The book is filling up...

Iwas getting a bit worried on two counts. Firstly, my workbook did not seem to be filling up. I was thinking perhaps I was not doing enough. Secondly, my sketchbook was also looking pretty empty apart from a couple of pages that had been coloured with vegetable dyes. Today, Betty did an initial assessment and I realised that I had actually done quite a bit. I may have an empty sketchbook but I have a plan worked out for the content of my book and the cover design, I have a collection of reference photos for use. And, I have done everything I should have done so all the boxes were ticked so I am feeling a lot more confidant. We did and colour grid to show tints, shades and hues....something I never done before or ever thought of doing. We also used our monoprints from last week to cut up and put in our workbooks.
We also experimented with some brilliant stuff called Puff Binder 3D paint which you spread onto a surface and then heat when it, as the name implies, puffs up. You can spread it thick or thin, or in shapes...the possibilities are endless. Once it has been heated you can paint it. I have posted 2 pictures this week. One is of a print I did last week which I have cut into strips and stuck the strips into my book but slightly out of their original alignment. I then drew into parts of the print. The other picture is of my experiment with the Puff Binder to create a seascape.
Thanks for the encouragement, Betty (and the delicious cake and coffee).

What a mess!

This week's Creative Sketchbook class was possibly the messiest so far. We were doing mono printing...basically, it involves spreading printing ink onto a glass surface, drawing, stamping or or in some other way, creating a design in the inky surface, laying a piece of paper on the ink, pressing it down with either hands or a rollers, lifting the paper and revealing a print. This process can be carried out a couple of times with the image becoming fainter. You can also get a "ghost" print by pressing a sheet of paper on the first print and applying pressure. A sample of my efforts is shown. It is supposed to be an oak leaf and acorn! I cannot remember whether I have said that the subject of my assessed sketchbook is "The English Oak". At the end of the class my hands were covered with a mixture of blue, black and green printing ink. Thank goodness it is water soluble. I have a hatred bordering on phobia, of getting my hands dirty so this course will either make or break me!
I would like to make a mention of our brilliant teacher. Her name is Betty Ruffel and she is a very good teacher...enthusiastic and encouraging. And, like Mr Kipling, she bakes exceedingly good cakes. Thank you Betty.

Paint and paper

Week three of the Creative Sketchbook course and am loving it. We started by outlining our action plan for our sketchbook. I am going to base my on the English oak. I was originally going to base it on trees, then I narrowed it down to British native species and then, finally, decided on the English oak. I plan to look not only at the tree itself, but its history, uses, and the flowers and fauna which live in or are associated with it. So, quite a lot there to keep me amused for many months to come. paints to create interesting papers. Rather than keep my sheets whole, I cut them up into various shapes and stuck them into my work book on pages which I had painted at the first class. A of part of one of We also experimented with using wax crayons and embossing sheets together with pearlisedpicturethese pages is posted here. I have also uploaded a picture of some "colour wheels" that I did this week, both of which uses pictures from a gardening catalogue. I have done a "standard" colour wheel but thought it would be interesting to do some variations.

Creative Sketchbooks Lesson 2

Lots of fun with different types of paper, both handmade and machine made. Mst were handmade from various materials from rag pulp to elephant dung...the latter I bought in Thailand a couple of years ago when I visited the site of this strange manufacture. Other materials included tobacco leaves, silk, jute and onion skin. Many of the papers are from India and Nepal where they create the most beautiful papers. I visited a paper factory in Bhaktapur in Nepal some years ago and I can still remember it. I am sure some one from medieval times would have felt at home there. Very little seemed to have changed over many years of production.


Apart from looking at and discussing the papers we also experimented with applying various inks to the surfaces to see the effects and the resulting samples were stuck into our workbooks. I annotated some of my papers with notes on how the paper reacted etc. The result can be seen above. This shows part of the page.

I am really enjoying this course and my mind is full of ideas for future work.

Another ATC

Well, another ATC completed using coloured pencils. Finished it today whilst working in the shop. I am quite pleased with it.....feathers are quite difficult to get right and I don't think I have but I think it was a fair go for a first attempt.

I will put this in for the October ATC swap on Scribble Talk. Now think what to do next in CP. I think it may well be a meerkat.