Saturday, August 22, 2015

Artists' Journal Workshop: Personal Favorite Supplies from Cathy Johnson

I am on hold for Cathy Johnson's Artist's Journal Workshop book at the library right now, so I looked more into and found this great page while I'm waiting. She lists all of her favorite supplies for painting and artistic journaling. I'm in love!

I have always liked the idea of using watercolors out and about, but haven't tinkered with the supplies much. Mostly, I get overwhelmed by the idea of getting all the supplies together, making sure I had everything, and then "setting out" to find the right place. By then, it's a big thing in my head, and the thought of going out and doing it sounds like a whole lot of work, and maybe it would be easier to stay in and take a nap? No more! (Well, not no more napping, naps are good, too.) With these little tools, it would be easy to keep supplies in my car, and use inspiration as it comes to me. Or throw them in a tote bag when I may have down time, and just go from there. True artistic journaling.




Seriously? Here she uses a recycled Altoids tin with little trays of color, a tiny spritzer with water, and a tiny pencil and pen. Genius! She stuffs some good watercolor paper into a notebook skin and she's good to go! TWO THINGS to carry that can fit in your purse.



This is a little more like me. I might need more colors than an Altoids box affords. Luckily, I have a little tray of paints from when I was very young that words perfectly for this.

And lastly:



A little spray bottle that she uses to wet the paints in her tins, to add texture, etc., and she has a nesting cup that fits on top, too!

Go to her website below for more great stuff, it's fantastic! And if you haven't checked out her book yet, find that, as well:

Find it here

Please see Cathy's post, here:

Artists' Journal Workshop: Personal Favorite Supplies: What Journaling Supplies Work for YOU? We all like to see what other artists enjoy using in their journals; I started our with jus...

Monday, August 3, 2015

"Dog Days of Summer" Library Display

Thought I'd bring out one of my displays of August past by showing you...

Relax in the Dog Days of Summer - August 2013

I really had fun with this one. It's very simple. I found an image of a dog laying in the grass like this and wanted to basically make a display out of it. I had a volunteer cut out my little grassy pieces and pick out the letters. I drew the dog because the picture I had couldn't be blown up without a lot of pixellation. Add in a ton of books of all ages featuring dogs - and Dog Days of Summer came to life.


See more displays like this here.