Poll

Hi all!  I've added a poll in the sidebar at right to give us an idea what YOU would most like to see in this blog. 

Please feel free to add your vote at any time...

Classes, etc.

Many of our correspondents teach journaling or bookbinding--so here will be a great place to put upcoming classes!  I've added a page at the top of the blog for our correspondents to add to as they have the chance.

For instance, Roz Stendahl will be teaching one of the free Strathmore classes, which starts May 1...I've already signed up!

As noted the other day, Strathmore Papers FREE Visual Journal classes can be found HERE: http://www.strathmoreartist.com/vjworkshop2011.html

My Special Winter Gear

My name is Nina Khashchina, you might know me on Flickr or in Urban Sketching or Nature Sketching community as Apple-Pine. And I will do a proper introduction post later - when Kate has me scheduled :) but for now I wanted to share some of my winter gear secrets.

I live in one of the warmest winter climates out of all correspondents of this blog: Silicon Valley, California. Though I know what a real winter is: today thermometers showed 14F in the town where I grew up and it can get much much colder there. So Silicon Valley feels very warm to me in comparison. But sketching during winter is tricky nonetheless.

First thing I use and would recommend is fingerless gloves. Mine have a mitten attachment which warms up my fingers in between sketching :)

Second thing I find very useful is a baseball hat with light built in. Mine has white, bright white and - the most useful - green light. It gets very dark very early - these days many of my park adventures happen or end in darkness - and this hat allows me to a) be seen by my companions, bikers etc. b) Draw :) Green light is very soft on my eyes while they switch between the object and my sketchbook - though I do quite a bit of blind contours anyways. Too bad my hat is not very warm - I look pathetic with baseball hat over knitted beanie - good thing people around me see only my lights ;)

Here is a sketch of my gear:


And here is a couple of sketches done with my gear:

The Easy Peasy way to Bind a Journal

Left: Various styles of Japanese pamphlets. ©2001 Roz Stendahl. Click on the image to view an enlargement.

Let's make 2011 a year of journaling with no excuses. ("I can't find the right paper," "I can't bind my own books," "No commercial books work for my media needs."). Kate's December 31, 2010 post advocates super-simple handmade journals. She has a great idea for accordion fold books.

Still aren't convinced that accordion folds are the way to go for journaling? Well they are simple to make and you can use them for some stunning results. Check out Marty Harris and friends in the moly_X over on Flickr if you aren't convinced that accordions are a great way to go. This group exchanges Moleskine accordions. Check out Marty Harris' own State Fair Pig  in a Moleskine accordion book: you can learn a lot from how he uses the page

Don't forget the simplicity of the accordion (remember we want this to be a no-excuses year). Kate talked about accordion journals made of scraps which I think is a wonderful approach. The accordion is an especially useful format if you like to sketch panoramas or flow your illustrations together.  Patty Scott, an artist in the MCBA Visual Journal Collective, uses the case of an existing book, cuts out the text block, and inserts her own accordion. It's a quick and elegant solution if you don't want to buy a moleskine or make a case. (At the linked post scroll down to see Patty's book at the end of that post.)

If holding an accordion is difficult for you try a pamphlet journal. (But know that Patty travels with bulldog clips to hold her book open and keep it from unraveling while she works) .

Beyond the simplicity of Kate's suggestion there is the economy of it. Kate uses the scraps she has left over from binding her square books!

Economy is one aspect of bookbinding that makes me think about pamphlet books. I teach a series of classes called Jumpstart Journaling which are aimed at getting people to journal right away, without making a fussy book structure that uses glue. The current offering in the Jumpstart Journaling series is a Pamphlet Book.

While you might not be able to join me in the Twin Cities for this class, there's no reason you can't explore the ease and simplicity of pamphlet books on your own!

So many books on bookbinding have instructions for pamphlet bindings. Many of these instructions guide you through creating elegant and lovely pamphlet structures with decorative or structurally interesting covers. No embarrassment should attach to using them for your journaling. I list an "essential bookshelf for bookbinders" on my blog. Just off the top of my head, as I look at that list, I can recall that Webberly, Golden, LaPlantz, and Doggett have pamphlet constructions in their books that I've listed listed. Shepherd has a hardcover pamphlet if you want to go all out!

