My big fat black journal 3

It's almost a year since my first post about my big fat black journal. A year later, and five books filled,

I'm more than ever grateful for this way of becoming and knowing who I am.

I continue to use my journal to document my ideas, my art process, and my doubts and dreams.

(I'm still messy.)

(I'm still about process, not product.)

I'm still using my adored Stillman and Birn Alpha series 8 1/2" x 11" hardbound sketchbook, one every three months.

I still use pen and wash to respond to something beautiful before my very eyes.

If you need me, follow the trail of paint splatters and ink smudges. You'll find me, still here.

where the fun begins . . .

where the fun begins . . ., a photo by vickylw on Flickr.

Finally finished binding some new art journals this week. I've actually felt a bit "lost" not having one to grab and sketch in.

The two upper ones are Coptic stitched, both having a heavier 140 # watercolor paper in them which holds up well with this open binding.

The lower left one contains nideggen paper, a print paper I've always wanted to try. Because it is so much thinner, I also added some pages of Fabriano Tiziano toned paper --- scraps of both were used to bind the mini journal.

The landscape oriented journal is Fabriano 90 # soft press --- a paper I love but it's grain runs opposite, so I bind it in this format to get the most pages out of a sheet of paper.

I found some cardstock stickers at Hobby Lobby to stick to the fronts, making it easy to tell front from back. But some actually covers goofs --- The cover paper was from a Daniel Smith sale and was a bit thin, showing glue spots in places. The upper part of the tan bookcloth stained as well, perhaps from the green paper's dye running. Maybe it gives the book character??

New hand-bound journals!

This is what has kept me busy much of this past week...I was down to the last 5 pages of the current journal, and it was crunch time!  So J. tore paper for me last week, and folded signatures, I sewed and glued them, and over the weekend did the covers for all seven.

I am ready to ROLL.

It's fun making your own cover paper...my favorite, at right, is the inside of an old Strathmore watercolor pad, which had an interesting ridgy texture!  Originally I was just testing a Japanese Sumi-e brush, but it was so much fun...journal paper!  That's an old & stamp from an early 20th C. stamp set, but since I ended up with the paper upside down, it looks like a very strange lower case B!

Had to do the maroon cover too, with the brush, the stamp, and splatters and sprays...

The bottom journal was what's left of an old grocery sack I wadded up, dampened, and inked...it and my favorite on the right both have my handmade bookcloth for the hinges/spines, too...

New Artist's Journal Workshop Facebook group

We have a new Facebook group! 

At this point, the blog here has 28 co-authors, all people who have been involved in the book.  I love sharing here, and will obviously keep doing just that, with my own thoughts on journaling, product reviews,  interviews from our co-authors and their posts on process, supplies, tools, thoughts, needs, just as we've been doing for months now.  The FB group doesn't replace the blog...this place is my baby, not to mention a great place to meet with friends!

But I also wanted to create a place where we could ALL share our work--blog authors, readers, and anyone who keeps an art journal, so the Facebook group may just be the place.  You're welcome to join and post whatever you're doing in your own artists' journal!  I just set it up this morning, so join us and add your bits, you'll enrich it no end...

Don't be shy!  Finished work, quick sketches, whatever you're doing at the time...it's all about sharing.
It's an open group...so whether you do ink sketches, watercolor, collage, memory pages, travel journaling, , add your images! 

If you lose the link above, I kept it simple--it's got the same name as the blog (and the book!)--Artist's Journal Workshop.  Just enter that in the search box at the top of a Facebook page and it should pop right up.

I'm just learning the ins and outs of FB's updated groups, so be patient with me please...but feel free to go check it out, join us, add your own images, whatever!

And it will be fun!

Journal exhibition--wonderful work!

Gwen Diehn just posted images from a fantastic show she juried recently at Asheville BookWorks in Asheville, NC on her new blog--you won't want to miss these!

Find them here:
http://real-life-journals.blogspot.com/p/real-life-journals-exhibition-at.html

You'll be sure to recognize some of the artists...the very first one up is one of my favorite nature journalers, Andie Thrams, who teaches at various sites and offers a beautiful calendar ever year. (Click the calendar link to see the 2011 one on Etsy, all painted on the spot.

Your new blog ROCKS, Gwen!