Luctor Et Emergo

The New Copic Colors

2012-02-22T23:36:00.002-05:00

I was helping the daughter of a friend with an art project on Monday and we were talking markers. She's a very bright child and always has a million questions about EVERYTHING (part of what I like about her) and I thought rather than try and explain the difference between coloring with a crayola and coloring with a Copic, I thought it'd be good to just show her.

I wanted to draw up something special....but she's young and lets face it, much of the Manga style is not for kids. This presented me with an interesting challenge as I never draw children. I wound up looking a lot of examples to check my proportions (I so wanted to make the kids 6ft tall and willowy with a goth-edge) and to make sure that my clothes were reasonable. It was fun...not something I'd do all the time mind you, as I'm not a big fan of drawing cute and lets face it, kids are cute. Rather than just draw Ava I decided to draw her with her two siblings. Here they are:

My new copic colors had just recently arrived and I decided to go ahead and use them for this project. I used the new BG shades on "Soren" blending BG90 with Bg70, Bg93, Bg96 & Bg99 for his pants and the new Bg 57 with BG70 and BG53. also used the E84 on his hair along with E50, E51, and E53. I used the new G43 and G44 on "Ava" blending them with G40 and G85 for her skirt and shoes. For the top I used the new RV52 blended with Rv000, and RV00 and a little RV55. I really like the way the new RV looks as a shadow to the pale almost white RV pinks.

I really wanted to use the new BV & V shades, but I didn't think Rhett would appreciate a lavender hoodie....

That's it for me today. I'm going to try and get some more coloring done in the next few days...and finish an art journal page hopefully!

Cold

2012-02-19T01:12:00.000-05:00

I have a new journal page to share with you today I've titled it "Cold":

I used a couple of the new stencils from Coffee Break to make this page; the heart with a crown, the crows and the hearts. I also used one of Retro Cafe's collage sheets for my border. It was from the same set that I used in the previous post.

For this page I played around a bit with adding texture to my airbrushed images by using my Copic multiliners. I was actually thinking about the new screen tones that Copic is coming out with in eager anticipation....but as I have yet to get mine, I had to make my own texture. One of the things that I love about the multiliners is that they come in so many different colors and they work really well within their respective color family when used with the markers.

The gray on gray is probably my favorite, but the blue on blue looks pretty cool too. Take a look at this detail of one of the birds:

While the texture on the whole of the bird really stands out because of the pattern, what isn't as obvious is that I used it to outline the bird as well. You can see a little bit of the heart in this picture too--I love how the blue pen fades in and out on the blue airbrushed image. I really can't wait to try this out with the screen tones.....

I hope everyone is having a safe and happy weekend. I'm hoping to have some more art to post soon, as well as some announcements.

Dress It Up

2012-02-16T10:00:00.000-05:00

I have a new journal page to share with you today. It's keeping with the theme from yesterday's post about dealing with other people's insanity (can you tell its been an issue for me lately??)

This one I've titled "Dress It UP" because I like to say it doesn't matter how you dress it up: crazy's crazy. It's not the kind of thing that can be fixed by a well styled hat.

I had this really incredible octopus stencil from Coffee Break that I wanted to use and I also had gotten one of the new mustache stencils....and lets face it, I love putting mustaches on animals. I airbrushed it onto a vintage prescription got from Retro Cafe Art Gallery. I coupled it with a hat that was made from a border collage sheet. I used another border on the top from that same sheet. On the other side, I worked with the rain cloud stencils (although they got a little obscured by my writing, I actually think they provide a nice texture) and xoxo stencil--which while valentines day themed, works great for adding a little laying.

That's it for me today. I'm working on one more page, which I'm hoping to get up sometime this weekend. In the meantime, happy arting everyone!

That is Not My Monkey

2012-02-15T00:35:00.000-05:00

I have a new journal page today--I made it using the digital border I showed in the tutorial last week. But the most prominent feature is the monkey and the heart. The monkey was taken from a sketch that I did and then had a stencil cut for it--but the heart is from Coffee Break, and I just love it.

There is actually a story behind this page. It has to do with a little moral that I was told a few years ago that has stuck with me. It goes like this: Everyone has their problems. Those problems are like monkeys, jumping up and down and screaming for attention. Luckily we all have bananas to give our monkeys. But BEWARE, sometimes other people will try and trick you into giving them your bananas for their monkeys which leaves you with nothing for your own. When they do that, you have to say to them "That is not my monkey!"

Needless to say "That's not my monkey" has become my catch phrase for "so not my problem." I seem to be saying it A LOT lately and in a moment of severe frustration I made a journal page about it:

I airbrushed my stencils on using my Copic ABS. The heart stencil turned out really nicely, I did a color fade and then popped in up a little bit by adding some smudged charcoal to outline the heart and the star-burst. I also used the charcoal on the boarders, because they were too pretty and I needed them a little grungier. I had doodled the lines in the background and then added in the splatter stencil and dots stencil (both by Coffee Break) for a little bit of texture.

That's it for this page. I have a second one I'm going to try and get up for tomorrow, so check back! Hope everyone is having a good week.

Creating a Digital Border For Your Art Journal

2012-02-06T22:47:00.002-05:00

I love using borders in my art journals, but cutting and pasting different textures together by hand can be a bit time consuming and since I don't have a lot of time to work in my journal I wind up not doing something more complicated like I'd like to. But creating the borders in Photoshop solves the time & complexity problem. Once you know how to do it, its fast and you can save it to re-use later.

Here is one that I made using a digital collage sheet carried by Retro Cafe Art:

Before we begin, a word about using digital collage sheets--be sure to check the user agreement before you use it and remember; although you may alter it in Photoshop, its not yours to re-distribute or sell. That could get you into a lot of trouble!

What you'll need for this tutorial is Photoshop and images. I'm using scanned pages from my 30-30-30 project. I've divided this video into two steps. The first step is to create a custom shape that will be your border's basic shape. I am sorry that blogger has posted this so small--for some reason it wouldn't let me adjust the viewing size, but if you click on it a "watch on youtube" option should come up and then you can watch it in full screen.

Once you've done this, you can move onto step 2 and create your collaged border:

It seems really complicated when you're watching the tutorial but in reality, its not. The first sample that I showed at the top took me 10 minutes to do start to finish and that was with putting in some gradient fill and some brush effects on top of everything else.

The great thing is now I have this border for use whenever I want--all I have to do is click print!

Hope everyone is having a good Monday.

Line Art For Coloring

2012-01-22T00:13:00.001-05:00

I am so excited about the new Copic colors! It seems crazy to think that we need more colors.....but there are 12 more, bringing the total up to 358. Here are the 12 new colors:

While I am eagerly waiting for my markers to arrive I got to thinking about what I'm going to color and I decided to draw up a manga image of little red ridding hood. I was watching the new version of the tale and thought it'd be a good subject to draw, except a little bit more gothic style. I might try to draw up the huntsman next. Here she is:

You are welcome to download her and color her with your Copics! Let me know how it turns out. I'm always eager to see what people come up with. If you want to share with the extended Copic community, you can always log into Copiccolor using your Facebook account and share your image there. There is some great artwork for inspiration and lots of tutorials for techniques.

As for me, I'm waiting for my new markers to color Red Ridding-hood in. R56 looks just perfect for her cloak!

Tiny Assemblage Necklace

2012-01-19T00:27:00.000-05:00

Hi everyone:
It's good to be back. I know I've been quiet lately--there's something about December into January that always throws me off of my rhythm. The lack of sun, the cold weather, the over abundance of family drama surronding the holidays all lead to me feeling blah for most of Dec. & Jan. Over the years I've learned to cut myself some slack and be patient with my doldrums.

But just because I've been quiet about posting, doesn't mean I haven't been busy working!

I just completed this fabulous little assemblage necklace with a book inside. This kit is from Retro Cafe Art Gallery and comes with everything you need to make the necklace. Here is what the kit looks like:

Instead of using the gear that was provided I opted to use a brass crown charm (which you can get here). I used one of the collage sheets provided, tearing it, gluing it down and then I used gilders paste in black, inka gold and patina to age it.

For those of you who are unfamiliar with guilders paste, its a paste that will go on virtually anything, aging it and creating a beautiful, natural looking distress. I used a little big of the black on the crown to make it appear older--that's why parts of it looks oxidized. Here is what the paste looks like:

It is what I used to get the teal look on the box--combined with a little of the black it turns from this pale teal to the lovely dark turquoise. If you're interested in trying out the guilders paste you can find it here.

I used the sheet music collage sheet for the inside of the box and some more guilders paste to age it:

I cut out some text and added it in.

Instead of putting the book together using the long eyelet, I opted instead to use the extra open-balls included in the kit and a small length of ball chains. I used gold eyelets on each of the pages to protect them from wear and then bound them together. Here is what the book looks like:

I love how cute the little pencil looks with the tiny book.

So that's it for me today. Hope everyone is doing well. I'm off to play in my art journal.

Carving Stamps Part 2

2011-12-09T14:00:00.000-05:00

Yesterday I started talking about the basics when it comes to carving your own stamps. Today I'm going to show you how to take a stencil and create a stamp that is the mask of the stencil.

The stencil I'm going to be working with is one of Coffee Break Design's newest additions: the flourish heart.

You'll need the same supplies as I listed yesterday--cutting mat, carving block, lino-cutting tools and sharpie.

The first step is to transfer the image onto the carving surface. I outlined using the sharpie to transfer the image:

colored in all the areas open in the stencil so that I wouldn't get confused when I started carving which parts needed to be removed. Then I started carving. I started with the smallest nib and outlined the areas I wanted removed and then did the small detail areas with the smaller nib as well. I went on to the larger size and kept working until I'd removed all the excess block.

When it was all done I inked it up using some regular stamping ink--and I used a brayer to make sure that the stamp came out clear. I stamped it on some vintage paper:

When I was done I used the stencil to fill in the extra areas with my airbrush.

What I like about carving the stamp from the stencil is that I've got the negative and the positive...and can use them together or separately.

So that's it for me today. Hope everyone has a good weekend!

Carving Stamps Part 1

2011-12-08T14:10:00.001-05:00

About a million years ago when I was in school I took a print class where we carved our own blocks and then used them to print. I didn't really take to it. In fact, I hated it. I'm not certain if it was me, or the instructor or a combination, but when I finished the class I pretty much swore I'd never carve again. But then a few years ago I came across a book by Traci Bunkers called "Print Stamp Lab" and it got me thinking that maybe I'd like to try carving stamps instead of linoleum blocks. After some trial and error I discovered I actually like carving stamps.

I thought I'd post a really basic walk-through for those of you who might be curious about the process. You'll need some speedy carve blocks (or an eraser will also work, but is a bit harder to carve) a surface protector, a sharpie and a lino-cutter set (there are a lot of different cutters that you can buy for different textures but this basic one works great for beginners.)

The first step is to decide on your image and then transfer it to your carving block. But for part one, I'm actually going to do it free-hand so I'm skipping step one and headed straight to step 2:

Cut out your block to the size you'll need for your image. Obviously if I was working with a transferred image you'd see it in the center, but since I'm doing this free-hand its blank.

You always want to start with your smallest carving point. You want to start with your finest details first. I think of this step like an outline. You want to always carve away from yourself--not only is it safer, but you have more control over your carving tools. You also want to work from the inside to the out.

At this point you'll have removed a little bit of the top layer of the carving block, but it won't be very deep. So it's time to swap out your carving tips for a larger size and keep removing the block. You want to work in long smooth strokes for clean lines. This takes practice--so start simply and don't give up if it doesn't work well the first time.

When you think you're ready you can ink it up and do a test stamp. This is helpful for seeing where the stamp might not be cut clean enough. If you need to keep working, simply wash it off and go back to carving.

When you're done--you've got a custom stamp to use in your art journal or other projects!

Tomorrow I'm going to post part 2 of this walk-through and show how to use a stencil to create a masking stamp. So come back for more!

The Last Christmas Journal Page

2011-12-01T22:44:00.001-05:00

I am really late getting this up today--I've been feeling under the weather and it took a bit to get myself to sit down at the computer and type this up. So without further ado, here is the last page of my Christmas journal:

For the center image I used an embossing plate--I'm normally not big on the whole die-cutting thing, but I found some Christmas embossing plates on sale and decided to give them a whirl. I embossed the reindeer and then I took some of Coffee Break's varitone ink and using a make-up sponge and then gently applied it and heated it so that the deer was burned. I added some gel dots around it and then cut out some vintage text to add along with the swirl, and the twine.

So that's it for all of my Christmas journal pages. I'm going to take a couple of days off posting, but I do have a tutorial to put up after my little break. Hopefully early next week. In the meantime, stay warm and healthy everyone!

Christmas Journal Page: 8

2011-11-30T14:00:00.000-05:00

Today I have page 8 of my Christmas Journal. It actually started out as a page, but then wound up being glued to the inside cover. Originally I was going to punch holes in it and put it in the binder, but only the bottom part of the library pocket would line-up and I was concerned about the strain of only having one hole punched in it. I thought over time it would tear, so instead I opted to simply glue it down to the inside of the front page:

I used the veined paper technique, which you can read about here, for both the library tag and the paper of the pocket. When I was done I sprayed the deer using my Copic ABS and the deer stencil by Coffee Break Design. I used the doe instead of the buck because the antlers fit her head better and I didn't have to worry about masking them off for spraying. I added in the German foil antlers from Retro Cafe.

Tomorrow I'll have the last page of my journal page to post. I'm sad to be done, but then I'll get to start actually writing in it! If you've missed any of the previous pages you can click the link on the side bar to see all of my pages.

Christmas Journal: 7

2011-11-29T13:31:00.000-05:00

Welcome back!
Today I've hit the seventh page of my Christmas journal...so without further ado:

I started out with a vintage card from a Filofax. I loved the color and the fact that it was typed. I added in an old receipt that was for rent. I mostly wanted it because of the green and the ink was blue to go with the Filofax card. I pulled out one of Retro's Christmas images that is in 1-inch circles and one of their magnifying cabs and cut it out and attached it. I then created the wreath to go around it by dropping my Copic re-inkers onto some hand-made paper and added some blending solution to get them to bleed into one another. This technique works really well on hand-made paper because the fibers have been broken down more than commercial paper and so they bleed really beautifully. I added a little bow on the bottom to finish out the wreath look.
Lastly, I added a little piece of vintage sheet music and a date tag to the page.

Tomorrow I've got page 7 for you! And don't forget to check out all the pages in my Christmas journal by clicking on the link to the right.

Christmas Journal: 6

2011-11-28T13:23:00.000-05:00

Today I have the 6th page in my collection of Christmas Journal pages for you. This one is one of my favorites, simply because I love the way the antlers look:

I took a vintage photo and then used some German foil antlers from Retro Cafe and added them in. I actually took an craft knife and gently sliced the top of the gentleman's head open so that I could slide the antlers down into the opening sot hat they'd look like they were really coming out of his forehead instead of just glued on top--it's a little hard to tell from the scan, because the string is obscuring it a little bit.
I took a piece of twill tape and using my date stamp I stamped Dec. 24 2011 along the bottom several times and then attached it. The large numbers on the side are actually little tags by 7Gypsies which I've had forever and never used, so this seemed like the perfect opportunity. I ran some twine and then finished it off with one of Tim Holz's holiday tokens.
That's it for me today. I've created a button for all of my Christmas Journal posts that's over on the side bar, so if you'd like to see all of my pages together you can click on it. Hope everyone is having a good Monday! See you tomorrow.

