Round Robin -Emily's Journal

The theme for Emily's http://www.emily-perry.com/ book is OPEN.  I was looking for a certain poet whose name I ultimately couldn't remember and stumbled upon this E. E. Cummings poem.  I am debating adding a bird but I'm not sure I can draw a tiny tiny bird. 

Wide open spaces kept running through my mind.  Photo from Big Bear enhanced with copic marker. 

Dream sequence.

The great outdoors

On Sunday I drove with my boyfriend up to Big Bear in California.  Big Bear is known for its skiing but is also awesome in the summer with the big lake and friendly people.  We met a great couple  who volunteered at a local art gallery from San Diego who had just moved to Big Bear the winter before (worst winter in years) and told us all the good places to eat.  

Our hotel was a cabin and they were all themed rooms. The owner of the cabin came to pick us up because we were a bit lost,  It's funny when you print up the directions and the second to last turn of the directions is off and you can't find a detailed map in town.  We were only a block or two away but the owner drove over to get us.  My boyfriend booked a craft cottage but the manager gave us a good deal on a room with a spa tub so we took that.  We ended up with the crystal cave cabin and it was wonderfully cheesy. It was dark inside so you had to turn the lights on to  see everything and the bed was the only furniture.   The fireplace had real bones on it and stalactite were coming down from the ceiling. and the icing on the cake was the cave shower was huge.  We both giggled about the room the entire trip.  

I made paper dolls during the down time, we also swam in the lake (where we were attacked by seaweed), took the ski lift up the mountain and we went hiking. 

Paper dolls- Happy August

        I've made paper dolls before but I hit the jackpot formula this week and once I did one it was much easier to do the rest.  Basically I took a random full lengh photograph and cut that out for the proportions. In the photo the person was wearing billowy clothes so I'm not exactly sure why this worked out so well.   

       The second step is to make   a rough cut on watercolor paper and then draw in the features.  I just drew and erased until I got the feeling that I wanted from the doll.  The red headed girl is the daughter of a friend and she is going off to college in Iowa in a few weeks so I made her a few paper friends for her to hang around with.  It actually looks like her and I didn't have to draw it a million times but when I went to draw her sister I didn't quite get her face right.  I do need to work on mixing the watercolors so I can acheive more consistant results.   

      I use twinkling H2O and the browns are rather strange as most of them have a green base to them and do not do well for flesh tones.  I figured out that copper works well as a wash for light tones and piled on for deeper tones. 

They fit nicely in the pocket of my overalls so I can carry them around when I am running errands.

Paper dolls

I drew the mailbox a year ago and just let it sit on the page until this week when I pulled out my newest copic marker and colored it in.  I was happy that the blue B95 (Light Grayish Cobalt) actually looked like the color of a mailbox because as you may or may not know copic markers cost a mint so I buy them slowly.  In 2 years I have built my collection to 25 markers and it's a rather limited pallet.  I originally bought a few to write on photographs but when I tried it I hated the results.  When using copic markers on photos you have to work fast and avoid covering your own marks because it will puddle and make harsh lines. 

The second step was to add the stamped words and I have a love hate relationship with stamps too. I end up pressing too hard and getting stray marks where I don't want them but they are much faster than bubble writing so I may attempt it again.  The last step was colored pencils and I love Dewent Colorsoft and Drawing pencils.  I bought a 12 pencil set 3 years ago but lucked out this January when a large set of 36 that normally sells for $50 was on sale for $14 because it was a gift set.  I did figure out that you can blend them with copic markers or add a bit of water and get a nice smudge. 

Paper envelopes lined with mini photographs and hearts that were cut from labels.  I wanted something to seal the plain envelopes and kept adding the hearts.

The mailbox does have a story.  Last year when I went home to send some mail I realized they took out the mailbox that had been in our neighborhood for 50 years.  The Washington Post had a cover story about it the next day and mailboxes that aren't being used enough are being pulled to save money.  Of course it had a heart breaking story about an old couple who went to the mailbox every day for 20 years until the box was removed.

The opposite page is made with a scrap of linen , removable paper doll on water color paper, cloud is made from acrylic paint that I slid off a shiny surface (it comes out like a skin)  and flowers (color copied).

Found Jornal

I have spent a lot of time cleaning the past two weeks and found quite a few journals that I made in classes but never finished.  The good news is I am going to finish them and then I will have a few more things to show when someone wants to see what I do.  I have a habit of giving things away and not taking pictures and I am trying to break that habit. 

I forget the name of the class but it was taught by Pam Garrison http://pamgarrison.typepad.com/pamgarrison/ in 2008 at Artfest.  We decorated the covers and built the books in class.  She works amazingly fast and can easily turn around the ugly parts of art into something awesome.  Once I  have an idea I can work pretty fast but getting one is the hard part. 

The first page can be rather daunting so I started simple.  I am a vitamin D lover and am currently unhappy with the fact that San Diego has been overcast for the past two months.  It is a bummer (the lack of sun not this page) but the rest of the pages in this book are shaping up nicely and I'm using up some of the scraps that I have been sticking in drawers for ages. 

Dream big-Round Robin

This months book belongs to Lisa Miller and her theme is based on a quote about dreams. I glued fabric to two pages and decided to stick with black and white with a few shades of grey thrown in. Several years ago I did a workshop on dreams for a few friends and it was a fun experience. Several thoughts were swirling around in my head. I have been having nightmares lately about going back to work. Making art is a great way to avoid sending out more resumes. When you are really good and qualified for one thing and then you look for something new it is a little bit daunting.

I volunteer at the New Children's Museum and a bunch of us got to go in yesterday and restock the supplies. One of the exhibits was involved in an accident (I know this sounds strange but you can only guess what can go wrong with kids in an open space. Gross.)

I was building these white cardboard boxes and was given the task of draw animals on four sides of the boxes. I have spent the last six months drawing animals and felt comfortable drawing in marker. I create less rules for myself when I am working on something where the audience will be children. If it looks weird just try to make the animal smile and it's all good. I can't wait to see what the kids create on the rest of the boxes.

When I came home I looked at my reference photos for sheep and the rest just came up. It's a little bit interactive since the small sheep has a movable head. If I can't sleep I meditate or make up stories till I drop off. Counting sheep would be a meditation but I need a little more to focus on to shut my brain off. The envelope on the 2nd page has a message to the universe. All the small photographs are of roads. The 3rd page is the Poe quote to close the piece.

Ohh the bees

The last panel is linen with cotton thread embroidery. A few years ago I was stung by a bee that flew off an elephant but it has dual meaning for the story. Friendship has prickly points. In the end it's hard to be a good friend but I am so grateful for the friends I do have.

This went off in the mail on the 2nd and the new book arrived on Saturday. I had a good time interpreting the theme tribes for Kathy's book. I am very lucky that our public library has a large collection of Lynda Barry books so I have been devouring those as of late. I love the way she is able to mix real concepts with graphic images. Quite a few of her stories have made me tear up because they are so heartbreaking. I would love to expand the story but it seems like a giant process that I can't take on at the moment. I'm lucky that I still have several years of journals to draw from if I need story ideas.