Roz Wound Up

Profile Friday: James Jean

Above: Image from one of James Jean’s Moleskines, posted on his blog May 13, 2009, ©2009 James Jean.

Many of you might know James Jean’s  amazing journal work from Danny Gregory’s book on visual journals and sketchbooks, An Illustrated Life. But this talented and productive artist’s work can also be seen in galleries, on bookcovers, and on products everywhere. (When you are at James Jean's website be sure to click on SKETCH in the left column. This will reveal several sketchbooks that you can click your way through!)

Why am I attracted to his art? He draws with such precise grace it actually makes your eyes ache a little (in a good way). And his drawings are intelligent, speaking volumes. His drawings and paintings are filled with an energetic push that keeps the viewer thinking and looking. His journal sketches in particular have an intense energy and movement derived in part from the way in which he is constantly drawing over other images. He doesn’t redraw so much as draw another view right on top of something, often a face, so that the end result is a stop-motion of several views of the subject. There is a careless abandon to this approach—the comfort to draw over images other artists would give their right pinkie to draw. The sketches flow and emerge and just keep bubbling up with creative force. The viewer is rewarded anew with each viewing.

What To Do with A Partially Filled Journal (Not Quite a Superstition)

Above: This image has almost nothing to do with today's topic, except that I have decided to leave the rest of the page BLANK! My choice. Pentel Pocket Brush Pen Sketch with Stabilo Tones used wet, then dry. This is a page from my current journal which I made with Winsor and Newton 90 lb. hot press watercolor paper. The background was prepainted with Golden Fluid Acrylics, with portions masked off with masking tape. The fortune from a dinner cookie was also pre-applied before I reached this page and reads, "The star of riches will shine on you beginning next month." We have wild turkeys on my cycling route and I used notes, sketches, and some reference photos made on this fall's rides for this "thumbnail sketch" which will probably turn into a large acrylic painting. Click on the image to view an enlargement.

I labeled this post "not quite a superstition" because I have written about working chronologically in your journals and leaving blanks in other "superstition" posts. But after I posted Journaling Superstitions #12—Art Papers Are Only for Painting, I received a number of notes from people who have lots of journals that are only partially filled. This post had hit a nerve as to why those journals weren't filled. In writing to these people it struck me I should say something to all the blog readers about this: It's OK to have a partially filled journal.

Urban Journaling—An Upcoming Class

Above: Samples of the long-stitch wrapped-cover, supported-spine journal we will make in this class. The actual book we will make is the sample on the far right: the square one which is about 8 inches square. Cover paper selection will vary depending on availability at the time of class, but there will be a selection. These samples show other topics of discussion: using embossed paper for a cover, collage decoration for a cover, and painting paper (the small journal in the front).Click on the image to view an enlargement.

It's not too early to think of spring, March 27, 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. to be exact.

That's the date of my next book arts class: Urban Journaling at MCBA.

There comes a time in every book artist's life when she needs a book quickly! But it has to be elegant, sturdy, and practical—i.e., filled with luscious art paper for working on in mixed media.

In my Urban Journaling class I'm not only going to teach you how to make such a book, we are then going to go off to the Mall of America for some actual, real-life urban journaling!

We will begin our day by making a 4-signature, longstitch book with a reinforced spine and soft-wrapped cover. Text pages will be acid-free art paper perfect for all sketching media (including watercolor and gouache). You'll learn how to tear paper and prepare your signatures.  We'll discuss paper choices for making art journals. Students will have the option of decorating their cover papers with paints and inks and we will also discuss more labor intensive decoration strategies such as collage for independent exploration outside of class. 

Next, students will learn observational and journaling techniques through discussion, demonstration, and examples from the instructor’s journals. I'll break down some strategies for sketching in public that will build your comfort level regardless of your sketching abilities.

After a lunch break the class will reconvene for an afternoon of sketching and journaling at the Mall of America. People, objects, architecture, conversations, behavior—it will all fall under our scrutiny. And we will absorb every bit of it. Students will experience sketching in public with a group and so gain confidence for solo sketching in the future.

All artistic and bookmaking skill levels are welcome in this class. The supply fee covers everything you need to make this archival book. The fee also includes one of my preferred sketching pens so you'll have the perfect implement for your afternoon drawing adventure. If you already work in colored pencil, watercolor, or another media, feel free to bring additional supplies to the class for your afternoon work. Registered students will receive a "packing light" handout to guide their choices. I will focus on using pens, but depending on student interest will also demonstrate working with the Niji Waterbrush and watercolor.

If you have been sitting on the fence, wanting to make your own books but are afraid of glue; or if you have been eager to sketch in public but feel naked doing so; then you need to join me for this class.

The cost of this one-day class is $95 ($85 for MCBA Members) plus a $20 supply fee.

If you would like to read the class blurb go to the MCBA adult workshops page and scroll down to the March classes where you'll find Urban Journaling. You can click there to register, or call MCBA at 612-215-2520. Plan your spring book arts adventure now!

Journaling Superstitions #12: Art Papers Are Only for Painting

Above: Page spread from my current journal (8 x 7.5 inches approx.) made with Windsor & Newton 90 lb. hot press watercolor paper. I was out without my journal, tracking with a friend, and when I did sketch I did so on a sheet from a graph paper notebook I had with me (left). I glued it in to my journal when I got home, wrote my two columns of related text and then decided to paint the rest of the recto page with fluid acrylics because I wanted to “separate” that portion of the page from the other activities. The next day I visited a new puppy (Tucker) and included this happy accident photo where he’s a speed blur, in my journal with some notes about my visit. (Bottom right you'll see the paper's watermark. If you would like to see the cover of this journal see my "New Batch of Books" post; it's the book on the left in the back row.) Click on the image to view an enlargement.

This superstition is so, so wrong people! I would be rich if I had 50 cents for every journaling student who told me, during the course of one of my classes, that he or she couldn’t write on fine watercolor paper. “There’s something wrong about it. I have to save that for painting.” ETC., ETC., ETC.

Well, that’s just WRONG. Journals aren’t about saving paper for some special painting, epiphany, or skill level that you’re going to attain. Journals are for documenting your life and some of that documentation will take the form of text. (Or require that you stick something down on top of the watercolor paper [GASP], such as a photo, receipt, note, or even a sketch from a notebook like I did in the above page spread).

Dogs, Weirdo Journals, and Speed Series: Part 1

Left: A sketch of a French Bull Dog in my small, narrow (3.5 x 8 inch) Weirdo Journal, using a Pentel Pocket Brush Pen and gouache over acrylic ink (cobalt blue) that was already painted on the page. Click on the image to view an enlargement.

I have a stack of art books I want to review on my blog but I have had little time to make my way through them, much less organize my thoughts. Some sort of list or series of posts about those books will come to you in the next several weeks, sadly, not in time for you to purchase them as gifts if you celebrate any of the upcoming holidays, but perhaps some new reading for the new year?

In the meantime I wanted to show you a few more spreads from the SMALL and NARROW weirdo journal I finished on November 22. (I'm now well into the new 8 x 8 inches or so journal and will have much to say about it soon.)

I think it is important to think in terms of series. I've said this before on the blog, but I can't say it enough. Series teach us something about our subject, our materials, and ourselves (our tastes, our determination, our frustration level, our current skill level, our goals…).

They can also be useful in rounding out a book in lickety-split speed so that you can go on to a format that is more welcoming.

On the other hand, working in a fast series within a journal will also help you acclimatize to that journal if you are having trouble with the journal—feeling it is too precious, feeling your work isn't going well, whatever!

APICA Notebooks: Possibilities…

Above: Poorly lit photo (sorry, no time to get out the grey paper and put up lights) of some new paper and notebook options I found at Wet Paint the other day. On the left is the APICA 5-signature soft-bound notebook, on the right is the red "Scroll" (it has a scroll pattern on the front cover) one-signature soft-bound notebook, in the center under these is a test painting on the paper of the red "Scroll" notebook, and in the front, some highly acidic, but really fun (and thin) airmail paper. Click on the image to view an enlargement.

Some papers appeal to me because they speak to the student in me, still lingering on, who remembers what it was like to work in exercise books, write reams of notes, and scribble on any slip of paper regardless of the line or grid pattern that covered that paper.

So if you've still got a connection to that inner student in you the APICA notebooks might just be something to look into. They just arrived at Wet Paint (I had begged them to call me as soon as they came in so I could run over and buy some to test out.)

Birds in the Small Weirdo Journal

Left: Here's another spread from the small weirdo journal, which is even more weird because of it's odd size: 3.5 x 8 inches approx. Graphite sketch of a pet store bird; it is so fun to use pencil on this old Folio paper. I don't like working with pencil on the currently available version of this paper, but while I was in this journal made with the old paper I couldn't resist. (.9 mm mechanical pencil with B lead.) Click on an image to view an enlargement.

Playing around with pencil and not caring if it smudges across the spread in this journal. Birds are getting a little scarce around here. I'm going to return to a "secret" location Tom and I discovered the other day, to see if the hundreds and hundreds of Canada Geese are still there. In the meantime I'm grateful for pet store birds.

Another Weirdo Journal

Left: Page spread from the next weirdo journal (3.5 x 8 inches approx.). A sketch of a pear using Stabilo Tones. I have scanned this narrow book with the covers visible so you can see the decorative paper on those covers: decorative paper I made with metallic acrylic paints. Click on the image to view an enlargement.

After I finished my last weirdo journal things didn't "normalize." I elected to work in a very oddly shaped journal, 3.5 x 8 inches, that I had made in 2001 as a class sample. (The goal of the class was to make two books: a larger 8-inch square book and then this smaller book with scraps.)

The paper used in this book was the original Folio paper I love so much. Of course I didn't want this book to sit idly on the shelf, even if it did have an odd aspect. Also, lugging the weirdo journal around became quite a trial at the end as it got heavier and heavier with more collage material—and it was never a light volume to begin with. A small, light book seemed just the solution.

And it was, in a way the solution—less neck stress because of a lighter pack. In another way it was a challenge as the page spread was so narrow that placing a point of interest so it didn't fall in the gutter or so the rest of the subject didn't disappear off the side of the page became an interesting game, not always successfully played. Such was my reaction to the book that I whipped through the 54 pages (left after I'd cut pages out to leave room for collage material) in 10 days and sighed audibly when I closed the book finally.

I'm glad I worked in this book because the paper is too yummy to pass by, but I'm also glad I was able to work through it quickly and return to my preferred size 8 x 8 inches or so. I'll post more pages from the journal as time goes by. Meanwhile I'm left to ponder how to refer to such "oddities" I recently dubbed weirdo journals, in a transitional time (and when isn't one in a transitional time?). Especially when weirdo is definitely the norm and not weird at all.

The Weirdo Journal Completed

On October 22 I posted a short video of my weirdo journal in progress. I thought it would be fun for people to see how the pages were being built, while they were under construction.

I finished that visual journal on November 12 and made the above video of the completed journal. (The video runs for about 8 minutes.) The video is low visual quality as I'm working with my small digital camera and taping in 60 second increments, but I think it shows you enough to get the pace and feel of the journal. Additionally you can see stills and read discussions about various page spreads by going to Weirdo Journal: Posts which Cover this Journal, which is a PAGE on my blog, found under "Pages" in the left column of this blog.

In the above vide, which shows the completed journal, I use the words "other journal" at the beginning of the video when I am actually talking about the other "video," but from context I think this is clear, and almost immediately I make the correct statement. I hope this clarifies things. If not, well just enjoy what you see.

If the embedded video doesn't work please go to view the Weirdo Journal Completed on YouTube.

If you haven't been reading the various posts on this journal and wonder whether you would enjoy going back to check them out I'll just say that I think that what is most fun for me in this journal is the mix of sketching and collage I did, as well as some gouache paintings and some Stabilo Tone drawings. There is as usual a lot of Pentel Pocket Brush Pen work. If those things interest you then you'll enjoy those posts.

Wendy Hale Davis' Latest Journal

My friend Wendy has posted photos of her latest journal on her blog Little Ray. She is a fabulous bookbinder and artist and you really need to see this stunning journal!

Also in her post she writes about the process by which she created this stunning book. It is always fun to read about how people make their creative ideas come to fruition in tangible form. You will be inspired by her ingenuity.

And you will enjoy her first journal entry in the new book, which she also posts. A mutual friend asked her about her hyphenation system, visible on the page. Wendy explained breaking words in odd places used to bother her, "…But they do it in all the old manuscripts. They also abbreviated the heck out of stuff. I usually try to use a dot when I break a word in a really really weird place, and a dash when it's a conventional hyphen like thing. But then I can never remember where the hyphens are really supposed to go."

Given that I have been writing about text treatment in journals (writing in columns or not writing in columns), I had to share Wendy's additional take on line breaks because it is perfect: a continuation of tradition while going with the flow. Something we can all learn from.

After you've read her blog you can go to Wendy Hale Davis' website and check out more of her beautiful visual journal work. Her work will inspire you to look more closely at your own life. Go read her blog now!