Christmas Journal Page: 5

2011-11-27T13:13:00.001-05:00

I am so sorry, I meant to have this post up yesterday, but we drove back from Pennsylvania and when I got home I simply crashed. No blogging for me.
So today I have the fifth page from my Christmas journal for you:

I used a collage image from Retro Cafe Art for my center. I combined it with a little vintage ledger paper and some vintage Christmas music to frame it out. The background is a vintage flash card that I used varitone ink on. For those of you who don't know what varitone ink is it is this really cool product made by Coffee Break that goes on clear and then when you heat it with your heat-gun it burns brown. The longer you heat it the darker it gets. That's how I get the authentic aged look to a lot of my pieces. In this case I used a dots stencil and a sponge to dab the ink on and then heated. But you can swipe it on or rub it in with your fingers if you want. So cool.

I added a journaling tag to the side so that I'd have some place to write when I was all done and a little bit of text on the top to go with the image.

That's it for me today. I've got more pages to go up for the next few days and since I'm home, there should be no more delays in the posting! See you tomorrow!

Christmas Journal Page: 4

2011-11-25T14:00:00.000-05:00

Happy black Friday everyone! Hope you've recovered from over-eating (and maybe even over- family) from yesterday.
Today's page features another vintage photo. This isn't really a Christmas themed photo, but I really liked it and it made me think about all those folks who celebrate their holidays in warm climates:

I used a holiday token by Tim Holtz from Retro Cafe in the center, and tied it using some twine. I added some of the paper I dyed using my Copic re-inkers on the right hand side. To see a tutorial of how I got the texture you can click here. I added some text that was from an old Christmas pageant program that I bought at a library sale. I thought it was appropriate since I imagined that one of those ladies had journeyed far to celebrate Christmas with her friend someplace warm.

Tomorrow I will be back with yet another page. Hope to see you then!

Christmas Journal Page: 3

2011-11-24T14:00:00.000-05:00

Happy Thanksgiving everyone. Hope you're having a safe and happy holiday.
I've got another Christmas journal page to share with you today. Here it is:

Today's page features another vintage RX. I had this really cute photo of the little girl by the Christmas tree and I wanted to feature her. I loved the image so much I opted to keep this page really simple. I didn't want to detract from the photo. I added some number tiles that I think came from a Sudoku game and a little "Official use only" stamp at the top. There's actually a piece of vintage ledger paper that swings out from the back, which you can't see here that I added to journal on. But it looks kind of weird right now since it's blank.

Really short today, but then it's a holiday and you probably want to get back to food and family!
Tomorow, I'll have another page just in time for the start of the holliday shopping season!

Christmas Journal Page: 2

2011-11-23T15:00:00.000-05:00

Happy Wednesday everyone. I hope you are not to stressed with Thanksgiving prep!
Today I've got the second of my Christmas journals to share with you:

I used a vintage RX for the foundation of this page. I liked the size of it, since it fit perfectly and I liked the vintage feel. I used a deer stencil cut, which I grunged up a little bit using my airbrush attachment and my copic markers. I took one of Coffee Break Design's window cut-outs and added some glitter and a piece of mica to be the glass. I added an image from one of Retro's Christmas collage sheets--you can't really see it very well in this photo, but it's a couple of candles burning. I thought it looked cute in the window. I finished off the page with some German foil and a little tape. Pretty much everything on the page came from Retro Cafe, including the vintage RX sheet and the German foil.

That's it for today. I will be back tomorrow with another page!

Christmas Journal Page

2011-11-22T21:34:00.001-05:00

Today I have the first of my Christmas Journal pages to share with you. If you're interested in seeing the book itself you can check it out here.

I used a vintage recipe card for the basis of the page and then added a Tim Holtz journaling tag so that I'd have a place to write some text. The image in the center is from a collage sheet from Retro Cafe Art Gallery. I put it behind an acrylic cab (also from Retro) and then glued it down on my recycled flower. The sheet music paper along the right hand side I did using the dying process I posted a few weeks back.

That's it for me today. Short and sweet. I'm planning to have more of the pages posted every day for the rest of the week so come back and see them!

Christmas Journal

2011-11-17T14:53:00.001-05:00

Every year around this time Dawn Sokol does an art journal that's Christmas themed--and every year I read her posts and think "I'd love to do that." So this year when the folks at Retro Cafe asked if I wanted to make some Christmas themed art I decided it was a perfect oppertunity to make a Christmas art journal.

I started with a small used book.

Then I used an exacto knife to remove the guts of the book by cutting carefully along the inside of the spine.

I got one of Tim Holtz's small ring binders, which fit perfectly into the book. It attaches using brads and since I didn't want the brads to show up on the outside of the spine I cut a piece of vintage sheet music the same size as the book and then attached the ring binder to that.

I then glued the sheet music down into the book to put it all together.

Once that was done I decorated the cover of the book.

I used one of Coffee Break's window cut-outs and covered it in some vintage glitter. I put a little piece of mica behind it to give the window some glass and then added a Debrina Pratt collage image that's from one of her Christmas sheets.

I added some German foil and the little metal tag that says "breathe" both of which came from Retro. The bird was actually in silver but since the cover was all in gold tones I used my airbrush attachment and my Copics to color it to match a little better. I covered the "story" tag with mica to give it some strength and then attached it with a snow-flake brad.

That's about it for the cover. Over the next week or so I'm going to try and get all my pages done and posted, so stay tuned!

Crafter's Worshop Blog Hop

2011-11-15T05:00:00.000-05:00

Today I am participating in a blog-hop featuring stencils by the amazing Julie Fei-Fan Balzer. The stencil that is being featured today is a triangle stencil. Here is what it looks like:

I've been working on a Christmas journal and when I sat down to play with the stencil the first thought that popped into my head was "Christmas Tree!"

I took some masking tape and masked off the area that I wanted to use:

I'm working on a vintage perscription that I bought here.

Then using a palate knife I spread a thin layer of glue onto the stencil.

Once that was done I sprinkled it with some German glass glitter (which can be found here.) Using a spoon to press the glitter into the glue.

When I was all done spreading the glue I lifted it straight off and let it dry.
I added a collage image by Debrina Pratt on the tag, added a star and cut out little presents and added some German foil.

Sorry about the reflections--I tried scanning it but it was even worse! That's the price I pay for using glitter I suppose.

Now that you've seen my work, you can go check out the other artists that are participating:

Dina Wakley
Suze Weinberg
Ali Edwards
Christy Tomlinson
and of course Julie herself!
To see all the art done using Julie's stencils click the photo on my right-hand sidebar.

Veined Paper Technique

2011-11-11T12:59:00.001-05:00

I was playing around the other day with trying get more of a textured look to my papers and I hit upon this really cool technique to create veins of color on my paper.

For this technique you'll need Copic re-iners, non-stick craft sheet, blending solution, vintage paper, spray bottle, iron, and heat-proof ironing surface.

To start off, fill your spray bottle with blending solution and then spray your paper till it's wet then crumple it up in a ball:

Then take your re-inkers and place a couple of dots of color on your craft sheet. Using your spray bottle, spray some blending solution onto the craft sheet as well.

Now take your balled up piece of paper and place it in the inks. It's Ok to squish it around a bit. I actually pick mine up and roll it around a bit, with out opening it up.

I let it set for a few minutes balled up and then I gently unwrap and lay out.
Then, taking the iron on a low heat setting I iron the paper out. You should be careful how hard you push when you begin ironing since the paper can actually fuse to the bottom of your craft iron. I like to do a slow stroke in one direction and then lift and repeat.

Once it's dry it'll be totally flat again, but you'll be left with an interesting pattern:

Now the really cool thing, is that as amazing as the front looks--the back looks even better:

Look at all those gorgeous white veins running through the paper! It reminds me of ice on the window.

Here is another example I did in brown and green:

And the back:

The Veins on the back of this one didn't turn out so much white, as they did a pale green. I assume it has something to do with the way the color reacted to the blending solution.

So that's it for me today. I hope everyone has a safe and happy weekend!

Skull Journal Page

2011-11-09T00:08:00.000-05:00

I've been a little quiet the lat few days--I've had some family drama. But I've been working in my journal. It's been slow going since I started the page before the drama began and then it felt a little disjointed, since my mood no longer matched my initial approach. But one of the most important parts of being an artist is being flexible in your art. Originally I was going to go cool gray and pink, so rather than scrapping the entire page, I decided go with an all gray page. I used both warm and cool gray tones for contrast.

I worked with a vintage negative, which I layered on top of a vintage letter to give it some texture and to help the image show up a little bit better.

I used a newer stencil made by Coffee Break for the eye. It was actually a custom creation that she gave me for my birthday. I've used it a bunch since then, but never on something I've posted and I thought it was about time. Here is a close-up of the eye:

Amazing right? It actually comes with a mask for the pupil so if you want to make it a different color you can.

I also had Coffee Break make up the skull stencill in a larger size. Very few people know that any of their stencils can be made in a larger size. And since the anatomical skull is my favorite, I wanted it bigger! It looks even more amazing in the larger size:

I used the eye stencil a second time and added in a Kanji with a little Copic white. The paper I embossed using some metal texture and then highlighted the raised parts using my PanPastels.

Of course all the inking on the page was done using my Copic markers and multiliners in combination with the airbrush system.

Hope everyone is having a good week--I'm hoping to have another tutorial done and put up later on so check back again!

Copic Re-Inkers + German Glass Tutorial

2011-11-03T01:52:00.000-04:00

I'm not much of a glitter person, but I've always been fascinated with the way that German glass glitter looks. Traditionally it only came in silver or gold but in the last couple of years its been made in more colors. This put me in a bit of a quandary, since I could never make up my mind as to which color I wanted. And then I had a eureka moment: I didn't need to buy it in a bunch of different colors, I could make it in any color I wanted with my copic re-inkers.

I thought with the holidays fast approaching (a time when even the least bling-leaning of us tend to reach for the sparkle) it would be a good time to post a quick tutorial on how to colorize German Glass glitter with copics.

For this you'll need: a plastic container, an old spoon, copic re-inkers and silver glitter--be very careful here, if you are using real German glass glitter as its made from actual glass. If you're nervous about using it, you can find a variety of plastic glitters that duplicate the look of German Glass, without actually being made out of glass. For my money, I like the real thing, which you can buy here.

For this walkthrough I decided to use a teal color for my re-inker. The colors tend to come out just a little bit lighter than how they look in the bottle since you're coating silver.

Take a small amount of glitter and dump it into a corner of your container and then take your re-inker and drop about 3-4 drops of ink on top of it. Using the tip of your spoon start mixing it up.

If it's too wet you'll see these blotchy looking clumps forming. If that happens just dump some more glitter on top and keep mixing.

Once its mixed up, you need to let it dry. I'm incredibly lazy and impatient, so I tend to put mine in front of a space heater I keep in my studio specifically for drying stuff.

When it's dry, it will be stuck together. That's ok. Take the point of your spoon and chop it up. I tend to tip my container, to move the glitter away from the inking spot so that the glitter doesn't stick to any residue on the plastic and then keep choping at it untill it's all broken up. You won't have 100% coverage. There's still going to be a little silver showing but that's ok, it lends to the vintage feel.

At this point you can incorporate it into your projects. As for me, I like to take increditape and run it through the glitter. That's why I work in a container that's so much larger than what I need for inking the glitter--to give myself space to pull the tape through.

Once I've run it through the glitter I take it out, lay it on some paper and then use the spoon to scoop up, pour & press the glitter into any blank spots. When the tape is covered I take the back of the spoon and go along the tape length pressing into the glass to grind it down onto the tape. This is especially important if you're working with real glass glitter--you don't want to press into it with your fingers, ouch!

Then I set it aside. I like to leave it resting over night, just to help the stickiness to really set up. Now I have a cool accent for my art journal or gift wrapping that is vintage, beautiful and can be made in any of the 346 colors Copics come in.

Our Lady Of The Reapers

2011-11-01T08:00:00.001-04:00

Coffee Break Deign has a new set of door shrines that are being released this week. There are three different designs--one with a traditional door and 2 with fancy cut out doors. To celebrate the release I was asked to create a little piece with one of them and of course, I picked one of the fancy ones.

Here is what it looks like from the front:

I did a packing tape transfer using a some text from an engineer's handbook to put behind the cut-out part of the door to be the glass.

I used some silver spray paint and my Copics for the color and some Panpastels to grunge it up--I really love the dark gray pastels for this. So beautiful. The little skull guy at the top was made out of shrink plastic. Its a stamp I hand carved a while back and I just stamped and shrunk it. My favorite part of the door, though is the house number. I airbrushed Coffee Break's number stencil onto shrink plastic and then shrunk it down.

For the inside I decided to use this little plastic statue that I've been hoarding forever. I really like it, but I only have one left so every time I go to use it I'd stop. But I'm trying to use the stuff I have so I forced myself to incorporate her:

I sprayed her with silver spray paint. I actually added some color to her with my Panpastels--for some reason they aren't really showing up in the photo. But in person, her robe is purple and her hair is light brown. I used a couple of the bat cut-outs to give her wings. Rather than just using the cuts of the wings I went with the full bats. I actually liked attaching this way better, since the middle part of the bats body provided a good spot to glue down to her back. I used 2 bats one going up and one going down to get the effect.

For a backdrop I used one of the atc masks that are spiderweb shaped. The door shrines are actually sized so that you can keep your atcs in them. But I just liked how the web looked behind her. Then I added in the gravestone cutouts to finish it off.

On the inside of the door, I lined the edges with some satin ribbon and then added a little text. I named this woman "Our Lady Of The Reapers." Here is what it looks like:

You can see the transfer a lot better in this photo, since the door is open and light is shining through it.

Lastly, here is a picture of the whole Shrine open:

Now that you've seen mine, you can head on over to Retro Cafe Art Gallery and take a look at the one that Kris made, as well as the other styles that the door shrines come in.

Another Journal page & transfer

2011-10-28T21:05:00.000-04:00

I have been playing around in my art journal some more this week--as well as working on my transfers. I wanted to try to doing a double transfer--with layering two images on top of each other. I decided to work on a vintage game card from the game "Sorry." I liked the fact that the card was coated so I didn't have to lay down a pre-coat of gel medium.
Here is what it looks like:

I used two different collage sheets from Retro Cafe Art Gallery--the first was a skeleton from one of the Halloween images and the clock and gears were from the Stampunk Parts sheet. I did the skeleton first using gel medium and then cleaned it off--I then layered the gears on top. When both of the images were clean I used a little brown ink on it--there were a few areas that were cloudy and I didn't like how it looked, so I used the ink to disguise the white spots.

I added on the wing, which is a stencil cut-out that I covered with vintage paper.

Here is a picture of the whole journal page:

I did another transfer on an old label using another skeleton from one of Retro's Halloween sheet. I put another stencil cut-out with it to tie it together with the other transfer.

I used my airbrush attachment and a spiderweb mask from Retro. Its actually designed to go over a artist trading card--I laid it down and then flipped it around each time I sprayed to make a complete spiderweb.

