What's on the table? and a Modern version of Journalling?

A modern version of an apartment complex

I am on a creative spurt these days - don’t know how long it will last but I’m enjoying it while it’s here.

I spent a few days over Christmas doing a clean up of my art space, my studio, my office - you know, where I make things. I like to call it a studio but really its a spare room that I use for just about everything other than sleeping or eating.

I have to say I have always had a sketchbook (or two) going. Whether my latest inspiration is drawing, painting sketching or collaging - I have to have a place where I can do these things. Always - ask my son. He remembers this since he was young - mommy on the couch with a sketchbook or journal. If I don’t do this, even while I am watching tv I get restless - I have to be doing something more - always.

I’m mentioning this just to say that you can imagine how many sketchbooks/journals I have amassed over the years given this compulsion. So where was I going with this, oh yes, about over Christmas. So over Christmas I decided to go through all of my sketchbooks and journals and see what was worth saving. What art had I done that I really loved in these sketchbooks? What was worth saving and what was not?

I sat myself down, got a box, and all my journals. I went page by page and cut out (more like ripped out) the pages of work that I loved and the rest - I threw away. I kept all the covers if they were hardback journals because I can/will repurpose them into handmade books. All the pages that I kept I threw into my journal fodder box.

I didn’t do this all in 1 day. I did it over a period of a few weeks. Because I wanted to enjoy looking at all the work I had done over the years. Some was not good, some was great, and some pages just inspired me and gave me ideas for other things I wanted to do.

By the end of three weeks or so my box was full of pages of my own art. Art that I had made over the years even though when I jotted these down in these notebooks, I didn’t necessarily think they were “art”.

But looking back, I was happy with many of those pages. I knew I had to do something with these. It was like finding new inspiration from others peoples work - only this time it was mine. I wanted to re-use this art just as if I had bought a new paper pad with someone elses art that inspired me to create. (BTW - I didn’t use the originals - I scanned everything and then used it!)

There were definitely “themes” of work that I had done. Over and over, throughout the years I went back to the same subjects - sketches of girls, collages, watercolor pieces, copic marker abstracts - and I realized I still love all of those things.

I knew I wanted to recycle these pieces - actually more than recycle - I wanted to make journals on each of these themes using my own artwork.

In the meantime though, I was also working on my watercolor journal.

After the book I did with my husband’s cousin (see more here) I wanted to work harder at creating these girls.

I made myself a handmade journal with a nice cover.

First I pencil sketched each girl, page after page. I think I ended up with about 30 or 40 pencil sketches.

It was like I had created a coloring book for myself.

How fun is that right?

I pulled out my watercolors, and it was like I had a coloring book that was ready to be filled with my juicy watercolors.

You may have seen some of these on instagram. I need to take some photos and show you some more. Oh I even did a video while I painted one of these. Just need to do some editing on that and I’ll post it here.

But what I really wanted to show you was what I am calling my “modern version of a sketchbook”. Something not so busy with paint and texture, but a journal that just shows the raw version of some of my work. This is the first in my series of Recycled Work that I was referring to above.

The outside cover of the handmade journal with my own artwork - It’s called girls in houses because I paired my girl sketches with the houses on some pages

About 2 years ago I started studying perspective drawing. When I say “studied” I mean I started buying books, and watching videos and taking courses on how to draw rooms and buildings. I wanted to understand how perspective works and how I could draw “real” rooms and building.

I hadn’t looked at these pictures which I had stored up in my closet since I did them 2 or maybe even 3 years ago. When I looked at them again - I was so pleased with them. I loved the way they looked and I loved the buildings and rooms I drew. This was the inspiration for this journal.

Below are some of the photos in this journal. You’ll see it is different than my other journals in that it is pretty basic in terms of mixed media - no texture paste, stencils, stamps - just drawings.

Peruse the pictures below and let me know what you think. I’ll do a flip through video of all the pages once I’m done. I’m still working on this one and I don’t want it to end. I think this is my new “modern journaling style”.