Happy New Year arty friends!

Technology doesn't seem to want to work with me lately but looks like I can upload pics again to my blog and fingers crossed the problems with our work website will be resolved soon!

Quote from today's journal page:

"Currently at Eastern Beach, an incredibly stunning day. I don't think the sky could be bluer or the sun brighter."

This weather has been amazing. I love that I get to record it all in my journal. While laying about on the beach I did a wee watercolour of a broken shell in front of me. Bliss.

And on my desk tonight I'm working on a class that I hope to sneak in at NZ Scrapbook before my trip away next week. This is a Product Preview event by the way - so uses all new product from 7Gypsies. Boy I am digging the tray! Stay tuned for more info on that event.


So many things on my mind for 2010. Lots of hopes and personal goals as usual. 2009's focus was travel and happily that is overlapping into 2010. I find having an intention/focus really helps me stay on track with where I want to be. That's not to say I don't wander from time to time but it does help me regroup when needed. 2010 is art. So many of my art goals are unrealised, recent times some of the art I love to do has been pushed aside by other things. Having art as a focus for the year for me doesn't mean pushing it as a top priority but instead being conscious of making time to create, learn, experiment and record.

Exciting art includes sketching more (pure joy!), journal art (lurrrve), art while I travel (which I do anyways but yum!), art with my kids (both spend a lot of time creating so good to do together), art supports my business (I get to teach more), art to give away (I love making personalised gifts/cards for my friends) .. even just organizing my studio is fun. I have bigger art goals too but more on that at another time :)


If you haven't set a focus for the year I would whole heart-idly recommend it. 2009's travel year included: lots of short trips within New Zealand - Thames, Coromandle, Taupo, Rotorua, Waihi and Wellington, trip to Melbourne and 5 1/2 weeks in San Fransisco, Florida, England, Scotland and Wales! Next week is 3 1/2 weeks - San Fransisco, Arizona, Vegas, LA and Chicago. The focus carries over ... I hope to add Melbourne, Bali, Adeliade and New York also for 2010... how will I pay for this all? Perhaps by doing lots of art!


Create your life :)

Labels: Art, Create-your-life, Goal-setting, Great Places International, Journal-Pages, Sketching

On my computer this week...

Twitter. Ok so I'm behind on this, in my defense John Campbell (@JohnJCampbell) joined a week after me... so if your a newbie like me, the gist with Twitter it it allows you to answer the question: What are you doing?
Is it voyaristic? a little. I admit to looking up various celebrities on Twitter and adding them to my follow list. (Check out Demi Moore @mrskutcher, William Shatner @WilliamShatner, Fran Drescher @frandrescher , Martha Stewart @MarthaStewart just some of the many).

Oh no! My stunt double waxed his chest. Oh good god nooooo! Brb I'm in the middle of a debate as to how to avoid doing the same.
~ Twitter comment from Ashton Kutcher (@asplusk) Set pics post-wax here

Self appraising? a bit - yes, you will hear when I buy new shoes.
Informative, fast, promotional, social? Definitely. In my two weeks on Twitter I have had conversations with new people, gone to a country music night I never would have known about, learnt a bit more about why the recession is happening, read about marketing, considered ideas for improving my blog, tried a new recipe (knocked my socks off!)... oh and heard what Danice (@daniceh) had for lunch. All worthwhile!! hehee. Current wish list is this amazing dinner at Sky City (as twittered about by @SKYCITYAk ) - wouldn't that be cool to go to?!

Artywise I can check out the latest sketches found by Michael Nobbs (@michaelnobbs), get new inspiration from one of my fav publishers Stampington (@stampington) and say hi to the author of Book of Me Angie Pederson (@AngiePederson) .



Dispatches from the Island. The celebrity theme pops up again. I like the tv show Lost. The story line it a bit unresolved (which is the whole point) and while I should probably give up watching it but when you have watched something from the beginning... well I keep on watching. What I REALLY like though is Jorge Garcia's (Hurley from the show) Blog. He is funny and down to earth. Perhaps a lot down to earth since the last few blog posts have featured moldy food, blocked loos and toilet paper coupons.


