June Botanical Sketch a Day & Finishing Things

Botanical Sketch a Day, June 2012
Tombo Makers, Sharpie Pen, Sakura Gelly Roll Pens

I started this sketch-a-day in June but just finished it last night.  One of my areas to work on:
I start a project or challenge with great gusto and get distracted by another shiny project or idea
and leave the previous project unfinished.  This is not just with art projects but also weight loss
plans, reorganizing plans, and the list goes on, throughout my life. 

I do need to acknowledge myself for completing my BFA and extensive graduate work
(three Masters) while admitting it took me from 1969 until 1988 to complete the BFA (sigh).
The masters were easier--two (or three) years, easier in some ways.  But think I am a sprinter
and not a distance runner.  That makes it sound so...athletic, doesn't it?  Chasing whatever leaps
or dazzles within eye shot has meant that I have often been confounded by narrowing down
my intended destination.

Images and ideas excite and inflame me!  New art techniques and materials are akin, for me,
what others gain from that expensive new purse or pair of heels.  Me, just show me a pretty or
intriguing flower, leaf, fruit, seed and I'm in artist heaven.  Don't know what it is about color,
curve, line, texture, that seductive negative space and shape. 

My life is heaven and hell, the pain of forgotten things, unpaid bills, unfinished things, living
space messes; the ecstasy of being a witness to beauty and the pleasure of noting my visual
impression of what I experience.  I haven't given up on learning to steer a little straighter
on my path, but I have to quote one of my favorite contemporary artists, in a CBS interview
series "Notes to My Younger Self": "I am confident that no artist has more pleasure, day in
and day out, than I do".  I believe that what you say is true, Chuck, but ME TOO.

I've provided this link before in this blog, but think it is worth repeating, in case you did not get
around to  viewing it.  http://www.cbsnews.com/video/watch/?id=7404806n

Tombo Markers and Scribbles: Everything's Energy

Tombo Blooms plus Scribbles

Tombo Jelly Bean Markers, Identipen Marker, Pitt Pen,
Gelly Roll metallic markers, Staedtler Watercolor Crayons

Today experimented with using the Tombo Markers (Jelly Bean color range) like
watercolors.  Love the bright and cheerful colors and in keeping with the child-like
colors I made simple flowers with large centers and playful petals.  Did all the
basic drawing with the Pit Pen, then Tombo Markers, water and brush.  Did not want
to quit so  added scribbles, first with watercolor crayons, then with Gelly Roll metallic
markers. I last added dots in the flower centers with Plaid liquid embossing.

The scribbles were fun to do.  While I scribbled I was thinking about Julia Watkins http://www.platris.com/energism.html and her energism painting and Einstein's quote:

"Everything is energy and that's all there is to it.
Match the frequency of the reality you want
and you cannot help but get that reality.
It can be no other way.  This is not philosopy.
This is Physics."

Faux Stitches and Black Gesso

Let Your Art Out (left page)
Black Gesso, Yasumoto Metallic Watercolors, Office Max
Metallic Markers, EK Metallic Marker, Gelly Roll Pen, White.

Let Your Art Out (right page)

Black Gesso, Yasumoto Metallic Watercolors, Office Max
Metallic Markers, EK Metallic Marker, Gelly Roll Pen, White.

My first experiment with black gesso (Liquitex) and metallic watercolor and markers.  I used a silver
metallic marker to draw the flower and pattern.  Next I randomly filled the divided sections with the
metallic watercolor.  Later, when I really saw that it was looking like a crazy quilt, I added the patterns
in the Office Max metallic markers and the "stitches" with the Sakura white Gelly Roll pen.

Suddenly I was imagining myself sitting with one of my mom's photo albums from the late 40's.  Her
familiar handwriting in white ink on the black album pages.  She told me that she was embarrassed
by her "terrible handwriting" but it looks so great to me.  I guess it's strange that I haven't tried black
gesso and white ink before because I love how dramatic it looks.

I think I will re-visit this at some point and work with paper designs I've made for backgrounds.  I
might just get brave and make some real stitches.

The "Let Your Art Out" is a reminder to find a way to creatively self express often.  It is stress
reducing, emotionally releasing and just plain fun!

