Month: June 2019

World Watercolor Month: July 2019

Communities sometime just happen, and sometimes it takes the vision of an individual to make the community happen. 

In this case, Charlie O’Shields has done both.  He created Doodlewash, and from there, he has created World Watercolor Month.

This year I am going to try to do a painting every day in July for World Watercolor Month.  In the past few weeks I’ve fallen off as I have veered into ink making and indigo dyeing.  Now, time to return to a good daily habit.  I think daily artwork is like brushing your teeth every day – it makes for a more pleasant start to the day!

I did Inktober for most of the month of October 2018, and it was a wonderful process, and in doing it I learned so much.  Pen and ink is black and white and World Watercolor is with colors, in the form of gouache or watercolor – or probably any other water-based medium.  I expect I will learn a lot by being focused on this as well.  Because I am attempting to learn gouache and improve my poor watercolor skills, maybe I will alternate medium daily – like odds for gouache and evens for watercolor.  What do you think?

Use the hashtag #WorldWatercolorMonth to draw people to your work if you participate.

A Little Bit of Chaos

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This afternoon was fun!  A meetup up group met at a local brewhouse, art supplies and toys in hand, to do some art journaling.  I’ve never done any.  When I think of art journaling, Frieda Kahlo comes to mind – her journals are filled with words and pictures that swirl around and create a lively chaos of their own.  Not reading Spanish, I have no idea what they say – but words are not always necessary.

What does one use in art journaling?  It seems anything you want.  It’s a self-expressive medium.  So, I took a piece of tape and put it across the bottom of the page – you can see where it is.  Houses, baloons, a Ferris wheel.  From there, I added my own.  Is there any meaning?  Mayhap – no idea!  I can tell you that the tiny buildings made me want to create some disproportionately large things . . . and for some reason, the serpent showed up with his apple, alongside a few hands, a dead chicken, a mouse, and who knows what else.

It’s just fun to play!

Documentation

Over the past week, I have been fermenting iron gall ink. Today I decanted the mixture, and here is my first attempt using it. I used a quill pen I cut from a turkey feather, and a dip pen using a flex nib. The paper is a Clairefontaine notebook with very smooth paper.

I am documenting this historical moment with some documentation . . .