But let's just say for now that you want to avoid glue. All you have to do is fold some paper in half and sew it up. That's called a signature.

Of course if you want great art paper you can cut or tear down a sheet of your favorite watercolor paper to size: make each piece two times as wide as you want the book, and as tall as you want the book. Your fold should be with grain of the paper. (If you don't know how to determine paper grain I've written instructions here.)

You'll need a cover for your book. The cover can be a piece of decorative cardstock weight paper or the first and last sheets of your signature which you've painted or decorated in some way. (Fold your cover sheet with the grain too, so that your fold is running parallel with the grain direction.)

You can either cut your cover to be flush (even) with the head, tail, and fore edge of your book (i.e., top, bottom and front edge of your book where it opens, respectively), or you can cut your cover sheet a little larger so that it overhangs at those areas and provides a bit of protection to your pages. (I like the second approach.)

You need to allow for ease at the fold when you are folding that cover paper, and for the thickness of the folded signature, so if you are new to binding I recommend that you add an inch to your sheet width (which is two times your page width) and then fold the cover sheet in the middle, insert the signature into that "cover" fold, and trim the overhang at the fore edge after you've sewed it together.

You can sew with simple pamphlet stitch of 3 holes or one of 5—if your book is taller than 5 inches I recommend a 5-hole stitch. Again, you can find a diagram for the pamphlet stitch in any book on bookbinding, and probably a gazillion internet places! Or you can do a running stitch: starting at the base of your signature on the inside simply go in and out of the holes all the way up the spine, capturing cover and signature with each pass, and then come back down going in and out. Even or odd numbers of holes, when you get back to the start, tie a square knot and trim the ends and go start journaling!

Webberley's Books, Boxes, and Wraps has a myriad of ways to cover your pamphlet book—make wrap around covers, or covers with flaps that slit together for a little packet-like structure.

If one signature of paper isn't enough to last any you length of time, make a "dos a dos" pamphlet structure, which is a two-signature book.  Think of a "z" and imagine sewing a signature into each of the two angles: they both share a common "backcover" which is the long stroke of the "z."

Japanese double pamphlets have a pleated spine which allows for the inset of two signatures in one stitch instead of only one. I like to make these a lot. I can't find my diagram for sewing a folded cover, but here's a diagram that shows the sewing using a split cover, i.e., two separate halves. Just imagine that they are folded at the center or at the edge on the right in the diagram making them one long sheet of paper.

You want your paper to be two times the width of your page width, plus 2 x the width of your pleat, plus any over hang you want at the fore edges. (Be sure to multiply any desired overhang by two as well as you have two fore edges!) You can additionally add extra for fold-in flaps! They should be at least 2/3 as wide as your page width or they have an annoying way of opening up and folding out while you try to sketch.

For a pleat I say start with one inch x 2 (i.e., 1 inch on either side of your center fold before the next fold).  Add that to the 2 x your width of your page measurement (with overhange etc.). See how that works for you and then adapt from there to suit your needs. The extra wide pleat will be easy for you to sew until you know what you're doing; sewing with a quarter inch pleat (so 1/2 inch of paper for the pleat total) is a bit difficult for new binders, and not possible with all weights of paper.

(Japanese double pamphlets are great if you have an artist book that exceeds one signature, or if you're making an editioned book and need a quick and simple way to bind it.)

Left: The arrangement of signatures and covers for the sewing of the Japanese Double Pamphlet. ©2001 Roz Stendahl. Click on the image to view an enlargement.

The reason I started teaching the split-pleat Japanese double pamphlet (shown in the diagram) is evident if you add up all the width you need for your cover: you end up requiring a mighty long sheet of paper all folded so that those folds are with the grain! Sometimes it's just easier to make two separate cover pieces!

Full or split cover, you create a stack like that shown in my diagram. (Note the covers will be outer sides facing each other when you make your stack.) You punch your sewing holes where the dashed line is indicating your fold. You punch through all the layers—both signatures and both covers. Then you sew the pamphlet stitch through those layers holding your parts in this orientation as well. When you have finished sewing the act of closing up the signatures allows the covers to fall into place. You can then trim the excess cover paper at the fore edge of each cover or you can fold over your flaps!  (Don't trim or fold those edges until you sew because you might be a bit off. If you trim before sewing and are off you would have to refold which wouldn't look as nice—but could be hidden with collage material.) Your sewing knot will end up being in the center of one of your two signatures. I like to sew so that it falls in the center of the second signature.