Sketch of the Day is the Blog of illustrator Stephen Gardner. He posts a new sketch daily with reoccurring themes of bars, nudes and sleeping subway dudes. My favourites are his bar sketches. He manages to really capture the mood of a bar, especially ones with dramatic lighting. I love his use of colour and free sketching style - like these: here, here and here.


Urban Sketchers is another rich source of sketching inspiration. The blog theme is Urban Life, so you will find lots of sketches of people working, in transit, in cafes, in seminars, in meetings, at the hairdressers. Add to that....lots of buildings, construction, film sets, market places. Subways feature strongly, lots of vehicles, museums, statues, stadiums, inner city parks, buskers, theater performances, peoples restaurant meals, park birds, hotel receptions, churches, factories... honestly the list goes on and on. Fantastic!

Three things I love about Urban Sketchers

1. The blog is contributed by many people so there is a very diverse range of sketching styles to see. All in one Blog.
2. Contributors are from all around the globe. Johannesburg, Seoul, Rome, Japan, New York, South America, London and more. So you get to see a snippet of each unique locations urban life. Very interesting.
3. There is always something new. With lots and lots of contributors this Blog is constantly being updated. Fresh sketches every day!

Roz Wound Up. More with the sketching... This blog is FULL of content. In fact some is too in depth for my usual brain wary state of night time internet reading. But assuming you brain is better tuned than mine Roz does a great job at testing out different sketching tools and papers, providing colour swatches and really knows her stuff. I particularly like her current entries on journaling superstitions - talking frankly about obstacles we put up in our mind on what we think a journal page should be like. I like her statement in a recent post:

"Creativity does not believe in scarcity. Creativity doesn’t believe in “perfect pages.” Creativity has only one great need: to make more stuff."

So true.
She has a great sketching style and is very thorough in her explanations which I appreciate.
oooh an she updates her Blog pretty much everyday so again there is always something new there to learn or spark an idea.


I keep popping back to this blog:
Xsparkage. Its the colour that does it, plus in her videos and twitter she is quite personable. I enjoy the flash backs to my make-up artist days and reminds me its ok to be make-up daring if I want to be. By the way check out THIS amazing pic of Hawaii she used as make-up inspiration. Beautiful pic and interpretation!


Finally music wise... Shihad! I likey.






So that's what has been on my computer this week... what's on yours?

~ Kathleen

Labels: Music, Net-Picks, Sketching

Hi all,
There is so much happening in Auckland at the moment. Its like the last available month of decent weather has multiple activities all over town available to the willing.

Last week I went to ZooMusic. I'm a bit of a fan of Pluto (this won't be the last you hear me mention them...lol) and they were the featured band along with Mint Chicks. So I decided to turn the experience into a bit of an excursion. Turned up at the Zoo a bit early and set about taking photos and doing some sketches.

Sketching animals is super fun! I am going to buy myself a years Friends of the Zoo pass so I can go whenever I like and practice. I would have liked to have finished sketching the elephant, except when a elephant walks away there is no convincing him otherwise ;) What to do? Sketch of his backside as he walks away!


In the examples from my book, the Rhino is essentially a large rectangle with a smaller rectangle on a 45degree angle (the head).
The flamingos are ovals - or even better, eggs. Eggs are dimensional rather than flat so seeing them that way makes it easier to show their form with shadow and highlight.
The elephant, a combination of rectangles and squares. Even his backside is a square with the corners chopped off.

Try it, it's easier than you think!


This journal spread:
Left side - Pre-washed background, animals sketches, photos and notes, piece of bark tied to the page.
Center insert - Zoo Music advertising eyeleted and attached to the spine.
Right side - Pre-washed background, notes, a sketch of the harsh late afternoon shadows from the line of people waiting to get in, photos of the band and photo of late night dinner at GPK.

Note: Bombay Pizza from GPK is the best - Indian spiced chicken, red onions, cashews (!), mango chutney, yoghurt, coriander and....banana. Fantastic surprising combo of flavours.

By the way, I stayed for a bit of the Mint Chicks but really Pluto is where its at. Music must accompany this post! ....

