Diana Trout's blog

Sketchbook Challenge: Book Review & 2 Giveaways

Sue Bleiweiss has put together a really lovely book here. Kudos to her for herding up 24 woman artists and 12 interesting themes (eg, dwellings, circles, weathered beauty).

Sue is the force behind the blog The Sketchbook Challenge which is currently in its second year. Her keen eye for design is present in this appealing book both in its smaller-than-usual size and, oh man, I am a sucker for rounded corners on a book.

The book lays out the themes and then two artists address their process from initial sketches to finished artwork. This is a broad overview, naturally. There are technique sections within each theme but, largely, this is a book to inspire you to find your own process. 

At the bottom of this post you will find the giveaways with instructions, OK? See the list of "hoppers" down there too! All of the artists from the book are participating.

My theme for the book is Dwellings. Yes, it was perfect for me. I started out with small drawings and compositional sketches, expanding on my stones and little hut-like houses.  Here are samples of some of the patterns, textures and compositions I was playing with.

In addition to a regular sketchbook or journal, I like to use small portfolios when I am starting a new series. This portfolio is of the rescued book variety. The instructions are based on this video. 

and my finished piece ... 
Now for the giveaways! There are two of them

From The Artist Cellar  A complete set of Artist Cellar Stencils - that’s 28 stencils total! Total retail value $120.

and

From My Creative Classroom:  a free seat to any of their online classes  Total retail value $45!

Wow! This is like a game show! 

SO, throw your name in the hat by leaving a comment on this post. 

Please Note
One comment per person
Leave a contact address

Indicate which of the prizes you would like 
Stencils OR Free Class

I will draw names on July 10!

Here is the blog hop schedule

June 26:
Jill Berry
Sue Bleiweiss

June 27:
Violette
Kathyanne White

June 28:
Kathy Sperino
Leslie Tucker Jenison

June 29:
Jamie Fingal
Lynn Krawczyk

July 2:
Jackie Bowcutt
Lyric Kinard

July 3:
Jane Davies
Kim Rae Nugent

July 5:
Carla Sonheim
Carol Sloan

July 6:
Susan Brubaker Knapp
Diana Trout

July 9:
Tracie Lyn Huskamp
Judi Hurwitt

July 10:
Jane LaFazio
Kelli Nina Perkins

The Sketchbook Challenge Blog Hop is sponsored by:

Mistyfuse
My Creative Classroom
ArtPlantae Today 
Gelli Arts 
Joggles
Sue Pelland Designs
ProChemical and Dye
The Thread Studio
Blue Twig Studio
ArtistCellar

Good Luck! And I hope you'll enjoy the book. 

Sewn by Hand

I've been looking through a lovely book, Sewn by Hand: Two Dozen Projects Stitched with Needle & Thread (Amazon link). What a treat to make myself the sewing kit from felt, thread, some fabric and a woven piece I made some time back in Jude Hill's class.

So convenient, with a pocket for scissors, needles packs and bobbins of floss, a marker or pencil

and a pincushion built right in. What a treat: both to make it and now to use it.

Sneaking in some stitching time to make something just for yourself feels like a luxury, doesn't it? I think this book goes on my wish list. In the meantime, I'll borrow the library's copy!

Compose a Picture

Composition is something I enjoy working with. A cup of tea, my journal and a nice thick pen. Preferably feet up (wearing my sweat socks, of course). 

Working on a series of paintings, I decided to push myself and work with a square format. I did a whole bunch of sketches, thumbnails, doodles, whathaveyous. 

Lately, I want use few components and really get away from any kind of "realism." 

So after starting a few paintings, I found out today that the paintings due for an April deadline were to be rectangles. 

 

Out came the tea, the socks, the journal and pen. I worked late last night cutting different sizes of black circles and pasting them down on white paper. If it works in black and white: it works. And again, it's very enjoyable. Above are two books that I like to look at on composition: Notan and Molly Bang's Picture This.

When I get to the picture making, it is easier for me to flow into it without fussing around. More about this in a day or two.

