Diana Trout's blog

Stencil, Gesso: Art Journal Play

Blogging on Create Mixed Media today, with a tutorial using Stencils, Gesso and Watercolor media. Check out the post right here!

White Flowers

A bit of watercolor on Yupo paper. I love the way the colors ebb and flow with a life of their own on this paper. It is also very easy to erase. You can wipe color off very easily to get back to the white. It isn't really paper but slick and kind of plastic-y. Yupo is actually polypropelene.   

White, Diana Trout

Drawing with pencil on it is thrilling. It reminded me of drawing on a litho stone all those years ago. That alone was ridculously satisfying. I used the Derwent watersoluble sketch pencils. Yupo and watercolor is a fragile marriage. The paint rubs off even when completely dry. 

I'll play around and see what it can do. Maybe try some varnish that would make it work in bookarts.

Naming Colors

Inktense Pencils

I am working with a limited palette on this new series. Just a few colors based on the muted, earthy colors in Italy: sun, field, sea, poppies. 

It seems like enough. Playing with mixing some watercolors. Wet in wet: the poppy/black and sun/field on the top right is making me drool a little. The poppy/field rectangle: yeah. That is good.

Watercolor Palette

A sketch ...

Sketch, RowHomes, Diana Trout

Traveling Artist, Italy

Oh joy: counting down the days till I hop on that plane, Fabriano bound. I haven't been so excited for ages. I feel like a kid,  can't sleep and am eating soft foods and Milanos (cookies) and V-8 and pineapple juice.

My preparation for my students is finished: all reservations and fine details attended to. Maps and bookbinding directions designed and printed. Travel tips up to the minute.

It is time to consider what I will bring for my art making. Since I designed the list of materials for my students, this shouldn't be too difficult. 

What is in my sketch kit?

Watercolor Moleskine
Black pens, microns, sizes ,5 to .03
A handful of inktense pencils
Caren d'ache both the wax crayons and regular
Water brushes, Pencils, 3 derwent sketch (water soluble) and a 3B 
Kneaded eraser
Pencil sharpener

 

We'll be doing some stamp carving: tools and blocks. tools.
There are plans for 4 books: binding tools and materials.
I'd like to experiment with Golden Open in making monoprints so will bring that set to share
Ingredients for Fabric paper
There is more, I think

Luckily, we can get all paper, many supplies and leather for book covers in Fabriano. 

For the plane ride:  my sewing kit and a project to work on, my sketch kit and my book. Susan told me she is making a "journal scarf" ala Rice Zachary Freeman. I jumped right on that bandwagon! Perfect to be able to wear your stitching project. 

I have a few expressions I'd like to carve out. Capisco Niente (I understand nothing) and a new one from one of my dear readers: Niente senza gioia (nothing without joy).

A word about the paintings at the top of this post. Do you  know about yupo paper? It is plastic paper with a slick surface. Some watercolorists swear by it. I purchased a pad of it for our group to experiment with and had a go with it last night. More on that when I return.

In the meantime, Arrividerci, mia caras. 

I will blog from Italy to share the love! Expect some Tuesday.

Oh DARN! I wish you could all come with me! We could populate a village. Hey! We could move into an Italian village and just make art for a month! 

Dreams ...

Spin Off: An Art Journal Game

Julie Fei Fan Balzer has a new line of stencils out and that equals Blog Hop! I played with Stars and Circles with an unexpected result. 

I started out by laying the larger-sized stencil on the page and spraying it with inks. A couple of different warm colors (yellow and red). I just went with the next thing that occured to me which was some portfolio smearing and then some gesso down the center of the page. 

Adding a bit of marker and pencil  defines some of the stenciled areas. Before I knew it, triangles began to "spin off" of the main imagery. I created the spinning wheel by tracing around the stencil with a waterproof pen onto a piece of watercolor paper, then drew out from the center of the stencil with more black pen. 

A bit of brainstorming for activities to fill in the wheel, then watercolor and more pen.

Spin Off: a game to play when you are feeling lost for ideas. Spin the wheel, follow the activity, another spin and add more, etc. 

For more Stencil Hop fun, look at these links today!