New Journal Pages

2011-10-24T23:53:00.000-04:00

I finally got a chance to sit down and do some work in my journal for fun this last weekend. I forget how much I love it--I think I need to do another 30 day challenge, maybe in December, to get back into the habit.
Here is an image of what the two page spread looks like:

I used an image from Retro Cafe Art Gallery that's one of Debrina Prat's Land of Enchantment sheets. I really like this particular sheet--its a lot of doors and passageways which I think made interesting textures when transferred--which is what I did with it.

I used a vintage letter as my transfer surface. I coated it with some matt-medium first to preserve it. I have mixed feelings about this; it kept the letter in tact, but I felt like my transfer wasn't as clean as they normally are when I'm transferring to a non-coated surface. I suppose it's a trade off.
Here is a close-up of what the transfer looks like:

I like how the parts of the transfer that didn't come out actually look like worn peeling paint from a building.

The base of the page I did using my Copic markers and my ABS along with some of Coffee Break Stencils. I hand doodled the borders and then cut and inked them using my Copics and shaded them in using some charcoal for depth.

That's about it for me tonight. I think I'm going to take advantage of the quiet and go work in my journal some more.

Working with Reds

2011-10-20T18:15:00.000-04:00

A question I get a lot when it comes to working with Copics is about rendering with reds. I actually don't have too many problems with the regular reds, but some of the more intense Red-Violets have given me headaches in the past. So I thought I'd put together a little walk-through. All the advice here can be applied to any of the reds--be it regular Rs or the RVs.

So the first step before you even begin is to figure out what parts of your image are going to be colored red. Because red is fussy--it likes to bleed and can be tricky to remove with the blending pen, its always best to color the red areas first. Trust me, you don't want the headache of having to remove reds from a peach skin-tone!

I choose RV19 for my starting color:

You'll notice that my coloring is a little streaky. That's on purpose. Because reds bleed, I take a very light hand with them. I've learned that the streaks will blend out--but it's best not to start out over saturating my paper, because even if it bleeds & I'm able to remove it with the blending pen, the ink will still want to bleed into that spot. It's bit like grass that's already been walked on. The paper fibers have been changed by the process of the bleed through and removal.

Next I went in with RV 69 which is a dark red-violet that almost leans a little towards the brown end of the spectrum. I used it to start putting in my shadows. Again, I worked with a light hand and I left some of the areas where I was going to be blending in darker tones a little be streaky. In stead of blending with chisel tip, I blended with the brush for this step. Again, to keep the paper from becoming over saturated.
Lastly, I went in with RV99. RV99 is very dark, almost black when it first goes on the paper. The key is not to panic--it dries up a little lighter. So I tend to put in my dark highlights, let it dry and then go in with my mid-tone and start blending. When blending with my mid-tone, I still use the brush. Once I'm happy with the dark-to-mid-tone blend, I switch to the chisel tip for the very last step & use it with my lightest color.

It's important at this stage to let your markers dry between each blending for two reason: 1--if you don't allow them to dry they will really bleed, there's a lot of red on the page at this point of the game & 2--the darker colors do change when they're blended. If you're in a rush or impatient, you can always use a heat gun, hair dryer or space heater to speed-up the process.

Lastly, I colored the rest. Because I feel like the darker RV's are difficult to get the softer shading with, without going too dark, I like to pair them with paler colors so that I can have more gentle shading for the rest of the image. This gives the eyes a place to rest and helps the image to feel more finished. I used BV20-25 for the rest of her outfit.

Finally let me leave you with some tips for coloring with Rs & RVs:
1. Change your scratch paper often, red bleeds in every direction and you can wind up picking some up by accident.
2. Think carefully about what other colors you put with it, red is an active color so it's best to pair it with something more restful.
3. Think about how dark you want the darkest shade of red to be in your piece and then work backwards. It's very easy to accidentally end up with reds that are too dark by over blending. I've found that if I start off thinking about the darkest area of piece then I don't wind up accidentially shading it too dark.
4. Allow your reds to dry between applications so that they don't bleed and to give the color time to settle.
5. If you do need to remove red with the blending pen, work slowly, allowing it to dry and make sure to clean off your blending pen & change your scratch paper.
6. Save blending with the chisel tip for the last step of coloring the red section. The chisel tip puts more color on the paper, so it's best to save it for last so that you don't over darken or over saturate and wind up with bleeding.
Hope this helps all of you!

Craftr's Workshop Hop

2011-10-18T06:00:00.000-04:00

Julie Fei-Fan Balzer is an old friend of mine. We actually met while going through Ranger U together. I was fortunate enough to be seated by her and was pleasently surprised to find a kindred spirit. We share similar tastes in books and a similar penchant for creative swearing.

Besides being a fun lady, she is also incrediably tallented and I was honored when she asked me to participate in a blog hop celebrating her new stencil line for Crafter's Workshop.

She let me pick two different days to participate, so this post is the first of two--the second one will go live in November.

I selected her rain and cloud stencils for this first hop. Here is a picture of what they look like:

Pretty cool, right? What was even cooler is that Julie kindly sent them to me in 2 different sizes, which was lucky since the journal I'm curently working in is too small for the large 12x12 size.
Here is the spread in my art journal that I created:

I've been playing around with a new technique combining acrylic paint and my copic re-inkers. I thought this would be a good stencil to do a test run of it with. I'm not 100% there yet....although its really close. That's the problem with developing new techniques, it's a lot of try & re-try. But I do like the look of the page. I airbrushed another crafter's workshop stencil along the bottom, which is actually my faux Washi-tape (which you can read my tutorial about creating it here) which I then layered on some vintage paper. The tape is translucent, so you get a nice hazy view of what ever is behind it. I added in some doodles and the text, which is by William Carlos Williams. It reads: "As the rain falls so does your love...."

So now that you've seen my page, you should check out the work by the other really amazing artists participating in this hop. There's a button on the side of my blog that will take you to the other posts. What are you waiting for?? Go look at some art!

Comic Con NY!

2011-10-12T01:03:00.000-04:00

I am headed to NY this morning for ComicCon NY. I am very excited to be attending--if you're going to be there, you should look for me--i've got some cool copic stickers and swag to give out to artists. I'm going to be tweeting photos and updates as well as my location at the Con throughout the next couple of days.

In anticipation of all the comic book fun I thought I'd post this little photo I drew up and inked using sketchbook pro with copic markers. It's not my neatest coloring work....I still prefer to render by hand. But this is a nice alternative.

If you're interested in following me for the Con look me up on twitter.

Copic Markers & Sketchbook Pro

2011-10-10T23:03:00.004-04:00

I've been playing around with Sketchbook Pro Copic. I was speaking to a student recently and they were asking me a bit about the process of drawing an image for inking and it occured to me, that while I prefer to do my rendering by hand, I've never really talked about the advanteges of sketching digitaly. I recently invested in a Wacom tablet and I really love sketching on the computer. It makes the cleaning up process so much simpler.

I thought I'd show a little step-out on the process.

First I sketch my image. I did this on the computer and I used the pencil function in Sketchbook for it:

Once I had a sketch I liked, I saved it and then opened a second layer and then turned down the opacity of the main image so that it looks pale. Using the line tools and the copic multiliner brush I began tracing the image. Here it is 1/2 done:

When I thought it was traced I made the base image disappear--just to check that I liked it. Then I discarded it. Here it is finished:

Then I saved it. It's now ready to be printed out to be inked. Obviously, when I cleaned it up I took out a lot of the sketching details--that's because I tend to put the shadows and wrinkles in while rendering.

And then for the last step, I sign it digitally:

I've got another image I'm trying to get rendered. Hopefully I'll have it up in the next couple of days!

New Carryng Case

2011-10-05T21:38:00.002-04:00

Copic has an amazing new carrying case that is beyond awesome! It is designed to hold up to 380 markers. Yep, you read right 380! How cool is that? No more lugging multiple wallets or piling your markers into a tub. What's even cooler is that it comes with 6 smaller containers that come out, to hold your color families together. Take a look at this deliciousness:

I cannot wait to get my hands on one!

I'm sure you feel the same. Well I have good news--You can win one!

Copic Marker is proud to partner with Splitcoaststampers the entire month of October for their annual Hope You Can Cling To campaign for breast cancer awareness.

Splitcoast is hosting daily challenges through the entire month of October, and asking members of the paper crafting community to create cards in support of cancer patients and their families and mail them to national partner MD Anderson Cancer Center in Houston, TX. Copic Marker is pleased to offer FOUR of these great new Copic Coloring Cases as prizes for four lucky participants in the Hope You Can Cling To campaign. It's a campaign of the sweetest type - you have the opportunity to color, spread a little hope with your handcrafted cards and be eligible to win!

You can find general information for the Hope You Can Cling To campaign, including information on how to play and a handy tracking sheet to keep track of your entries, here. You can find a master list of the challenges presented thus far right here. It's updated daily for new inspiration, and there are a variety of themes, so participation easy. And, just in case you aren't familiar with Splitcoast, it's a free papercrafting community where thousands of card ideas and tutorials are shared in the galleries and their resource archives. It's a fun place to be. You can find the details here. You can sign up for your free account and start sharing here.

I HOPE you'll find a few opportunities to color and participate this month. We'll announce our *FOUR* Copic Coloring Case winners the second week of November! Good luck!

Working With White: Part 2

2011-10-04T01:20:00.000-04:00

Last week I started a little tutorial on coloring with the white shades with Copic markers. Here is my image that I did:

The conclution that I came to was that the so called "white shades" were really more tan and cream, while the 0000-serries of colors look like a true white. To take this a step forward I colored the same image a second time, this time using primarily 0000 tones and my blending pen:

There are definitly more true white shades in this example. The way that I accieved the whitest looking whites (for example the lowest ruffle and the leggings) was done using v0000 b60 and a blending pen. B60 is my secret wepon--it is a very pale grey-blue that does shadows beautifully. I took my v0000 and colored the wrinkles in, then took my b60 and lightly inked in the darkest areas of the wrinkle. I gently went over it again with my v0000 and then I took my blending pen and blended it out to white. Obviously, you want to leave a lot of uncolored areas to get a true white look. It's best to err on the side of not enough colored then too much colored.

A quick run down of colors I used:
Bodice, skirt & Shoes--E0000, R000 and 0
Little Ruffles: b0000, b60 & 0
Large Ruffle & Leggings: V0000, B60 & 0

Some other hints for coloring with white tones:
1. When blending with the blending pen, work from the darkest area straight into the white area, try not to leave your pen in one place as it will erase the ink rather than blend it to white.

2. Be sure to let your ink dry. When you're inking the 0000 pens, they take a little bit longer to dry. You may feel the need to re-blend but you should wait until it's dry to be sure, since it might dry up a little bit paler.

3. Always ink your dark colored areas (such as the hair) first, since repairing the damage to one of the white areas can be difficult.

4. It's best to use darker hair colors to keep the image from fading out too much.

5. To make the whites even darker--lay down a dark colored back ground, which will make the white parts pop more.

Last but not least--practice really does make perfect.
Hope this helps! Happy Tuesday everyone.

Art Journal Page

2011-09-29T22:48:00.000-04:00

I finished the second page in my art journal using some more of the images from Debrina Pratt's Land Of Enchantment collage sheets, which are now being carried at Retro Cafe Art Gallery. I did a couple more image transfers onto some vintage math flash cards. I did a gel medium transfer and again, I find that these images really transfer well. I'm going to order some more to play with because I'm so in love with how well they transfer!

I airbrushed the background using my copic ABS. The stencil is by Crafter's Workshop. I really like the distressed look of the diamond pattern. I then cut out a border and did some and doodling.

Here is a look at both of the pages together. I'm really happy with the way they turned out.

I haven't forgotten about the other part of my Copic white tutorial. My Hubby and I have both been under the weather--him more than me. It's made my schedule a little off kilter this week. But I'm almost finished with the image and should have it done and ready to post in a couple of days.
In the meantime, have a happy Friday everyone!

Working With White Tones: 1

2011-09-27T12:09:00.000-04:00

I get asked a lot about working with white tones when it comes to using Copics. Its a complicated subject because while copic does make an opaque white--it is not meant for covering large areas, it's more of a highlighting color. The actual whites that are markers aren't what most people think of as a true white--and I hear a lot of times from people that they don't like how the white doesn't "look white."

So I thought I'd do a little post on working with white tones. The ones I selected to use today are all in the earth tones (there are some that are in the other tones like g20 wax white, bg11 moon white etc. but those are colors for another day...)

The first thing you need to know is that the earth tone whites fall into 2 categories; grey whites and yellow or cream whites.

Here are the grey whites:

You can see that the darkest of these has gone into a tan shade. We'll talk about that in a minute.

Now we've got the cream whites:

Again, the last shade here doesn' look very "white" it's more of a caramel color.

So the question is, how do you make these whites look white?

Well, the simple anwser is that you don't.

The truth is that white, for white's whole "I'm not a color" attitude, it is fussy about it's environment like a color. When we look at something that's true white, there's a problem, because true white reflects the colors around it, so it rarely looks "white" the way we imagine it in our minds. Think about the snow in the winter--it looks different depending on the light and what's around it.

So what does this mean for us when we render? Well the first thing you have to think about is the quality of your light source. If you're inside your whites are going to go more to the blues and the grey tones. If your object is outside, you'll need the cream ones. Of course this is just a general rule--you can still have grey whites outside and cream ones inside.

But what about if there's something near by that makes the whit go blue or purple? Well that's where the quad zeros come in. For my image today I used bg0000 and v0000 along with e0000. E0000 is called floral white and is a nice base for either the grey or yellow white tones since its pale enough to masquerade as either depending on what you put with it.

So now that we've covered all of our bases let's get down to coloring. Here is my image:

I wanted to use all of the whites I talked about above so that you could see them in action. The skirt is using the grey whites notice the darkest color here--now doesn't look as tan as it did above? It's the layering of it on top of the other e40's that helps tone it down.

The ruffles were done using the v0000 with a little v000 thrown in for shading. The teal part of the skirt was done using a combination of the e40-whites and bg0000. Surprising how the colors change when put together. I like that the tones from the upper part of the skirt carry on down into the bottom ruffle while the paleness of the bg is still present.

For the bodice I used the e50-whites. Notice how brown they look? Much more brown than when I colored them above. Its because of the skin being more yellow-orange. It changes the way we see the white. It's the same thing with the socks--they look much more white than the skirt, even though I used the same colors. The skin tone changes how we see the white of the socks.

At first glance, the purple parts of the drawing are the whitest--which is something to remember when you're trying to go for a more "true white" don't think of it so much as a color as a really desaturated version of the colors around it.

Personally, when it comes to the earth white tones, I like to use them like I did on the teal part of the skirt. As an added layer of shadows and shading. There is something about doing my shadows all in white and then going over it with a paler color that I just love the look of.

Hope everyone is having a good week. I'm going to try to get part 2 of this done and up later in the week, so check back!

DIng-Dong

2011-09-25T23:31:00.000-04:00

I have a new journal page tonight. It's actually an older page that I'd forgotten about...I meant to have it scanned in and uploaded a while back but oh well.

I used my copic airbrush attachment and a bunch of Coffee Break stencils. The witch is part of their new Halloween line--it's the bad witch. The trees are also from coffee break as is the star-burst and the the stars. When I do layering of stencils like this, I try to start with my lightest colors and then work up to the darker colors. The nice thing about the copic airbrush is that even with the darker colors, you still get some translucence. That's why you can see the the light burst through the witch.

That's it for me tonight. Short and sweet. I've got a post on Sketchbook Pro that I'm trying to get done, but school work has to come first and I'm feeling really behind.

