Art Journaling with Inks

A couple of chilly days and the way my big Sugar Maple tree is beginning to change colors gave me the first blush of viscerally knowing winter's coming. In winter, I miss being able to walk freely around in nature and sketch without my fingers numbing.

I decided to work in my art journal to express these feelings through art.  That's the beauty of art journaling -- you can let things out onto the page, perhaps make discoveries about your thoughts and feelings, and then move on.

I created a page spread for my board book art journal with Black Walnut ink, India ink and touches of white acrylic ink, reminding myself that winter has beauty, too.  I worked on a package insert with information in a variety of languages.  You can see other art on this paper in this blog post.

Sometimes as you create freely, a symbol or word will rise up.  For me, it was a heart with a + inside that showed up in an accordion fold insert.  I find the more quickly I create, the less I overthink and the better I like the result. I wrote what spilled out -- advice to my future self.

I glued the insert down to the edge of the page.

Here's the finished result.

I'm still not looking forward to winter, but I have put my feelings into my art, and I've chosen to try to live in the moment and relish autumn's beauty.

What have you been thinking about lately? Is there an anxious thought working on you that might find release in an art journal?  It's worth a try.  The only cost is time and a few art supplies.

Wishing you healing energy from your creativity.  

Playing with Inks in my Art Journal

I was cleaning up our paper recycling box and found a stack of product safety inserts on thin paper with tiny print warnings in dozens of different languages.   I love working on paper with text, especially in a foreign language.  So I pulled the pages out to create on.

I grabbed my inks: India ink & Black Walnut ink, as well as a white wax crayon & a black grease pencil. 

In the page above, I drew with the white crayon and the black grease pencil before painting with ink.  The crayon resisted the wet inks layered on top, leaving white marks shining through. I finished the page with the walnut & India inks.

It was fun to paint using the chocolate-colored walnut ink I made years ago.  (You can see that post here.)

After the walnut ink dried, I layered on rich, black India ink.    

I enjoyed simply playing with these supplies.  One trick that helps me create freely is taking paper that's trash and turning it into something more fun. There's zero pressure to have "success."  It's trash.  

I glued part of one of the papers to a new page in my board book art journal. I added a pocket made from an envelope a bill came in.

 

I used Yes! paste to glue papers down, and washi tape along the edges, adding marks with a grease pencil & India ink. Mark-making relaxes me. It's an easy way to connect with my creative intuition.

I added a bit of blackout poetry with text encouraging the reader to "Discover what's inside."

I like the way the dark India ink around the page balances with the lighter values and the way the straight lines of text contrast with the curvy, organic lines of my painting.

I created a tiny artwork to fit inside the envelope pocket.  The little circles were inspired by a photo on a package of frozen peas we'd had for dinner the night before. 

You can get your inspiration from the most mundane sources!

I finished the page by writing a quote that spoke to me: "Attention is the beginning of devotion." -- Mary Oliver

I think I've always had an affinity towards upcycling papers and other materials into art.  

It can help to discover what sorts of materials, art supplies, colors and marks make you feel at ease, invigorated or playful.  Pay attention to what makes you feel most excited about making art, and follow that trail your intuition leads you on.

I wish you Happy Creating!

Welcome, Summer!

Yesterday was the Summer Solstice, and I celebrated with a painting of a Tiger Swallowtail butterfly (Pterourus glaucus) on Blue Spire Larkspur from my garden.

I started with a pencil sketch, then began adding in the black markings on the butterfly with an India ink brush pen.

I sketched in the Larkspur in waterproof ink.

Then I began painting the scene, starting with the butterfly first, and moving on to the Larkspur.

I found that I would have been better off painting the yellow of the butterfly first, then adding the black markings in India ink.  The yellows I used: Winsor Lemon and Azo yellow showed on the black ink, so I had to dab those areas with a paper towel while they were wet.

I began adding in greens and shadows made from the purple I was using -- Permanent Blue Violet mixed with Phthalo blue -- and cool Hooker's Green.  I love the dark, shadowy colors that result.

If you mix violet with a yellowy green like Sap Green, you get a muddier shadow color.  But cool greens and cool violets create a luscious, dark, purple-indigo shadow color.

I love the bits on the top left where the cool greens, violet and dark indigo interact.

Butterflies are fiddly little things to paint and draw.  They have so many details, and those details are mirrored in their symmetrical wings.  I remind myself that my goal is to celebrate what I see in nature with my art.  It's okay not to get everything perfectly accurate.  That's what field guides and photographs are for!

If you love butterflies, I hope you'll use these reference photos of the Tiger Swallowtail to make art!

Happy Creating!

Figure Drawing with Model Ryan

For our second Osher Figure Drawing class, I brought in India ink, brushes and dip pens to play with sketching the figure in ink.  The challenge of ink, of course, is that you can't erase anything.  But this is also the beauty of ink.  It pushes you to commit to the strokes and marks you put down.  I find that facet freeing.

Our theme for the class was "Men at Work," so our model Ryan held gesture poses representing hoeing a garden...

...lifting blocks...

... and carrying them to build a wall.

In his last gesture pose, I imagined Ryan as a shepherd watching over his sheep from the shade of a tree. I added the background details after class.

In his long, seated pose, I found that being pushed to commit to marks made my process much faster, so I had extra time.

