Art Journal Challenge: No Pencils Allowed!

I decided to start a new art journal with one simple rule – no pencils and no erasing allowed.

I love to do pen and ink work with watercolor.  Yet time and again I won’t start something in my art journal because I fear that it won’t turn out good enough.  I am trying to increase my spontaneity because I do believe that the whimsical style that I want to create cannot be found in perfection.

I thought it would be fun to share with you the tools that I will be using to create all the images in my new art journal.

Most important is a waterproof black fine line pen and a journal in a size you like with paper that can hold up to some light washes if you want to add color.

Here is my pen & journal:

I use a Pelikan pen with a modified flex nib that I got from Richards Pens. If you are interested in fountain pens for general writing or for sketching Richard is extremely knowledgeable and very helpful.  I am a fountain pen junkie and that’s why I went for this option.  The best waterproof ink for fountain pens (that won’t clog them) is called Platinum Carbon Black.  It is an amazing ink because it dries really fast and is very water resistant right away (some inks you have to wait a few hours for them really to be resistant).  You could also use fine point Micron or Pitt pens.  I have used these and they work great too.

The journal I am using is a Handbook Artist Journal.  I like this journal because the paper is a little heavier, has just a bit of tooth, and is off white.  I don’t particularly like Moleskine Journals because the paper is too yellow for me and there is no tooth at all – this is just a personal preference.

You can use lots of media to add color – watercolor, watercolor pencils, inks, or markers.

Here is what I use:

I use my Inktense water soluble ink pencils from Derwent with a water brush.  I talk about the Inktense pencils in detail here.  I use the set of 24 colors because I get a bit bored with the set of 12.  I like to use a water brush instead of a regular brush because it is more portable (water already included!) and it works extremely well for lifting the color from the pencil and then applying it with the brush to the journal page.

As you can see I also created a little palette card that fits right inside the box of the pencils.  You can’t tell the color by looking at the pencil tip and the color on the pencil end is not accurate either so I find having the palette card very helpful.

So here is a page from my new journal where I did just that – sketched an everyday object in pen & ink, added some color using Inktense and…Viola!  Whimsy in the making!

Hope you enjoyed the post.  I am off to have a hot cuppa and some cookies!!

 

 

Happy Valentine’s Day!

We all can use use a “Happy Valentine’s Day” from someone.  So here’s mine to you – special delivery from the rather rare Valentine bird:

Also a lagniappe (little extra treat) – here is the card I made for my Dear Husband…

Both of these were created with a fountain pen, waterproof black ink and Inktense pencils.  It’s fun to be able to create little treats for the ones we love!

Art Journal: What To Do With Ugly Pages?

Last post I talked about some my boring journal pages and what I did to spice them up a bit.

I also created some “ugly” journal pages and wanted to deal with those as well.

Here is an example of what I mean by an ugly page:

The colors aren’t vibrant, everything is sort of faded out and overall there is no harmony to the page.

So there are a couple of things I do with pages like these – one thing to do is pretty obvious – cover them up!

Here’s a page where I did just that – there is no way to tell what was underneath this collage.

It also gave me a chance to take a pen & ink sketch from another “working” journal and add to my “art” journal.  I could still do more to this page to make it more interesting, but at least the offending “ugly” page is now gone forever!

Another solution is to partially incorporate some of the old page elements with some new elements.

Here is a page where I did that.  This was originally another ink blot that I didn’t like, but I was able to add the rabbit pencil sketch and some other color elements to end up with a page I now like.

Do you have some “ugly” pages that are crying out to be transformed? Go for it!

Illustration: Tea Anyone?

It’s one thing to create art for yourself and fill pages of art journals.  It’s even fun to “share” these – sort of like an artist’s show and tell.

It’s quite another thing to give someone a piece of your art as a gift.  This to me is like saying, “OK, I’m a good enough artist that I think a friend will enjoy receiving my art as a gift.”

It all comes down to baby steps.  I decided to create a birthday card to give to a really good friend.  Now, this might not seem all that monumental, but for me it was – I was putting myself out there as an aspiring artist.  It made me feel vulnerable.

My friend loves tea so this was the perfect subject for her card.

Here’s the front of the card – a little whimsical illustration of tea and macarons with words related to tea written in the background.

Here’s the inside of the card – the perfect opportunity to practice my hand lettering!

My friend was practically gushing when she got the card.  She told me she considered it a piece of art and she was planning to frame and display it.  What a confidence builder!

Now I am buildings lists of friends to send handmade cards to – the sky is the limit!

May you too find the courage to share your precious gift with others.

Art Journal: Dragons Oh My!

I have always been interested in creating fantasy creatures.  My creatures are happy and friendly by nature and more whimsical than scary.

I have always loved dragons – particularly those that happen to get along with humans.  I wondered – what would a dragon out of my imagination look like in the “real world”?

My journal seemed like the perfect place to “unleash” one.  It also gave me the opportunity to practice putting together some compositions with backgrounds.

And to work on some pen & ink shading techniques that I am interested in.

Here he is in all of his dragony glory!  Notice the big smile and no burning houses in the background?  Definitely a friendly sort of fellow.

Can you envision him or his kin in a children’s book?  A wee dream of mine – children’s book illustrator…

He was created using Inktense pencils and pen & ink.

May you too unleash critters great and small from your imagination!