Hope everyone is having a good weekend!

Copic Event: Philadelphia

2011-09-20T22:54:00.000-04:00

I am going to be at Dick Blick for their Blick madness sale in Philadelphia PA on Thursday demoing some manga with Copic markers. If you live in the area you should come in and say hi, ask some questions and watch me work.

In honor of the event I'm posting a little image I drew up for a friend awhile back. But I saved the line drawing and re-inked recently. That's one of the great things about rendering from a copy rather than an original--it enables you to see the same image a lot of different ways.

Land Of Enchanment, A Give Away & New Journal Page

2011-09-17T13:08:00.003-04:00

I have some very exciting news; my friend Kris who owns Retro Cafe Art Gallery has just signed an agreement with the insanely talented Debrina Pratt to sell her collage sheets in Retro's store! This means that for the first time Debrina's images are going to be available in a form other than digital--Kris will have them in paper, fabric, transparency, sticker paper and vellum! And this is no mean feat considering that Kris will be carrying over 200 of Debrina's sheets! Holy cow that's a lot of collage sheets!

To celebrate this amazing joint venture Debrina has created an original piece to give away as part of the launch! Isn't it just too adorable?

If you're interested in the giveaway you can read about it here and if you want to see all the amazing sheets that Kris is selling you can view them here.

Kris sent me some of the images to create an DT piece for her to go with the launch so I made a new art journal page:

I took the image and did a transfer onto a vintage flashcard. I really love how cleanly it turned out. Then I got this crazy idea to see if the varitone ink would work on top of the transfer. For those of you who don't know what varitone ink it's an ink created by Coffee Break that turns brown when you heat it, so it looks burnt and distressed. The cool thing about it is once it's been heated, its permanent-so you don't have to worry about the color running or changing if you do something on top of it. What wound up happening was that the ink took to all the spots where the transfer tore, so that once I heated it, they turned a lovely distressed brown. I also sponged some around the outside of the image and heated it.

I then airbrushed with my copics for the bird (which is a new coffee break stencil) and the splatter stencil. This is actually just the first page of a 2 part spread in my journal--I'm working on the right hand side to go with it. Hopefully I'll have it done and up in a few days!

Hope everyone is having a good weekend!

Why Render By Hand?

2011-09-14T00:13:00.000-04:00

Image inked at Dick Blick event in Boston.

I am back home from Boston safe and sound. It was a good trip. I had a wonderful time at MASSArt and Blicks. Boston is a beautiful city & I was fortunate enough to be there when the weather was good, so I could walk around and view all the beautiful buildings.

By far the most interesting part of my trip was a question that I got repeatedly: "Why do you render by hand?" To be honest, the first student at MASSArt who asked me that left me feeling a little taken aback. I wanted to respond with; "What do you mean why?!" But it is a legitimate question. I fell back on the simplest answer; training. Some of my earliest work when I was younger was with hand rendering. And since that was what I learned, that's what I use. And I repeated this response several times throughout the day all the while aware that while this answer was correct, it wasn't the full answer. I wasn't really sure what the full answer was--I just knew that wasn't it.

I was happy when it was time to head to dinner with my dear friend Beth & her husband Damian (neither of whom are artists), so that I could leave the pondering of whys behind. So I'm sure you can guess what one of the first questions out of Damian's mouth was....and then the next morning at Blicks while discussing rendering with an architect I got the same question.

I decided that the universe must really want me to come up with a better, fuller answer.

The truth is that while it is my training, it is the process and the tactile quality that I love. The sensation of stroking the marker across the page. Watching the image take dimension and shape. The art of rendering for me is almost like a ritual; sitting down with a drink in my studio, music playing, I select my colors, laying them out in order, take a moment to ponder my light source and then start. I find that my best work, comes when I'm relaxed, in the moment and not thinking too much. You can't rush rendering by hand. You have to go slow.

There are pragmatic reasons for the way that artists choose to make their art, but at the end of the day no matter the medium, it's always a labor of love. And if there's no love, there's no patience. I don't render on the computer, because I have no love for it and therefor have no patience for it.

So the next time I'm asked why I have my answer: Love.

Hello Boston

2011-09-09T00:01:00.001-04:00

I am currently in Boston MA for a couple of events. It was a long flight--mostly because of a layover gone awry....

Tomorrow I'll be at the Massachusetts School of Art & Design. I'll be talking to a couple of industrial design classes. I have a couple of sketches that I'll be using. They're a little different than what I usually do but I feel it's important be able demo something relevant to my students.

My pictures aren't the best since I'm posting this on the fly from my iPad....
Here's a glass table:

And a screwdriver.

Saturday I'll be at the grand opening of the Dick Blicks in Cambridge from 10am-1. Come by ask questions, watch me render some manga and play with the airbrush attachment.
Hope to see you there!

Open House

2011-09-08T09:39:00.001-04:00

This Friday the Indianapolis art center is having their annual open house. There will be all kinds of free events, including some things for kids. One of the events is a coloring sheet that I drew for them as an advertisement for a Manga class I'm offering in November. Here is a copy of my sample, that I inked to give folks an idea of that it would like when finished:

I used my copics (of course!) to render and I drew it up using my multiliners.

At the open house there will also be food by YATS and a chance to look at the current exhibit, which has a piece created by yours truly. I will not be there, however, as I'm traveling to Boston....But it's always a fun night!

If you're interested in going or reading about it you can get the info here. It starts Friday evening around 5pm.

Image for Coloring

2011-09-06T11:41:00.003-04:00

Whew! It's been a crazy couple of weeks. I came back from CREATE exhausted, but very happy. I had really amazing students and it was a pleasure to teach them. But no sooner did I get home and the semester was starting for me. Just once, I'd like to start the semester not feeling totally sleep-deprived and crazy, but I don't think that's in the cards for me. I think I need to just accept that it takes me a few weeks to settle into my new teaching schedule, learn my students names and feel the groove....

In the meantime I have an image that I drew and then inked up using my Copics. I wanted to use the three darkest BG colors since I tend to avoid using those shades, so that was my jumping off point. I paired them with some lighter BG and the darkest RV shades. I wasn't sure I'd like the color combos, but it worked out.
As an apology for being so quiet the last couple of weeks I have the image above in pdf format for you to download and color! Here is what she looks like:
You can download her here. I hope everyone is well. I've got more posts lined up this week, so check back in the next couple of days.

Create Retreat: 1

2011-08-24T23:13:00.001-04:00

Hello everyone!
This post is going to be quick. I'm in Chicago for Create Mixed-Media retreat.
I have some photos from my Binding The Unbendable class today.
My class was incredible today, because my students were incredible!
Here is a photo if my students working:

And here they are putting it together.

Here are some photos of the finished pages;

I've got more photos that I'll try to get up later, but for now I am a tired duckie! Time to go put in my pjs and veg!

Cover Me (& panpastel tutorial 2)

2011-08-18T10:22:00.007-04:00

I finished the last page in my most recent art journal the other night. While I loved the size of the journal I hated the cover. The journal was a gift...and a good one. Just ugly. But I can work with ugly. Originally I planned on covering it immediately, but then Coffee Break Designs sent over their new heart shrines and I knew that was going to be my cover.

The only problem was that it was dimensional and that would cause problems with writing and drawing in my journal. So I waited....

To start off, I sprayed my heart shrine pieces with silver spray paint. I've talked about treating the Masonite before. You can read about it here. I wanted a metallic base and spray paint is fast. Here are my pieces all painted:
Once it was dry, I broke out my copic ABS and sprayed them a variety of red, orange and purples. I did several coats, letting it dry for a few minutes in between. Yes, the ABS tends to dry almost on contact, but it's been my experience that due to spray paint's extremely smooth nonporous surface the ink can stay slightly wet for a while.
Here they are all airbrushed:
Now, I love the look of airbrushing, but adding Panpastels helps create depth. One of the things I adore about the pastels is that some shades are pretty translucent so they show the undercolor, while still adding depth. I added some shading, and then I decided I wanted to add a pattern, so I pulled out a stencil and my perfect-medium. This is a stamp ink designed by Ranger for use with their perfect pearls. It acts as a fixative.

Here is a close-up of the heart before hand.
I laid down my stencil and using a sponge, sponged the medium on:I then lifted off the stencil and brushed the pastels on. Now, obviously, I could have just brushed them on without the medium using the stencil, but this way I don't have to set them with anything. The perfect medium can be used with stamps, which I did for the middle heart.

One of the problems however, is that the pastels will get all over your piece, not just on the medium. No FEAR! There is an easy fix. Let it dry completely, then lightly spritz it with water. Place it face down on a paper-towel. Don't move it around just lift it off. If there's still pastels in places you don't want, repeat. It gets the other areas nice and clean!

Here is the little heart:
And lastly, here is the finished shrine on the cover of my journal, you can see the text stamp on the red heart here too:
I covered the photo with a small piece of mica to protect and give it that vintage feel. Oh and the map paper? It was brand-new, but a little ripping and some brown panpastels and viola! Perfectly aged.

That's it for me today. Hope everyone is well!

Even Children {Have Secrets}

2011-08-16T00:33:00.005-04:00

When I was in middle school I had a friend who told her mother everything. Including what boys she thought were cute. I was the opposite; I believed that somethings were best kept secret. I think it was then that I became fascinated with secrets. Not just the fact that we keep them, or what they are, but how people think about secrets.

It's been my experience that a lot of people have double standards when it comes to keeping secrets; it's ok for them but not for you. This is especially true when it comes to children. I don't know why adults believe children ought to share everything, when we all know adults never share everything. I think it's because it's easy to forget that children are people and as such, have things that are private.

This idea that children are people who keep secrets was the inspiration for my most recent piece. It's currently on exhibit at the Indianapolis Art Center and is titled "Even Children {Have Secrets}".
Each pocket contains a small book, which has a secret from my childhood written on it. The pockets themselves are reflection of the secret that it's inside. There are nine pockets in total. Each of the pockets were constructed using a variety of free-motion stitching, hand stitching, heat application and natural fabric dying. The dress was dyed using a combination of coffee and tea to get the aged look.
Here is a close-up shot of some of the pockets:
To get a closer look at it you can click on either image. I lost track of how long it took me create it; but I can't really complain, I love how it turned out.

If you live in the Indianapolis area you can go see it in person, it'll be on display through October.

Art Journal Pages

2011-08-14T13:36:00.005-04:00

I am back from Chicago and getting settled back in. I came back took one look at my studio and decided it was time to clean it. The only free space was a little path that ran from one end to the other...it was like a lost civilization of art supplies in there. I'm almost finished...maybe when it's done I'll post some pictures of it.

In the meantime, I've been working in my journal. Here is a page I did using one of Coffee Break Design's cut-outs. It's a witches hat. It went perfectly with the "Talking Heads" stencil.

I also used one of the stencil cut-outs on the bottom of the left-hand page which I sprayed with a copic marker in black.

For this second one I used half of the "xx xy" stencil and the wings. I airbrushed them onto some paper and then cut out. I also made some fauz washi-tape using the walk through I posted a few months back using the ABS and my panpastels.

I also used the a couple different dots stencils by Coffee Break for the background.
I used some panpastels on the outer edges of the woman and wings to give them some depth and take away the white edges.

I am almost done in this journal--I only have one more page left so I'm going to have to figure out what to do for my next journal. I have a couple of options, but I like this small size....we'll see I guess.

Blick Event

2011-08-09T00:09:00.004-04:00

This Wednesday I'll be in Chicago doing an event at the Blick store downtown in the loop between 1-4pm. Stop by and say hi, ask questions, play with the airbrush attachment and watch me ink some manga! Hope to see you there.

Manga Rendering

2011-08-05T18:01:00.003-04:00

Since I've been under the weather a bit this week--and out of town to boot--I spent most of the week hanging on a family member's sofa coloring. I can remember when I was a kid, staying home sick I used to love coloring with my pencils. I found it soothing. Seems like it still works.

I did a couple of extra images to take with me to GenCon.
Here is the first one. I did some work using the warm gray tones and then mixed in a little bit of blues. The hair I did with a little bit of gray and E70 which is an ash rose color. I like the way the pink works with the grays.
For this second one I worked with some greens and pinks. I love the way these colors look together. I used a lot of yg000 and rv000 which are super pale, replicate the look of sun-drenched fabric.

The last one I did with blues and oranges. One of the things that my students sometimes struggle with is the way that colors can affect the way light is reflected to the face. I tend to use a lot if light BV shades for the darker part of the skin mostly because that's more in my personal color palate. This time I opted to use a lot of orange and browns near the face so that I'd have to do a more pink-orange color for the darker parts of the skin. I'm happy with it, even though it's not really my preferred color scheme.

I hope everyone is having a safe weekend. Now that I'm back home, it's back to my journal. I've got some catch up to do on my art design work for Coffee Break! That's the bad thing about taking a break: so much to do when you get back.

More Art Journal Pages

2011-08-02T16:53:00.004-04:00

I've got a couple of newer scans of pages from my art journal. The first one I used the numbers tape I made during my tutorial I posted the other day.
The star-burst pattern is a stencil by Coffee Break Design. The lady in the middle is actually a button. It's also one of Coffee Break Design's products. The pop-up is a little bit of serendipity. I wanted to use the lady, but I only liked the way she looked in the center of the star-burst which I'd already sprayed it onto the page. So I created a pop-up. It flips to the side to allow the page to close. I did some hand-doodling and some paper collage for the border, to finish out the page.

This second one also features Coffee Break products. I used one of the frames--both the negative and the positive. For the left hand side I used the "mask" portion of the stencil to create an outline and then I doodled around them. On the left hand side I used the stencil portion to create a frame on vintage sheet music:
I layered the deer stencil and then added the mustache. It's hard to tell from the photo but the mustache is actually chipboard. It's part of Coffee Break's new accessories line. They were actually created to be used with the collage images, but I'm loving how it looks on the stencil. I think I'm going to try it again, but with some other images.

I hope everyone is doing well. I'm probably going to be quiet for the rest of this week--I've come down with strep and I'm trying to recoup before GenCon in a few days!

DYI funky numbers decorative masking tape.

2011-07-30T15:14:00.000-04:00

I want to share a another little tape tutorial today. In case you haven't figured out from my post on Faux-Washi Tape and my DYI decorative tape post, I have a thing for tape. My other obsession is old office equipment. I have a gorgeous fire-engine-red type writer from the 1950's that I use constantly for text in my art work. A few months back I was given a vintage adding machine! I decided to convert some of my plain old masking tape into something fab using my adding machine. Here's what you'll need:

Masking tape, wax or parchment paper or something else non-stick, and adding machine (these can be found cheap at goodwill pretty easily):

First step, pull out a length of masking tape and then stick to your non-stick surface. You'll want to trim it down so that there isn't any hang-over that could clog up your machine. Most likely, your tape won't be as wide as the paper needed for the machine; that's ok. Here's mine all ready to go:
You'll want to feed it into the machine. Remember you need to start it with the tape side down, because of the way it wraps around the feeder mechanism. Advance it up, making sure it doesn't get caught on the feeding slot on the lid:
They type away on your machine. When you've run out of tape, you're ready to go!
Now you can get really fancy and color your tape before feeding it through. Just bear in mind that the color it prints out is not super dark, so you don't want to over darken the tape.