Get really inventive and make dos a dos strutures that have Japanese double pamphlets at the folds! That's a simple no glue journal right there.

Need more pages and want something more than two signatures? Make a multisignature softcover book like the ones I have on my website. For more multisignature softcover books go here. My book list mentions Keith Smith's books. If you aren't good at coming up with stitches for sewn-on-the-spine structures like this check out his books.

Then let's say you don't want to bind AT ALL. Well I'm a huge fan of what I call the unbound journal. I like to use journal cards for short trips with people I haven't traveled with before. Or for my favorite event The Minnesota State Fair.

Typically I've made cases for my journal card journals. Sometimes I make boxes for them, sometimes slipcases. But you can simply put them in an envelope! Or you can make a folder for them. You get the idea—this should be simple.

If the paper you use for journal cards is lightweight and flexible enough (140 lb. watercolor paper would be about the end of the line) you could bind them as a Japanese Stab binding.  When you work on your journal cards, if you intend to stab bind them later, allow a margin on the spine edge where you don't draw. This will be where you stab your holes, and anything in this area will not be seen when you bind your "cards."

(Note: Japanese Stab bound blank journals are not a good choice for visual journaling as they don't open flat.)

Stab binding and other Japanese structures can be found in Kojiro Ikegami's  excellent Japanese Bookbinding: Instructions from a Master Craftsman.

Keith Smith has a coptic stitch binding for single cards that I've never tried, but it sure looks tempting. (He has a whole book on binding single pages.)

Still not simple enough for you? Too much sewing? Too much folding? Too much loose stuff that you then have to worry about containing?

OK, So what's the simplest journal you can make? Take a printed book with sewn signatures (not something that's scruffed at the spine and glued or perfect bound), and use it to make an altered book journal. You can look into one of my altered book journals made from a mystery book here. The book was a quality reprint that had sewn signatures and acid-free paper! While the paper wasn't intended to handle wet media it was high enough quality that I got by just fine, by modulating the amount of water I use, and by gessoing some pages (either with regular gesso or sometimes with absorbent gesso which is formulated to accept watercolor).

The fun thing about an altered book journal is you get all the visual texture of the text on the page to work with in your painting and journaling.

Search for quality sewn books for only dollars in antiques and collectible stores. Old record books with ruled lines and elaborate penmanship on the page also make interesting background texture!

Before I end I want to make one more pitch for the pamphlet book journal. I know it's a bit more involved than that very attractive altered book journal idea I just threw out, but here's the thing about pamphlet journals—you can always rebind them into one book, or make a slip case for them. So if your interest in binding grows, well you can do something with all those signatures.

Also if you lose one pamphlet journal you haven't lost your whole month, or year, or whatever.

But the best reason, besides ease of construction, for making and using a pamphlet style journal is that it also gives you an opportunity to test out a paper for the duration of that pamphlet and see how you like working on that paper. Most signatures are going to be 16 to 20 pages (depending on the thickness of the art paper you're using). It's pretty easy to make it through the worst paper in history if you have only 16 pages of it! Then you can be on to another candidate.

Finding a paper that takes the media you like to use—finding a paper that's fun to use, that makes you smile when you work on it—is the best way to ensure that you'll keep up with your journal habit!

If you'd like to read more about selecting papers for visual journaling you can read my two part series on the topic here. While this link gives specific paper recommendations for visual journals.

Make 2011 the year you leave excuses like "I don't know how to bind elegant books" behind. Just go for it.

It isn't the book folks, it's the mind, eye, and the hand. If you're happy with your paper choices it will show in your work. If you're drawing all the time, it will show in your work—and in your life (you'll be more observant and aware). That's journaling.

Note: there is one other book I should mention: Woven and Interlocking Book Structures by Claire Van Vliet and Elizabeth Steiner. This book is way beyond my pay grade, but if you like to fold origami and do paper constructions and interlock things then go for it! The book is full of diagrams that look like they will make sense to anyone who isn't spatially challenged.