 

Personal Geographies; Book Review and Giveaway

Congratulations, Merlin! Comments are now closed for the giveaway. I've enjoyed reading your responses, loads of great ideas here and Jill and I thank you for your thoughtful replies.

I'll start this review with a a full disclosure.

Jill Berry, mixed media and book artist, calligrapher, workshop teacher and now author of Personal Geographies is a great pal of mine. I was a bit nervous about this review. Would I be able to objectively review her book? Well, as I said, I love Jill and her book is very much her.

This is more than a craft book, but let's start with the techniques. There are templates galore: for designs of a compass rose, cartouche, head map and body map. Book and box instructions, carved metal hand instructions. There's also many ideas incorporating graphic art techniques into your map making.

For me, the real meat of Jill's book are the ideas she offers us such as "what I think my neighbor's day is like." A map of your hand, your heart, your mind. These prompts alone are worth the price of admission. The journaling ideas here encourage you to do a bit of an archeolgical dig. 

Jill has done her homework here. Personal Geographies is full of information on the history and terminology of map-making and geography has always fascinated me so that is a great bonus. 

 A gallery is sprinkled throughout the book featuring current artists such as Beatrice Caron, Jane LaFazio, Carla Soneheim, Orly Aveneri and Gwen Diehn. These maps are very alternative, pushing the idea of map-making to new territory (ha) and pulling you along. 

Now for the giveaway! Northlight is giving away 11 copies of Personal Geographies over 11. 

Answer one of these questions:

What is a map? or

What could you map?

Leave your answer in the comments on this post. I'm going to use random number generator to choose the winner on December 10.  at the (or at the other participants, here is the list). 

During the Blog hop, there is a also a great deal from Northlight!.

Get FREE Shipping and 35% off retail price for PERSONAL GEOGRAPHIES! Visit ShopMixedMedia.com and use promo code SMM106 to claim your exclusive savings.

[Fine Print: Offer expires 12/09/11 at 11:59 pm EST. Offer applies to standing shipping in the US only. Please note that additional discounts and shipping offers are not available on products that ship directly from the manufacturer: see product pages for details. Thank you for shopping at ShopMixedMedia.com!]

 

Book List

I hope you all enjoyed the 11 Day Tutorial Blog Hop last week. It was the only hoppin' I was doing. A week of injuries: I sprained my ankle last Saturday and then Wednesday night (during a thrilling game of Ninja Football, after which I was saving a baby while crossing a rickety bridge in the NorthEast Kingdom) I wound up with cracked ribs.

{We were supposed to visit my daughter,
the Owl Whisperer this weekend}

So ... I'm reading. Alot. And here's the list

Personal Geographies, Jill Berry (awesome and I'll be having a review and giveway comin' up)
How The Light Gets In, MJ Hyland (grim story of an Australian exchange student who comes to the US. Excellent writing, descriptions and very sensitive.)
A Fatal Grace, Louise Penny (Detective Gamache of Quebec solves a murder in Three Pines. Wonderful cast of quirky characters, twists. This is murder mystery of the intellectual sort.)
Color, Victoria Finlay (a history of color; this is just fascinating)

And I just started Let The Great World Spin, Colum McCann. (I usually love the National Book Award winners and this one has started really well).

PS: the fake story of how I broke my ribs is courtesy of comments on Facebook. I don't really play Ninja Football. 

The Artist Unique, Book Review

Carmen Torbus's subtitle for her new book, The Artist Unique says it all: inspiration and techniques to discover your creative signature.

This is a conversation in book form that I've been looking for. In the mixed media art world there is often an emphasis on the end product rather than an opportunity to develop one's own signature. This takes dedication and a willingness to experiment on the part of the artist.

After each essay, Carmen highlights a technique used by that artist. 

The techn iques are very broad. They cover a wide range of materials and, no, they are not ground breaking. How many techniques do you really need? It's all about what you do with those techniques. Torbus and the artists did a very good job of that. I responded strongly to some of the artwork; not all of it, as I said, this is a very broad book. 

