Affirmation 6 - Help

The affirmation book is continuing. For the hummingbird, I thought my usual tree background didn't fit well enough, so I experimented with a new salvia background. I'm loving it and thinking about how to incorporate it into other work somehow. This is how different media play off one another for me. The garden tells me salvia for hummers; I experiment with drawing it; then somehow it will make its way into glass or metal.

Monday Affirmations

I am still working on my book of affirmations, albeit slowly. Here's the latest installment.

Weekend Artist Retreat, part 2

Here's another project from my retreat with Lora Hart & Lorena Angulo: making personal journals. I've blogged the journal-making process multiple times before.

We ripped paper into pages and then slapped some paint on them. That was interesting, as I usually paint mine after assembly, so it was impossible to control colors on adjacent pages, but easier to paint. Then we stitched them together with a needle and thread. The image above is my finished journal, with background work started on several pages.

Here's Lorena perusing the net after completing her vividly colored journal.

And Lora bravely started doodling right on the front cover of her journal, of which I seemed to get more images.

Another Affirmation in Progress

This Book of Affirmations will be a long term project, as each page takes some time. I'll just keep slowly adding to it over the next many month, while still going through my affirmations on index cards every morning. But it will be more inspiring when they are all finished. 

This one you can see is midway. I'm just starting the tree. In the last two journals, I kept adding details to almost all the pages long after they were mostly complete. It's a way of integrating them all together.

Handmade Journal, Part 3: Page Process

Having recently produced a set of daily affirmations for myself, the notion of compiling them all into a lovely little book to peruse every morning seemed perfect for my journaling project.

Being that this is the third bird journal I've created, I have a pretty firm process. The process makes life so much easier! As I'm working on new studio and business routines right now, following this process is an instant reminder of the power of habit and ritual.

Here's my page process (assuming I'm starting with the pre-painted page):

1. Paint the spiral in white.
2. Outline the spiral in fine black ink.
3. Add a color shadow to the spiral with watercolor pencil.
4. Float a stream of ink bubbles behind the spiral.
5. Glue on a printed bird image (I'll modify later).
6. Pen the affirmation, first just lightly, then black in and add the flourishes.
7. Add the black line tree.
8. Enhance color all over with the watercolor pencils or other paint.
9. Modify the  bird image (yet to come).
10. Add more hatching, color and other details (yet to come).

It's not fine art, but it's creative and fun and a much more personalized set of daily affirmations. 

Handmade Journal, Part 2: From a Blank White Journal to Colorful Pages Ready for Artwork

Because the blank page can deter me from even starting to work in a new journal, I get rid of it as fast as possible. I pull out the paint and slap it onto the pages. 

My method is to choose a color randomly and apply it rather haphazardly to a few pages spread throughout the book. I prefer Golden Fluid Acylics with plenty of water. Then I switch to another color and keep going until all the pages are full. The entire process for this 68 page journal couldn't have taken more than half an hour. Don't think; just do.

Eventually in the process, I start adding second colors to a page, and I add a few bits of metallics here and there. 

You can see that I make no effort to get a uniform color on the page. In fact, I much prefer there to be some underlying structure, and I create it deliberately. I know I'll be adding more color to each page, so I keep them relatively light in value. 

Bird a Week #8

I've had lots of time to work in my journal this week, helping my father out through his surgery. Miraculously, everything has gone extremely smoothly. The surgeon was able to do the procedure via laparoscopy, which significantly reduces the recovery time. Even so, the ability of the one kidney to take over the work of two was of concern. It turns out that the tumor must have already majorly impacted the function of the removed kidney, as the tests showed the numbers little affected. After only two days, the doctor couldn't find a reason to keep him, so we are back at his home, much more comfortable. Although sore, weak and tired, it's hard to believe he had such a major surgery only days ago. It's rather reminiscent of his quick bounce back from the knee replacement only months ago. I sure hope I got those quick healing genes.

Visit the other participants in the Bird a Week challenge: