I have to say I am so proud of this and what our team has accomplished in such a short space of time. Inside are articles and book reviews from myself, Less Herger of Comfortable Shoes Studio, Jonathan Manning of The Artistic Biker, Connie Hozvicka of Dirty Footprints Studio, Samantha Kira of Journal Girl and Eveline of Eveline Timeless plus an exclusive interview with Teesha Moore!

After seeing individual bit and pieces for several weeks now  we got the final proof yesterday and I was just blown away to see the full zine. 41 full colour pages of pure art journaling form a group of people so diverse that there will definitely be something for everyone no matter what you’re into.

Click here to grab your own copy!

picture courtesy of Amazon.co.uk

I’ve been eyeing up Wacom tablets for a while, but I didn’t really see how I could justify buying one, because I have never considered myself a graphic artist and until last week I had never really used a good one or seen someone who knew what to do with it give a demo. I did know that being an illustrator I really needed to add it to my repertoire but I didn’t want something that would turn into an expensive paper weight through lack of use.

But while I was away a friend brought her Wacom and Mac with her and showed me how you can use it as a normal sketch artist in a similar way to drawing on paper, then how to use it for manipulation in Photoshop. I tried it out a bit for myself but felt a bit under pressure drawing in public and it felt very weird, but I liked it. So when I go home I ordered the Wacom Bamboo A5 Pen & Touch from the company account and started to play. Most of what I know so far is from my friend and her partner, but I can give a personal beginners-eye view of it.

As a complete beginner on tablets (I’ve totalled about 3 hours playing with them over the years) I have to say it takes some getting used to. The pad on the table represents the screen you’re looking at or the canvas you’re drawing on and it feels weird having to scale your movements. If you’re a bit heavy handed you might do better with a bigger version. If you like to draw at a slant then you can turn your canvas to match how you hold the tablet which is handy, but skews your perspective. You have to be used to drawing at and angle to get it right.

Fine details are easy, you just zoom in and use tiny movements, it’s the larger gestures I find difficult. The pen on the tablet feels a lot different to a pen on paper as there’s no ‘grab. On paper, with a nib pen I can draw an almost perfect circle. On the tablet that’ll  need a bit more practice to say the least. It’s a whole new way of drawing but it does come to you. I struggled with pressing the buttons on the pen because I tend to turn my pen when I’m using it, but after a while I stopped doing that. Working in layers is natural to me as I’ve worked with a mouse for years, but if you’re not familiar with layers you need to be.

Overall I’m pretty pleased with it so far and I think for the price I paid it’s a bargain. It’s a steep learning curve but I’m glad I got it as I can definitely see the benefits of using this over a mouse, even with my limited skills. Even if I only ever use f for cleaning up my scans it’s worth the price. It really isn’t one of those things you’ll just throw in the corner and forget about after a week. It’s too intriguing. Plus it’s a nice change of position for those of us with the beginnings of RSI.

I will keep practicing and I am looking out for any online tutorials for tablets, so if you know of any good ones please let me know. I’ll let you know how I get on at a later date.

The Top Secret Project was revealed on The Artistic Biker Show on Thursday night.

Drum roll please!

It’s a zine! Klair Scattergood of Rhomany’s Realm, Connie Hozvicka of DirtyFootPrintsStudio, Eveline Hessels of EvelineTimeless, Jonathan Manning of The Artistic Biker, Samantha Kira of JournalGirl and myself, Leslie Herger of ComfortableShoesStudio are all working on it. We all wrote articles, interviewed art journalers, did original art and generally worked our tails off on this thing for 7 weeks now. I’ve seen most of the zine and I can tell you one thing right now: IT’S FREAKING AWESOME.

Some details: It’s an e-zine, cost is $5 an issue. The money will go to supporting the artjournaling.ning site or a worthy art journaling cause. You’ll be able to pay for it right here on artjournaling.ning and download it too. Sales will start September 1st!

I’m really excited about this zine and I KNOW it’s going to be excellent.

Boy howdy.

I’m trying. I have so much to do and catch up on, but haven’t quite come out of holiday mode. I’ve made a to do list and gotten rid of all the quick and easy things over the last few days, so I feel like I’ve achieved something. But I have a couple of huge projects I need to get stuck into and haven’t quite managed to get into them just yet. It’s coming, I can feel it, but it’s not happening today.

So, here’s a few pics of where I went. We stayed in the converted stables and blacksmith at Schaloen Castle

Plain and simple inside, but perfectly spacious for 6 of us (we had two apartments for the group in all)

Here’s the Castle itself

There were beautiful botanical gardens adjoining the Castle and at the back was a nature reserve, with strange shrines growing in the trees

The rest of the photos all have people in them and I don’t have permission to post them. I can post their cats though so here’s Steve’s gorgeous cat Vazquez

and these two Siamese beauties are Kelos and Beren who belong to Eline and Rien

That’s it for holiday pics. If you were part of the group you can see the rest over on the Truewatch photo album. If you weren’t, you’ll just have to use your imagination and picture 12 gamers wandering around Holland and Belgium, samping beer and getting into mischief. Shouldn’t be too hard.

For those of you who didn’t already know, my interview for Connie’s 30 Journals, 30 Days project is up on Dirty Footprints Studio.

And for those who are desperate to know about the Top Sekrit Project that’s been kicking around on artjournaling.ning.com, and want to be the first wave in the loop, I strongly suggest you go watch Blade’s Ustream channel tomorrow night over at The Artistic Biker Show.

Unfortunately I won’t be there for the big announcement. I’ll be Holland. Important papers to sign with the bigwigs don’tcha know

I’m now officially on holiday for a week. Catsitter is organised, travel arrangements are made,  just have to pick up my Euros from the post office and do some packing.

I’ll try posting pictures and maybe some video while I’m away. Might even get a blog post or two in. Depends on the wi-fi service.

Have fun kids

If you haven’t seen Blade’s unique brand of art journaling before be sure to check out his live Ustream every Thursday (yes – tonight!), at 7-9pm USC (1am BST). Over the last few weeks he’s been interviewing those of us who are involved in the Top Sekrit Project over on artjournaling.ning.com and has already interviewed myself, Connie, Eveline and Less. Tonight he’s interviewing Samantha Kira I believe.

Yes, I totally stole this image from Connie at Dirty Footprints Studio. If you have 5, grab a brew and go check out her 30 Journals, 30 Days post happening right through July.

Last week was busy with personal stuff. This week is busy with art stuff while I catch up and music stuff while I unwind.

These are some pages from June

June Journal pages

You can see the important bits – the layout and the pictures. The details aren’t for public eyes. This is my default style of journaling and how I’ve kept a ‘visual’ journal since I was a kid. It’s not painterly, which is why I prefer the term ‘visual’ journal to ‘art’ journal but it does include lots of hand-done work. Of course I have other books where I do do more painterly things.

June Journal pages

I like to collect images that mean something or that I like the design of, or perhaps the texture. Anything that catches my eye really. Sometimes I don’t realise why it caught my eye until much later. I don’t really think too hard about it. I also do a lot of sketching.

June Journal pages

It’s also where I try out different styles and practice things, for example, the ‘Queen of Spades’ was done in the style of Suzi Blu as a practice in pencil shading. It does say that on the page, but since you can’t see the writing, credit where credit is due and all that.

This is a new book with ‘white pages’. I just finished a Moleskine that took nearly 2 years because the pages are so thin and I felt constricted by the lines. I’m enjoying the freedom of the white space with this one.

Throughout July Connie over at Dirty Footprints Studio is doing a series of interviews with fellow art journallers.

If you haven’t been over there yet you should definitely check it out.