Barefoot Wanderings

Sketchbook Project

A sketchbook can mean many things to different people. To me a sketchbook is not a place of finished art but a place for capturing an image that speaks to the owner of the book. A place to capture an idea, thoughts, inspiration, feelings, etc..... Sometimes it can be a place to take things further with some experiment/playing, a place for samplers and notes. It can serve as a spring board to various creative outlets. A page can be finished in moments or take hours. It is not meant to contain polished work that can be framed or displayed. It is a place where you are allowed to be free, there are no wrongs and no rights. You have permission to play and not be perfect. It is a book that captures a small part of the sketcher, the artist, the creator, the person behind these labels, and for this reason it can be a very personal space.

With all of this in mind is how I approached my Sketchbook for the 2012 Sketchbook Project. Before receiving my book in the post I jotted down my thoughts and ideas of how I was going to approach my chosen theme, with lots of room to see where the journey would take me. I decided I would not go on-line to see what others were doing as I did not want to feel doubt and lack confidence, this was already a big step for me and so I want to stay protected until I complete my book. 

There have been times when I felt I would not finish and thoughts of giving up ran through my mind but for reasons I can not give I have pushed on. With the deadline of January 31st fast approaching I have been spending lots of time in this little book. I can't wait to finish, to see what others have created, to see their interpretations of the various themes and send my book off into the world & share what I have done.

My choosen theme is A Path Through the Trees as I love trees. To me that means looking at trees and all they entail and using all that I capture in this book as a path to creativity outside of it. So for me a more apt title is A Path Through the Trees to Creativity.

Here is my first page...

I did not really give much thought as to what my first page would be, it just happened that his is a path through trees near my house that I sketched. As the first page I feel it is inviting me, and possibly any viewers, to come down the path, into the book and hopefully into inspiration for creativity.

Summer is finally here

It has been wonderful to see the sun these past few days.

For this week between Christmas & New Year everyone in the family is on holidays from school and work except the the little man who still goes to Day Care. This gives us an opportunity to do things with the older two. Unsure if the weather was going to stay fine we decided the day before that regardless we would head to the beach early after dropping him off, and what a glorious day it turned out to be.

I decided that not only would I take my sketchbook and small supply kit but that I would actually use them, in which I did. I only did one little sketch but it's a start!

 

 

Merry Christmas...

to you and your loved ones from me and mine!

Lose Control

in Penny's book - Music. Here are my first set of pages...

The page on the left is inspired from the Crowded House song Private Universe...'highest branch on the apple tree was my favourite place to be...' This was another Cloth, Paper, Paint & Stitch page, once complete I actually stitched it to the paper page. The page on the left holds a CD I burned & printed on for Penny. Each song on the CD captures a memory, the little note slipped in behind the clear CD pocket holds a brief explanation.

this is a second set of pages I completed...

both pages are coneeced by the band Mr Mister.

The page on the left was inspired by Mr Mister's song Broken Wings.
I wove together two sheets of paper to create the background, the first page contains the Lyrics to the song and the second sheet was some of the sheet music to the song. I then lightly painted over this with white Fluid Acrylic paint. The famous image of the couple dancing is a gel medium transfer. The other elements were hand stitched onto the page.

The page on the right was inspired by Hey Soul Sister by Train.
I painted a colourful background of Red, Orange &  Nic/Azo Gold. Once dry I placed a mask I cut of a woman dancing in the middle and painted the page with Golden Carbon black - lovely and glossy. I removed the mask to reveal the woman alight with music. Once dry I used a white paint pen to write the words of the song.

I'm Yours!

On Saturday the 19th of November I was treated to an amazing show by Jason Mraz accompanied by the very talented Toca Rivera. It was an accoustic concert at the Sydney Opera House, no better venue to truly showcase the talents of these gifted men.

I found this fab video on You Tube from the night of them performing the song that first led me to love the music of Jason Mraz, I'm Yours...

Precipice

At the precipice I almost lost my sanity!

I love trying something new, experimenting and playing, the journey of discovery. If I am lucky I will get caught up in the creative process and go off on my own tangent before realising I have strayed from the instructions. The freedom of creating for no-one, without having to have an end result is a joy - ecstasy if the instructions are easy to follow and actually work.

Trying something new whilst participating in a Round Robin with dead lines and pieces to be created for others can add the insanity to the process. There were, and are, many new things that I would like to try, choosing which ones to do in Jan's book was not an easy decision. Some attempts made it into Jan's book but as many didn't. Some of the end pieces I included in Jan's book are not pieces I think are great but they are in keeping with the spirit of the book. Thanks for the challenge Jan, and the push to try new things.

When I try a new technique from a book I often like copy what they have done, that way I can concentrate on learning a new technique and not worry about what to actually create. I did not feel that I could do this for Jan's book as the work would not be mine. To get over this hurdle I decided to use familiar images, one's that I had created previously. 

This page is the result of trying my hand at techniques from Stephanie Lee & Judy Wise's book Plaster Studio

This page was a little tricky as I had to keep in mind that this was not only a book page but one in a round robin, so it needed endure. After the plaster was applied to a heavy page and dried, I used acrylic paint that I added Ground Marble Dust to. The image used was one I have played with a few times as shown here. 