And here is a close-up of the masking tape in my journal:

That's it for me today. Hope everyone is having a safe and happy weekend. I've got a couple of photos of journal pages I'm going to try and get it up in the next couple of days.

GenCon: Color Manga Like A Pro.

2011-07-29T14:22:00.005-04:00

I am really excited to announce that I'm teaching a couple of Manga classes at GenCon this year in Indianapolis. The first one is a Manga for children and the second is called "Color Manga Like A Pro." I'm providing ALL of the materials. You just need to bring your gorgeous self!

The classes are actually pretty similar--the only difference is the adult's class is a little more intense than the kids class. But no worries if you've never colored Manga before! All levels are welcome. For those of you who have children and are interested, GenCon offers family passes. Both of my classes are on Sat. The kids class is in the morning and the adult class is in the evening. If you have any questions please feel free to shoot me an email.
Want to sign up now? Adult class sign-ups are here and the kids class sign-ups are here.

On Lies, Truth and An Existential Crisis

2011-07-26T22:33:00.004-04:00

Bear with me folks, this one is going to be a bit long...but for good reason I assure you.

It all started simply enough....
I was at a party and was asked what I do for a living. It's a simple question...and when I told the person asking I was an artist they responded positively enough, saying how they envied my purpose. That making the world a more beautiful place was a higher calling.

My reaction was a very literate "Huh?"

You see, it's never once occurred to me to make the world a more beautiful place and I've never really thought of art as a higher calling. In the end I just smiled, nodded and thought to myself that the whole making the world beautiful is just one of those myths about artists that non-artists like to believe.

But there was something about the conversation that stuck in my craw. I gnawed at it in my mind and felt bothered. But by what? And then it hit me, it was the fact that I let it go, that I didn't correct the wrong assumption that was bothering me.

I've never been a big one for talking about my process, or the deeper feelings that I struggle with when it comes to my work. I've always taken a "don't ask, don't tell" approach. I liked this approach, I perpetuated this approach.

The truth is, my art exists in something of a no-man's land. Sculpture and mixed-media artists will say that I am a book artist, and traditional book-artists call me a sculpture-artist. I enjoyed living in this no man's land because it liberated me from having to TALK about my art in a traditional way, since neither tribe would have me. For a long time I loathed and resisted the idea that I had to define myself as an artist, because if I did that, I'd have to talk about it. It was an arangement that worked for me....but the problem was that it was based upon a lie.

Imagine my surprise when I realized that there was a part of me inside that wanted to talk about my art in a real way, to someone I'd never even met before. I was horrified at myself. Had I secretly become one of those annoying artists who like to use words like post-modern-dada-psudeo-realism and mean it??

Needless to say, I had a bit of an existential crisis about my work. It was like a tornado ripped through my internal emotional landscape and left the toilet on top of the house. Not to pull the much cliched tortured artist card, but it was AWFUL. I'd gone from believing I didn't really care, to discovering I did, to hating myself all in the space of a week.

Eventually, I decided I couldn't just keep avoiding thinking about it by drinking wine and watching really bad Meridith Baxter movies on lifetime. I had to DO something. So I started making a list of lies I've been telling myself about my work. I figured that before I could see the truth I'd have to sort out the lies...so I pulled out my journal and got to work.

In the beginning it was hard, after-all, when we lie to ourselves it serves a purpose. But once I started, they just came out. I'm not going to bore you with listing them all out here, but suffice to say, I realized that on some level I felt that thinking about and talking about my process was akin to admitting that this is indeed what I am. It was like there was this one little piece of myself I was holding in reserve.

I stayed in the no-man's land because there I wouldn't be alone. Everyone could be in the no-man's land with me--artists, non-artists, crafters. We could all be there together. As long as the finished product was all that mattered, everyone could share equally, since everyone can experience art. The problem is you can't define what it is you do, without drawing a line in the sand. The truth is, we are all separate in our own ways. No one better than the others, just different.

And what separates artists from the rest of the world is the way that we think about our work. That's our job, to wonder at ourselves, the world and everything in-between and work it out in our art. It isn't just the finished product that we worry over, but the process. Because it's the process that really matters.

The stupid thing is that I've never really struggled with the fact that art is a process. I just didn't want to talk about it. But that has to stop. I can't keep living in this no-man's land and pretending that I'm something I'm not. I have to commit to being authentic, not just in the finished product of my art, but in myself as an artist.

I'd like to believe that this won't leave me alone, in my new territory I've staked out. I'd like to think that those people in my life who aren't artists will be willing to bridge the gap with me. To try and understand that my art is so much more than what I've shown. That I am so much more than what I've shown.

My name is Bianca,
I'm an artist.

It's as simple and complicated as that.

More Journal Pages

2011-07-25T00:57:00.004-04:00

Hello everyone! I'm back from Chicago. I had a lovely time in the Windy city, which wasn't so much windy as it was rainy. Not that I'm complaining. We've had a bit of a drought here at home and temperatures in the 100's for the last couple of weeks. The rain was a refreshing change!

I have a couple of new journal pages to put up today. So first, the bad news. I've totally bailed on my photo-a-day challenge. It wasn't that I didn't find it interesting or helpful. It was just that it's been in the 100's here and wandering outside with my camera has had zero appeal for me. I'm trying not to beat myself up about it. Not all challenges are going to be met. But on the plus side, I'm still working in my journal.

Here is my first page:
As you can tell, I was in the mood to procrastinate. Something I'm VERY good at doing. I had a ton of things I needed to get done before I left to go to CHA, but I didn't feel like doing any of them, so instead I opted to play around in my journal. I was toying around with some new frames, which were hand-doodled. I Airbrushed some very simple backgrounds after doodling in my frames and then colored them using my Copic markers. I dodled a much simpler frame on the right-hand side around a circle cut-out. I know it kind of seems like the two pages don't really go together subject wise, but I was thinking about all my work I was procrastinating and then I got to thinking about other people's work....and I decided to spill my little secret.

My favorite part of this journal spread is the the little edging on the right hand side. Here is a close up of it:
I'm actually going to try and get a little post up about doodling edges and creating some cool elements out of vintage scraps later this week...

Here is my second page:
The guys doing the stick-em-up thing are from a Coffee Break Design stencil. As are the dots and the coffee stains. I just love how the splatter stencils look when I airbrush multiple colors on them. It really creates depth and a very natural looking "spill." I suppose that's another thing I need to do a little tutorial on....hmmm. Well we'll see, you know how I like to procrastinate!

I hope everyone is having a safe and happy Monday!

Come See Me! CHA & more.

2011-07-20T16:05:00.003-04:00

I've got some upcoming appearance dates and I wanted to do a little post about all of them:

In a few days I'll be appearing at the CHA super show in Chicago. I'll be demoing at the Splitcoast table doing some copic marker mixed-media techniques.

On the 10th of Aug. I'll be at the Dick Blick art store in Chicago in the Loop. I'll be demoing some manga rendering from 1-4pm. Come by to see some work, ask questions and hang out.

I'll be teaching at CREATE from the 24th-26th and vending as well.

It's also looking like I'll be at the grand opening for the Dick Blick in Cambridge MA, in September. Most likely, the day of the opening which is the 8th.

I'm trying to schedule some visits to Kansas and Wisconsin too, so stay tuned for more updates!

I've got more art to put up, I'm hoping to have some pages up tomorrow!
Happy hump day everyone.

Journal Page Process

2011-07-18T22:40:00.008-04:00

Happy Monday everyone!

I've been keeping up with working in my journal over the last week or so. It's definitely helping with my stress level. While I was working on my most recent page, I had the idea to take a bunch of photos of my process and put them all together to make a little stop motion video.

Here is a photo of the finished page:
The stencil that I used for the outline of the woman is by Coffee Break Design. It's actually part of a 2 part stencil one with a man shape and one with a female shape. The swirl in the background and the little star-bursts on the right side of the page are also stencils by Coffee Break.

I used my Copic markers with the airbrush attachment to do my background and color work along with a multiliner.

I should apologize--there are a couple of shots on the video that are blurry. I was taking the photos with my phone camera and it can be a bit finicky. But you can still see the detail clear enough to tell what all I've added. Here is a video of the process:

I hope everyone's Monday went smoothly--I've got more pages to scan in and put up...and some announcements about appearances that I'll also try to get posted later in the week.

CREATE Mixed-Media extra class added!

2011-07-16T20:30:00.005-04:00

I am very thrilled to be included amongst the instructors teaching at CREATE mixed media retreat in Chicago this summer. Even better, one of my classes which sold out is now open again, thanks to them adding another session!

I'll be teaching two different classes, the first is called "Art Of The Mini-book" and features tiny books, including my mini-house book.

The other class I'll be teaching is a dimensional book-sculpture class, where I'll be teaching the students how to bind unbendable.

I'll also be vending with Coffee Break Design during the vendor's fair. We'll have tons of stencils and some very cool shrine kits!

There is still time to sign-up if you're interested!

More Journal Pages

2011-07-15T11:10:00.001-04:00

As you've probably noticed, my blog has a new look! I felt like it was time. I just was in the mood for something different. I think its a sign that the artistic crisis I seem to have been suffering through this past month is over.

In the meantime, I've got a couple of more journal pages uploaded. I've been keeping to my mini-Polaroid challenge. And for this first page, I actually took 2 photos that day that I liked. Since they kind of went together--one of a rear-view and one of a forward view, I thought I'd use them both.
The stencil of the guy and the word "splat" are both Coffee Break Stencils, as are the dots. I like that the stencils come with both the stencil and the mask, so it makes doing detailed outlining (like the orange around the guy) easier to do. I went back in with my multiliner once I was done airbrushing to give him a little more pop.

Here is a closer look at the airbrushed guy:

I airbrushed and then added some doodling and text to finish out the page. Originally, I had planned to only do one page spreads in this book, but I like the 2 page spread. It's a nice size--big enough to express myself, small enough not to take too much time.
Here is my second page:

I airbrushed a base color and then added the numbers, also a Coffee Break stencil. Here's a close up of it:
I was playing around with stitch settings on my machine and I had stitched onto some paper, rather than throwing the scraps away, I used them too. Here is a detail shot of the stitching:
I feel like I'm hitting a better balance in my journal between doodling/drawing and collaging. But who knows if it'll take...

Hope everyone is doing well, more pages to come in the next few days.

Journal Page

2011-07-13T21:58:00.004-04:00

I've been working obsessively in my art journal this last week. I think it's a bit of a stress reaction. I tend to work in my journal more when I'm feeling overwhelmed. Which is silly, I really need to get back to working in my journal every day. Maybe then I wouldn't feel so overwhelmed.

One of the things I've been doing is creating mini-Polaroids using my Pogo printer. I take the photos with my hipstamatic app on my iphone and then edit them in photoshop. I'm trying to do a photo a day. I think it's easy to get distracted and stop paying attention to the world around us. I'm hoping doing a Polaroid a day will help keep me paying attention. I've been incorporating them into my art journal.

Here is my first page:

I was playing around with dropping my copic re-inkers onto the page. I was curious how they would blend in this little Moleskin book. I layered some vintage paper and airbrushed some dots onto the page and then added a little hand-doodling.

Here is my second page:
I collaged some paper onto the page and then airbrushed some pink and green copics onto the page. I hand doddled the swirls and then colored them in. The quote on the photo is from an Ani DiFranco song. I love that the copic multiliners will write on photos without smearing or dying them. So cool.

I've got some more pages, I'm going to try and get them scanned in and uploaded in the next week.

DYI decorative tape

2011-07-11T21:41:00.007-04:00

The other night while working in my art journal I finished one of my favorite rolls of decorative masking tape. It was a replica of vintage ledger paper. I loved that tape. Unfortunately, the company who makes it sells it in a pack with two other tapes which I don't like. So I wind up paying 6$ for one roll of tape. Ugh.

I got to thinking, why couldn't I just make my own? I have increditape and I have vintage ledger paper. So I set about making my own. I thought I'd post a little walkthrough of what I did.

What you'll need for this project: A paper-cutter, increditape--3/4 width, vintage papers.
To start off, trim your papers down to 3/4 width. You'll have a bunch of strips--it's ok if they're short we can put more than one on a roll to create a longer piece.
Now, start unrolling your tape. You just want to unroll a small bit to start off with. make sure it's lined up straight. Then, carefully unroll and stick as you go:
Once you've got your first strip attached, you have 2 choices, you can either snip it off and have a short piece or lay another strip on so that you create a longer piece. I chose to do the later. Here is a photo of one of my long strips of covered tape:
The great thing about the increditape is that it has a nice smooth backing, so when you're done it can be rolled up and saved for use on a future project.
All told it took me about 30 minutes to do these three rolls. Not bad for some custom tape. Now I never have to worry about running out of my favorite supplies while working on my art journal!

If you're interested in making your own, you can buy the increditape here.

Free-Motion Tyvek Book

2011-07-06T16:46:00.006-04:00

One of the units I'm teaching in my summer session is on incorporating heat and burning fibers. One of my favorite fibers to work with is tyvek. It does really amazing things when heated--and some of the melting can be controlled with stitching.

I opted to use free-motion stitching in this book. The tyvek was treated with a combination of acrylic, copic markers and Panpastels. I wanted to work on a project that was really deconstructed, since I am a big fan of the deconstructed aesthetic. I love the look of aged, battered layers that reveal texture and create movement. True deconstruction isn't pretty, per-say. It's more about taking things apart and creating a new meaning for them in the re-combination.

For the cover I collaged and stitched a heart with wings and then heated it. As you can see the book itself is bound onto a twig that I got from my yard I liked the idea of mixing a natural element in with all of the synthetic fabrics.

I wanted to play with the layers and textures created by melting a variety of fibers together, so I experimented with different combinations and patterns of stitching. For this panel I used some vintage paper--which surprisingly did not burn, while the tyvek underneath it did.
For this third page I incorporated some old paper towels that I had used to clean up some acrylic paint. I wasn't sure if the plastic in the acrylic would melt or not. I think there must not have been a high enough ration of paint to paper, since the paper just burned.
Since I was doing a book about using heat & fire, I thought it'd be fun to do a page that looked like fire. The flames held their shape nicely, I think that the free motion stitching helped to keep them from degrading too much. The background is a combination of panpastel and copic markers. I heated it quite a lot after coloring it and both products held up really well. In fact the color seemed to intensify a bit with the heat.

I wanted to try using paper again, so I dye-cut a bunch of these flutted circles and then combined them with the tyvek and fabric. Still no burning...a little bit of singing though, which looks nice.
Here is the last page--I worked with triangles. I was sort of thinking of mountains when I did this page (on account of an Arcade Fire song I had on while I was working.) But of course these mountains are deconstructed and burned.

I hope everyone is having a good week & had a safe holiday weekend.

Fabric Travel Journal Pages Finished

2011-07-01T12:23:00.006-04:00

I have the last images from my finished fabric travel journal. It was a really fun project--and I'm very happy with the results. I wound up doing a lot more free-motion stitching on the last few pages, which I've become hooked on!

This page has a couple of pockets--the bottom one was made by drawing the fabric together to create a gather. I also created a little sign that hangs down, attached by little clips I bought in the fishing department.

For this next page I created a folder that holds closed with a button. Here is a photo of the outside:
And here it is open:

For this page I wove a variety of fabrics and ribbons together to create a spot to hold a tag. I put a bobby pin on it to hold it in place. I read someplace that pins were used like paperclips--before the invention of paperclips, back in the 1800's. I like how the pin fits in with the vintage feel of things.