June Botanical Sketch A Day

June Botanical Sketch A Day Journal Page Left

Watercolor pencils, Office Max metallic markers, Copic markers, Sakura Souffle Pen,
Martha Stewart Craft Markers, Derwent Metallic Watersoluble Pencils

Fireworks Craft Spray, Sharpie Pen, Sakura Souffle Pens,
Copic Markers, Office Max Metallic Markers, watercolor pencils.

This is my first Art Journal calendar spread.  I was inspired by Effy Wild's "Book of Days" videos,
my own daily sketch books and all the artists online who seem to be doing monthly and yearly art
challenges.  I've seen, just for some examples, page a day, face a day, sketch a day, cloud photo
a day, artist trading card a day, oil sketch a day, collage a day, postcard a day, handmade card a day.
I do botanical sketches often but like the idea of a thumbnail sized sketch each day. 

My plan is to make some sort of botanical or nature related drawing a day in my homemade
calendar pages.  Taking one month, and especially, one day at a time with this!
Still have to do a sketch for today. 

See anything unusual about this calendar page?  The dates are on the right days of the week, but
after I had drawn this page I realized that my weeks started with Mondays instead of Sundays.
Think I am going to leave it this way, though, because that's how my life works---five "work" days
and the two weekend days outlined in gold.  Ever get that feeling?

My World Laughs in Flowers

My World Laughs in Flowers

Compass, Office Max Metallic Markers, Copic Markers, Recollections
Opaque Marker, GellyRoll Stardust Marker, Pelican Opaque Watercolors,

Art at the Center

Pelican Opaque Watercolors, Office Max Metallic Markers,
Pitt Pen, Copic Markers

I've been writing a lot, lately about what art means to me.  This spread is also about what botanical
art means to me in particular, and how I ended up being so attached to this subject matter. 
Feel like I've been working on this spread forever, and it has been a long process. 

The right page started as a stand along mandala "Letters in the Round" (Joanne Sharpe Lesson).
I wanted to integrate it into my larger journal.  I actually wanted to make this into a mind map with
the letters in a circle format, as the mind map components, but it has turned into decorated pages
that I still need to write in.

While I've made these pages I've been thinking about flowers and where I got connected to this
subject.  Here's what I think: I've had a special spot in my heart since I was a child.  Both my
mom and her mother had green thumbs.  One of my sisters is a Botanist and my other sister
has a lovely fence with climbing roses.  My grandmother lived on a farm and I remember her
bushes of lush peonies in the front yard, her row of Hollyhocks by the pump house, her brilliant
orange and black tiger lilies by her front door.  I associate my mom with blooming trees as well
as pansies and flowers of all kinds.  And the Lombard Lilac Festival, and, of course,
Georgia O'Keefe.

I remember my mother reading a beautifully illustrated book about flowers and fairies to me
when I was 4 or 5 and not wanting to return the book to the library.  What sealed it for me,
though, was a third grade teacher who showed us a slide show of flowers and vividly
communicated her love of botanical images.  I can't remember what she said about the
flowers she showed us but the beauty of those images is with me yet.

In art school I painted Matisse influenced portraits and then moved into Neo-Expressionist
canvases.  But while I worked in my work-study job in the media lab I drew pages and pages
of botanical drawings.  I used my trusty botanical field guide to make my drawings.
I never for a second considered this my "real art" but should have gotten a clue when someone
begged me to sell a page from my floral sketchbook to them.  Then I went off to get my
Masters in Art Therapy.  It's been an interesting and rewarding life.  For the last 20 years I
have either worked in private practice or as a college teacher.  But now, after all these years,
I've picked up my great love again.

It happened by accident when I stopped into the local free school to ask if I could teach an
artist trading cards class for them.  They told me it was too rarefied a topic (not true in my
world) but would I be available to teach a drawing class at the Denver Botanic Gardens?

Thank You Mother-Father God!  I've been doing it for two years now and it has been so great.
I don't care how girlie or sentimental some think flower paintings are.  They are my passion!

To me, as Ralph Waldo Emerson said "The Earth Laughs in Flowers".  My world too.

Below are the pages in their final form, with journal entries added.

Great Chuck Close Quotes!