I took the opportunity to practice drawing Ryan's hand in light and shadow with a water-soluble pencil. I love the combination of being able to draw details and move the pigment with a brush.

Many thanks to model Ryan for his "Men at Work" poses!

Ink and Collage Postcards

I love the rich, dark marks I can make with India ink.  Ink flows and blooms on wet paper, and travels in its own lively way that I can never precisely predict.

I can add my own handmade stamps to the marks, and after the ink dries, the blackest areas provide a happy ground for chalk pastel marks to play in.

When creating with ink alone, I never have to worry about deciding on a color palette.  The interplay of watered-down ink and bold, black, straight-from-the-bottle ink create their own drama.

I created these pieces to be 6"x 9" post cards, cut from 160# watercolor paper. Before adding the ink, I pasted on paper torn out of old book pages from a Gregg shorthand manual and an old atlas.  I'm inspired by old, weathered materials that have a history and beauty of their own.

As I applied the ink, I tuned into my intuition, simply listening to that quiet little voice within for direction.  When she said "Make swoopy X's and wonky O's'" I did that.

When she said "This is a place for diagonal lines, for swirls, hearts and spatters!"  I took her advice.

I'm always happy when I listen to my Intuition.  She's never led me astray.  Ever.  Even when what she says seems weird or unlikely to work, I'm always happy with my decision to follow her.

And art making feels good -- not stressful as when I'm trying to make something "pretty" or "perfect."

What does your Intuition say to you today about your art making?  

Of course, I'm not talking about that loud, scolding voice of the harsh critic.  I'm referring to the tiny voice that offers unexpected and sometimes weird-sounding ideas.  

It takes some discernment and practice to hear your Intuition.  And it takes courage to try the ideas your Intuition suggests.  But what lovely experiences arise, and what beautiful art!

I hope you get some time this weekend to make art and listen to your Intuition!

Happy creating!

Copyright 2023 Betsy Bangley

Playing with India Ink

A new bottle of India ink and a stack of watercolor paper invited an afternoon of playing with shapes, brush strokes and drawing implements.

Each tool creates a different mark, and by experimenting with a variety of different strokes and expressions, I made discoveries.

After my first round of paintings dried, I looked them over and noticed that I liked:  

• Bold, thick lines next to fine, scratchy marks, 
• Graffiti-ish strokes combined with dots, slashes & fine marks, and 
• Repeated slash marks done quickly & with energy.

I noticed that I didn't like marks that looked too carefully thought out or representational (trying to look like something in reality).

My favorite pieces were wild, messy & free.

I took my top picks and reduced them in size on a copying machine, then combined them with other elements, like this handmade paper from yucca plants.

I've always been a fan of bold contrasts next to earthy midtones.

What type of marks do you like to make?

I encourage you to experiment with whatever you have on hand -- a ballpoint pen, pencil or a bottle of ink and a brush.

Then take notes on what you liked making, and which artworks you like the most afterwards.

The more you experiment, the more you discover.  The more you know about what you like, the more satisfied you will be in your artmaking.

Happy Mark Making!

Copyright 2023 Betsy Bangley, Betsy's Bliss Art Blog.

Post Card Art

My best friend, Robin, and I have been writing to each other for over 28 years.  In that time, we've made the weirdest, most creative and inventive stationery from cereal boxes, wallpaper samples, maps, and other everyday ephemera.  We've even made our own paper to write on.

Robin inspires me.  Above is a pair of post cards -- Robin's on the left, and mine on the right.  She sent me her flower card first, and I was so taken by the freshness of her lines, the playfulness of the colors that I tried my own.

We made our cards with watercolor on watercolor paper. Waterproof markers and white paint markers add the finishing touches.

My best friend is a master at writing post cards.  In one 4" x 6" card, she can speak of the rich details of her daily life, news of her family, and the power of mortality to focus her on the bright joy of living.

Robin's post card inspiration got me playing with more ideas.

I have always been thrilled by upcycling interesting looking papers into cards and letters.  When I recently read that the U.S. Postal Service had upped the maximum size of a post card to 6" x 9", I grabbed a political ad from the trash, cut it to size, and slapped two coats of white gesso on one side.

I glued a scrap of 140# watercolor paper to the back of the political ad with Yes! paste, and added some black and white washi tape around the edges to keep them from getting caught in the Postal Service machinery.

When the gesso had dried, I painted and stamped the surface with India ink and a blue water based ink. I wished I had prepared a bunch of cards to create a series with, because when I got started, I didn't want to stop!

Post cards are a wonderful art warm-up, because they're small and invite playfulness & experimentation, especially if you use upcycled materials.

I hope you'll try your hand at making and sending postcards!

A Zoom Art Date with The Unexpected Gypsy

As a Patreon supporter of The Unexpected Gypsy, I get regular inspiration and instructional videos from artist Wendy Robinson. One recent benefit of supporting her was a live Zoom session in which she & her Patreons created while we chatted.

It was lovely!

Each of us chose our own project to work on.

I created these faces on old book pages using an India ink brush pen.

The ink flowed readily from the brush, and sassy, peaceful, powerful faces appeared.

I find that doing this type of open-ended creative project while listening to a conversation or watching a video allows me to shift into a relaxed attitude and just play.

This character looks like a fairy superhero to me -- I added splashes of watercolor to the face after the India ink dried. 

I hope you find an opportunity to create in a loose, unplanned way.  To simply allow yourself to play with your art supplies.