This is the final page in my travel journal. I used an old library pocket and free motion stitched on top of it, while layering some sheer fabric. I also created the little banner at the top using some vintage text:
Here is the finished book all bound together using the button binding:
I want thank my dear friend Bev, who kindly crochet the Dollie on the rosette I used on the cover. It worked beautifully with the style of the book.

I have another finished project that I used for class this semester--I'm hoping to get some photos of it up in the next couple of days.

I hope everyone has a safe and happy holiday weekend.

Travel Journal--Part 2

2011-06-29T11:50:00.006-04:00

some more photos of my fabric book pages for my travel journal.

The first page is giant pocket that I stitched a bunch of little squares onto. The teal squares were airbrushed with my Copics and then I used PanPastels in brown along with a Coffee Break stencil to put the stars on. I am loving how PanPastels go onto fabric....

This second page was done with my free-motion foot. I've been wanting to do the whole free-motion thing, but had been hesitating. It just sounded so scary! But once I tried it, I really loved it.
The clip on the top of the page is from a set of curtain holders. I free-motion stitched the flowers and leaves as well as the word at the top of the page.

The last page is another one I did some free motion stitching on:
I layered a bunch of fabrics to make the big heart and then free-motion stitched over it. I also did the word and the smaller heart inside the larger heart using free-motion. To get the detail up close, I'm afraid you're going to have to click on the photo...even at the largest size the detail isn't very good. Sorry!

That's it for me today, hope everyone is having a good week. I hope to have some more photos to post soon!

Fabric Travel Journal

2011-06-27T00:41:00.004-04:00

For class this semester I'm teaching a class that focuses on fabric and fiber arts in relation to bookbinding. This week we did dying fabric using natural substances along with button binding. I wanted to have some fabric samples to show the class so I spent most of last weekend dying fabric. Once I was done, I figured I ought to DO something with the fabric, so I hit upon the idea of doing a travel journal.

I wanted something that had a lot of pockets and places to tuck the things that I collect when I travel. And I liked the idea of a fabric journal for travel since it's lightweight and would be easy to pack.

I've been working sort of slow on this project. Mostly because it seems like a lot of the time when I'm working I'm thinking of my deadline or other things that need to get done and I really need to just slow down....I have some photos of the first few pages for tonight and then hopefully over the next week I'll be able to post the rest.

Here is the first page:
And the second and the third:
The left -hand page is actually a series of pockets. I made the rosette out of some of the fabric I dyed to go in the center. The page on the right-hand side is an envelope.

And here are the fourth & fifth pages:
Again, pocket on the left-hand side and mini-envelope on the top of the right-hand side.

That's about it for me tonight. Hope everyone is having a happy weekend.

New Book

2011-06-19T21:52:00.007-04:00

The summer semester has started for me and I'm teaching a class that focuses on fabric books. I'm happy to say that I have really great students this semester who are open to taking their time with their art and being pushed!

In class last week we did fabric accordion books. I have some photos of the sample book that I made for class.
Here is the cover:
I used the dots stencil by Coffee Break and the "shift key" image is from Retro Cafe Art Gallery's newest collage sheet. I hand dyed the silk for the ribbon using my copics. The fabric I used canvas for this particular page.

Here are my second and third pages:

The window is one of Coffee Breaks frames and I did some airbrushing and hand doodling on these two pages.

Pages 4 & 5:

The page on the right is more canvas that I airbrushed with my copics and then glued some ribbon down to compliment the stripes. And on the left, the little girl is another one of Retro's images & she's sitting in a Coffee Break frame.

Pages 6 & 7:
Again, I used more canvas on the left hand panel and a Coffee Break stencil. Somehow the bobby pin got all wonky when I was scanning and I didn't notice it until I went to post the pic. It normally lays flat and has a heat attached to the end. I especially like the panel on the right, with the old clue card. I airbrushed the sequin waste with my copics to get it nice and black.

Page 8 & 9:
The wings on the left and the frame on the right are both Coffee Break products. These are made out of Masonite, with gives them a nice thickness and makes them really sturdy for gluing heavier objects (like the key) to. The mini-envelope is also one of Retro's products. Too cute!

When I scanned this in, I didn't realize I accidentally scanned the 9th page twice....sorry for the repeat. Here is pages 9 & 10:
The last panel features yet another Coffee Break frame along with more of my Copic sprayed sequin waste. For all of my frames I coated them with gesso & then sprayed them with my airbrush attachment.

That's about it for me today. Hope everyone is well.

Dark Angels Follow Me...

2011-06-09T23:37:00.006-04:00

I had a really great time teaching at the Copic Ink & Art day last weekend. I'm still collecting photos from various sources (so if you went and you have pics, I'd appreciate you emailing them to me!) I'm hoping to put a post about it in a few days.

In the meantime, I have a page from my art journal. I've been doing more drawing in my journal the last month or so. I've said before that I tend to work in waves in my journal-mostly collage, then mostly drawing heavy. I'm trying to find a balance between the two--although I don't feel like I'm any where close...

The inspiration for the page came from a song entitled "Why should I cry for you?" The little character in it is the dark angel from the song. The line is "Dark angels follow me, over a Godless sea..."

The sea in this page is something I'm particularly proud of. I used a variety of blues and warm grays along with a swirl stencil and my abs. I started layering in colors, moving the stencil slightly over and down each time I switched colors. When I was done I went in and added some Panpastels in white and dark blue for the foam and to intensify the shadows a bit, to give it a little more depth and motion. It's not "realistic" but I do love the motion and intensity of it.

I also put in some Panpastels for the dots around my little angel. His wings are another of Coffee Break Designs wings set and the stars are also one of Coffee Break's stencils.

That's about it for me today. I started teaching summer session today--so I'm hoping to have some photos from my class projects to post. In the meantime, I hope everyone is well and staying cool in this awful heat!

Faux-Washi Tape

2011-05-27T12:17:00.007-04:00

Today I thought I'd post a little tutorial on making your own Washi tape; it's really simple and the possibilities are endless!

A few months back I was standing in the health care aisle waiting on my husband to select an antihistamine and I noticed the medical tape. Since the first place I go with anything is, can I use this in my art? I decided to buy some and play around with it. Low and behold I discovered that it makes an excellent faux-Washi tape!

For this you'll need: Cloth first-aid tape (I use Johnson's and Johnson's), nonstick craft sheet (you can use parchment paper in a pinch if you don't have the sheet), stencil, copic markers, copic abs and Panpastels.

First step, tear off a piece of the tape and stick down on your non-stick craft sheet:
Next, take your abs and spray the tape. I used a couple of different colors and made a stripped pattern, just by eyeballing it:
Next, I took my number's stencil (made by Coffee Break Design) and my Panpastels and using the white I stenciled the numbers onto the tape:
Here is the really amazing thing that I discovered about the Panpastels & cloth medical tape: it they won't smudge. AT ALL! No fixative needed. Take a look I rubbed my finger on it:
And no pastels came off:
You can add another layer of stenciled pastels in a different color, airbrush on top of it, stamp--really you can do any combination you can think of. So cool.

If you want to play around and experiment, then you can lay the finished tape onto a piece of parchment paper (available in the saran wrap aisle) to save them to use at a later date.

That's it for me today. Hope everyone is well! I'm going to go work on my journal and incorporate this tape into a page.

Anxiety: Are You Uncomfortable Yet?

2011-05-25T23:55:00.004-04:00

Here is my most recent journal page. I'll talk a little bit about the technical details in a minute. but first, there's a story behind this page that I wanted to share with you....

My best friend is a woman named Sarah. We are so alike that I often think if i stubbed my toe she'd call me up and say "ouch, that hurt." The only real way that we're different is our work. She's a PhD candidate and studies race and culture. I am not. Obviously. I decided awhile back that this was just the one way that she and I were different.

But this past week she and I had this really interesting conversation about our work. She was talking about how difficult it is to talk about race. How uncomfortable it is for her at times, especially given that she is a white woman. And she said to me; "It's like I picked this one thing guaranteed to make myself uncomfortable, and said ok, let's do that."

It was like a light bulb went on over my head, and I realized we really ARE exactly alike, because that's how I feel about my art. I think that the point of my work is to pull all the darkness and confusion inside of myself out into the light. And that's an extremely uncomfortable thing. At times I too question why on earth I'm doing this. But I've always felt that when I'm uncomfortable, I'm onto something. My best work has been work that I've struggled over, work that comes from a place that even when it's done I'm not always ok with.

I think as artists we need to be more honest. We need to let go of our obsession with making something pretty and just make something that's true.

Which brings me back to my journal page, which is about my struggle with anxiety. It's been a source of embarrassment for me since I was young. My family doesn't have anxiety issues, so they couldn't really understand that sometimes I have to leave my cart of groceries in the middle of the store and run out or that there are times that I have to talk myself into leaving the house.

So I created this little monster who is my manifestation of my anxiety:
This first picture is him drawn and colored with my copic markers. I liked how he looked, but I wanted to give him a furry feel, since he is a monster so I broke out my Panpastels to give him some additional shading.

You can see that the texture of the fur looks different and I added some brown to the back and under the eye. I really like how the Panpastels go on top of the copics since the detail and color still show through, he just has texture now.

Since anxiety often feels like this black hole I'm being sucked into, I wanted to put him in my journal with a black hole. So I used a stencil by Coffee Break Design to create it:
I used G19 and v09 to create this mass. A lot of times I see people using stencils and they just lay them down, spray and then that's it...but there are so many cool effects you can get by layering and shading the same stencil over and over again. I just loved how this turned out.

Lastly I cut out the monster and added some dark purple Panpastels around the edges so the white of the paper wouldn't show. I also attached some wings that I made using the same process I talked about last week.

Here he is, all finished.
For the background of the page I air brushed using my ABS and then collaged some stuff down. I did the brown shading around the edges using the Panpastels.

I'm happy with how the page turned out, even if I felt uncomfortable working on it and looking at it makes me feel slightly anxious.

I hope everyone is having a good week. I'm hoping to put a faux-washi tape tutorial up in the next few days, so come back!

Contest & Giveaway!

2011-05-21T13:47:00.005-04:00

My dear friend Kristen, who owns both Retro Cafe Art Gallery and Coffee Break Design is having a HUGE contest over on her site.

She's created a bunch of really amazing ATC frames--although they can be used for things other than ATCS, they make cool stencils or art journaling supplies. In honor of her new frames she is giving away one 100$ gift certificate and one 50$ gift certificate for her site. Which if you've ever been on Retro Cafe's site, you'll know that she is THE place to buy cool vintage and mixed media supplies!

The frames can be made of stencil board, chipboard or masonite. Take a look at some of these cool frames:

I really loved the tree frame, so I decided to make an atc out of it. Here it is:
I covered the frame with vintage paper and then used a metal nail file to file down and clean up the areas around the inside of the tree--it's actually really easy to remove the excess paper and comes out looking pretty clean. You just need to make sure the paper is dry before you start filling, or it'll rip. I inked it with some brown ink and then sprayed it using my yr04 and rv19 copics and a Coffee Break stencil. I dropped the inks onto some paper, leaving some of it white for contrast and then glued it to the back. The egg is one of Retro's collage sheet images.

The top and the bottom swirl is actually the center from one of the other frames that I cut in half, painted with gesso and sprayed with my copic airbrush attachment. The star and butterfly, likewise are the centers from some of the frames. I inked them and added them for a little dimension.

So now that you've seen my ATC, you should head on over to Retro Cafe Art Gallery and check out the contest! Free art supplies are always a good thing!

Markers & Masonite

2011-05-19T11:21:00.003-04:00

When you talk about working with wood and mixed media, copic markers aren't really the first thing that spring to mind. But in reality, they're a really good fit. One of my favorite woods to work with is Masonite. It's a nice thick material, that's easily altered. The only problem is that it's really dark so it doesn't take color very well. So I thought I'd post a tutorial on how I work with Masonite and my markers.

For this project I used a piece of Masonite, acrylic paint in white, copics with airbrush, and panpastels.

Here is my starting piece. It's made by Coffee Break Designs. It's actually the center part of a one of their frames.
The second step really depends on what you want to do with your markers on the wood. If I want a smooth surface then I go with white paint, if I want a textured surface I go with gesso. Normally if I'm going to draw on the surface or apply pastels then I go with the white paint since the texture of the gesso can be problematic in getting a smooth application. I went with the white here, I just put a light coat.
You'll notice I didn't really cover all the brown; I knew that I was going to airbrush a darker color so it didn't matter if I covered all the brown, but if you're going with a lighter color then you need to cover the Masonite with a couple of coats so that the brown won't show through.

Next I sprayed the Masonite with my Copic markers and airbrush attachment. I used R39 for the center and RV99 on the outer edges.
When the color is dry I added a center image and sponged on some Panpastels with a dot stencil. The pastels go on really nicely--the acrylic gives the wood some tooth, which in turn gives the pastels something to grab onto.

You can layer multiple coats of panpastels in different color for a different look, or layer a sprayed stencil and stenciled pastels for a different look as well. The possibilities are really endless.
That's it for me today. Hope everyone is having a good week. I'm off to the studio to create more art!

Wings Tutorial

2011-05-17T23:55:00.006-04:00

I've been a neglectful blogger lately. I had the flu and was down for the count for almost a week. Then my husband had it...we both got well only to have some family issues crop up. Nothing brings on the blues like familial problems. But I'm shaking them off and attempting to get back into the groove.

I thought I'd do a little tutorial using these AMAZING stencil cuts made by Coffee Break Design. She has them in a lot of different shapes but the wings are my current favorites. Here is a close-up of a pair that I used in a recent journal spread:

I thought it would be good to post a tutorial on how I attained this look. So I did another pair--a set of angel's wings--and took photos of the steps. For this I used Panpastels, Copic markers with airbrush attachment and a Copic multiliner with a brush tip.

So here is what I started out with:
Then I took the white Panpastels and applied them to the stencil board. It doesn't cover them fully--like when you paint them--but it does dull the brown and create a nice base texture.
Once this is done I sprayed the wings using my copic airbrush. The pastels and the markers are a nice match, since the markers will spray onto the pastels and I've found that the airbrushing onto them also in effect seals them into place. I used a B34 and Y21. I then took my brush pen and outlined the wings in black. You could do this step with stamp ink, but I like the crispness the brush pen has. Plus, you can also use it to put in little details like the veins on the bat wings pictured above. Here is a photo of the wings airbrushed. You can see the texture from the pastels. (Sorry about the glare, in the photo....)
Once that was done, I went back in and used the pastels to apply my shading. I worked some light blue and a little yellow into the center and then dark blue and a very dark purple around the edges, blending it up from the wing tips. You'll notice that the black that I inked around the edges no longer looks so thick and crisp as it's been blended out by the pastels. Here is the finished product:
Here is the journal page in its entirety. I used my copic markers and airbrush attachment with a Coffee break stencil for the background. I then added some texture and shading using the Panpastels.

I also used the Pastels and a stencil to create the dots on the boarders and to shade and dull the edges.
Hope everyone is doing well. I'm off to crawl into bed, watch some netflix and awake recharged to make more art!

Copic Ink & Art

2011-04-20T22:08:00.003-04:00

The Copic Ink & Art sign-ups are here! The venue is set and we're ready to roll!