You can reach me directly at rozjournalrat@gmail.com, or leave a comment. Thanks,  Roz Stendahl

Sketchbook Project....The beginning

I first heard about the Sketchbook Project
back in October from a friend and fellow blogger, Quiltin' Mama.  What fun, I thought! I signed up immediately.  The sketchbook showed up very timely with instructions that said it's a good idea to make the sketchbook sturdy as it will be looked at often. The sketchbook also contains the same type of paper that's in my only Moleskine journal that I really don't care for.... very thin and see through.

So, these are my excuses for not starting this project sooner... How to fortify the cover and shore up the thin weight of the paper pages, and I'm sticking to them :)

Given that I live in the lowcountry of SC and alligators love it here, and pink is the color used to celebrate breast cancer awareness, survivors and those that have passed ..... Well, what better material to use than faux pink alligator vinyl??  I'm multi-purposing an Estee Lauder zipper tote that would have otherwise gone into the trash.

Click all images to enlarge

I finished making the cover but have not attached it to the sketchbook. I was about to, got delayed, and am so grateful for the delay as I realized the book pages will be much easier to scan.

I decided sewing a few pages together would make them sturdier.  There are two benefits to this. Thicker pages and...... less pages to fill :) Good thing too, as I've just under 2 weeks to get it finished and postmarked by January 15th!  Nothing like a deadline :)

I love the design the zig-zag stitches made on the edges of the pages.

Outside of the cover and end pages, I now have 12 spreads to fill.

Another reason I'm happy I sewed the pages is that the back half of the book has perforated sheets!  It made for a bit of a challenge when sewing, as the pages started to tear out. I ended up using clear archival tape to secure the pages in the book. Okay.... ready to start filling this baby!

The theme is 'Down Your Street' - which I decided meant my street. I thought it would be fun to share the sights I see on my daily dog walks. Here's the start....

The thin paper has a slick finish that, to me, is difficult to use watercolor on. I do love how my Micron pen glides across the surface, though.

Given that I've waited until the last minute to complete this project, I made the executive decision to live dangerously free and sketch with the Micron pen. No time for careful planning.... just have at it!

That decision helped me choose the type of calligraphic marks to use for titles, etc..  By the by, I didn't plan for my maiden name to have such a downward twist - that's compliments of writing with pen and running out of room :)  See what fun you can have when your marks are committed? I don't know if I could have thought of making my name so fun if I tried to design it this way. Serendipity!  Love that word!

Eleven more spreads to go........ See ya!

Stuffed animal

You need:

1. white or coloured drawing sheet A4 size
2. chalk pastel
3. pencil
4. hairspray
5. stuffed animal

Ask students to take their favourite stuffed animal for this lesson. Let them choose their own drawing sheet. In my class students had to choose from grey, brown or white.

Tell students how to work with chalk pastel: you have to colour lightly and then smudge the chalk with your fingers. Don't produce to much powder, because you won't be able to smudge it away anymore. Vary with colours; you may use two colours and smudge them together. Tell students about light and show them lighter and darker parts of the stuffed animals. Use white chalk to lighten up parts of the stuffed animal, and black chalk to darken colours and make shadows.

Draw a horizon line and sketch your stuffed animal lightly with a pencil. Colour it with chalk pastel. Chalk pastel will emphasize the softness of the animal. Create a background and colour it completely. Use hairspray to fixate the chalk and paste the work on a coloured background.

All artworks are made by students of grade 6.

Interview #2--Liz Steel (and Borromini!)

 

I first met Liz Steel online a few years ago, and became entranced by her bold sketches on Flickr.  Such bright, fresh, dedicated and funny work.  When it came time to pick artists to be involved in the Artists' Journal Workshop book, Liz was among the first I asked! 

I was delighted with the opportunity to get to know her better when she stopped by here near the start of her long international journey this past summer, and more so when I did this interview.   (I've kept the original spelling...this IS a truly international project and it only adds to the flavor.  Or flavour!)