This was the first page I actually finished...

I had painted this image previously in acrylics, as shown here.
For his page I cut pieces of the flower out of 3 different coloured recycled fabric (fabric from sample swatches) - Blue for the petals, Pale Yellow for the flower centre and Green for the stem & leaves. I then used fusible webbing to adhere them to background fabric which I had backed with heavy weight interfacing. I then used my sewing machine to thread sketch the details of the flower using eight different coloured threads. There is some free motion stitching on the orange background fabric and it was the first time I have used my machine to write a word.

In amongst all of this I was also trying my hand at Digit Art in PSE (see previous post). Time was starting to run out but I felt I needed another page. After a few different ventures this is what went in Jan's book:

The background was one I created using Wet Felting Techniques, whilst the flowers were created using Dry Needle Felting. As I said, there were time restraints so a great deal of work was not lavished on this piece.

Over the Edge.....

I jumped off the Precipice, landed in the unknown and created this, my first piece of digital Art.

I am currently working in Jan's Book which is all about trying something new, perhaps something that we have wanted to try for a while. For me that covers way too many things to try in one month - that's the length of time we have with a book - but one thing that has been top of my list is to have a play & create with Photoshop Elements, I just needed to get over how intimidated I was by it and what better way than to jump!

I have a texture layer and a text layer. I used the magnetic lasso, feathering and blending. I got rid of colour and adjusted perspective. I played with saturation, hue, lighting and opacity. I added butterflies and the flower, and created the dark edge.

The books that helped me were:
Adobe Photoshop Elements 9: Unleash the hidden performance of Elements by Mark Galer & Abhijit Chattaraj
Digital Expressions Creating Digital Art with Adobe Photoshop Elements by Susan Tuttle   and
Adobe Photoshop Elements A-Z: Tools & Features Illustrated Ready reference by Philip Andrews

Celebration of Trees

Inspiration:

Page:

 

Again, this was done using the technique from Stitch, Cloth, Paper & Paint  
It is a very textural page as I was trying to capture the 'scrubiness' from the photos above.

These images were taken in the parks/bushland near my house. I feel so fortunate.

Joyce's book is now making it's way to the USA - I sent it off this morning.

Fish

This is another page I created in Joyce's book. The background is a similar technique as used here.

Celebrating the Butterfly

I am currently working in Joyce's Book ' A Celebration of the Beauty of Nature'.

There are soo many wonderful things in nature to celebrate it was hard to choose where to start.

I love butterflies and they hold so much symbolic meaning for me that I thought it would be a great place to start. As I don't have any photos of my own, I searched the internet and found a few images appealing. I grabbed my journal (a new one especially for this Book Round Robin) and sketched a composition from these various images and used coloured pencils. This was the result:

The journal I have started for this Round Robin is a place where I can keep a record of all my ideas, and as I will not see the pieces I create again once they leave my hands I take notes of techniques, colours etc and make sure I have an image of the completed piece. This way I will always have a record I can look back on.

To the left is the page opposite the sketch. I took notes whilst I worked on and after I completed the page.

And here is an image of the completed page:

I collaged some text & sheet music before taking to the page with acrylic paints. The 'black' of the wings does sparkle a little as I added black mica flakes.

One Image, Three Mediums

The image is of a Scarlet Robin, the three mediums are....

Acrylic Paint:

 

Colour Pencil

I used Faber-Castell Polychromos colour pencils

 

and Machine Thread Sketching

This is my first attempt at Machine Thread Sketching.
If you ignore the fabric puckering, it's not too bad for a first attempt. 

 

Textures of Nature

"Is it Interesting?"

This is the last page I created in my book of quotes for the Round Robin.

It started out completely different and I really struggled with the page (it is at the back of the sign-in page). I made changes, placed various images and ideas over the page trying to work out why it wasn't working. Nothing was really working, so I left it.

I watched The Lost Thing - a short animated film based on the picture book by Shaun Tan (I know I have said it before but he is an amazing artist - he is a multi-award winning author & illustrator and won numerous awards for the film including an Oscar).

Part of the DVD extras is an interview with Shaun. During the the interview he talks about art and "is it interesting?" That's when I had the lightbulb moment on the page I as struggling with. Asking this question of that page the answer was 'NO! not to me'. I thought this was a great question to ask myself on any piece I create. Inspired, I wanted to create a page reminding me of this moment and thought, and I wanted to pay homage to Shaun. What was more appropriate than in my book of quotes.

Out came the gesso, the Yellow Pages and paints. 

I loved the soft muted colours he used so I mixed similar ones of my own.

As I was mixing, it brought to mind GPP Crusade 53 - Mad Scientist

So I named my colours..... 

the muted green - Cool Aid
the dark shade of green -  Deep Aid
the 'yellow' - Summer Sand
and
the Bluer green - Breeze 

The above page was the result.

Very appropriately placed next to my page with the quote 'What other People think is none of my business'

'More than Words' Pages

Here are pages I have completed from my quotes book....

