visual echos

Thursday’s page focused on utilising bits of the dyed paper through stacking n stitching, to exploring cut and torn shapes

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The echoing shapes from previous pages are now just indentations. To continue the theme of the swirling frond shape that has lasted all week I cut a stencil from acetate and used this with ink and then acrylic glaze for a subtle sheeny shape here n there.
The roughed up surface, sheen of the glaze and the warm earthy colors put me in mind of a leathery effect.

dot dot dot …

I’m so glad I posted the beginnings of Wednesday, cos all trace of that pink ricey start are now hidden beneath layers of acrylic dots!

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Using sequin waste (punchinella) as a stencil, I’m most taken by the white dots, raised from the surface with nice crisp edges, made with thick goopy printing ink.

pink rice beginnings

Wednesday’s page started out with the results of playing with dye and rice. I poured rice onto the puddles of dye that’d spilled onto the page


As the rice absorbed the water in the dye, the concentration of the pigment outlined the grains.


I’ll post what happened to this page later…

a journey through color

As the cut out shapes from Sunday echo through the pages, Tuesday bore the same linear curves and disconnected egdes through which a glimpse  of  Thursday…

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Much coloring, inking, paint splatting later, the page evolves through different color groups and combinations. A journey of a day! 🙂

watching paint dry

…and photographing it!

As I type to you the final drippings and runnings of this page a doing their thing, which give me the chance to show you some more bits of page.

After scribbly ink and doodles I wanted to knock back some of the busy color and detail, which I did with a mix of acrylic and guache. Sliding and scraping with palette knife.

I wanted to liven up the texture, so used coarse pumice gel and – what’s to hand? – aha! leftover dyed rice! Then a swish of spray ink…

Only drying time will tell if the rice sticks, but even if it doesn’t, it’ll leave some nice rice-scars behind. Happy either way!

I love the way the wet media allow the pigments to travel, gather, collect together in bands. In these colors it reminds me a little of malachite

trekking round this learning curve

Embarking on a project like a page a day, without an aim in sight, more a stretch of the journey traveled in a new fashion, has to be done without expectations.

I’ve doodled and made art since before I can remember.  Habitually, obsessively, because I love the process, and because (probably like all artists) I have to.

This is a different approach: One book that daily documents my trials and tribulations of the moment in color and shape, tone and imagination. Day in, day out. And then spilling out the results out into the interweb.

Having pondered if the pages might soon look samey, I’m starting to realise the range and variety of imagery that can be created.

By observing small slices of each page on screen, perspective changes. Fresh ideas emerge.

The inspiration from something touched upon days prior can be reignited afresh when a blank page beckons.

And an unexpected bonus is to be blessed by the delightful and encouraging words from folks who join along the way, Big thank you! 😀

the what and the why of ‘a page a day’

When I began this project (a month ago today) I had no idea how long I’d stick with it. Or how easy/difficult, much fun/much of a slog, it would become.
Or for what reason I wanted to do it.

But I did want to.

So I began.

A Page A Day, the project.

Ingredients:

  • New A3 sketchbook
  • All my paints, pens, inks, dyes, brushes, forks and sticks… if it makes a mark, it can join the game
  • This blog. To record and evaluate, to review and assess, keep track in a different medium of unfolding development. Regularly (I thought maybe daily, yeh…)
  • A spare 1/2 hour or so each day to fill that day’s page

That’s it, no rules.

Just one page at a time. One day at a time
(With maybe a little to-ing and fro-ing in between, but with the majority of today’s page being created today.)
Day 1, Page 1

Day 1: 16 March 2012. A Friday.
Home from work with the whole evening set aside to arty things, with the possibility to spill out over the weekend.

And wow did it spill! Everyday is painted, collaged, drawn on, doodled on, written on; dripped, splished and splatted on.

(I’ve posted previous pages if you’re interested here, here, here. And here n here!)

There are days that I’m more pleased with the result than others, but isn’t that a metaphor! If I find something really wanting on a page I’ll go back and add it. Using my sketchbook as a work surface (no drips of color go to waste in my world!) means some ‘new’ pages will begin with splishes and spills of color. S’okay.

Today ‘s page looks a lot like a page with inky paper towels stuck to it.


That’s cool. Cos I’m not so interested in what the page as a whole looks like.


These are the bits I like.

The miniature landscapes,

The inter-mingling of inks and dyes,

The light and the shade cast by wrinkles and dimples.

lost in pages of color

it’s been over a week since the last round up of daily sketchbookery, here are some of the last week-and-a-bit’s additions…

Scraps of  dyed paper are beginning to crop up

I’d been hunting through old magazines for some silhouettes to use, I’ve a feeling these might make a few appearances in pages to come.

The faces were cut out from some over-printings (more on this later)

If I had to choose a geometric shape, I would choose the circle.

These doodlings are a form of meditation.

the words themselves are unimportant

The pen walks around, and my bitty thoughts are released.


I’ll add some more later 😀 Thanks for looking

Bubblewrap, Buttons & Rice (Oh My!)

The anticipation of unpeeling and revealing the results of the paper dying exploration is magical!

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Of all the results, I think it’s the rice I’ve found most inspiring.

off on a tangent & happy accidents

Using a blank page from my sketchbook to work on for the paper dying episodes has a threefold purpose:

  1. It’s a nice clean white (to begin with, at least) backdrop to photograph and record work in progress. A3 size book, opened up is a good sized working area.
  2. It protects my work surface (for now, an ironing board)
  3. It’s captured some gorgeous incidental art. Every stage of art, is art, right?

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The little wire coils? Yeh, I’ll explain them later. Meanwhile I’ve got drying paper to go check on. BRB 😉

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