Go to Your Studio and Make Stuff

One A Day collage: "Phone 3211"  9x12 sketch

Last month I taught a class called The Creative Process and during that class I stressed the value of a daily practice. That's why I started this blog, One A Day, about five years ago. I committed to make a small collage every day as a way of entering the studio, a warm-up practice. And I did just that for a long time but then gradually blogging daily crept off my radar until lately I've been mostly absent from this blog.

It isn't intentional. I haven't given up making things. It's just that my interest shifted and writing didn't serve me as well.  I've been giving that some thought, and I'm anxious to hold myself accountable to my loyal readers, so here I am again, telling you that I intend to be more regular with my online musings.

GO TO YOUR STUDIO AND MAKE STUFF

One thing I talked about with my students was the value of setting up some sort of "entering the studio" practice. It could be anything they choose to do that fits easily into their life: sketching, sorting paper, moving paint on paper, small collages, journaling.  The purpose is to get the creative juices flowing. No pianist enters the concert hall without warming up. No pitcher steps onto the mound without throwing lots of balls on the sidelines. I can't expect to make a good drawing without first making some marks on paper to limber up my fingers, wrist, elbow and shoulder and get my right brain involved in making stuff.

Since I work primarily in collage it makes sense to work with my materials and tools a bit before I tackle the serious work. I believe that any artist worth the name will keep some sort of sketchbook so that's what I do. I have lots of sketchbooks, some for drawing, some for journaling about what goes on in my studio, but for my collage warmups I work in one primary sketchbook, a 9x12 Canson XL Mix Media spiral bound book. It accepts acrylic, watercolor, glue, and ink without buckling and it's not expensive so I'm not scared of making ugly mistakes. Collage is forgiving. If the work is really ugly I simply gesso over it or add another layer of paper and no one's the wiser.

I'll follow the example of one of my teachers, Joan Schulz, who dedicates a small area of her studio to her first-thing collage making, small postcards.  In my First-Thing area is my sketchbook, a glue stick, a small box of colorful paper bits, and a pair of scissors.  I set my timer for 15 minutes and get to work.

What's your warm-up practice? How do its benefits show up in your work? I've love to have you tell other readers what you do to get going when you enter your studio. Simply click on Comment below and share your experience, please.

Jo

Sketches of Cannon Beach

 

A few months ago I started a dedicated sketchbook of buildings in the coastal town of Cannon Beach, Oregon where we spend lots of time. I've made a habit of going in to town early in the morning so I can draw buildings before the streets fill with tourists cars. When I get out later in the day I wander the back streets of this lovely town and draw houses like this one. 

One of the features that makes this town so lovely is the amazing profusion of flowers. There are planters and pots everywhere and most of the year something is in bloom. I like to draw flowers, so adding flowers to each page satisfies that desire and creates continuity through the book. It's a 5 x 8" Moleskine sketchbook. I'm not enjoying the paper, so once this is filled I'll change to something else. I'm halfway through the book.

One day the town was so crowded that my friends and I drove south to Arch Cape and walked to the creek at the south end of the beach. The sand doesn't stand a chance against the constant flow of the creek which eats away at the sand, creating the most interesting patterns. I stood at the edge and drew the edge of the sand as it crumbles into the water, and then tried to capture the water as it rushed over and around the rounded rocks.  Taking the time to really LOOK at what was happening here has glued the memory firmly in my mind. I remember the feel of the soft breeze, the roar of the waves just a short distance away, the heat of the sun on my shoulders, and the occasional call of the seagulls.

Today I'm gearing up for my Open Studio which will be Saturday and Sunday, October 4 and 5. If you're near Portland, OR you're invited to stop by between 11 and 5 either day. I'll have work for sale and you might catch a demonstration of my collage process. My sketchbooks and studio journals will be available for you to hold and page through, if you wish. Do come!

