and daubs. My new acrylic paints are Pip Seymour Fine Acrylics and they are lush. I was looking for an alternative to the ubiquitous and very expensive Golden Fluid acrylics and came across these. They come in 250ml tubs and I am really impressed. Haven’t tried all the colours yet but the ones I have are creamy yet transparent. They are vibrant and ever-so-slightly glossy when dry. Me likey very much. It seems they’re only available in the UK and I got mine from Paint & Art . They may well be happy to ship to the US.

This teeny abstract was created with a layer of magenta, some swirls of cadmium yellow with a touch of white for opaqueness. Some Neocolor pastels, and doodles made with Faber-Castell Pitt Artist Pen Big Brush which are available in the US. They are wonderful for quite detailed work as they have a very pointy tip. However, if you angle them slightly then you can make all sorts of cool marks.

I wish my camera could pick up the deep, vibrant colors on this page. Perhaps I’ll try to take a photo in daylight or squish the book into my scanner tomorrow.