Sharing a sneaky peak into the first 100 pages of the GINORMOUS sketchbook!
Every week since the summer of 2020 I’ve been adding a new double page spread to my ‘Book of Days’, this 600 page sketchbook.
Periodically I update the progress with flip through videos. Picking up at page 94 where I left the last flip through, here’s a look at the next few pages.
Two art journals filled up gradually over two years. Here’s how they turned out….
I chose these two big sketchbooks because I just couldn’t resist the cherry red & magenta pink covers!
Over the next couple of years, one or both of these books sat perpetually open on my art desk, and whenever I had extra paint to use up, or new pens to try out, these pages began to take shape.
This is where I’d scribble notes to myself, idly doodle in between times, while I waited for a zoom call to begin, and during online classes.
I’d see a face in the doodles and gradually these new characters began to show up.
As the pages got heavy with collage and paint, I tore out and tore up and glued back with wild abandon.
There are no rules in these books, there’s no upside down, no right and wrong.
Page by Page
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Hi – I’m Mixy!
This is Mixy 🙂
I’m a mixed media & textile artist from London, UK.
I love to share what I’m making, and I hope it brings some inspiration to your creative time.
You can see what I’m making on this blog, and in these places too
For a little over a year I’ve been adding a weekly spread to this ginormous sketchbook.
Because of the ginormity of this book (600 pages!) it’s going to span the course of a few years to come, and I’m excited about that. To see what appears in these pages is as much of a surprise to me as it is anyone else.
You can see a flip through of the first pages and a second update from early 2021 here on my youtube channel
Since then more creatures and people have shown up on the pages.
They populate the spaces in between the thought scribbles, color swatches and the occasional off-cuts of the projects that happen along the way.
The latest flip through catches us up with from January to July of this year, it’s exclusively previewing this weekend to my newsletter subscribers. Sign up below if you haven’t already 🙂
Hi – I’m Mixy!
This is Mixy 🙂
I’m a mixed media & textile artist from London, UK.
I love to share what I’m making, and I hope it brings some inspiration to your creative time.
You can see what I’m making on this blog, and in these places too
We’ve all agreed that time isn’t real, right? because I’m fully embracing that in my reality now.
All that to say, World Collage Day was in May. I posted some photos of my collages in June, I’m writing this in JulyAugust, and you could be reading it any time after I hit publish 😉
In my world, I’m somewhere in Collage Season.
Step one: make space on the floor, spread out all the bits so see what you have to play with.
Starting out with a bundle of collage images – mostly cut out from magazines and book pages + a few abstract patterned papers – kindly supplied by the Arizona Collage Collective + some from my own collection, I began with some swapping of heads.
Gradually these newly imagined characters formed together in groups, in turn finding their home in the pages of my Book of Days
I’ll be posting a flip through of the latest pages in this book where you can see this, and the rest of the collages. For an exclusive preview you’ll need to get my next newsletter.
Hi – I’m Mixy!
This is Mixy 🙂
I’m a mixed media & textile artist from London, UK.
I love to share what I’m making, and I hope it brings some inspiration to your creative time.
You can see what I’m making on this blog, and in these places too
I’ve been taking a few online classes lately. Exploring areas I already feel comfortable – mixed media, collage, watercolours – and adding to my range with the help of some fabulous teachers.
What I was not expecting from this, is how it’s encouraged me to revisit some older pieces that I’d got stuck with.
To find out more – catch my newsletter out today (sign up below if you’re not already registered)
Hi – I’m Mixy!
This is Mixy 🙂
I’m a mixed media & textile artist from London, UK.
I love to share what I’m making, and I hope it brings some inspiration to your creative time.
You can see what I’m making on this blog, and in these places too
Reporting in from half way through the 100 day project, I am up to my eyes in part-done paintings!
Because this time I’ve chosen to make my 100 pieces all at once instead of one per day, it’s proving tricky to see how far it’s progressing.
I’ve posted daily snippets of progress over on IG, including short videos & time-lapses showing some of the ways I’ve been keeping on top of this ridiculous number of works!
Adding a layer to a bunch of paintings all at once by drawing across them as one was fun. The spaces and shapes the big abstract squiggle made on each piece connects them, and also makes a individual drawing on each.