The way this started...
Gesso, Aqualon Wisp Brush, Pelican opaque waters, Yasumoto
iridescent watercolors, paper towel blotting, compass 

"Inspiration is for Amateurs"
Office Max Metallic Markers, Sharpie Pen, Copic Markers,
gesso, Martha Stewart Craft Markers

I struggled with and overworked this spread.  Love the quotes from the painter Chuck Close,
the lettering is OK, like the sketched flowers at the center but I do not like how it sort of looks
like the a graffitied side of a barn, lol.  Hmm, well, that's maybe what I like about it.  Will have
to sit with it.  Maybe sand it a little.  OK now I'm back to: I struggled with and overworked this
spread...but I love the quotes from the painter Chuck Close. 

You MUST watch this video. 
I think it is the most important source of solace and wisdom I've had this month, for sure!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=milXH-433vs

Chuck Close was interviewed and asked to give advice to his 14 year old self. 
Ohhhhh, this is what my 14 year old self (and my 60 year old self) needed.

So I  tattooed quotes from the interview on my page, for the same reason that many get words
and images tattooed on their skin, to remember, to not forget :

1. "Sign into the process and see where it takes you."
   Jump into the Creative process (or could say, the process of life), go with the flow,
   see where it takes you.
   
2. "Inspiration is for amateurs, the rest of us just show up and and get to work."
   Searching for inspiration, waiting to work until inspiration strikes---
   Chuck is saying that that is for Amateurs.  Working artists just show up and get to work.
   This is so true and so important.  Of course one needs to learn the language, tools, and
   techniques of art, but the most important piece is that 99% of perspiration--
   just practicing your craft.
   
3. "All the best ideas come out of the process.  They come out of  the work itself."If I had to say what it is about the creative process that keeps me coming to my studio
   I would say, well, the cool stuff you can make, but, more importantly, the things I
   discover about myself and my craft!  It tickles and makes me smile to suddenly see a
   new way of doing something or a cool new effect.

A Good Day to Cry

A Good Day to Cry

Yasutomo Iridescent watercolors, Imagine Fireworks Crafts Spray,
Sharpie pen,  Staedtler aquarell pencils, Office Max metallic marker,
Recollections Opaque Marker.

Sometimes I have those days when tears seem to be closer to running down my cheeks. 
Same life facts as yesterday, likely the same as tomorrow, but something triggers that feeling,
and suddenly I'm crying in the car on the way to a starbuck's for an iced tea and Michael's for
craft supplies for a kid's summer program; activities that would usually put a smile on my face. 

I already had this pinkish background with blue sprayed spots so thought I would do a
"Good Day to Cry" page and also my number 8 lesson from Joanne Sharpe's "Letter Love":
Groovy Gridlines.  I got the idea of doing bumpy lines in watercolor pencil and letting
the drips drip down when I added water.   I felt satisfied with my journal entry on the
right side, especially the last sentences:
"Some days are just like this.  Great to have this page to mop it up."



The Artist Works



Background with watercolor layered with Fireworks Craft Ink Spray



K and Company butterflies with lines decorated with markers on previous background



Lettering added to above butterfly lines

I used the Alma Gluck quote (she was a famous Soprano in the early 1900's) "Just as the bird sings
and the butterfly soars, because it is his nature, so the artist works".  I have been feeling lately that I
can more own the title "artist" because I now have the habit of working very near daily and also
making the effort to strengthen my skills and knowledge of techniques. 

This started out as an experiment with watercolor and craft spray and I decided to make it into a
"Whimsey Grid".  I like the way this turned out and wish you could see more clearly the rich colors.
Time for a new printer/scanner with better resolution.  In the meantime I am going to also try to show
you the steps in my process. 

In terms of the craft spray (some popular ones are: Tattered Angel's "Glimmer Mist", Ranger's
"Dylusion Spray", and Imagine Crafts "Fireworks") I suggest that you have a first layer of watercolor
instead of spraying and blotting off tons of spray (wasting lots) to make a first layer.  The brush strokes
you make with your watercolor brush makes an interesting texture under the ink.  