 

 

I almost didn't include this page. It is my first attempt at painting the sea and according
to me falls short of what I would like to it to look like. I decided to include it as it will
be a good benchmark of (hopefully) how I have progressed when my book returns.

 

'More than Words' Some Details

Here is some more from my book of quotes....

Inside front cover
Another new technique learnt & used
- and a little wink included to the wonderful Penny organising this swap.

 
Envelope for Welcome Letter
Some old techniques brought out - Stamping & sponging

 

 
Sign-In Page - it folds out
Somewhat brighter than planned!

 
Inside Back Cover

 

Spiral Binding not completely closed, temporarily closed with ribbon.
Ribbon can be untied so pages can be removed to work on or added in.

Teaching an Old Dog New Tricks

There is nothing that makes me feel older than trying to work out new technology, and new is defined by me as anything I don't know about regardless of how long it has been 'out there'.

I feel rather please with myself, having taught myself how to print on a CD.

For once the software was easy to download, the instructions were easy to follow and I could easily work out how to import and edit images I wanted to use.

 

 

 

 

 

 

I used a scanned image of the cover of my book, added text in Photoshop Elements (another thing I am very slowly learning) and printed on a CD.

I also used the same image for the background on the list of songs. 

These are going in my round robin book. 

More Than Words....

.....the title of my book in the Round Robin I am participating in.

My theme is quotes, and the book will be more than words as the words will be accompanied by some wonderful artwork that each participant will create. The title is also appropriate because when we hear a quote that resonates with us it creates a reaction with in us that is more than the words themselves.

The book is 9.5" x 7" unbound and here is the cover of my book.....

I had a lot of fun creating this as it was a new technique I had been wanting to try for a while. It is from the book Stitch, Cloth, Paper & Paint by Angie Hughes.

It's a matter of taking some medium weight calico, soaking it in a PVA Glue & Water Mix, wringing it out and hanging it out to dry. 
Then iron the piece of calico, and iron iron-on interfacing to the back.
Use PVA Glue & Water mix to adhere some tissue paper, lace & netting to the front, then more drying.
Do machine stitching, gesso over everything and allow to dry again.
Painting the background with Golden Fluid acrylics - Jenkins Green, Green Gold & Quin Nic Azo Gold.
Painting the trees with Golden Heavy Body acrylics - various mixes of Titanium White & Burnt Umber. and painting the Left Hand Side with Carbon black.
Once the paints were dry I tried free-motion stitching for the first time on the two foremost trees.
Then added more machine stitching in the background using orange & green threads.
Splattered some paints - Ochre, cobalt blue, Jenkins green, Aliz. Crimson & white.
More machine stitching with read thread and
hand stitched the title with thicker red thread on the bottom right hand corner.

Heres a picture of the back showing all the stitching....

 Oh what fun it was, and I am really pleased with the finished piece. I can't wait to try this again!

 

Out for a Stroll

When I read Michelle Ward's post summer shapes I was reminded of when I use to take my camera out for a walk. As it was quite a pleasant day for winter I thought a little walk with the camera and pram would be do us both good (both bub & I have been tagging each other with the cold).

Here's a selection of shots I took on our stroll together....

 

 

 

Challenging Myself

I have busy and this time Arting has played a role in my busyness.

Some sketches and new watercolours - very yummy!

I have signed up for another Book Round Robin with the first posting of books going off at the end of this month. So I have been busy making my book covers, creating pages, CD's etc... and am hoping to share these here soon. When I first signed up it was as a commitment to create art regularly and then I started thinking that I could also to use this opportunity to grow & develop myself. I then thought of it as an opportunity to challenge myself, not just by working in other people's books confined to their themes but also to try new things or expand on things I already know. 

This thought has since been prodded along by two things. Firstly by Jan (a friend and fellow participant in the RR) whose book title is "Precipice: Come to The Edge", with the theme that you try a new technique that you have been wanting to try for a while in her book. The second was reading posts on Marie Otero's Blog Lost Aussie on the Loose (a blog I like to regularly check in on) where she discussed Challenging yourself and then asked What's your Style?

If that wasn't challenging enough, on reading another of Marie's post she mentioned the Sketchbook Project and after having thoughts float through my head all that day I decided to 'jump' and have signed up for this challenge as well.

I believe that life gives you little signs and it is important to take notice and, where possible, to follow them. So here I go, I am a little apprehensive but excited!

A new CD I am enjoying at the moment is '21' by Adele, at times I am reminded of the soulful women singers of the 60's. Here is Rolling in the Deep a popular hit.

Wanderer

Wanderer
Acrylic & Mix Media 
30 x 40 cm (12x16 inches) 

I'm not sure if this is finished yet - there are a few things I'm not 100% happy with so I think I'll sit with it a bit.

I used the following Golden Acrylic & Fluid Acrylic Colours: Jenkins Green, Quin Nickel Azo Gold, Quin Burnt Orange, Titanium White & Paynes Grey.
The black is a mix of Burnt Sienna & Paynes Grey. 

Note: The Paynes Grey acrylic colour produced by Golden Paints is a lot bluer in colour than the Paynes Grey colour of other brands.