Amber Gibbs - Art Journals, Collage Art & Mixed Media Adventures

Long Overdue Update

Oh, my poor neglected blog. These days I'm still doing art journaling, but not quite as much as I used to.

I'm trying to keep my Flickr acct updated with recent images and I'm also trying to scan and add some of my old photos there. The old photos are licensed with a creative commons license and you are welcome to use them in your art work as long as you change/add to them.  I consider using them in art work changing them.

 

I've had this page done for a while, kept thinking I would write on it but it doesn't want writing.

 

Again, my flickr account is the best way to keep up with me. And you can see all of these bigger there in my art journal section.

Inspired by Teesha Moore

I did this journal page back . . . December. I followed the directions in Teesha Moore's videos on how she art journals. I've always admired her journals so I thought I'd do a few pages in her style based on her videos. The first collage video is on youtube here.  From that one you should be able to find the whole series.

I found this a really interesting way to work and will definitely be doing more of it. It was nice to just 'let go' in the collage part. Sometimes I do that and sometimes I get too futzy with it. I also enjoyed the part where you draw over the collage. In the one above I also was channeling some inspiration from Lady Gaga's Bad Romance video. (Why do we still call them videos, so few people use video tapes anymore? Remember video tapes?)

One thing that I'm not sure works in the Moleskine format is the border. At least not all the way around the spread. I found it a bit claustrophobic when I actually started to write. And I didn't do the letter the way Teesha does because while I love her work, I just know that style won't work for me. I really really suck at lettering. Once I did a science project where I lettered the whole display - disaster. Or maybe it was the fuzzy pictures of mold. Way before digital cameras. Or wide access to computers and printers. Thus, hand lettered. All of my spring break was spent on that.

I digress!

The other thing that I did a bit different that I thought I'd mention is the face - I found it in the deviant art stock image section - here. Then I printed it out. Deviant Art has some great stock images that are free to use. Just be sure to check the usage terms. You can use them for personal use very easily, but if you put them on the web, most people prefer a link back. (And some have different rules for usage outside the Deviant Art website.) And if you want to publish something, check the rules. But I generally prefer these to magazine face images because they aren't so "pretty" and they are put out there for other people to use. Not that I'm knocking people who use magazine images in their work, just offering another option.

I have a few more Teesha inspired pages I need to finish and one that is too personal to post.

Be sure to check out the videos and also Teesha's blog

Time Flies

Oh my gosh, have I really not updated this since January? January!!! Seriously, I'm not sure how I let nearly half a year slip by without blogging here at all.

Well, I have some idea . . . here's the list:

• work - my free non-child time has been eaten alive by my work since . . . well, January. I've had deadline after deadline and no time to breathe. I'm also really burnt out now. So I'm taking a break in July, hopefully. If I get my work wrapped up enough in June.
• Kavya, my kiddo - toddlers are soooo much fun and they have so much energy! She has been on a nap strike lately too. She says "Not sleep time, time to wake up. My eyes are open!" Of course, after several days of this, then she falls asleep sitting in my lap at 5pm. She's never been the kind of sleeper to sleep anywhere, so for her to just fall asleep while sitting in my lap, wow, she's tired. But naps are a battle, nighttime is a battle. And day time is just filled with ENERGY. But the reduction of afternoon naps means my work gets pushed to the evenings, which is when I used to art journal.
• sickness - we've had a huge variety of colds and the flu. I blame daycare - she goes 3 days a week in the mornings, during which time I work. But yep, she also brings home germs. I catch more of them than she does, despite hand washing all the time.

My apologies to any readers of this blog that are still around! I will try to be here more in the future, but I think I said that in January *cough cough*

I did still time to find art journal in the past few months, just no time to scan and share.

Today Kavya and I did art, she painted while I cut and pasted a bit in my journal. I didn't get much done because I spent more time giving her the water bucket, the towel, more paint. She LOVES to paint. Today tho she watched me work in my Moleskine journal and declared she wanted one. "Own journal?" She asked. I have a spare Moleskine so I think I will just let her use it. I suspect it will be filled up in about two minutes because she goes so fast. It's mesmerizing to watch her draw tho. She's into circles right now, which is beautiful.