Drawing stuffed birds and old dolls, Sketchbook Skool assignments

Dolly

 I had lots of errands today, not much time to draw, and no compelling subject until I remembered my doll. My grown daughter thinks this doll is scary and won't even look at it, but then she never was one to like playing with dolls. I loved my dolls and cherished the few I owned. I only kept one, though, and only because of the dress she wore, one I made when I was nine... to match my sundress.

Golden Eagle

I had a wonderful time yesterday, drawing birds at our local Audubon Society where there are lots of stuffed animals who patiently posed as I took my time trying to nail the shapes and values. I also tried my hand at drawing live birds at the feeder and one perched on an attendants' hand.

Lisa

 Another day I drew Lisa as she was giving me a pedicure. I wasn't happy with the drawing because it couldn't get the contour of her forehead and nose right, with her head down most of the time and rarely absolutely still. However, she was overjoyed and thanked me for drawing her. One never knows how something simple will touch another person.


When I started this blog its purpose was personal, to keep a record of the art I create each day. Somehow I lost my way and stopped keeping the daily record. I want to start again. While I don't complete a piece of art every day I usually do something creative whether it's painting paper, playing with my gelli plate, taking photographs, gardening,sewing, or even canning. I intend to do a better job of reporting this daily activity by sharing it here on my blog in hopes that what I do matters to someone else, too.

Haystack Rock and other recent collages

Haystack Rock

Haystack Rock is located off shore of the seaside village of Cannon Beach in NW Oregon. The groupings of rock which commands the attention of visitors is quite accessible at low tide and is a popular attraction for children and their parents who love exploring the tide pools at its base. 

Our family spends lots of time in this lovely spot and images of Haystack fill my photo files. It seemed appropriate to see how I might build a collage that incorporates my photos and uses some of my painted papers. The collage is 9 x 12".

Brother Oak

Brother Oak, 9x12, features my photo of an oak tree that grows alongside a small family cemetery on a hillside outside Magazine, Arkansas. The wintertime photo was a rather blah wintertime photo so I 'colorized' it with a wash of blue and added some green to the grass.

I continue drawing in my sketchbook, motivated by the excellent teachers of the first semester of Sketchbook Skool. It has the result of encouraging me to draw every day, sometimes with tools such as colored pencils that are uncomfortable to me. I'd rather slop around paint than sit tediously layering color with pencils. But I intend to try it all and see what I can add to my skill set, and hope in the process to develop better hand-eye coordination and ability to draw what I see.  Here's today's drawing: 

Morning Coffee

Sketchbook Skool

I've enrolled in an online workshop series called Sketchbook Skool which was founded by Danny Gregory and Koosje Koene. So far it's great. I hesitated until the day it went online, thinking I didn't really need another drawing class, but I relented when I realized I could use the motivation, the encouragement to draw daily. I've been slacking off on my drawing, so much so that when I pick up a pen to draw it's a real challenge. I want drawing to be easier and I know that with daily practice it gets easier and easier to record what I see more accurately.

My interest is not on being able to draw photorealistically, but to be able to get my lines more or less reasonably placed and to include my emotion about the subject in a drawing. Sometimes I can do it but I'm not consistent. We'll see what comes.

So far I find the first class, taught by Danny Gregory, to be first rate. Danny's the one who got me drawing in the first place with his excellent first book, Everyday Matters, so I know I have nothing to lose by enrolling in his school. There will be other teachers in this six week long session: Roz Stendahl, Koosje Koene, Tommy Kane, Jane LaFazio, and Prashant Miranda, and others in the next sessions.  If you're interested it's not too late to join. Click HERE to learn more.

Here are my first two drawings:

Moleskine Reloaded

by Jo Reimer

Years ago I started carrying a small Moleskine Sketchbook in my handbag and used it to capture thoughts and sketches. At only 3.5" x 5.5" it fits just right in my handbag or jacket pocket. I like the sturdy cover, the built-in pocket inside the back cover and the little strap that marks my place or keeps my book closed. Now that I have a collection started I don't want to carry any other sketchbook.