Q. First, were you born in Australia?   

A. I was born in Sydney Australia and have lived there all my life (and love it!)

Q. How long have you been an architect, and how did you decide to do so?
 

A. I have been practising as an architect for over 16 years. I decided that I wanted to be an architect at age 10 when I discovered that there was such a thing as a plan which described the layout of a building - up to that point I only drew the front of houses. I found a book in my local library entitled “She’s an architect” which confirmed to me that that was what I wanted to be when I grew up!
 

Q. What kinds of things do you design? 
 

A. I design all kind of buildings – residential buildings (single houses to multi-storey apartments) commercial buildings, office fitouts and interiors and for the last 14 years I have also been specialising in television related projects.
 

Q. How did the time off for this summer’s trip work?  How long was the trip? 

A  In Australia, working more than 10 years in the one firm entitles you to Long Service Leave – a bonus 2-3months of vacation that you can often take in one block of time. I have been with my firm for 15 years and have been chipping away at my allowance for a few years. This year, I had to use up my leave- so I was able to have a 11 week vacation.

 
Q. How did you plan your meet-ups with other sketchers, and how many did you meet in the course of the trip? 

A. There are MANY online sketching friends that I would love to meet, but I normally don’t plan my trips around meeting up with them – I determine my itinerary and then work out  what sketchers I will be near. This trip had two exceptions – the first was the Urban Sketchers Symposium in Portland which occurred in the start of my trip and the other was my visit to Kansas City to see you! (I couldn’t fly across the states without popping in!)

* Kate's not:  Big smile when I read that!

I usually contact people beforehand to organise but sometimes I have unexpected meetings while travelling thanks to Flickr comments and emails – it is really a very exciting and dynamic way to travel when you blog from your iPhone along the way, This trip, apart from the 70 odd people at the Urban Sketchers Symposium, I meet up with 16 online sketching friends.

 
Q. What’s your most vivid memory, if you can isolate one!
 

A. I have so many amazing memories from my trip – the Urban Sketchers Symposium and meeting other sketchers, special time with special friends and family in the UK, 2 weeks of dedicated sketching in Italy with a friend and then having the courage to sit on the streets in Rome sketching alone, having days when I felt so much in the groove...etc etc! 

But the most important memory, the one that I want to remember, is the feeling I had when I got on the plane to come home. It was a feeling that my trip was a journey that would continue when I got back home, it was an enormous sense of satisfaction that I had filled all my sketchbooks, that the sustained period of sketching had resulted in development of my skills and it was a feeling of sheer joy that all my wonderful experiences were recorded by my own hand in my own way in those books! This feeling was reinforced when, on my first full day home, I went out to sketch the Sydney Opera House – sketching the most famous icon in my own beloved hometown while still in ‘trip mode’ was a wonderful blurring of the edges between the end of my big trip and  the resumption of my normal life.

 
Q, Tell us a bit about Borromini, and how many other people have sketched him.

Borromini (which is the name of a famous Italian architect of the Baroque period) is a tiny little bear that I bought in 2007 to take with me on my holidays. I often have periods in my travelling when I am on my own so I wanted a travelling companion to photograph. His first trip was in September 2007-this was also the first that I kept a sketchbook - so Borromini's existence is integrally connected with my sketching. When I went online in 2008, I was very cautious of revealing my identity and so it was natural to hide behind the wee bear! It didn't last long till things changed - but the Bear has his own identity now and seems to make his own friends. I can't keep up with him!

Q. Would you give us a link to your books?  I would love for you to get some orders from this.  Are the latest trip journals going to be available as books, or have I missed that?

A. I have a page on my blog with links to my books
http://www.lizsteel.com/p/blurb-books.html

I have a Paris book(sketches from 2009)  which will be available for purchase in the next few weeks. And hope to do something with my sketches from this year (now that I am finished scanning all those sketchbooks!) but not sure exactly what I am going to do yet – so watch this space!


Q. How long have you been keeping a sketch journal, and what inspired you to start? 

A. A friend introduced me to watercolor pans in a field kit in December 2006 and I instantly feel in love with them. Inspired by her use of them and Danny Gregory’s books I started my own in Jan 2007 with the intention to sketch regularly as ’training’ for a trip to Europe in September that year. Not only did I achieve that goal but the almost-daily habit has become an end in itself!