Faces

So like I said, I've been obsessed with faces. I finally got some of them in my journal and integrated into it (kinda). The face on this page is done with graphite pencil. My sister told me that one of the tricks to getting graphite to look 'real' is to go DARK. She was right, it really helps the features pop. Then I went over this with watercolors. I'm pleased with the nose on this one. Noses are so hard because they are protrusion from the face, so capturing that in 2d is hard. Anyway, I went over the collage bits with some Pan Pastels (given to me by the same sister with the drawing advice). I read about the Pan Pastels on Teesha Moore's blog and have wanted to try them for a while now.

This page was actually a disaster collage that kiddo wrote over in permanent marker and I thought it would add to it, but instead it just kept descending into muck. So I tore out most of the collage and collage over it. The face is an attempt to do non-white-girl-pretty-model faces. I often feel we need more variety in our face drawings in the mixed media world. Another watercolor over graphite, tho I didn't go as dark with the graphite on this one, and I think that is what is making it flatter than the first.

Happy New Years!

Happy New Year to everyone! Hope 2010 is wonderful for you.

You might have noticed I wasn't around much (blog wise) in December. In November, I started taking Suzi Blu's Goddess and Portraits class and I became obsessed with drawing faces. I really enjoyed her class and felt like I was able to take her teaching and really make it my own. So while I was busy drawing faces, my art journal was rather neglected. I realized in December that I didn't have any entries done and I didn't have any place to write! Usually how I work is I finish the art part and then I write my entry. I don't finish pages in a front to back order, I usually skip around so I do the same with my writing. Anyway, now I'm paying attention to my art journal again.

I've set myself some art resolutions for the new year:

- learn more about drawing faces! I'm taking Misty Mawn's portrait class (online too) next. 

- do more art journaling. I had art journal fail from March to July. Not again.

- get rid of art supplies. Argh, this one is hard, but I've been inspired by Rice Freeman-Zachery and her destashing journey which she's documented on her blog. I have a room upstairs that is a dedicated studio . . . filled with stuff I don't use. I mostly work downstairs anymore because it is close to the kiddo when she is sleeping and when she's awake, she'll go upstairs but there is so much up there I have to watch her around that I can't work. Plus frankly it is a mess and I couldn't work up there anyway. This is probably my hardest task for the year. But I'll try to document and share the progress with you. And I'll probably list a few treasures on Etsy and mention those.

A few new art journal pages

Hope everyone in the US had a great Thanksgiving. We did! My whole family was in town so we had a great get together. I'm a bit behind in my art journal and my kiddo and I have a nasty cold. Exciting, I know.

Art Journal - Birds and Butterflies

I'm finding more time to journal now. Kavya is very happy to sit with me while I journal and she colors. Well, the art part of journaling. (Writing would be much harder with the non-stop stream of talking we have and the interruptions, so I continue to write in the bathroom and at night.) She has to sit in my lap sometimes and I will read or will play with her plastic animals, but I do get a bit done. I'm so happy to be able to do this again.

I liked this bird page a lot better before the writing - the negative space was important to the flow. But the point of my journals is also to chronicle my life and Kavya's first years.

Art Journal - Sunflower

This is one of those "lots of layers" pages. First attempt at the page I hated, so I covered it with a pretty wrapping paper and scrapbook paper. Then gessoed over that. Then I tried Teesha Moore's method of cutting out letters from magazines to spell something, and that just didn't look right to me. So I pasted this transparency of a sunflower over it and somehow that worked.

I am still sorting through the India pics, will be posting more soon.

Art Journal - Houses

Created this little sketch page purposely ignoring my high school art teacher's futile lessons in perspective. I just wanted to make it be crazy.

I have such a hard time creating this summer. Meh, need to get back into the grooooove.

Summer Heat & Morbid Art

I really like this page - but I know people have this thing about skeletons. They see them as really morbid. And I get that, there is definitely an imagery link between death and skeletons/skulls. But I find them fascinating. Our bones are crucial to so much of our daily lives. They go everywhere with us. Yes, they represent death, but to me they also represent life and the circle of life. This was a lot deeper in my head before I started to type.

Maybe it's the heat. We are in the midst of our summer heat wave. We get one every summer, sometimes it is worse than others. I always try to remember that come winter time, I'll be wishing for 100 degree heat waves. But it never works, I always whine and complain.

But other than ridiculous heat, I love the summer. Hello BERRIES! Hello all sorts of fruit that I love! Time to make ice cream! And sharing it all with a toddler is a lot of fun too. Even when I went berry picking alone with her and she eventually refused to walk and I had to carry her and the berries, it is fun. (Next time I'm taking a wagon!)