Abstract Watercolor Journal Page by Nancy Standlee

This is about 4.5 inch square abstract watercolor that I've decided to use in my journal. It is from a class I took from Angie Vangalis the evening of April 14 at the Jaycee Center for the Arts in Irving. Below is the instructions I followed. The pencil lines in the background are 5 words chosen from a poem which are connected and the ink lines were made by writing one word and stretching it out. The dark black line is from Sumi Ink. Oh, how I wish for every workshop and class I've ever taken that I had made a journal entry with the palette colors and an example of a painting.
This journal is a Raffine Art Sketch, 100 lb. paper, 9" x 12" and 48 sheets.
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CONTEMPORARY ~ WATERCOLOR ~ ACRYLIC ~ COLLAGE ~ GOUACHE
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Square "D" ~ Kinky 2 ~ Sketchbook/Journaling ~ In Bruges

Square "D"
"Save a seat for Kinky 2" for Canvas by Canvas
This is a commission for a larger version of our "Kinky" painting and you can see it On the Easel in progress.
Our easel paintings will be moved out to our paintings when finished so you might need to just check the Paintings menu if the link doesn't work. It depends on the time factor when you read this post. I finished this yesterday at TUG and we are starting another painting of an old Mercury. (We will have a show there in July and more to come.)
The CBC painters ate Mexican food at El Gabacho and for the second time (yeah, for us) we tucked our sketch books in our bags and sketched something in the restaurant while we waited for our food. The owner loves John Wayne and now I wish I'd tried to sketch something about "The Duke" but just stayed with a pepper shaker (last week it was the salt) and the menu holder and a torn Sweet and Low packet. No, I'm not posting it yet. El Gabacho means Gringo and it's located at The Shoppes at Brownstone Village in Arlington. Good service and good food.
My wish is that we'd started this routine of "lunch sketching" years ago but we always have a lot to discuss and it's a challenge to quieten down and just draw for a few minutes. This whole process has inspired me to get out some of my sketch books and start making entries again. I love sketchbook journaling and blogging has taken up journaling time but there's great joy to me to look through old journals and remember the activities and on some entries I actually quoted short conversations and that is a hoot.
This entry was made in October, 2003, after I purchased Dory Kanter's Art Escapes and there is no telling how many people she has inspired with this book. I wanted some of my painting friends to join me going through this book and thought the best way was to entice them with food. I prepared a lunch with candles!! (probably haven't used them since), found some red backpacks on sale and bought each guest one, invited them over and said no talking, we're having journal school before lunch, and asked them to join me in going through the book, taking turns hosting with a sack lunch, and teaching some of the exercises. The group eventually came to be know as "The Red Bag Ladies", the school exercises idea flailed around for awhile as others didn't like playing "school" like I did, but it evolved into another level of commitment. Thanks, Dory, for a great book and I'm joining you for a Mexico trip one of these days.

The Red Bag Lady Journal Entry 9 x 12 Canson All-Media Journal


The photo below is a favorite way of journal keeping from January 2006 and it is not an original idea and it uses the comic book page look. A quick sketch about the day or week's activity, and color can be added later. You can mention the weather, music, a DVD watched or a New Year's Eve resolution or I see here I glued in information about a medical procedure. Yuk! And I made it through about February before tackling another project. I see I mentioned Robert Burridge "batons", sticks I'd gathered up at a painting retreat in east Texas in preparation for my first Burridge workshop. Since then I'm preparing for my 4th workshop with him in Cloudcroft, NM.


And speaking of DVD's, I watched "In Bruges" this week and would suggest you read about it in the Internet Movie Database in the trivia section if four letter words are a problem and it's rated R. It is a different kind of movie and they're calling it a dark comedy, a morality play filled with symbolism, churches and a religious painting, "The Last Judgment" by Hieronymus Bosch figures prominently.
The Bruges tourist office (www.brugge.be) has produced a movie map and an “In Bruges” package at several hotels in the city.
After viewing the painting "The Last Judgment" my little sketchbook/journaling pages looks pretty benign. But I did learn a little more about Belgium and Bruges and Bosch.

Drawing Challenge ~ Journal Entry ~ Art Blog

6 x 8 Aquabee Sketchbook using black and brown ElegantWriter pens

O.K. I give. I had to stop what I was doing yesterday (packing my art supplies for the Arne Westerman workshop) and try out Myrna's Friday challenge. Now I see she has a "shape" painting posted and I want to do that. I don't have any Tygerag and don't even know what it is. Is it like Yupo? She states she has to let it dry flat so the paint doesn't run all over...sounds a little like Yupo. I want to try more drawings like this using the water pen to dissolve the ink. I did have to come in with some White-out (it was handy) along the mouth area when I developed a distinct whisker look. I kept wanting to paint instead of draw so I need to work on that.