The Whimsey Grid



Letter Love Lesson 5 "Whimsey Grid"

Office Max metallic markers, Sharpie Highlighters, Copic Sketch Markers,
Recollections Signature Special white marker, Sharpie Pen, Identi-pen Markers
Hampton Art Glimmer Chalk, Faber Castell Pitt Pen

The Whimsey Grid is what Joanne Sharpe calls this undulating grid.  I can see lots of possibilities:
looks like flags or streamers floating in the wind.  Prayer Flags. 
Could be the index for a book (yes, it will be).  Lists of goals and inspirational words. 
A life spanning to-do list.  Since its so playful its a great place to experiment with fonts. 
Reminds me also, a bit, of Art Nouveau.  Love those expressive and organic lilting lines.

Letter Love Lesson 4: Create 20 "Fun Fonts"



Really like the "Floral", "Forest", "Eve", "Flood Light"



Really like the "Flo" and "Electric" and "Art Makes You Grow"

In Joanne Sharpe's "Letter Love" online class.  I've only just completed Lesson 4.  So much fun to realize that I can create my own fonts!  Also found out that I can have them made into fonts for my computer at http://www.fontifier.com/ .  Not sure if I will but that sounds so cool.  Also found out that the Denver Botanic Gardens is offering a class called "Botangles".  Botanically based Zentangle type doodles.  It's in October, can't wait.  In the meantime I'm going to make flower specific alphabets (for example, Rose or Lotus).  Very appealing to not only draw flowers but "write" in them too.

Make a Mess--Self Express!



Make a Mess! Self Express! Journal Cover


Metallic markers (Office Max), Liquid Embossing (Plaid),
Sharpie Pen, Metallic Watercolors (Yasutomo), Dual Tipped
Pigment Ink Markers (Martha Stewart).

I really like this journal cover created for my Canson journal because it looks like a chalkboard with doddles on it.  Who can resist brights with black?  I came up with the phrase "Make a Mess! Self Express" for a summer program for kids that I am developing.  I hope to teach art basics and visual journaling to 7 - 18 year olds 2 days a week at an Arts Center called "A Child's Song".

Be Brave! With Texture



Be Brave!

Border texture: Tim Holtz Texture Fades "Pattern and Stitches",
copy of Ryder-Waite "Strength" card.  Studio G ink, patterned scrapbook paper,
 Tattered Angels Glimmer Mist (Wheatfields), Tsukineko Walnut Ink.
  Sharpie brown marker, Galeria Iridescent Medium 

Be Brave! Detail

One thing I LOVE about Visual Journal pages is that, in some ways, they are never done.  This page is still "blank" but it is complete for now.  At some point I might journal all over it but for now I am happy with the yummy textures.  I've used the texture folders for artist cards but never for a journal page before.  I just got Tim Holtz "Pattern and Stitches Set" embossing folders and made those wonderful embossed stitches on music sheet patterned scrapbook paper for the border strips.  I distressed a copy of the Strength tarot card with markers and double sided tape.  I altered it a bit with metallic markers.  I used Glimmer Mist to make the parchment looking background as well as Walnut Ink.  I used a die cut flower for a mask. 

The Art Therapy angle: I love the Strength card because it reminds me that strength does not have to overpower but can be gentle.  I am a naturally introverted person (although I am an extrovert, for the most part, at work) and sometimes my sensitivity to the noise and stress of the large world is just too much.  I feel like my life is held together by last minute stitches in addition to the proverbial "stitch in time".  This page is weathered because I feel "worn" today.  I need to remind myself to Be Brave! which means moving forward when I want to retreat.  Bravery can be represented by persistence in the face of challenges, it does not have to be brave like an action hero.  So, this page is weathered, stitched together, like me--but it is interesting and beautiful.  Yes!

Art Making Opens the Window of My Heart

Window (Envelope) of My Heart pg1

Window (Envelope) of My Heart pg2

This is how my journal pages turned out using the recycled window envelopes colored with alcohol inks. I used acrylic paint, metallic markers, stamps, Iridescent Medium,
a picture of the 5 of Coins and a cut paper border.

In my Visual Journal spread the idea of the heart opened through creative activity is in contrast to the attitude of fear (poverty and scarcity) represented by the 5 of Coins Tarot card.   This is something I struggle with sometimes.  The artist must suffer and starve--isn't that what goes with the title?  I must say that I far prefer the idea of the playful artist creating with a joyful and open heart.  The difference?  Although there are rough patches in everyone's life I think it is, for the most part, a spiritual attitude.