The morning session will be team taught by Colleen and I. We'll be doing a variety of mixed-media techniques using markers, including colorizing transfers before transferring, working with ink & bleach photo dying and ink & texture.

In the afternoon we'll be teaching 2 swapping sessions, the first will be taught by Colleen and is a project using canvas, paint and copic inks. And the second session is mine and will be featuring hand dying silks.

All told, you'll get three classes in one day! If you're interested in learning more or reading detailed class descriptions you can follow the link below.

Here is the info from the email list that was sent out earlier today:

We are pleased to announce the new Copic Ink & Art Workshop!

Join Copic Regional Art Instructors Bianca Mandity and Colleen Schaan for a day full of mixed media art fun as you explore combining your favorite mediums with Copic markers and inks. Students will attend a combined workshop in the morning and two smaller breakout sessions in the afternoon.

To view more information and apply, please visit the Copic application site. Classes will fill quickly, as applications are accepted on a first come first serve basis. Please submit your application as soon as possible. If you have more inquiries, feel free to contact Nancy, at nancy@copicmarker.com. If you know of someone that may be interested in this exciting new workshop, please forward this information to them.

Sincerely,

Nancy Zenke

Certification Coordinator for Copic Markers

Imagination International, Inc.

Eugene, OR

1.866.662.6742 (toll free)

541.684.0013 (outside US)

(If the above link does not work, please enter http://copicmarker.com/certification/certification-applications-info/ in your web browser.)

Home Again

2011-04-18T23:58:00.004-04:00

Last week I was fortunate enough to attend NAMTA, which is a fine arts trade show. This year it was held in Phoenix. I got to go down and hang out with the other amazing members of Copic's fine-art team, have some meetings and get inspired by all the amazing art products out there. Here is a shot of our booth, with the new display in the shape of a marker, how cool is that?

Since I was gone for most of last week and then was jet-lagged all weekend I didn't get much art done. But I do have some doodles I did on the plane. I forget some times how much I enjoy doodling. It seems like my journals tend to run in cycles--I doodle a lot, then I do more mixed-media, then back to doodling again. I think I need to find a better balance, since I miss both when I'm not doing them.

In the meantime here are some doodles (bear in mind that there was crazy turbulence so some of them are a little messy!)I like to draw monsters. I actually have a whole collection of them that I got started drawing as a therapy exercise. I kept drawing them because they're so much fun.

There was a toddler on the plane who cried and flailed on the floor for over an hour and his mother did nothing. So I drew the "Shut-up" monster.
A little octopus. I don't why, I find them cute when doodled and disgusting in real life.
Lastly is my Mr. Peabody character.
I drew all of these with my copic SP brush pen. I normally draw with a multliner, but I'm liking the brush pen. It has a nice heft to it.
I'm hoping that I'm getting back into the swing of working now. I miss being in the studio...

To Do & Numbers

2011-04-08T10:35:00.001-04:00

I write a lot of lists. It seems like I no sooner finish one list then another one crops-up. So recently when I came across a challenge that suggested you come up with your own set of numbers I thought it would work well with all the lists I make. The only rule is that you can't us any existing numbers including Roman Numerals. So here is my page, complete with lists and new numbers:
I airbrushed some yr04 and b34 with a coffee break stencil for the background and used those colors for the doodles along with a little Copic white.

I have to say, trying to come up with a new numerical system was a lot harder than I thought it would be. It was a good challenge--and helped me to realize how ingrained my ideas of numbers really is. I'd highly recommend trying it.

New Journal Page

2011-04-07T16:54:00.004-04:00

I've been working in a new journal since I finished my 30 journal pages in 30 days. It's bigger and I've had a bit of time adjusting to the larger size. This always happens to me, I switch journals and then it takes me a couple of weeks to fall into a groove with the page dimensions and the amount of time it takes to finish a page. I need to get some photos of the outside of the journal to post, but in the meantime here is one of my newest pages:
The frames that around the photo are actually from a set made by Justrite stamps. It's really cool because they have both the stamps and die cuts for cutting them out so they're really precise. I did some detail airbrushing on the left-hand side as well as airbrushing the horns and the stars, both of which are stencils by Coffee Break Design.

Can anyone tell what the math is at the bottom? It's a physics formula, created by Einstien called the cosmological constant. It basically was Einstein's attempt to prove that the universe was static. A claim that later turned out to be erroneous. So this was my version of a joke, since I was thinking about how people can't stay the same.

I've got a couple of other pages finished and I want to try and get them up in the next few days, so stay tuned! In the meantime, hope everyone is having a good week.

Copic OZ Guest post

2011-04-05T19:00:00.003-04:00

Hi all:
Just a quick one for me today. I'm guest posting over on the Copic OZ blog at 7pm EST this evening. I've got a new technique tutorial up that I developed for creating your own background papers. You should check it out!

In the meantime, here is an art journal page I made using the papers I worked on for this technique.

Some coloring

2011-04-03T14:13:00.005-04:00

While I'm trying to figure out what to do for my next challenge (I think I know the what I just haven't worked around the how yet...) I decided to do a little coloring. I find coloring to be very restful. I think it's because I always loved to color as a kid and this is like the grown-up version of that activity. It wasn't until I'd started coloring this that I realized there is this weird bubble at the bottom of the dress on the right-hand side. It was drawn that way. I'm not sure why, but even though I hate how it makes her look weird, I didn't want to stop coloring. Here it is:
I wanted to use a couple of the new BG colors so that was my starting spot. I used bg0000, bg01, bg11, bg53, bg70, bg72, bg75 & bg78 from the Blue-green family. And yr000, r000, r00, r20, and r21 from the red and orange family. Lastly I used e41, e51, e33, e0000, e00, e01 and e37 from the earth tones and a little bit of w3 and c3 & 4 from the gray family.

That's it for me today. I'm going to try and have the logistics for my next challenged worked out sometime next week. So come back and visit!

In the meantime, happy Sunday everyone.

JustRite Blog Hop: Color Challenge No. 52

2011-04-01T03:00:00.000-04:00

For those of you who don't know me, my name is Bianca and I am part of the Copics education team in the fine art department. I work mostly with mixed-media. While I'm not a card maker, I do keep an art journal and I use a lot of stamps (especially alphabet stamps) in my journal. So I was thrilled when Sharon asked me to participate in this color challenge.
Here is the photo of the inspiration:

And here is what I did:

I work mostly with vintage paper and old images. Most of them come from garage sales or goodwill. I like the idea of taking something that's been abandoned and giving it new life in my journal.
I used my abs on the photo and on some of the papers in the background and then I worked with the special occasion monogram set for my stamps. I used one of the circular stamps around the girl's head. I also used it on the wings at the top of the page. That's actually a couple of die cut circles from a scalloped circle set I have that I cut out, quartered and then layered to make the wings.

I used the letter stamps for the words on vintage paper and then added in a little shadowing with my copic white. The letters at the very bottom are stamped on masking tape. I actually left the letters on their container strip and inked and stamped them all together. I like the background texture it created.

Now that you've seen my creation you can hop on over to the other lovely blogs that are participating: JustRite Inspiration blog, Sharon Harnist, Beate Johns, Lori Craig, and Kathy Jones.

30 days of Journaling--bound

2011-03-31T09:00:00.000-04:00

It was a little bit odd not working in my journal today. I actually sat down and started cutting out the pages for a new journal....but when I took a break, I decided to go ahead and bind my pages all together with the cover. I went with a modified tapes binding that is good for working with flat pages. Here is the journal closed:
Here is a side view of it open:

And here is a picture of the binding. I bound it onto some yellow ribbon and made a little shrink-plastic tag that reads 30-30-30- to put on the outside:
So now that I'm done, I'm faced with the challenge of what comes next? As much as I loved working in this journal, I don't know that a page a day is really feasible. Certainly posting everyday is not feasible. Not that I don't enjoy posting to my blog but everyday is a bit much. I'm thinking trying to finish a larger page every couple of days...what does everyone think? I'm open to ideas.

In the meantime, thanks for stopping by and reading.

Day 30: Wrap it Up!

2011-03-30T09:00:00.000-04:00

Holy Cow, it is day 30 of my 30/30/30 challenge. I'm having a really hard time believing that I've made it all the way through 30 pages in 30 days. I'm really at a loss as to what to do next. Now that I've made time to make art for fun everyday, I find that I don't want to give that up. But I don't think creating and posting everyday is feasible either. I'm going to have to think about this a bit and see if I can figure out a happy medium.

In the meantime, here is my final page for the challenge:
The inspiration for this page actually came from the twine--which I'd had sitting on my desk for awhile, but hadn't been able to incorporate into any of my pages. I thought it was appropriate since I'm wrapping up this challenge and wrapping up the page. The background was airbrushed using my ABS and a variety of stencils. I did some machine stitching around the outside and on the outer edges of the photo. And I finished it off with some hand doodling.

So that's it, all finished. It's my hope to get the pages bound together and a photo of it up tomorrow in time for the end of the month. I want to thank everyone for keeping up with all my posts and Traci for the inspiration. If you've missed any of my previous posts you can find them here. Now, head on over to Traci's site to see what she's doing for her last day.

Day 29: Black & White

2011-03-29T09:00:00.001-04:00

It's day 29 of my 30/30/30 challenge. Today when I sat down to work, I took a look at my markers and felt overwhelmed by the wide variety of color choices. So I decided to do a page that was mostly black and white:
I added just a smidgen of pink for the heart and the staples that I attached the ribbon with. The sequin waste was teal originally, but I sprayed it using my copic abs and the special black ink. I also airbrushed the background with some dots and swirls. Since I wasn't so concerned with color, I tried to create depth by layering different textures together. I added in some text cut out from an engineering textbook to finish it off.

That's about it for me today. If you've missed any of my previous posts, you can click on the link on the right-hand side of my blog. Now that you've seen my work, head on over to Traci's site and see what she's working on today.

Day 28: Sleep

2011-03-28T09:00:00.003-04:00

It's day 28 of my 30/30/30 challenge and I'm nearing the end. Only 2 more days to go! It's kind of hard for me to believe. If you're looking for the Copic blog-hop giveaway you can find it here.

For today's page I worked with another fabric flower. This was the one I'd originally planed on using yesterday, but then I wound up going with a different color scheme. I also used the cut out from the metal frame I made 2 days ago for the center of the flower:
The text is a mix of Hampton art stamps, hand written and stamp camp. I used a bunch of different things to stamp circles onto the page since I was writing about the cycle of insomnia I struggle with. I used the cap from my glue stick, the bottom of a soda can and a circle stamp by Prickly Pear.

That's about it for me today. If you've missed any of my previous posts, you can click on the link on the right-hand side of my blog. Now that you've seen my work, head on over to Traci's site and see what she's working on today.

Blog-Hop Winner & Copic Ink & Art Day

2011-03-27T17:11:00.005-04:00

I'm really excited to announce that Copic is going to be hosting a mixed-media day of classes called Copic Ink & Art. The amazing Colleen Schaan & I will be teaching a variety of mixed-media classes using Copic markers. It's going to be the first weekend in June, in Indianapolis, IN. We're in the process of booking space, so we're not taking reservations yet--but if you're interested in learning more about the classes or signing up to attend, then you should sign-up for the email list. You'll be the first to know when classes open up and I promise we won't give out your email list to anyone else!

Now, for the blog hop winner. I used the random number generator and:
So that means that Denise is the winner:

Denise, if you could Email me your info, I'll forward it on to Copic so you can get your book! Congratulations!

Day 27: Bloom

2011-03-27T09:00:00.001-04:00

Welcome to day 27 of my 30/30/30 challenge. If you're looking for the copic blog-hop & giveaway, you can find the post here.

I'm not certain how it happened, but I wound up using almost the exact same color scheme as I did yesterday. Especially since I was playing around with blue and green colors in anticipation of a blog hop I'm participating in next month. I was dying fabric flowers & somehow I ended up using purple, pink and teal:
The flower is a combination of embossed & sprayed metal, vintage paper, vintage photo and shrink plastic. (Sorry the photo is a little blurry, the flower is actually really dimensional and my scanner HATES anything that sticks up too far.)
I've been feeling stressed out the last couple of days. I have some issues with depression and anxiety and as I was working on this page, I was thinking about how even in the midst of those struggles, my creativity is there to carry me through--even in the midst of darkness, creativity blooms.

That's about it for me today. I can't believe I only have 3 days left in this challenge! Where did the time go? If you've missed any of my previous posts, you can click on the link on the right-hand side of my blog. Now that you've seen my work, head on over to Traci's site and see what she's working on today.

Day 26: So Skip

2011-03-26T09:00:00.000-04:00

It's Day 26 of my 30/30/30 challenge. If you're looking for the copic blog-hop & giveaway, you can find the post here.

In my effort to use up more bits & pieces from my technique development, I decided to use this large piece of embossed metal for the focal point:
I embossed it, airbrushed it with my copic markers and a stencil from Coffee Break Design. I then used my dye cutter to punch the circle out of the center and placed the vintage photo behind it. I sprayed a little brown around the edges of the frame to shade it up. The little charm at the top is shrink plastic--I dye cut it using the same scalloped circle, airbrushed it and then added the text. The twine was actually a yellow color that didn't work well with the page so I I hand colored it using my copics. My favorite thing about the markers is that I can color pretty much anything to match.

That's it for me today. If you've missed any of my previous posts, you can click on the link on the right-hand side of my blog. Now that you've seen my work, head on over to Traci's site and see what she's working on today.

Day 25: Hope

2011-03-25T09:00:00.000-04:00

It's day 25 of my 30/30/30 challenge. If you're looking for the copic blog-hop & giveaway, you can find the post here.

Today I worked with another vintage negative. I started off by airbrushing using my copic ABS and a coffee break stencil around the outside of the page, and I left the center blank--so that the white background would help the negative image pop.

I had this ticket that said "Hope" (it's by Tim Holtz) sitting on my desk and I thought it was fitting because of the expression about hope floating. I typed up some text using my vintage type writer, airbrushed some masking tape and stamped the text running along the side. That's about it for me today. I can't believe I only have 5 days left in this challenge! If you've missed any of my previous posts, you can click on the link on the right-hand side of my blog. Now that you've seen my work, head on over to Traci's site and see what she's working on today.

Day 24: You

2011-03-24T09:00:00.000-04:00

Welcome to day 24 of my 30/30/30 challenge. Today there was absolutely no planning involved when I made my page. I don't know if it's because I've been sick, or if it's just hitting some sort of wall but I couldn't really organize my thoughts. I just sort of randomly started slapping stuff down on the page...and then time ran out.
I had all these metal tiles that I'd embossed and done a resist on just playing around and thought I'd use them on the page, so they went down. Then I added some ledger paper just for contrast. I dug around in my bag of photos and I pulled the photo out of the two little boys and was struck by how similar their posture is to a stencil I have by Coffee Break. So I decided to airbrush the stencil on top of the photo. I was thinking that it was sort of a then and now thing.

Cut out a border, added some text and then added the "Make adjustments" part. That was sort of a joke to myself, since there was no real planning or pattern to this page.
I hope everyone is having a good day. If you've missed any of my previous posts, you can click on the link on the right-hand side of my blog. Now that you've seen my work, head on over to Traci's site and see what she's working on today.

Copic Marker Blog Hop

2011-03-23T09:30:00.003-04:00

(If you're looking for today's 30/30/30 post you can find it here.)

To celebrate the new release of Marianne Walkers book "Shadows & Shading" all of us Copic marker ladies are participating in a blog hop.