Labels: Great-Places-Auckland-Region, Journal-Pages, Restaurant-Review, Sketching, Sketching-Tips

This is the view looking west across the harbour estuary at the Manuka Road boat ramp. Interestingly there is a sign there referring to it as Hells Creeks - I never knew that. I pre-wash paints across my journal pages so it was quite delightful to find the highlight in the middle was in a complimentary spot of my sketch! Actually find that happens all the time. Makes me love pre-washed backgrounds even more.

~Kathleen

Labels: Great-Places-Auckland-Region, Journal-Pages, Sketching

Hi all,
A couple more journal pages to share. I keep toying with the idea of back dating them to a date that relates to the journal page dates but since some of the pages are being finished now and visitors of my blog who stop by and don't use a Bloglines type notifier will miss those updates. This messes with my desire to organize! all good :)

These are a couple of pages from January. I had fun sketching at the Speedway. I'm quite sure I would have been the only person more interested in having her pen in hand than who was leading! I have another Speedway journal page which is full of photos and collected memorabilia. This visit I wanted to work on my sketching skills and capture the action!

Things I learnt about sketching at the Speedway (!!)

• Even though it is moving so fast you DO get repeated shapes and images. For example I got about 6-8 short opportunities to sketch the flag dude in the same position so I could re-visit that sketch each time.
• The fast pace makes you sketch fast! I think that comes across in the bottom sketch where I was trying to capture the movement of the vehicles.
• Its kinda tricky to draw cars without them looking 'toy' like. Not really sure what the solution is to that.
• It gets dark sketching at speedway! Dark = equals hard to see = equals no more sketching!
  
• Just like you get covered in dirt and dust watching, so does your journal. Worth considering. Personally I just consider it part of my journals life cycle. Micron 005 pens don't really like the dirt.
  

Next time I want to try to improve drawing the vehicles and sketch some of the crowd. ooh and check out the photo of my kids with the flag guy. He's my fav! Western Springs are really great at making it a family night. If you ask, the flag guy will let kids wave the white flag while cars are in between races.


So Speedway was Wednesday 28th, the right-hand side journal spread is about Friday 30th. Dinner at a very nice Italian restaurant in Mission Bay. We then went for a bit of a drive before dessert at our fav Onion Johnny resturant in Takapuna. I'm pretty sure I've mentioned this before but its worth saying again - the rasberry parfeit is the best!! hehe

Labels: Journal-Pages, Restaurant-Review, Sketching

Delectable delights on these pages. My neighbour dropped over a big bag of fresh mussels! Now I've never really been one for shellfish but given how absolutely tastey these turned out to be, I had obvously never really tried. Wish I could have been able to capture the smell of the sea they bought in with them.

Right hand side shows a pen and watersoluable pencil sketch of a punnet of blueberries. Tricky subject with its harsh reflections and distorted effects. Very yum!

~ Kathleen

Labels: Journal-Pages, Sketching

I really enjoyed working on these two pages. For me they are the right combination of writing, sketching and photos.

I am very much a person who sets goals and tries to keep the mindset of taking action towards them (not always easy!). A book I am re-reading and will probably continue to read over is The Success Principles by Jack Canfield probably best known for his bestselling Chicken Soup books and contribution to The Secret. From his book he has a very easy formula for recognizing and creating a Purpose statement that pretty much fits one paragraph. I believe everyone has a purpose, and once you can clarify it I find it makes such a difference in giving a sense of direction!

So anyways, the left hand side of the page is my Purpose statement (not readable for the net), a quote printed out onto patterned paper and a pen/watercolor sketch I drew that morning. That sketch was slightly challenging in that the hot sun was causing it to wilt before my eyes so therefore its shape and shadows were changing on me!

Right hand page is photos of icecreams on a hot afternoon, my daughter losing her tooth at Denny's and the tooth in question held onto the page with mesh - there is also a little note asking the tooth fairy if I can keep the tooth for my journal... fortunately the tooth fairy was more than happy to oblige!

~ Kathleen

Labels: Journal-Pages, Sketching

Christened this first page with lots of walnut ink!
Some text from page: Came across these fantastic sketches on the Urban Sketchers Blog. Love the drama in the lighting and the RED midtones and free sketching style. Nice touches with the wee bit of lemon and turquoise. Could learn alot from these.


The artist is Stephen Gardner, I've since been subscribing to his Blog and its great! Check it out :)

Labels: Journal-Pages, Sketching