Lynn Fisher - Write Where I Am

Watercolor Mono-print Journal Pages...sort of

This technique is a great way to add color to your journal pages. Later, you can add your own writing, photographs, or collages...really, whatever you like. I call it watercolor mono-prints. It is similar to a watercolor technique that I shared before, but with one difference: you transfer the paint from one page to another via plastic wrap.

It's pretty simple: You are going to paint two pages with any water-based medium (watercolor, acrylic ink, etc.) as long as it is fluid. Paint one page (we'll call it the light colored page) one solid light color. Let this page dry while you make magic with the second "dark" colored page.

For your "dark" page, paint the entire page with one two or even three colors (don't go too crazy the first time or you'll have mud...unless you LIKE that). Working quickly, cover this entire page with plastic wrap...let dry a little.

Let the dark page dry...take the plastic wrap off the first page and while there is still a little paint soup on the wrap, plop that on top of the light page you painted first.

Encourage the transference of color by rubbing the wrap until you think it has all transfered. When it's dry, remove the wrap and let both pages sit open over night. You can write on them in the morning.

Once you get really good at this, you can do lots of pages at one sitting. I love having beautiful pages to wake up to.

Have fun with this.

I hope you're enjoying the bounty of fall!

...more stencils, finished projects...and brainstorming

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Ican't let go of this great silhouette project. It has become an addiction that is lots of messy, quick, fun. Also, the acrylic ink drys so fast that you can start writing almost immediately. I love it!

 So, how do you like the new design? I've been itching to get in here and do something different, the season is changing and I want to show my fall colors. Here they are, JUMP FOR JOY!  The first silhouette is, in fact, a women jumping...I hope, for joy. In the second stencil attempt however....she lost her arm in an inking accident, but she is still, none-the-less, joyful. Well good for her. I wish I was as resilient...something I'm working on.

Besides being a season of change, it is a very busy time. I have been lucky enough to have some opportunities to write professionally. One project is an Art Journaling kit for the Faber-Castell company that will come out in the early 2010. I just finished putting all the photos and stories on a disk and sending them...another reason to jump for joy. As fun as it was to do, it also feels great to be done...and well ahead of time too. I love that!

In my last post I mentioned that I was participating in the November National Novel Writing Month, or NaNoWriMo. I am STOKED for this thing! A couple of friends and I are getting together to cheer each other on...and lest you think that it's just WAY to early for that....no, it's not! There are books to read, stuff to clean (my desk for one), posts to sort of pre-write, a calendar to rearrange, and lots and lots of subject brainstorming to do. I've started with the brainstorming (yes, I hate to clean), pages and pages of possible story content, a plot here, a character there...moo, moo, moo.  So, I'm getting ready...are you NaNoWri Mo-ing! 

Fall, and Other Excitement

Fall brings so many great things; writing contests, friendly get-togethers, new publications, wonderful weather and art shows. I'm pretty excited about two of these things already! First, my friend Sue Seeger; metal sculptor and writer, has her very own show in Hudson, Wisconsin in two weeks. If you live anywhere near the area it is very much worth the drive. Here's a little more info below and also be sure to check out her Art Blog. Click the linky thingy! 

 

 

As far as journaling goes, I had a chance to get the very latest addition of Art Journaling Magazine and was WOWed by artist Dina Wakley's Pages. She combines stenciling (which she refers to as silhouettes) with paint and

sewing...pretty amazing...so of course I tried my hand at it (minus the sewing...I can't get my huge journal in my sewing machine, try as I might!) 

Instead, I sponged acrylic ink over a stencil that was applied over a square water-colored center. It worked very well except for the constant curling of the magazine stencil. I found that the more that you put ink on it, however, the less it will curl.

The second one I attempted, I was a little bolder with the color, and then broke out my brand new dip pen. I'm finding that I like the look and feel of the dip pens with FW acrylic inks even though I have always sworn by Uni-ball Signo gel pens for all these years. The look of the script can be as fine or bold as you like depending on the pen tip that you buy.

I love it...not only can I use it in white, I now have a whole arsenal of pen colors to play with. I have loads of FW inks!

I'm also getting ready for the big NANOWRIMO. In November writers all over the map, gather in small groups to write and otherwise ignore each other. It's sort of funny, I've seen NANOWRIMO teams at Dunn Bros downtown, wearing their labeled T-shirts or hoodies, tapping away at their laptops...never looking up or acknowledging each other. What is it about that that makes me giddy with excitement!?

Travel Journaling...Minnesota to Yellowstone, Wyoming

I've just gotten back from a long trip to Yellowstone, Wyoming and thought you might like to see what became of my travel journal.

Most of these pages were done in the back seat of a moving car...that is, when I wasn't driving.  Please forgive the repetition of words, misspellings and iffy sketches. I was only trying to capture the experience, however brief, of running into buffalo along a small remote bridge, seeing the Badlands for the very first time, and feeling my heart in my throat while hearing mud volcano's roar, and feeling eerily small.

Feel free to enlarge the pages and try to read them if you like. I'll let the pages do the talking.

Most pages were done with Pitt pens and watercolor pencils, and others with torn travel brochures...some pages were pre-done with watercolor.

 

 

   

 

  

Home at last.

What a fun trip! I had no idea that North Dakota was so beautiful...well, parts of it anyway....and Yellowstone was amazing, the trip of a lifetime.

Spaces, Shadows and Symbols

A year or two ago I added a post on creating your own symbols for the purpose of journaling. You can read it again here.

I try to keep my personal symbols in mind whether I'm writing or creating art. The symbols stand for something, and that may change from time to time but my feelings toward them usually remains. I find them to be a useful tools in creating journal pages.

What are some symbols that occur over and over again in your journal pages? If you can't think of any, try simplifying parts of photographs or magazine cut-outs by drawing them or cutting them out of unique papers.  

Don't want to draw...get out your camera and run around taking photo of the shadows that objects make. Don't pay too mush attention to the object but more to the shadow it casts and the spaces in between.

Blow the photo up as large as you can on a color copier, then try writing on the photo. Describe the photo in as many words as you can think of or write only in the shapes that interest you.

Write about your experience while taking the photo, where you traveled to take the photo, and how it makes you feel. Beyond the actual photo, describe each shape the shadows make within the shape itself. What do they remind you of...what feelings do they unearth? That should keep you busy.

Stay tuned. In the upcoming months I have a travel journal to share, a new article coming out, a reading at a local art center, and in November I'll be participating in and posting updates on the National Novel Writers Month.