Filling in the gaps in between made these sweet sibling painting pairs.
Whole families of similarly colored pieces began forming, and this whole endeavor feels like a new community forming.
I look at these and consider: would a less complicated person call these finished?
Which leads me to wonder if an unconscious part of me decided to tackle the project this was a way to work on the art of knowing when something’s done.
One thing’s for sure, I don’t want to spend days 98 & 99 in a mad scramble of adding last touches to dozens of paintings. That sounds like such a ‘me’ thing to do.
So I’m thinking the second half of this marathon should focus on the process of final layers and finishings.
This is the where we are at, day 50, the end of the beginnings snd the beginnings of the the endings.
I’ll be back soon with news on the other doings and goings on in my studio. Meanwhile, to be first to see what I make and find out the thinking behind it, do sign up for my monthly-ish newsletters.
Follow me on Instagram for daily updates 🙂 #100daysofQuietColor
Hi – I’m Mixy!
This is Mixy 🙂
I’m a mixed media & textile artist from London, UK.
I love to share what I’m making, and I hope it brings some inspiration to your creative time.
You can see what I’m making on this blog, and in these places too
How ridiculous would it be to begin 100 paintings all at once? Let me show you…
We are 6 weeks into the 100 day project and I’m really loving this challenge.
Every day I post snippets of progress on IG, photos, videos & time-lapses of the layers adding up.
There’s a box on my desk homing the 100 started paintings, and at any one, time several are scattered across every flat surface around me as the newest layers dry!
Here are a few of the pieces I’ve been playing with this week.
So far I’ve used watercolours, acrylics and inks for larger blocks of color and graphite, charcoal, markers and fine liners for the details.
Is that all? It’s been a dizzying blur (but in the best possible way)
Yeh, then there was some potato printing & stamping with a recycled hot water bottle. I’m feeling like some collage elements could be showing up soon, and maybe some stitching too. watch this space! 😉
Next Sunday marks day 50, so I’ll be back next week with a special post at the half way point.
Follow me on Instagram for daily updates 🙂 #100daysofQuietColor
Hi – I’m Mixy!
This is Mixy 🙂
I’m a mixed media & textile artist from London, UK.
I love to share what I’m making, and I hope it brings some inspiration to your creative time.
You can see what I’m making on this blog, and in these places too
Twenty days in to the 100 day project, here’s where I’m at.
On 31 January I set myself the task to create 100 paintings in 100 days (see how it came about here).
I’ve been experimenting with different media and techniques, adding a little bit to a bunch of these paintings every day. Part of this challenge is to keep the colours quiet and muted, which doesn’t come naturally to me.
A few blue backgrounds were looking a little too vivid so I toned them down with grey to get back on track 😉
A bonus I did not expect from working in this whole new palette is that I’m getting much more of a buzz from the other (full volume color) projects that I’m working on at the same time.
To fully mix my metaphors, it feels like I’m getting a more balanced diet visually speaking, and I’m loving the contrast in flavours.
(I just finished a particularly colorful project, which I’ll tell you all about next week)
I enjoy using text in my art.
Either beginning with a word that fills the page and ornamenting it into something new, or using scribbled thoughts and chunks of wordage to fill blocks and shapes.
In the last few days I’ve been adding some time lapse videos of the process to the Instagram posts – I love re-watching the way pieces like this take shape as black ink squiggles about on wet paper.
To keep track of how many paintings I’ve started I began numbering them, which lead me to listing some words & thoughts on the back (As inspired by the great artist & teacher, Jesse Reno). Sometimes it’s a color I want to remember, or a thought that’s shown up (future me might bury that under more paint, so I’ve left her a note just in case).
As the layers build up, the lists will grow. Every painting will have its own little chronology. Some might become a poem, or a name for the painting might emerge. We’ll have to wait and see 😉
Follow me on Instagram for daily updates 🙂 #100daysofQuietColor
Hi – I’m Mixy!
This is Mixy 🙂
I’m a mixed media & textile artist from London, UK.
I love to share what I’m making, and I hope it brings some inspiration to your creative time.
You can see what I’m making on this blog, and in these places too
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