But there's a problem.

The paper in the Moleskine Sketchbook is a creamy yellow and resists my watercolor paint. I put up with it through the first 3 books but then I ran across a tutorial by Martha, author of the blog, Trumpetvine Travels, called Moleskine Reloaded ...or, How to Rebind a Moleskine Notebook: Make a Custom DIY Sketchbook.

My problem was solved.

For the first one, my Israel Sketchbook, I gutted a full-priced sketchbook and reloaded it with papers of my choosing. I loved the new paper but it made an expensive sketchbook.

Then I got smart.

I found out-dated Moleskine Pocket Diarys online for one-fourth the price and ordered half a dozen so that when I gut the book I feel no guilt at messing up a perfectly good book.

The first step is to cut the book block out of it's cover. The first picture shows a pristine Pocket Diary and another one with the book block removed from its cover.

I use 2 sheets of Fabriano or Arches 90# watercolor paper and tear down the pages as Martha directs.
The papers are folded in half and one slipped into another to form a signature and holes are punched in the spine for the sewing.

Next comes the sewing of the 13 signatures using waxed linen thread.

Lastly I glued the front page to the inside front cover and the back page to the back cover, and let the glue dry.  My new sketchbook is ready to use. It looks just like the original but nicer around the edges. Instead of cutting the paper with machine to produce straight outer edges I tore my paper with my bone folder so that all the edges are deckled. I love the texture and it's so much more interesting.

I reserve the book block from the diary and keep it on my desk to use for notes, lists, reminders, ideas. The print is very faint and doesn't interfere with pen and ink. I've recycled all the bits and pieces of paper that once littered my desk.

When figure out how to make a video with my new Panasonic Lumix I'll show you my latest completed sketchbook.

The Sketchbook Project - Central Oregon

It seems like more than 2 weeks since I last posted and I'm pushing myself to get at least one post written this weekend. This is Central Oregon, high desert country that's surrounded by mountains and topped with blue sky, a land of lakes and rivers, fields of crops, and wildlife of all kinds.  My intention for next week is to finish this Sketchbook Project.

  

My visits with family and old friends was SO good. While in Dallas my cousins and I went to the Dallas Aboretom and were amazed by the unique uses of squash and pumpkins in the Storybook Pumpkin Village. It was an orange colored vacation.

Everywhere I turned there was orange... trees, pumpkins, and the orange shirts of tens of thousands of Oklahoma State Cowboys. It was a blast to go back for homecoming and visit with college friends. We stayed with my friend from long ago and talked a bit of old times but mostly about who we are today.

In Arkansas we ate barbeque at my favorite place and in my home town we went to Pop's Pond and got in some target practice...

                                           

It was nice to see that I can still hit my target with my dad's old 22.

Quick sketch done at the local airport while my brother worked on his Ultralight, the one that broke a wheel off during an unscheduled landing.

And yes, I did do some sketching here and there. But I find it hard to make art when I'm with people; I need solitude to concentrate on drawing and I preferred to talk with those I love rather than mess with art making. I have plenty of time for that but never enough time for faraway family. However, I took lots of photos to remind me of happy times.

Jim entering his shed

Cancellation Stamps

Cancellation Stamp: Petra, Jordan

… about collecting cancellation stamps in my sketchbook... it IS a good idea! I got one of my first cancellation stamps at a post office in France and another in a tiny closet-sized post office in Jordan… and I have many others, even one from my neighborhood PO branch office. Whether I have to pantomime what I want or simply ask in plain English, invariably the person in charge of cancellation stamps grins and willingly complies by stamping in my book alongside my drawing using their cancellation stamp that shows the date of my visit.

I discovered that the US National Parks sell a “Passport” that’s similar to a real passport with spaces in the little book where you collect rubber stamp cancellations or affix pictorial stamps which you can buy in the park visitors center. You don’t buy the rubber stamp; you use the stamp and ink pad that’s available free of charge. Some state parks and local parks have similar stamps.