Julie Fei-Fan Balzer
http://balzerdesigns.typepad.com/balzer_designs/2012/05/stencil-hop-stars-circles.html

Karen Grunberg
http://www.karenika.com/archives/23569

Christine Urias
http://scraptime.ca/blogpage/

May Flaum
http://mayflaum.com/

Ali Edwards
http://aliedwards.com/blog

Alisa Burke
http://alisaburke.blogspot.com/

Peerless Watercolors with Susan Cohen

Glorious artwork from Susan Cohen

My friend, artist Susan Cohen, recently shared some information about Peerless Watercolors. We were talking about what supplies to bring to Italy in June. These are such a great travel tool, I wanted to share with you folks as well.

The Peerless Watercolor sets are little bound books of papers on which the watercolor is placed. A system originally invented for retouching photographs. 

These pages from Susan's journal show what these waterolors are capable of. 

Jane Davenport has a fabulous little video showing a great way to put together a palette using the spunky watercolors.

 

Thanks for sharing these beautiful samples, Susan. The lights and darks on the woman with the hat are just beautiful - radiant mystery. Susan is using  Peerless 

"Complete Edition" (16 sheets) and the "Bonus Pack" (40 sheets). Available here.

160 Blank Pages

There you are with a brand new journal and a table full of art supplies. 

Blank Page Syndrome x 160 (or whatever).

Here are three tips to get you going

1. Use that first page to write down your contact information. I usually add a pithy little plea: "This is my annex brain/heart/soul. If you return it to me, I will be forever in your debt."

2. It is a bit overwhelming to make art on that first page so open your new book to any blank page and make your art there. This is a good way to start to get to know the paper in your new book. Try to keep in your mind that every single sketch or journal page will not be picture perfect. Some will be dismal, sad, messy and pure cr*p. Try to not care about that. 

3. Sometimes, I write a little note to my journal (see 1st picture in this post). The note is expanded upon and embellished as I get to know my new journal better.

OK, your turn. Do you have any snippets of advice on starting a new journal. Add to the comments!  

Flower Sketches in April

Thank you all for you good birthday wishes! 

It hit me a bit, the "56" sounds like a pretty big number all of a sudden. Never gave age much thought so that caught me off guard. Your warmth really cheered me. Better today.

I treated myself to some new art supplies for my birthday.

A set of 12 Letraset Aquamarkers, here, on Dick Blick. These twin tip markers are filled with ink. When you brush over them with water, they bleed. Very nice. Since they are ink (not watercolor) they are permanent when dry so layers can be added without disturbing the dried layer. My only (small) complaint is that I wish the marker tips were gentler on the paper. They beat them up a bit.

Inktense Blocks, here, have been on my list for a while as well. Again: ink not watercolor and they behave just as the Aquamarkers do. If you've used the Inktense Pencils you know! They look like watercolor pencils when you lay them on a dry page but, oh my, when you wet them they explode with really intense color. I suggest using these materials on good watercolor paper.

The stack of colored papers in the upper right corner is awaiting small drawings. Imagine my surprise! Packing for my class at The Ink Pad in NYC this Saturday and discover my business cards have run out. Drat. You can see how I've handled this in the past by reading this post. I scrounged in my drawers and found some watercolor sketches to cut up. Tonight will be fun. I think these personal little drawings are much appreciated and so it goes. 

Learn to Watercolor with a Color Romp

All you need for a color romp:

Watercolor set (kid’s sets are fine), your journal (I'm using a watercolor Moleskine) a spray mister, watercolor brush, rag and cup of water.

Wet the colors down with the mister to moisten. Start painting with the lightest value colors (yellows and greens) and move around the page. Keep your colors moist but not dripping wet so you’ll get a full saturation.

As the colors dry, layer a second color on top of the first color. Try blue over yellow and red and red over orange. Try laying purple over yellow. Mud? Or is it browns and grays?

Make little notes to yourself as you go along. Tab your page for future reference! 

For more about watercolors, see my Free Online Watercolor Primer

My Watercolor Related YouTube Videos

Watercolor Primer

Juicy Watercolors

Watercolor Rainbow

Watercolor & Resists

Italy Watercolor Sketchbook 

 

Intuitive Art Journaling

Playing around with some creature doodles and random word selection.

Watercolors and pen and then, open an old dictionary and, eyes closed, ruffle slowly through pages. Intuit it. Now that you have a page, keep your eyes closed and run your finger slowly around the page until a word feels right. Now think about it for a moment before you discard it and feel "that's not a good word." It almost ALWAYS is.