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!

 

 

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.

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.

Sketches & Watercolour

Some doodling and playing with watercolour paints.
Each page was done over a few days, snatching moments to create!