Curious Goods Onionskin Journal, part 1

Over Christmas holidays I received a gift from one of my best friends Annelyn of Curious Goods. She's been making handmade journals since we were both frustrated art kids in academic school, and her latest experiment is the onionskin journal.

Onionskin paper was used for creating multiple typed documents with carbon paper, or for writing letters to send via airmail. It was even used in animation: "onionskinning" is the process of flipping sheets of animation roughs to check the smooth transitions between drawings. 

It's light, translucent, and sturdy, able to take even fountain pen ink without bleeding. Because of that, it's the ideal material for an art journal.

I can draw, write, paste, layer, and otherwise play with this journal as much as I want. I can fill the blank pages to the edge with scraps, sketches, and my thoughts.

I've even worked on it during an international flight!

My habit of writing backwards seems to suit this journal. Two columns of text suit the wider format, making it look more like a book. 

The backwards writing turns the words into just another design element, a textured background against the collage and drawings. Also, writing backwards makes me feel like everyone's ideal diarist and art hero, Leonardo da Vinci.

I love adding little movable elements like flaps of paper with illustrations or stickers underneath.

My collection of inks, fountain pens, stamps, stickers and washi tape is also put to good use. In fact, I printed out some of my own art on sticker paper to use in this journal.

As they fill up, the pages wear and wrinkle and gain weight. Flipping through the journal is a sensory joy, listening to the crinkle and savouring the feel of the paper.

I loved the journal so much I ordered some more. I'm looking forward to filling up these one hundred and ninety-two pages with my art, and many pages after that!

more journal pages

Fairest.
Gold Liquitex acrylic, Copic Fineliner, Sharpies, rub-on letters, collage.

Winter Boots.
Liquitex acrylic in Cobalt Blue, Titanium White and Cadmium Yellow Deep Hue,
silver Uni-Ball Signo gel pen, collage.

Handmade paper journal by Phasha. Here's a cool blog post on the journal company.

Collage journal: Smile!

This is for my friends who are seriously considering making t-shirts that say 'THIS -IS- MY HAPPY FACE'. No one owns your face or your feelings except you, and I love you whatever mood you're in.

drive by sketches, 1

So I haven't posted for a month. This doesn't mean I haven't been drawing, just that I haven't been drawing for myself. I was getting a little frustrated, being busy with the new job and one or two projects that aren't going quite the way I wanted them to. And then I found this:

An Illustrated Journey: Inspiration from the Private Art Journals of Traveling Artists, Illustrators and Designers. This is a sequel to An Illustrated Life, a book of artists' journals, and I really wanted that...before I saw this.

I borrowed the book and have been reading through it the way I usually don't with these books. When I own them, I reach for them casually, flipping around pages, browsing and stopping wherever I want, hunting out favourite artists and ignoring others. I am going through this one like a proper book, reading from beginning to end, discovering artists and styles one by one.

I love travel journals and always wanted to do one, but have never had the time while I was travelling. Italy, Singapore, New York, all failures; I was enjoying myself too much rushing around to sit in one space and patiently commit it to memory. Looking at this set something loose in my resolve; I am now living in one of the most beautiful and famous cities in the world and not drawing any piece of it. In the end the frustration was too much. If the only travelling I do now is on my bus ride, then I will draw my bus ride.

So here it is: day 1 of the Drive By sketches. Begun on my best friend's birthday! Copic .01 micro liner in a Scout Books pocket notebook with a lemur on the cover, by artist Meg Hunt. I'll scan it for the next post.

Altered States

In a stunning reversal of previous practice, I've actually been doing a lot of work lately without posting.

Stay tuned for:

• more of the Sketchbook Project (which has already been sent off to Brooklyn)
• pen scratchings and painting updates
• more Jonsi Project scans
• text-only updates on the Big Book Project which I should be done with in April but isn't scheduled to come out until around September. Oh my God, a real published book all to myself!

In the meantime, I am still doing the altered book art journal, which you may remember from these posts: (first spreads; single pages). Here are some better scans, as well as new(ish) pages:

altered book pages

a.k.a. more things I have been doing lately.


Mermaids Mean Love


Vanitas. The dark squares are real mirrors so you can see bits of yourself when you look in the book. The quote at the bottom right says '...Man, know Thyself.'