Art Journal Love

So I've been playing around with an art journal lately. Y'know, just doing art for my own sake and for fun. I've been working in a sketch moleskine, 5"x8". I've also been exploring mixed media, which is basically a Godsend. As a figure artist, I really hated coming up with backgrounds that were interesting but didn't detract from the image. Not really fun when you're just working with a pencil. Mixed media is the cure to the boring background disease!

So, when I first heard of Suzi Blu, all I really knew was that she didn't really understand facial proportions. (I later learned it was I that didn't understand the Whimsical Style.) I thought she was a 60-something housewife who took up art as something to do to fill the time. Boy was I surprised. So I started checking out her youtube videos and grew a little enamored, I must admit. Though stylistically I don't think I could ever successfully manage whimsey, I've learned a lot about freedom and exploration in my art. It's been a fun discovery process.

Here's to more mixed media joy in the future!

New Apartment

So, the moving is nearly complete. Which is exciting. Well, not so much the moving, but the being done moving. I really, really hate boxing and packing and hauling and living out of the boxes. But the new apartment is so thrilling I don't mind that much. We'll be out of the old apartment by Saturday and then we can start settling into the new one! Huzzah!

I haven't really had any time at all for art, which makes me very sad and grumpy indeed. I miss all my art supplies. I can see them...in the bags and the boxes. Oh, art supplies...le sigh.

Really?

Look at me being all presumptuous! Yet another artist spouting text into the ether. But who knows? Maybe you'll care what I have to say. Or you'll like how I say it. Or maybe it's just me, talking to myself. Well, I do that in real life, why not here, too?

Best part of today: I found a bag full of three (almost) complete sets of alphabet stamps at the thrift store for $7. Just four missing letters, but all in all, not a bad haul. I'm just starting to play around with mixed media and this find was serendipity in a bag. Mixed media is incredibly liberating, and certainly not what they teach you in school. I love it!

I've also started an art journal. I've never really done one before, not with the intention of making the whole thing be a...journal of art. The concept seems a little foreign to me, which is stupid, but there you have it. I'm really pretty dumb at times, at least when it comes to myself. At least I always have friends who are there to point out my dumbness to me. It's a fun process, though I'm still trying to figure out what works for me and what doesn't. Yay process...

That's it for now. I have to work in the morning. I'd rather make art.

Things I Did Today:
Shopped with mum at Goodwill (found stamps and pretty bowl); finished two ATCs, background for mixed media painting; worked more on making a necklace.

Go me!