A Small Change #3

Well good day my lovelies!! How are you today? Mmmm it is a good day here in Nottingham. It has rained practically non stop for around 5 days here now - but do you know what....I am actually really pleased about that!! Since being converted to our weekly organic farm delivery of fruit and veg and upon reading their newsletter last week about their desperate need for some good rain in order to prepare the fields for new crop planting, well a wee drop of rain seems like the best thing in the world!

Gosh I have so much I want to write about today, but may just save a few things for my next post otherwise I shall never get to all the things I want to do today!

First off let me introduce you to this lovely wee character and her friend. I drew her yesterday and she now resides here in my shop. Called The Unusual Companion she has already graced a treasury list with her presence which I am thrilled about! Seriously... when I was drawing her I kept thinking "why the heck am I making a heron, her friend???" but actually I love it! And that is where the title comes from....I think I may have to do a series of these with even more 'unlikely' companions....goodness knows where that will take me!

I missed out on blogging about my small change a week last week and if truth be told, I did not actually make that small change, at least not one that I was aware of...unless you count lounging around on the sofa eating chocolate, feeling sorry for myself, as a small positive change....Mmmm perhaps not.

So this week has taken a bit of thought....and I decided I needed to make a change related to my art, something in order to inspire me. Now it is probably not that great a change, more becoming aware of something I do already and harnessing it in order to move forward and develop. So change #3 is that I am going to make a concerted effort to sketch in my journals for at least 30 mins (aiming for 1hour) every day.

Now I have to point here, that this is not something that comes naturally to me. I get scared of sketchbooks and can become too precious about them. I find it difficult to abandon the fear of being able to do anything in them, that each page does not have to be a finished drawing. That I can express myself and write anything and create texture and just 'let go' a bit. So my challenge is to really focus on not being focused if that makes sense! Just to draw and write whatever is in my heart and soul at that particular moment. For each page to be my space for that particular time to express whatever I want, to develop ideas without fear of judgement or failure (and I write this knowing that the only real person that ever judges me is myself!). So what if it is a mess, so what if the drawings do not match up with my preconceived ideas of how they should look!

I actually scanned a page I was working on yesterday and am realising that it is far from the messy crowding of images and ideas that I would love to have in my sketchbooks....but I am not going to worry about that too much!

I have actually been inspired by a couple of ideas which I am going to 'borrow' in order to free up my brain and hands to create in my books. One I found on this blog which has this great idea of 100 things to inspire you. It even has them written as a pdf so that you can print them and cut them out individually.

I also have the wonderful book Pretty Little Things by Sally Jean Alexander where she encourages the artist to have an Abracadabra Collage Technique of basically encouraging your creativity  and getting rid of the dust bunnies in your imagination by writing out a selection of tasks on tiny bits of paper, folding them up and putting them in a hat! Things like paint, collage, ink, draw, smudge, stamp etc etc etc.

Well I have taken these ideas and ran with them! I have written lots of things on bits of paper, such as stitch, wings, unicorns, turn upside down, burn, etc etc and I have put them all in a tiny drawer along with the 100 ideas in another and if ever I am a little stuck, you know...... when you are just staring into space thinking what to do....what to do?? Well I just pull one of those ity bity bits of paper right out of the drawer and get to it!! Of course I cheat a little. Even at times when I don't know what on earth to do, I may pull out an idea and realise "well I know I don't want to do that!!!" But that's ok! Working on stuff all day sometimes means that I do have those moments of "what to do next" and these little notes just give me the little push that I need. (excuse the terrible photo - it is really dull light here due to the never ending rain!)

Now I am getting ridiculously excited about the impending move and I really need to try and calm down about it....after all there is still around 8 weeks to go till it happens! But most definitely in my top 5 reasons of why I am so excited (excuse the terrible grammar there, it is always the first thing to go when I am excited about something...) is all the wonderful artwork I am going to adorn my walls with (ok so our walls .... I sometimes forget that Mark will have a choice in this too....although anything he has a complete aversion to will grace the walls of my studio anyway)

So here is another beauty which I cannot wait to purchase. 

It is from this amazing etsy shop by Irene Suchoki and has been in my favourites for a while. Infact I could literally buy up half the shop I love the images so much. I adore lots of really atmospheric landscape photography, images that speak of permanent memories in the form of trees and fleeting glimpses in the form of reflections. My love of gold and texture and aged tones and natural beauty, well this image just covers them all really! Just incredibly beautiful. It will go perfectly with my still-to-be-framed purchase from Jenn who I have just realised has had a banner and avatar change in her shop - you must go and see- they are beautiful!!!

Okay so rather a long post today - please forgive me!! There was so much more I wanted to write about but I had better get back to work. I shall just leave you with an image of the Celestial Dreamers a set of 4 art cards which I just listed in my shop this morning and sold almost immediately!! I think they are quite different for me with the strong backgrounds but I do love the contrast between the beautifully neat lines of the vintage book pages and my rather messy way of drawing!

Oh and just to remind you this is the last day for my offer of free shipping on any items from my shop to my blog readers. Just put BLOG in message to buyer and as I am currently at 95 sales don't forget that the buyer of my 100th item will also get some additional goodies in their parcel.

Have a wonderful day!!

xxx

Comments

[Anushka]

I've just bought the most inexpensive thing in your shop - so beautiful I could no longer resist. (Though why couldn't I have been the 100th buyer? Hehe) Good luck with your art journalling (which reminds me to plan a post about art journals on Idle Dreaming), I tend to have a similar problem though my personal one is that in my art journal I write too much and do barely any drawing.

[lou]

i love 'celestial dreamers' - so perfectly haunting and elegant. in fact, i am extremely fascinated by your drawing style......it seems to reveal more and more on each viewing. like a story unfolding in itself:))

wonderful!

[Gypsy Purple-Chamara]

Great idea..this idea--thing...

[Karen Beth]

You are still keeping up with it! Hooray! I love your plan to sketch in your sketchbooks. Good goal. I feel the same nervousness about my journals, for some reason. I always WANT to write in them but I always feel so much pressure to write just the RIGHT things or to get what is in my head ALL out onto the page or in JUST the right format. I put so much pressure onto myself over these journals that they turn into something more stress-producing than stress-relieving. Odd, yes. I really do need to work to overcome that.

I LOVE Irene Suchoki's work and have several of her pieces hearted as well, including the one you pictured here. It is just amazing.

Hope you have a lovely weekend and that you reach 100 sales! Wahoo!

xo,

Karen Beth :)

[Karen Beth]

P.S.

Meant to say that I LOVE LOVE LOVE the 100 Things to Inspire You list. THANK YOU for sharing that! :)

[Jungle Dream Pagoda]

You probably have,but just in case you haven't,have you ever seen Frida Kahlos journal?It is quite spectacular,and available for purchase! I think I bought my copy at a half price book store.It is printed exactly as she wrote and illustrated it,and the back half has a translation and commentary. I think you would find it inspiring,I love your page,and that 1st little sprite with the heron!

[Kristen]

I love birds as companions. I always believe that birds are special secret friends. They see everything from up in the sky, they know things we don't. Don't feel bad that you were feeling sorry for yourself. We all need those moments in order to encourage us to move up to the next step!

[Vanessa V]

I am excited for your move too!!! Yippee!!! feeling happy about wher you are going to live is a really wonderful thing! Love what you are up to. Sketch/journal away, don't be afraid, looks like you are doing very well! Irene's work is incredible! And yes, I noticed Jenn's shnge! Love the avatar! So demure! xxxxooo

[Katie]

Wonderful. It is great to hear about your sketchbook challenge. That is kind of on my to do list too for the very same reason.