createmixedmedia is hosting a giveaway of Alternative Art Journals: Explore Innovative Approaches to Collecting Your Creativity. Follow the link (paste it into your browser if it is not live), respond by Sunday night, and you will be entered in the Monday drawing:
http://www.createmixedmedia.com/blogs/the-creative-life/give-away-alternative-art-journals
Also, check out Rice’s vlog about Alternative Art Journals:
http://www.createmixedmedia.com/look/book-notes-alternative-art-journals
This is one of the nicest quotes I have ever read about making art. I think everyone should be engaged in making art of some sort–think what an awesome world we would be in if everyone were idly turning about an art project in their minds, figuring out what size it would be, what materials they would need, color–or sound, words, movement.
All the more reason to get that blank sketchbook out and start doodling, fiddling around, daydreaming–on paper.
Rives BFK is my favorite go-to paper for every purpose. It is has a gorgeous, buttery surface, it is a wonderful printmaking paper, accommodating relief (in a press) as well as intaglio. I love to draw on it, with pencil and especially India ink. You can thoroughly soak it, and it doesn’t alter the surface at all. The watermark is lovely and simple as is the deckle. I bind it into coptic-style sketchbooks, for art journalling, and use it for all my illustrating. It makes the most fantastic, monumental inkblots. I should work for the company giving testimonials!
But the coolest thing, I just found out, is that I can cut it to size and run it through my HP Photosmart printer!
Rives BFK is getting more and more expensive, but I have found a source for it at Lenzarts, where you can buy (as of 9-14-12) one hundred sheets for $214.97. They ship it well, in a box with an inner box so that the corners don’t arrive dinged. Cool.
http://lenzarts.com/art_supplies/rives-bfk-printing-paper.html
Beautiful jellyfish at Coney Island in the NY Aquarium–gorgeous–I could have watched them all day. But how to draw them? They are so delicate looking that even setting about them with a pencil seems wrong. Perhaps water color. The color here was produced by an orange light at the left of the tank, reflected in the tentacles.
www.createmixedmedia.com is hosting a giveaway of my new book. Just go to the site, enter a comment by August 10, then check in on Monday the 13th to see if you won:
http://www.createmixedmedia.com/blogs/the-creative-life/give-away-alternative-art-journals
Another opportunity to win a copy of the Successful Artist’s Career Guide: Finding Your Way in the Business of Art at author, illustrator and designer Kris Waldherr’s inspiring site, Art and Words. When you leave a comment, you are eligible to win. And, as an additional challenge, and an extra entry, Kris invites you to include in your comment a piece of advice you’d give another artist or writer.
An interview and review of The Successful Artist’s Career Guide on the wonderful site, Right Brain Rockstar! If you live in the US, UK or Canada, Dan Johnson of Right Brain Rockstar is doing a book giveaway.
This is a wonderful site: lots of advice and musing about what it is to be an artist, how to make art, make a living as an artist, how to get past creative blocks. It is a great resource. Check it out:
http://rightbrainrockstar.com/inspiration/follow-your-inner-compass-make-life-doing-what-you-love/?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+rightbrainrockstar+%28RightBrain+Rockstar%29
A couple of weeks ago I was at the F&W Artists Network TV studio filming two videos with them highlighting and expanding on some of the techniques in my upcoming book, Alternative Art Journals: Explore Innovative Approaches to Collecting Your Creativity (coming mid-September)(you can pre-order at Amazon as well as at The North Light Book store at http://www.northlightshop.com/alternative-art-journals)
The filming was very interesting–getting the segments set up, filming them, tearing down and setting up the next shot. The staff there was focused, calm, patient and creative throughout, enabling us to demonstrate several techniques and model creative process. This will better enable the viewer to pursue their own quirky creative journeys.
I am including a sneak preview of the set where we filmed. The iron daffodils were made by my father, the artist blacksmith Hans Peot.
