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I was using this dip pen and FW acrylic ink for another project and decided that I love it! Not great for shading because the line is too wide. This ink bottle is for sure one of the "uglies" for the month - but the pen and nib drawing is OK. This is a Speedball 5 1/2 nib.
I was just about to start my daily journal page last night when I found a 4-part video on Teesha Moore's blog about making quilted books. In Part 1 she showed many quilted covers, some of which contained paper, and two of them started me thinking about another project. These two books had a cover that opened in the center and either two faces - one on each front half - or one face - in the center back. I don't know how the faces were made - transfers from photos or painted - probably the former.
She makes little "quilt pillows" and then stitches them together to make her covers. I would adapt my regular quilt-making techniques and just borrow the ideas about a center front opening and faces. I'd like to put hats or paint hair on the heads and add arms, instead of wings. If I made these books for family, I would make the face theirs.
So, in order not to forget the idea, my sketchbook page became drawings and notes for the project. The colors and way of coloring the book are mine.
Our cousin (see last post) also has a wonderful sculpture collection, and while having my morning coffee, I chose this mother-and-child piece by Ruth Bloch to draw. There were other mother and child sculptures, by different artists in his collection, but I remember being with him one time at Art Expo in New York City when he bought a piece from Ruth Bloch - so I felt a tiny connection with her. The legs of this sculpted chair are as long as the mother - so it is a beautiful freestanding piece of art.
I guess I'm not done yet with my current focus on motherhood.
We stayed with our favorite cousin last evening in Philadelphia and really enjoyed seeing his lovely art collection again. I adore Picasso drawings and like to quickly copy them trying to learn how he captures so much in so few lines. Here is a very quick sketch of one of Larry's Picasso drawings.
When I recently asked how people use Neocolors II watersoluble wax pastels, my friend and "stamp mentor" Pat brought me a tag that she made for me using her set. Pat was also the one who started our tag collection, and now all of us in the Journal Study Group need handmade books to keep them in.
I decided to make 2 tags, one with Neocolors II and one with my set of Albrecht Durer watercolor pencils, to compare them to each other and to a journal page I made at the beginning of the month.
Here is the original page - again:
Here is the front of the tags - from left to right: Pat's tag for me, Neocolors II wax pastels, and Albrecht Durer watercolor pencils. I used the Pentel pocket brush pen and a Pigma micron pen.
Here is the back of my tags: left Neocolors IIwax pastels, and right Albrecht Durer watercolor pencils:
Watercolor paints, watercolor pencils, and now watersoluble wax pastels are all fun to use - and provide different levels of precision when painting an image. It was fun to play and compare today and now I have two more tags for my Tag Book.
This is the Tag Book I made last month - now with a magnetic band around it to keep it closed.
These are two of the 4 pocket pages:
