Above: gesture drawings of Canada geese, made from my Subaru as they walked by. Read more about this below. Scanner cut of text at right: "walked past the car." Click on the image to view an enlargement.
Today marks 9 months of more than daily posting and I have some questions (and a prize) for readers at the end of this post, but first…
Yesterday I drove out to White Bear Lake (about 30 minutes from my home) a small town that is now really a north east satellite suburb of the Twin Cities metro area. It still has lovely wild areas in it, however. On my drive home, while driving through a business park, I saw a gaggle of Canada geese crossing the road. I pulled over, slowing the car quickly and then gradually creeping forward. By the time I coasted to the gaggle, they were almost all across the road and feeding in the grass at the side of the road, next to my Subaru. The car was off, the windows closed, the temperature rising, but I didn’t want to frighten the geese with any mechanical noises. I reached for a pen and my journal and started to sketch. Sadly the pen I grabbed was an almost dried out .1 Staedtler Pigment Liner. These are fantastic pens, but even they have a life span, that pen was at the end of its time. The still stiff and fine point actually carved into the paper and I had to dig down to get firm black lines, but I managed to get some gestures of the birds as they moved past the car and towards the marshy and reed-filled depression they were living in, at the side of the office park. I even had a chance to slap some watercolor down, before the last one walked through the wall of green weeds and disappeared.
Left: Detail from the gesture drawings of geese where you can see the dry pen skipping. These drawings, especially the head at the left, will be useful to me if I decide to do a painting of these birds. That head at the left reminds me how the light bounced off the top edge of the bird’s bill. Click on the image to view an enlargement.
I was grateful to have this encounter with the geese, because only moments earlier I had complained to my friend that I should be drawing her garden flowers or something, but that I was too hot in the sun. Well, it seems I’ll endure anything for the opportunity to draw birds. When I stopped, after less than 10 minutes of sketching, I was stopping because sweat was pouring down my face!
Always have your journal at your side. Find time to stop and sketch, even if it’s just some quickly passing geese! Maybe a landscape catches your eye as you are driving along, or a city scape as you are walking. Stop for a moment. I was so energized by the encounter that I didn’t even mind the traffic driving home!
So with that advice out of the way, I wanted to take a moment to celebrate 9 months of more than daily posting on my blog, with some questions for readers of the blog—because I’m curious about YOU and what else you are reading. A month or so ago a woman told me she read 300 artblogs DAILY. I can’t image that. First finding them all would prove difficult for me as I don’t like to “surf” the net. And I wouldn’t be able to read the volume of material generated. But that got me thinking. I’m very grateful for the many regular readers who return daily, and for the comments on and off the blog. I’m of course glad you read my blog, but I’m curious, what else do you read?
To this end I have a little devised a little “quiz-survey-contest.”
1. Write to me at roz@tcinternet.net
2. Tell me the names of your top FIVE (5) favorite blogs that you read daily. (Don’t put Rozwoundup on your list because of course it’s one of your favorites or you wouldn’t be reading this and entering the contest!)
3. After each blog’s name tell me what it is that makes this blog a favorite: great writing, great images, wacky sense of humor, insight into the world, whatever.
Note: List your top 5 favorite blogs OF ANY TYPE, these do not have to be artblogs. I’m curious as to what you are reading. Just as I am interested in bread baking, film, and bicycling, there are other things besides visual journaling and bookmaking (which is the majority of what I write about) that you are interested in. I’m curious as to what those things are, and I’m curious as to what you rank as great blogs.
All entries need to be received by me at roz@tcinternet.net by Sunday, July 12, 3 p.m. Central Standard Time.
What’s in It for You?
From all entries that complete the 3 listed criteria I will draw a winner. That winner will receive the Kunst & Papier Watercolor sketchbook that I reviewed on this blog.
The last three pages of this journal have my scribbles and tests on them. I’ll leave those in the book for you to read, giggle over, and cut out as you wish. The rest of this $28 watercolor journal is yours to test out and fill. You might even find it’s the journal of your dreams. I think it is sad for it to sit on my shelf—it needs to be filled up!
And, wait, there’s more: I will also go through the entries, check out the blogs you read, and make a listing of the repeat favorites so we can all enjoy them too—or at least try them out.
I look forward to reading about your favorite blogs!
Just an impression/suggestion/comment for you on the contest. I think you would get a better response if you offered a Roz journal, or at least a commercially bound journal you really liked. If I recall correctly, the K/P was one you did not care for and wrote that it had a funny smell to it. Not sure too many folks would be interested in that as opposed to one that you bound yourself. I am not responding to the contest for that reason in particular, though I'm sure some people probably will.
Posted by: Janine | July 09, 2009 at 06:43 AM
LOL @ Janine. You are giving away a stinky prize? ROFL...thanks for a great start to the day. I needed a good laugh!
Posted by: donna (a different one ;) | July 09, 2009 at 10:00 AM
Janine, thanks for your comment. I appreciate your point of view on this. At various other times I have given away journals I've made, and will again in the future.
My idea of giving away the Kunst & Papier Watercolor Journal was based on passing along useful and good things which aren't going to get used here. Just because I don't like something doesn't mean someone else won't love it, and it might be exactly what they are looking for (as a non-binder).
The book is well made (I wouldn't pass junk along) but it doesn't suit me because of the smell. That's why I gave the link to my review, so people could read the review and know what they'll be getting.
