I Really Am Alive!

I know I haven't been posting many blog updates and I sincerely apologize for that! I am working, though!

In my search for better and more diverse methods of getting Stacked Journaling to paper and fabric, I have stumbled upon my new favorite toys- quills, nibs and India inks.

These things are absolutely wonderful to work with. The quills and nibs take almost no practice to get used to using, and you can be writing in your normal hand within just a few minutes. The India inks are super permanent once dry- I've not found a way yet to remove them- though they can be obliterated with layers of acrylic paint. They are all vivid and bright, and come in an incredible array of both warm and cool colors as well as black and white.

The nibs come in many sizes and shapes, depending on what you want to do with them. Since I started out mostly wanting very fine line detail, I've purchased and been using round tips.

I've been experimenting with the inks as well (I'm using Dr. Ph. Martin's Bombay India Inks) and have found that their relationship with water is quirky. This can be used to beautiful effect if you're willing to play around a little.

Here is the ink on dry watercolor paper. Very fine lines and excellent detail can be achieved with very little effort.

Here ink was applied to watercolor paper when the paper was only slightly damp.

And here, the paper was allowed to get very wet, with spots of water sitting on the surface.

 Here the ink was applied onto dry paper but then spritzed lightly with water.

Here are two colors of ink applied to damp paper... 

And two colors applied to dry paper.

I've even found them particularly effective on properly primed stretched canvases. Here, I've journaled a letter to my father. This is a sneak peek of a new series I'm starting.

I have yet to find a fabric that is smooth enough to get the kind of line work I'm looking for, but my search isn't over for the perfect cotton on which to try Stacked Journaling using quill, nibs and ink.

My studio is about to undergo another major change, this time to accommodate a larger tall print table, this one 4' by 7'. In the meantime while I wait for that to be put into place, I've been using the time to work through a lot more small scale mixed-media work.

I've installed paneling in my large watercolor sketchbook! This started with a layer of Elmer's school glue drawn directly out of the bottle onto the page to create a wood grain appearance. Layers and layers of acrylic paint were applied after the glue dried to give it a worn, rich texture.

The piece shown above was created using lightweight paper that was fused to Lutradur and then "batik'd" repeatedly. I applied rubber cement to a foam stamp, stamped a layer onto the paper, covered it with a wash of color, stamped another layer of rubber cement followed by another wash of color, and so forth until I achieved the effect you see. After everything was fully dry, I gently rubbed away the layers of rubber cement and mounted the whole thing onto a stretched canvas.

Here's hoping your weekend is fun. Happy creating!