Cancellation Stamps on paper

Petrified Forest National Park

The Painted Dessert

Historic Route 66

I don’t have a park passport; I collect my stamp in my sketchbook or on a piece of paper that I’ll glue into my book later.

There are 58 national parks in the United States.

Hawaii Art Journal

I had grandeous ideas about journaling every day, every time I had a minute to sit down I'd add a sketch or words or paste in some decorative bit of paper, and every day I'd work with my grandkids and help them build their own journal. Right. Best laid plans for journaling never seem to work out for me. Some of these pages have appeared here in my blog as "starts". I added to a bit to them on location but most have been completed since I got home.
I stripped the airline magazine of interesting words and pictures and culled more from a variety of advertising brochures that I picked up in stores or at the airport. These add interest to my pages but they weren't used except to augment entries about something we actually did or saw.


Our grandson, Lucas, added much of the comic relief to our days but he never did get adjusted to the 3 hours difference in time zones, insisting on getting up before the sun rose.

Since this blog is supposed to be about my art-making I'll tell you a bit about how I created each page and if you have other questions just email me. The fruit page was so simple. I used a commercial scrapbooking paper cut to fit my journal and added the text by hand and the title using a stencil.

Starbucks is another scrapbook paper with photos and stencil. I'm trying to remember to take shadow self-portraits often. It's usually only possible in early morning or late afternoon when the sun is low. The people in the small photo are my daughter and four grandchildren.

This page was spray stenciled at home and I added lots of bits later. The photo is of my son.

This paper was painted and stenciled at home with a bit of fabric and a garment label stapeled to the paper.

I did this watercolor sketch from a photograph.

And this sketch is from a magazine picture. I usually don't use photo references from anyone else but this is an exception.

Prepainted paper with label torn from the ice cream cup and a photo of the trunk of a tree.

This page was created at home using fabric, paper and my sewing machine, and the writing that can't be read was done on my anniversary when my husband got sick and we had to cancel our celebration plans. I was a little upset but more for him than for me. He so wanted to give me a day to remember and he couldn't help getting sick. We'll both remember this day for several reasons. It really was a wonderful day from the beautiful sunrise to its quiet end. Our precious son-in-law cooked a gourmet breakfast for everyone, we enjoyed time with all our family, and we had some time away in a beautiful place. And when we returned to our house we had peace and quiet to rest and dream and pray. It really doesn't get any better than that. And I didn't have to cook a single meal all day.

I intended for us to recite our vows for our family and at breakfast I started talking about our wedding day. I described the pink suit i made and wore for going away, with its matching hat, white shoes and gloves, and how we stopped for dinner at a chicken restaurant, and wondered how the owner knew that we were just married. But I didn't get much farther than describing the place we stayed before I got all teary with nostalgea and couldn't go on and pull off the recitation of vows. But we do still love and cherish one another through bad times and good and we'll still be together when one of us dies.

This is the view from our lanai, a watercolor done one afternoon while we were enjoying pupus and drinks. Everyone was fascinated, watching me capture what I saw, and I drew a couple of ooohs and aaahhs when I painted the sky. Some people are so easily entertained!

This is a stencil I cut from a photo of my youngest granddaughter, Sarah. She's such a sweetie, full of energy and fun and ideas for what to do next. All the kids are waterbabies and strong swimmers so they all took to snorkeling very quickly, and even had a Snuba lesson... diving with an instructor and their father floating above ready to come to their rescue. He's a certified diver.

Rick rack makes excellent waves aboue a colorful fabric ocean, don't you think?

This was my planning page. I added a couple of plastic slide holders to the page and inserted a luggage tag and my boarding pass as well as a bougainvillea flower petal. And I made lists of things I wanted to do.