You won't find step-by-step-to-end products in this book. Instead you will find artists describing their process and their geneology as an artist. This, in my view, is the real meat of The Artist Unique. The step outs are mean as jumping boards. Use the techniques as you will. 

Some of the techniques used and illustrated in The Artist Unique are encaustic, acrylic and watercolor paints, image transfer on wax, relief work with spackle, molding paste and polymer clay. Good for the beginning artist and the developing artist to see how techniques are used to express a particular vision. 

 Complete Disclosure: Northlight provided me with a review copy of this book. 

Envelope Art Journal

Acorns are raining down and inspired the contents for this little book. I got the idea from At Home with Handmade Books, by Erin Zemrzla. I showed a little sneak peak of it here. This would be a good book for beginning bookbinders who are interested in Japanese forms. I've been playing with the ideas in it. 

I'm very familiar with Japanese bookbinding so there is nothing particularly new here for me. But it is presented with a nice modern twist. 

The materials I used ... coin envelopes, found papers, scrapbooking paper, paste paper, big circle punch, inks, alphabet stamps, cotton tape, washi tape, my handcarved acorn stamp, markers. I slid the small pieces of paste paper inside the envelopes and will use this little journal for writing about simplifying my life. 

There is so much packed into an acorn. It's a lovely symbol of strength in a streamlined package.

Pulse of Mixed Media

I've been waiting a long time to share this ... 

I have a piece in there! Coming in early 2012. Anything from Seth and Northlight is gonna be great! Tootin' my horn over here.

Book Review Sunday, Colourful World

Welcome to a new week and the first Book Review Sunday. On the first Sunday of the month, I'll be here with a book review.

Today's book is one of my absolute favorites for color inspiration. Coulorful World by Amandine Guisez Gallienne is simply sumptuous. It is filled with photographs of people, places, textiles, vegetables, pottery (and so on) all over the world.

There are just a sprinkling of words at the end of each color group. The photos are, mostly, full page and are grouped according to color: white, yellow, green, blue, red and black.

I've used this book over and over as a resource and just to sit down with a cup of tea and look through the pages is a wonderful refresher.

It is super cheap at Amazon, wow $2.81(used)! It's a no-brainer at that price. For you and your best art buddy.

Yum. Yum.

Journal Junkies Workshop

The style of art journaling presented in The Journal Junkies Workshop by Eric M. Scott and David R. Modler has a strong graphic element that I really like. This is not the way I naturally work so it has been a bit of a stretch for me and I'm seeing elements of it creeping into my journals. I say, yeah! and thank you for expanding my visual vocab!

I picked the above journal page to illustrate this book review for two reasons:
* I'm so danged happy that I put an arrow on that page!
* I used a sharpie to write (very un-Diana-like)
* oh make that 3 reasons ... I'll probably come back to this page and add something more.

The Journal Junkies credit the work of Dan Eldon as their inspirational jumping off point. If you don't know Dan's work and life story, here it is. He lived large in a short period of time.

Back to the book, these two guys gave me some great ideas for using watercolors and watersoluble media that are inspiring me. I like their examples for using text, stencils and tracing. I'm enjoying their prompt section very much. There is not a single beautiful vintage-looking girl in sight; instead think: sharpies and lettering and stencils. Sharpies and lettering were not a "go-to" for me and it's exciting to work with these new elements.

I like opening this book randomly for an bit of inspiration. I think the visuals here are very appealing to teens, twenty-somethings and guys. And let's face it: most of what is out there in the art journaling world has been largely aimed at women so this is very refreshing.

One of the things I look for in craft and art books is the aesthetic. I've been around for a while so it's hard to spring new techniques on me. But great new ways to present the techniques is something that draws me in for a second (and more) look. I'm excited when I see something different.

{notes on my journal page}
I photocopied some fabrics recently and have been using them in my collages and journals. This page was originally a bunch of doodles and I stuck a piece of the fabric copy on top.
Gesso.
Pencil doodles.
Portfolios smooshed in.
Writing on paper glued in
Flower on book paper glued in.