If you leave a comment below, you'll be entered to win this amazing book! The contest runs through Sunday evening 5pm eastern time and is open to folks in North America. This instructive guide takes beginners through the fundamentals of shading and shadow placement when coloring. Includes transparent lighting templates.

The principles covered in Shadows & Shading will help you bring your art to life. Included in the guide are instructional topics such as seeing the basic shapes in complex objects, understanding highlights, identifying the color in shadows, and more.

Clear, easy to follow explanations make it simple to learn the basic rules of light and shading. Following the principles in this guide, you will learn how to add depth and dimension to your pieces. Included are four transparent lighting templates, to help apply the concepts learned to your own work. Here is a photo of the book with one of the lighting guides. (My thanks to Sharon for the photo!)

And lastly, here is a photo of a manga that I colored using the principals of light and shadow covered in this book.
Now that you've visited my blog, hop on over to the other ladies blogs and enter to win on their site too!
Marianne Walker Lori Craig Sharon Harnist Jenn Balcer Jennie Black Colleen Schaan

Debbie Olsen Sherrie Siemens

Day 23; Scattered thoughts & promises

2011-03-23T09:00:00.001-04:00

It's day 23 of my 30/30/30 challenge. Today I was sort of at a loss as to what I wanted to do. So I started digging around on my very messy table to see what I could come up with and I found and old piece of speaker wire. And volia--I had an idea for my page:
The little hearts are shrink plastic that I sprayed with my ABS using Coffee Break Design's heart stencil, cut out and shrunk. The egg is attached using some foam tape so that it sits evenly with the wire behind it. I'm happy with how it turned out--I guess it shows that my messy desk is good for something!

Now that you've seen my work, head on over to Traci's site and see what she's working on today.

Day 22: What were you meant for?

2011-03-22T09:00:00.001-04:00

It's day 22 of my 30/30/30 challenge. So first, I'm gonna fess-up; I broke the time rule. This page took me a little longer than 30 minutes to do. I got to the 25 minute mark and was 3/4ths of the way done and had a little freak-out. Everything suddenly started to go wrong and I was thinking I'd have an incomplete page and then I decided I was being stupid. What good are rules if they can't be broken? And what would be the point of this if I stressed myself out and had a negative experience journaling? The whole point working this way was to set me free to be creative--not make myself nuts. So I took about 45 minutes to do this page. I can't say that I'm sorry since I like how it turned out.
The main part of the background for this is an old arithmetic flash-card. I got a whole pile of these from my friend Joanie last weekend and was just itching to use one in my journal. I've stitched around the outside and added some sequin waste. For the background I airbrushed using my copic markers and a stencil set by coffee break design. I actually used 2 different versions of the same stencil--a large one for the background and a small one for the photo.

I hope everyone is having a good day. If you've missed any of my previous posts, you can click on the link on the right-hand side of my blog. Now that you've seen my work, head on over to Traci's site and see what she's working on today.

Day 21: In The Wrong Band

2011-03-21T09:00:00.004-04:00

Welcome to day 21 of my 30/30/30 challenge. I am now officially on the downswing of this project!

Today's page is kind-of simple. Mostly because I was playing around with this metal foil and my typewriter and took more time playing with it than I intended. I looked at my clock and had an "Oh-S**t" moment. I do like how it turned out. I used a vintage photo of two ladies--It's a tribute to my friend Beth (I know you know what this is.) The text reads: "I think it's perfectly clear, we're in the wrong band."

I collaged some paper for the background and then did a mix of stamping and hand-writing for the text. I like the way the mix of the fonts look together. It's something I need to do more often, since every time I do it, I like how it looks. The ribbon is hand dyed using my copic markers and some fine silk. I left the edges raw--but I coated the back of it with a thin layer from my UHU glue-stick to keep it from fraying. I like doing that since it stops the fraying but doesn't change the color or make the ribbon really stiff once it's dry.

I hope everyone is having a happy Monday. Now that you've seen my work, head on over to Traci's site and see what she's working on today.

Day 20: Faith For The Faithless

2011-03-20T09:00:00.001-04:00

Welcome to day 20 of my 30/30/30 challenge. Today's post is going to be a bit long, but I feel like the impetus behind this page is going to take a little explaining. Today's page is all about faith. Let me be clear here, I'm not talking about faith of a religious nature, even though that's what most people think of when you use the word faith. I'm talking about faith in simple things like, the sun rising in the east tomorrow morning.

Having faith is something that's been a struggle for me most of my life. I have a bit of a Wednesday Adams streak in me. When I was first learning about the solar system, my dad told me that the sun was a star and as such, can and will eventually explode. It really freaked me out. How can you have faith the sun will rise when it might just go kaboom while you sleep?

And for me, it wasn't just the sun. My problem with the universe ending in my sleep was pretty much a microcosm of how I felt about everything. A few years ago I decided, I'm just a person who can't have faith in others, myself or life in general. I decided I was faulty, and due to my faithless nature, I found it hard to believe that I would ever change.

But last summer one of my non-art friends said something to me that really changed my perspective. She said to me, "I could never do what you do and not just because I have no talent, I don't have the stamina it takes to make that leap of faith every time you sit down to work."

I'd never really thought about my art as an act of faith before that moment, but that's what it is. Today, I wanted to remind myself that I am capable of that kind of faith. My art is faith, for the faithless. So that's what this page is about.

The skull stencil is by Coffee Break Design as are the swirls in the background. I used my copic ABS and then attached some stencil cut-outs (the part of the stencil you punch out before you use it) for the wings. I hand stamped the text & numbers using a couple of sets by Hampton Art.

Now that you've seen my work, (and read my long and rambling post) head on over to Traci's site and see what she's working on today. Knowing Traci, it'll be something cool--cause I've got faith in her too.

Day 19: You Reap

2011-03-19T09:00:00.000-04:00

Welcome to day 19 of my 30/30/30 challenge. Today I wanted to work with a vintage negative that I'd gotten from a friend. She actually gave me a whole stack of them and I've been itching to use them, but just couldn't find a way to incorporate one of them until today. It worked out nicely since it's a photo of a woman sitting one a fence at a farm and I wanted to work with the concept of you reap what you sow.
On the right-hand side I used a piece of vintage sheet music that I dyed using a technique for background paper I've been working on. Then I laid down the bird stencil and airbrushed using my copic ABS over the top. The text is by Stamp Camp for the word "sow" and the small text is by Hampton Art.

I wrote on top of the negative using my Unibal white pen and also used it to accent the bird.

That's it for me today. Now that you've seen my work, head on over to Traci's site and see what she's working on today

Day 18: The Things You Can't Remeber

2011-03-18T09:00:00.001-04:00

It's day 18 of my 30/30/30 challenge and I find myself wondering what I'm going to do when I'm done. I've been enjoying working in my art journal everyday and I'm finding I don't like the idea of giving it up.

For today, I had this leftover fabric heart with a photo stitched onto it from another project. It worked out well, because my new markers from Copic came and I wanted to play with them a bit. It was an opportune color match. I used the BG53 for the blue-green and E23 for the brown. I based this page around a Tom Waits lyric from his song Time. It goes "The things you can't remember tell the things you can't forget." I think it's probably one of his best, and I recommend giving it a listen.
I hand colored the swirls at the top and the bottom and then added the polka-dots. I airbrushed the background using my copics and then stamped the circle. The alphabet is by Stamp Camp, and then I used my Spica pens to color in the centers. I stitched around the outside using my sewing machine. It's a little blurry on the top because of the pin in the hear is dimensional and my scanner gets angry when I scan things that don't lay flat.

That's it for me today. Now that you've seen my work, head on over to Traci's site and see what she's working on today

Day 17: Is, Is Not

2011-03-17T09:46:00.002-04:00

It's Day 17 of my 30/30/30 challenge. Let me apologize up-front: there's a bit of a whiny tone to this page. Which was not my intention when I made it. Here it is:

I was thinking about the fact that being an artist doesn't just change the way that you look at the world, it changes the day-to-day structure of your life. The older I get, the harder it is to make myself fit into any kind of "normal" mode. I wanted to show that division or separation between what is normal for the bulk of the world and what is normal for me. Hence the colorful paper in the "is" section and the black + white photo in the "is not" section.

I used my copic ABS to spray the text. It's taken from a Coffee Break Design stencil that I masked off to get the parts of the text I wanted. I also sprayed the masking tape that I used as the border.

That's it for me today. Now that you've seen my work, head on over to Traci's site and see what she's working on today

Day 16: XY&Z

2011-03-16T09:00:00.000-04:00

It's day 16 of my 30/30/30 challenge and I'm officially past the 1/2 way mark. Time is really flying by so fast! For today I worked with the second bear stencil by Coffee Break Design. I stenciled it onto an old black and white photo. That's one of my favorite tricks, to salvage photos that are damaged or aren't really all that interesting--stencil and journal on them and suddenly, they've got new life. I used my Copic ABS and my sketch markers to add the color and my spica pens on the side journaling.
The text that I stamped on the side is from a Florence & The Machine's song. I'm not really certain why I put the x y & z up on the left side. I wanted to put something in that space, so I cut the hearts out and as I was looking at them the thought just popped into my head. I'm trying to really go with the flow when it comes to this journal and not fight my subconscious. I'm sure this means something--I just don't know what it is.

So that's day 16. That's it for me today. Now that you've seen my work, head on over to Traci's site and see what she's working on today

Day 15: Get A Clue

2011-03-15T09:00:00.000-04:00

It's day 15 of my 30/30/30 challenge. Today, I worked with a vintage clue card, some vintage sheet music, and some old ledger paper that I altered using a technique I've been working on.
The head stencil is a Coffee Break stencil and then I used a number stamp by Hampton Art inside of it. I used my ABS and then hand colored the sheet music. The circular text on the top is by Stamp Camp.

The nice thing about working on these small pages and in these short time intervals is that it's forcing me to clarify my thoughts and distill them down. I was feeling irritated with someone when I sat down to work, but instead of ranting on about them, I had to come up with a way to convey my feelings in just a few sentences.

I have to say when I started this project, I was concerned that I would feel pressure and it would stress me out to get my pages done. But instead, I've found it inspiring and helpful. I'm hoping that it will keep on like this through the end.

That's it for me today. Now that you've seen my work, head on over to Traci's site and see what she's working on today

Day 14: Don't Carry it All

2011-03-14T08:57:00.001-04:00

It's day 14 of my 30/30/30 challenge and today I took inspiration from a song by the Decemberists entitled "Don't Carry it all." I've been feeling a little overwhelmed today--sometimes it seems like the more things I cross off my list, the more things get added to it.
When I get overwhelmed, I need to remember not to carry it all.

I used a lot of dark colors on this page since I was feeling kind of dark when I made this. The background paper on the top is an old textbook and I used my copic ABS to spray the page and then doodled a bit on the top using a Unibal white pen.

So that's my day 14. Almost half-way there!
In the meantime--why don't you go and see what Traci's been up to today! If you've missed any of my previous posts you can click the link on my side-bar to see all my 30/30/30 posts.

Day 13-Don't Poke The Bear

2011-03-13T08:45:00.000-04:00

It's day 13 of my 30/30/30 challenge. Today I'm using another new stencil from Coffee Break Design. This is another one that I didn't think I'd like--but I actually really love it on the page. I layered another stencil in the background also by Coffee Break and then I laid the bear stencil down.
It worked out well, since I was feeling grouchy when I was I working on this page. The stamped text is by Hampton Art. I colored it in using my Spica and then went back over with a black multi-liner to redraw the doodles.

That's it for me today. Now that you've seen my work, head on over to Traci's site and see what she's working on today

Day 12: Fierce!

2011-03-12T09:00:00.000-05:00

It's day 12 of my 30/30/30 challenge. Today I was inspired by some good art friends who I hung out with last night. They are both amazing women. Kris is my BAF and owner of Coffee Break and Joanie is our official art mom. What amazes me about my art friends is the difference in age is rarely a barrier between us. Some of artists I like to spend time with who are great-grandmothers. Even though everyone's art is so different, it's the spirit that's the same. They all have such fierce hearts. So, when I pulled out this photo of the little girl I thought, how perfect! I laid down a pretty simple background--some colored masking tape, graph paper and vintage textbook paper. I airbrushed with my ABS on top of the paper and then on top of the photo. I outlined some of the heart/wings stencil with my copic multi-liner, which is nice and thin but will be permanent on photos when dry. The stamped text is by Stamp Camp.

The other day, one of the comments asked about my journal pages themselves and how come they have the little tabs on them. It's because they're file folders. I like the thickness of file-folder paper and recently when I was in target they had them on sale--100 for 5$. I cut them up to make my pages. The parts that are left over are being used in other projects. Here is a photo of my journal:

The Websters cover is an old book that I took apart and will bind as the covers of the journal. Obviously, I'm going to have to wait until I'm all done to bind it together. This is the first time I've worked in a journal like this--I wasn't sure I'd like having the pages loose, but it's actually really convenient. I can stitch, staple and flip the pages around to write really easily.
Thanks for all your comments and support!

Speaking of support, I want to congratulate Traci on her new book! If you're interested you should check out the amazon link on her site. So head on over, see what she's doing today and look at her awesome new book!

Day 11: We Can Dance

2011-03-11T08:00:00.001-05:00

It's day 11--I can't believe it! When I went to place this finished page in the stack with other pages I was surprised by how many pages I've done. It's silly, since I've been posting them every day, but there was just something about seeing the pages stacked together.

Here is my page for today:
After using the moose stencil to such happy results I decided to go ahead and try another stencil that had been sitting on my desk for a while. It has fish on it. So the lesson here is that I don't like the fish. I didn't like them in the stencil, and I don't really like them on the page. But since I only had 30 minutes, I didn't have time to cover them up and start over. So I left them. I'm telling myself that it's good for me to leave a page element I don't like. Something about wabi-sabi and character building. Although, I don't really believe myself when I say that.

The circle stencil is by Coffee Break and the black circular stamp is by Prickly Pear. I got to meet the folks from prickly pear this past weekend at a show and I have to say, I like a lot of their stamps. The little owl at the top is one of theirs too.

The ATTN: Church Pianist, is another vintage Coffee Break stamp. I bought it a few years ago at one of their warehouse sales and it sat in it's drawer for forever. After using the animal one yesterday, I pulled it out. It's going into my regular rotation.

I used my copic ABS for the background and the text is from an alphabet stamp by Stamp Camp.

Now that you've seen my work, head on over to Traci's site and see what she's working on today.
If you've missed any of my previous posts for this challenge you can check them out by clicking on the button on the right side bar.

Day 10: Animals Are Not Admitted

2011-03-10T08:00:00.000-05:00

It's day 10 of my 30-30-30 challenge and here is my page:

I used my deer stencil by Coffee Break Design on top of a vintage photo of a Christmas tree. The stamp is an old, old coffee break design that was manufactured by the founder of the company Mike. He passed away this past fall and while I will always miss him, I'm finding that using some of his original creations helps to keep him with me in spirit. The literal translation of the stamp is "The Animals are not admitted." I thought it was a funny juxtaposition, placing it on top of the deer.

The background of the page was done with my copic ABS and a Coffee Break stencil. I added in some hand doodling to finish out the page. The text on top of the page is from a stamp set by stamp camp.

Now that you've seen my work, head on over to Traci's site and see what she's working on today