What I've found over my life time is that my sense of smell is way beyond what most people use and consequently, when I have a problem with something's smell many other people just look at me and sigh (if they are being polite).
I would hate to see a $28 book sit on a shelf, unused, when it can go out and have a life. If the contest winner gets the book and the smell is nothing to him, great. Even if the smell does bother the winner as it bothered me, he then pass the journal along to someone else to try, since he hasn't paid anything for it. In that way his friends will get to experience it.
By passing the Kunst & Papier book along it's my hope that it either finds a home or travels so more people can experience it and make up their own minds.
When I write reviews on something I am as specific as I can be about all aspects of the product not because I want someone to use or not use the product, but because I want someone to have enough specific information about a product to then make a clear choice about a purchase, with less risk that he's getting something unsuitable.
It's this motivation that's behind much of what I do on my blog. I have to buy certain things because of my work. I hope the reviews save people money but I hope they still make choices based on their own preferences and not mine.
Thanks again for your comment, I'm sorry I won't know what your reading habits are, but I do appreciate that you took the time to express your thoughts on the the giveaway.
Posted by: Roz | July 09, 2009 at 10:03 AM
Donna(a different one) I don't know what ROFL is. I am clueless about acronyms.
"Roz obviously felt loopy" to offer such a prize?
Posted by: Roz | July 09, 2009 at 10:13 AM
Congratulations on your 9 month anniversary! Were you leaving your pigment liners in the car? maybe the heat dried it up prematurely.
Posted by: Alberto | July 09, 2009 at 01:56 PM
(ROFL: Rolling on the floor laughing).
Personally I hate those popular acronyms, specially "LOL" (laughing out loud).
I'll try to send you my lists by Sunday, I'd love to get my greedy hands on that Journal you are giving away.
Posted by: Christina Trevino. | July 09, 2009 at 02:03 PM
ROFL = rolling on the floor laughing. And thanks for the reply, Roz. Not to imply that you would pass along junk... I just thought it was an interesting proposition. Surprised me I think. In any case, I also hate to see stuff sit unused but we have a great place here in the Bay Area called the East Bay Depot for Creative Reuse. They take all kinds of things as donations and have a store. Kind of like a thrift store for art supplies and craft supplies and other esoterica. I will periodically take a load of stuff over there and donate to them. A lot of teachers shop there and I know they will be able to use it. The Depot charges only nominal prices since everthing they get is a donation. Your local Craigslist is another good place to offer things you want to pass along.
Posted by: Janine | July 09, 2009 at 05:40 PM
Thank you Alberto. I'm pretty happy about this, considering I did double duty during Fake Journal month and don't even count that. I love working in a "series."
As for the pigment liner, it was always with me (and used by virtue of that), so it died a natural death. It's just frustrating when you have limited minutes to sketch because your models are moving away from you and the pen you reach for is DEAD, or nearly so!
I have tossed it out and there is another in its place now.
ABPG: Always Be Prepared for Geese!
Posted by: Roz | July 09, 2009 at 07:21 PM
Janine, there is a lot of stuff that I go through that has to go somewhere. There are boxes of stuff that I collect for collage classes for instance, or altered book classes. All this stuff has to be used or go somewhere, I can't keep it all around here, the same with "trial stuff." Typically I pass media and tools on to local young (penniless) artists because that stuff is a pain to mail, but this is so simple to mail and most readers love journals!
For other supplies or materials to pass along we also have a place in St. Paul called Art Scraps, but I prefer to give my materials directly to grade school teachers or starving artists because they have to pinch pennies.
"Move 'em on, head 'em out Rawhide!" As Frankie Laine used to sing. I have to get this stuff out of here!
Posted by: Roz | July 09, 2009 at 07:29 PM
I personally think that the geese were waiting for you to pull up. They didn't hang too long cuz it took you so long to get there. And sweating profusely means that you don't have to go looking for water for coloring, but then again, I live in a "dry heat". We don't sweat at 110, so I have to take water.
And what is that saying about "looking a gift horse in the mouth?"
And thanks to donna (a different one) about clearing up which one she is-----
Posted by: Donna | July 10, 2009 at 03:39 PM
This is a funny series of comments.
I did a journal page a few months ago and used ROFL in big bold letters as the main part of the page, but realized too late, since I never use acronyms, that I had written ROLF. So I used the fact that I had made a mistake, because THAT made me ROFL. And I like to say it the way it is written: rawffle.
Posted by: anna maria | July 12, 2009 at 10:51 PM
anna maria, way to go, turning the mistake around! That's the best way to go.
Posted by: Roz | July 13, 2009 at 12:42 PM
An aha moment...based on Donna's "gift horse" comment.
If the K/P journal had been offered "free to the 9th caller," I wouldn't have commented.
As a "prize," intended to entice people to participate in a contest, a journal that Roz didn't care for doesn't quite have the appeal. Which is why I said in my note that I would not be participating in the contest. I didn't want to win that as a PRIZE.
Okey dokey... back to work
Posted by: Janine | July 14, 2009 at 12:49 PM
Janine I'm sorry you didn't participate, but appreciate your comments. The journal is speeding away to a happy home (I hope), where it will be used and enjoyed.
I was thrilled with the responses back from readers and when I get it all compiled into a post I think everyone will find some new links to investigate—which was part of my goal. 1. to find out what people are reading besides my blog, and 2. to enjoy some of the same things by encouraging readers to let me know about them. (I am remedial at internet surfing!)
Posted by: Roz | July 14, 2009 at 04:49 PM