 

Q. How does your sketch journaling relate to your job as an architect?

A. As an architect, sketching is the way that I think and communicate. I draw all the time when I am trying to solve a design problem – it is a almost a reflex action of my brain and the simple action of drawing over and over can reveal solutions. Once I have a solution I draw to explain what is in my head. But when I started sketching from life, I had to make a big switch -  I had to stop and learn to look.

This stopping and looking has helped my design skills as an architect. The observation needed for sketching gives me insights into the mind of the original architect and the discoveries that I translate to paper seem to be permanently registered and inscribed into my memory for inspiration and re-interpretation in my own real life projects. The constant sketching of anything in my daily life has also helped me at work, as it has improved my ability to be able to describe design proposals in quick  hand drawn coloured sketches – in an age where digital images abound,  quick freehand presentations sometimes make more of an impact.

 
Q. You do a lot of travel sketching; how do you plan what to take?
 

A. It is a balance between simplifying and flexibility – and somehow packing light. Most of the time I only use my ink pen and watercolours but as I am travelling and sketching more than usual, with different scenes and different situations I have to be prepared for anything. So I pack a few things for specific occasions such as my brush pen for when I only have a few moments and a few watercolour pencils for galleries etc where I wouldn’t be allowed to paint. Drawing my kit before I go always helps me to rationalise – I also do this with my clothes!

 
Q. Do you ever go someplace with the idea in mind up front of sketching?  (I mean do you choose a destination TO sketch it?) 

A. If I am re-visiting places I do normally choose a destination because I want to sketch it. But when visiting a city/country for the first time I plan my itinerary around the places I want to visit (like any other traveller) but I make sure I allow some extra time for the all important sketch. Sometimes I choose not to go into a tourist attraction/ museum/ historic house etc preferring to use my time sketching the exterior.

 
Q. What do you enjoy most?

 
A. My two favourite things to draw are complicated architecture (particularly Baroque buildings) and a good cup of tea (with accompanying cake). So a café table with a good view is the ultimate – comfort and inspiration in one!

Q. How long do you normally spend a day with your journal?

A. Normally 20 minutes to an hour a day – either at lunchtime, in the evening while having my post dinner cup of tea or sometimes I get a creative urge late at night when I am tired and really should go to bed!
On Saturdays I often go out for the day for a sketching adventure – then I am using my sketchbook all day.




 
Q. Other thoughts? Whatever else you feel is more important, personally, to YOU...

A. The most important thing for me is the excitement of really starting to ‘see’ the world around me. Often the visual exploration of an object or scene give me a real buzz – in a way, the resultant sketch is less important than this discovery although I think this excitement is often reflected in the sketch.

Also my sketchbook journal is the celebration of the little things in life – the everyday becomes special and worthy to record and it is a great way to realize how much we have to be thankful for – even in hard times.

The final thing is that my sketchbook is MINE – it is there for me to fill with sketches of the things I like, the things that I want to remember, the way I want to sketch  or the way I want to develop my skills.  I think that when you find the YOU in your work, you have more enjoyment, confidence and satisfaction.

--------------------------

A bit more about Borromini Bear here http://www.lizsteel.com/p/about-borromini.html
It was lots of fun for other artists to sketch him this year – I can think of about 12 artists that sketched him – but it is possible that there are more. I do plan to make a gallery of sketches and put this on my blog.

Here's one of mine!  -Kate

 
Q Did I remember to tell you that’s going to be a whole separate page on North Light’s website?  I had my sketch, Joseph’s, Laura Frankstone’s, and Vicky Williamson’s, so they wanted to do a whole page on Borro!) 

A. WOW!!!!!

----------------------------------

Check out these links for more information...you'll be inspired by Liz's work and her energy and dedication, too!
 

Liz's (and Borromini's) blog: http://www.lizsteel.com/

Flickr: http://www.flickr.com/photos/borrominibear/

http://www.lizsteel.com/p/current-sketching-tools.html

LIz's Blurb books...I have the wonderful little A Perfect Cuppa, it's delightful!  http://www.blurb.com/user/BorrominiB

The bear has caught the imagination of a lot of us, and he gets sketched often!  Liz has made a Flickr Gallery of the little fellow here:  http://www.flickr.com/photos/borrominibear/galleries/72157625607354553/#photo_4885532417 --you'll see sketches from several of our blog correspondents!