That's it. I have a few blank pages of watercolor paper and will do a few more sketches in the book but it's essentially finished and I'm ready to move on.

Travel Journal - Hawaii 2001

Going through an old sketchbook that I took to Kauai in 2001 I found a few sketches that I want to share with you, not because they are so good but because I want to encourage you to draw, draw everywhere you go, adding practice hours upon practice, just like learning to play an instrument. The more you do the better you get.
These 5 drawings are the best of what's in the book and no, I'm not planning to show you the other 20+ ugly drawings, but I am encouraged that I do more good drawings now than I did then. Practice makes perfect. This one is my favorite since I collaged the flowers on top of a long dark wall that wasn't working.


The lettering is a rubbing of something I spotted on a building.
I wanted to preserve the beautiful seashells we had gathered so I arranged them on the table and carefully drew them to the best of my ability.





This was part of the view from our lanai, severely edited to remove most buildings and plants between me and this house.



Another view from the lanai in early morning.


Hibiscus are difficult to draw but I aim to get lots more practice. We're returning to Kauai later this month with our family to celebrate 50 years of marraige.

I got out this old sketchbook today because my daughter and her 3 oldest are coming over Saturday to make travel journals. They all like to draw and collage and I'm doing all I can to encourage them. We'll choose some colorful papers, some watercolor paper, some plain but sturdy cardstock, and then bind them into journals with plans for keeping us entertained on the 5 hour flight and during daily quiet hours. This older sketchbook of mine has brought back such pleasant memories and I'm hoping that making and using their very own travel art journals will will help them remember when they helped their grandparents celebrate a very special time.

Barron Storey

Life After Black: The Visual Journals of Barron Storey, an exhibit of his journals is currently on view at the Museum of American Illustration in NYC, through the end of July. How I wish I could see these books in person; I'm amazed that they are displayed in such a way as to allow viewers to actually browse through them! I was in the right place at the right time to buy one of the 1000 copies of Barron Storey: The Marat/Sade Journals... in 1993 when it was first published, and I've spent hours pouring over his intricate drawings and varied handwritten text. In the video above you can get an idea about what one person can do with a blank book when he puts his mind to it. If you're interested in knowing more do a search on his name.

Red Clover Landscape Sketches

About this time every spring many of the fields in the valley west of town turn bright red with the blossoms of red clover which is grown for seed. Most of the fields are pure clover with few weeds, just acres and acres of red blossoms with bright green clover leaves hidden underneath. I spent part of Memorial Day alone at the edge of one such field, taking photos and making some color sketches in my journal, doing enough of the work of looking closely so that some day soon the clover will appear in a painting or two.

The sketch on the left is a color field study, supposedly showing the bands of color as I saw them but I didn't nail the values. In landscape painting the sky is the lightest color... #1, the ground is the second lightest...#2 because it reflects the light from the sky. Hills are darker, being on a slant and relecting some light but not as much as the ground, and the trees are the darkest dark...#4, because they don't reflect light except where the sun hits one side in early morning and late afternoon. Can you see that I got it right in the landscape sketch but not in the color field study? Now I'm on a mission to do my best to paint landscapes in only 4 values until I can do it in my sleep.

This last drawing is full of nostalgia. On the way home I drove out Kaiser Road and stopped at the cemetary that's at the corner of the acreage where we used to live. My children waited for the school bus near these 4 big old trees that stand guard over the cemetary where there's a headstone that states that Charles and Catherine Reimer rest here. Now they are no kin of ours, even though we share the same last name, but when we bought the property we sort of adopted this couple even though he died in 1917, the year my father entered the navy in WWI, and she died in 1944 while we were fighting WWII.

And finally, let me introduce you to "Wilson", a brush that John Lovett gave me. It's an ordinary cheapo throwaway brush from the hardware store, an Australian one (though you can find a similar one in your local hardware store for 79 cents). Wilson is great for lots of things, including fields of red clover, grass, and tree leaves.