Book Binding Adventures

I made this simple journal (about 7x7) by using up some recycling I had laying around in my studio and a few sheets of Rives light in cream that I wanted to try out for journaling.  For the recycled bits I used some cardboard packing material from some books that I ordered and the brown kraft paper that was around my paper purchase from a local art supply store.  The brown paper was then marbled to give it a decorative feel.  It is bound together using a basic pamphlet stitch with three signatures that were stitched through the spine, leaving the stitches exposed on the outside.
All in all it was been a nice little journal that cost me nearly nothing to make, as the only thing I really purchased was the paper inside.  It also let me try a new paper in a fun way, as I got to experiment on it in my journal as I worked my way through the book.  I liked the paper but will continue to look for one I like better before I bind up a bunch of journals.  Or really what I am more likely to do is bind several more small books with all of the varied paper I have on hand in my studio and decide from there if there is even such a thing as a completely perfect paper.

Collage Night at MCBA

My collaged spread from Monday night's meeting.

The Monday night meeting of the MCBA Visual Journal Collective with Roz Stendahl was themed "Collage". Participants were encouraged to bring sketches on loose paper, ephemera, and decorative paper along with a glue stick and scissors to try out some collage techniques in their journals.

Knowing that our meeting was about collage, I had done two quick sketches on loose paper that afternoon of some random stuff I had seen (apples while on the phone, a bird started from out the window and finished with a reference photo on my computer). I also gathered some painted paper from a paper test (Aquabee Super Deluxe paper) and a whole pile of other stuff like maps, photocopies of sketches, paste paper scraps, marbled scraps, etc.

After a brief intro on some collage techniques by Roz, the thirty or so people that turned up for the meeting got into our evening of collage creation.

I have to say that a rarely collage in my journal but I enjoyed putting two random sketches done on loose paper down into my journal when they may have just ended up in the trash or floundering in a drawer in my studio. It also caused me to think about all the times during the day that I show a student how to shade or draw something on a small scrap of drawing paper and that I tend to throw them out at the end of the day. I think I may just start saving all those random little drawings, and collage them into my journal from now on. It could be interesting.

Watercolor Landscapes from my Classroom

I have been teaching a painting class this fall and we have been learning to create loose watercolor landscapes.

I have to say I really enjoyed teaching this lesson and I made a lot of little landscapes over the course of the week and a half we spent on this unit.

The focus was working quickly and layering washes to create a strong sense of distance. We also covered creating trees, clouds, and using salt to create textured ground effects.