art journal magic

 

The newest issue of Somerset's Art  Journaling magazine showed up here a few weeks ago and made great reading for our weekends of lounging at the beach. So many amazing journalers out there! Old favorites and even more new-to-me ones. I have to say I'm enjoying the renewed interest in visual journaling. I never imagined we'd have our very own magazine, let alone that that magazine would be packed to the gills with the most talented and diverse group of artists. So exciting!!

Two articles that I keep going back to are from Pam Garrison (old favorite) and Dina Wakely (new-to-me favorite). After reading Pam's article on using dip pens, I immediately moved the art supply store to the top of my go-to list and brought back a pen, ink, and a box of nibs. After trying them out at home, I promptly went right back to the store and bought 3 more bottles of ink. Fun, fun, fun! Who would have ever known--or more accurately, how would I have ever known--that I needed to have pages and pages of delicate flowing script in my journals?? (I was about to type 'beautiful flowing script', but I'm not exactly there yet.)

The other artist that knocked my socks off was Dina Wakely, with her playful use of bold silhouettes. Sign. You have to visit her site immediately--go ahead and bookmark it, don't wait--and will probably spend hours there. But, just so you know, her work is well worth the price of the magazine all on its own so pick it up, too. Trust me, you're going to want to hold it in your hand and will probably need to keep the issue by your bed for those moments--and they will come--in the middle of the night when you are suddenly awake and just can't get that image out of your head. You will desperately need to see it one more time! Yeah, she's that good.

In fact, she had me obsessing again over spray inks. I tried out the Ranger Adirondack Color Wash inks years ago and was so disappointed. They have so much potential: good price, yummy palette, super-saturated color, but they are so freakin messy. I just couldn't handle it. I haven't touched them since my scrapbooking days and since falling in love with spray paint, I haven't given them a second thought. But I do love the speckled texture of Dina's pages so I decided to give them one more try.

I want to love them, I really do! But--ugh!--the mess! I put my paper in a deep box and sprayed inside it in a effort to contain the super-fine mist but still it was all over everything almost immediately. But, do try these out for yourself. You may love them, but whatever you do: never spray Ranger Adirondack inks indoors! Mine now have a permanent home outside with the spray paint. I'm just saying.

 

I did have tons of fun pretending to be Dina once I moved the Adirondack ink outside. But for those times when you absolutely must spray indoors, I found some less expensive but less saturated fabric ink spray at the craft store that works great, though you have to use a little more of it to get a really rich color. It's a great compromise to me so I can keep my sanity and still play with spray ink and masks a la Dina!

 

 

I'm not sure what I'll do with my Dina-esque experiments, but I'm sure I'll have them gaudy'd up a la Debra eventually. I do love the simplicity and contrast of the simple shapes and colorful backgrounds, though.

Up next: spray ink on fabric---eeeeekk!!

Comments

[trish]

I MUST get that magazine!! I always mean to try it out, but then I forget until I see a post like this (great post by the way!)......I'm going to make a note of it this time-
have a good weekend
Trish

[Paula Bogdan]

I took a class from Fred Mullett and learned that you can dilute the ranger spray inks and get more "bang for your buck." He gets some empty spray bottles, keeps some of the original color and dilutes the rest to medium and pastel strengths. Lots of fun to play with!

[jessica loughrey]

debra, dina's articles were among my favorites in that issue too, but so were your articles which i can't believe you didn't even mention in this post!! show off a little! congrats!

[Dina]

I loved your articles, too, Debra! And WOW, thanks for the shout out...that means a lot coming from a talented artist such as yourself. It's great to find fellow kindred spirits...hugs.

[Jenny]

Hi - I just ordered this magazine today, for the first time (I don't even DO art journaling... yet!), and found this review when I was searching for a link to show some friends what I'd ordered.

1) I was thrilled to find this review, which makes me even more eager to get my hands on that magazine!
2) I was thrilled to have found this blog, since art journaling, collage art and things like that is the kind of stuff that intrigues me after "ordinary" scrapbooking for 5 years... Wow - this is bound to be a favourite blog!
3) I was thrilled to read the comments here - saying you TOO contributed to the magazine! Now I REALLY need to read it - asap!

;-)

In other words, thanks for a wonderful blog - I look forward to keep reading that, and your article in Art Journaling Magazine! :)