Art Journal Notebook

I just started working on a new art journal and this week Inspire me Thursday is about altered notebooks. Thought I would post my beginnings....

Purchased at Michaels, the heavy weight paper pages measure 7” x 10” and are unlined. Originally the notebook contained a total of 125 or so pages. I glued 2 or 3 pages at a time, so now there are 58 pages. I painted the pages that I had glued together. Because I am rather impatient it took me 1 & 1/2 days to get the pages glued and painted. Just couldn't stop once I started that part. I love the way acrylic drys quickly in Arizona's dry environment.

Next....using my digital images, I printed on: lace paper, tyvec, matte paper, canvas, ribbed drawing paper, lutradur, a substrate made from gel media- cheesecloth and golden’s digital ground, and finally a transfer created with gel media and golden’s digital ground. I also used pages from a dictionary, dyed burlap, wire, hemp etc for collage. I tore some images, cut others and started creating some collage and writing. I still have 22 pages that consist of paint only waiting to be collaged before journaling on them.

For the cover I used heavy weight upholstery fabric. For the front and back outside cover I cut strips and pieces of the fabric, and then pieced them together with large stitches. Next some small circular gathered pieces were added. I anchored all the pieces with embroidery thread. Then I glued the front and back outside pieces to the cover with gel media. I added a strip of crocheted cotton yarn to the left front. For the inside covers, I found a piece of fabric that waspieced long ago with digital fabric. I used gel media to attach the scrap piece to the inside back cover and added smaller pieces of the upholstery fabric to fill in some spaces.

So here is a view of some of my almost finished notebook.

BRANCHING OUT WITH DIGITAL PRINTS

This months (and next) Cloth Paper Scissors arrived in my mailbox today. Although I knew it would be there, I was excited to see my “Branching out with Digital Prints” among the articles. The staff does such a great job with CPS magazine in publishing interesting articles, inviting visuals and some great “how to” information. I love looking through their pages every time it gets delivered. It is always a pleasure working with their editors. Be sure to pick up the September/October issue:)

Currently I am focused on writing some “how to” information in the form of ebooks. The ones in the works are about using Photoshop Elements to create interesting images for art journals and mixed media art.

Next year during Art & Soul Retreats in Hampton Virginia I will be teaching 2 workshops in Photoshop Elements. On April 30, 2009 the workshop will be “Photoshop Elements 101” and on May 1, my workshop will be “Creative Digital Scrapbook pages with Photoshop Elements”.

Although most of my work is created with Photoshop CS3, I love working on Photoshop Elements. The program is easy to use and although it doesn’t have some of my favorite features from the regular Photoshop program, it is user friendly. The learning curve for Photoshop Elements is less steep then CS3 and the price is reasonable.

The registration information on the Hampton Virginia Art and Soul Retreats will be on their website in mid September. I will put the link up when the site is ready.

New Journal Page Downloads

I'm at the Phoenix airport waiting for a plane to Buffalo. Our son coaches in the minor league system for the St. Louis Cardinals, so my husband and I are on the way for a visit to Batavia New York where his team plays. We will get to see Niagara Falls this trip, so maybe I will get some good pics for new digital designs:) Haven't been to the Falls since I was a little kid.

These are prints of the 10" x 22" digital pages that can be downloaded from my KathyAnne Art website. The link I put here and on the title will bring you right to the page for the new images.

I print these pages on Fabriano Artistico, hot press 140lb watercolor paper and then fold in half to make journal pages for a journal that ends up measuring 10" x 11". I loaded these images last week and if you want to try one for free, you can use the word awesome in the coupon box at checkout.

The prints are lightly colored, so that they can be written over in journals and then of course you can collage over them and create your journal space just the way you like it. I haven't gotten my examples photographed yet, but will post them in a future blog. Once you download, just size to your paper specifications and print.

Have a great week!!

La Jolla FiberArts exhibits Forest Surfaces

Catching up

A few weeks ago I shipped over 16 pieces to La Jolla FiberArts in La Jolla California. My show opened on July 28th with an opening reception on Friday night the first of August. The 3 days before I left for La Jolla I taught a 3 day workshop on digital printing on uncommon surfaces. Busy week and I am just getting myself to the bottom of the list that accumulated when I was out of my studio. At the same time, I have been scheduling several workshops and will be putting a list of these on my blog in the next week or so.

A big thanks to Lynn, Dan and Susie, from La Jolla FiberArts for the brilliant and wonderful job they did in hanging my show and putting on a beautiful spread for my opening reception. This work is a challenge to hang. I spent a great weekend at the gallery and appreciate all the work that went into the weekend to open my Forest Surfaces with success!

Contact Lynn or Susie at La Jolla FiberArts for information and sales.

The artists’ nook workshop dates

I am extremely excited to be teaching at the artists’ nook in Fort Collins Colorado this October.

October 17, 2008

Beginning Digital Printing on Fabric and Specialty Papers

This workshop will give the participants the knowledge to digitally print images on fabric and other specialty paper surfaces. Participants will see how to coat and prepare papers and surfaces such as lutradur, lace paper and other uncommon surfaces in order to get a good quality print for mixed media journals and art.

Learn to use a variety of surfaces in the digital print process from an ink jet printer. Using an art journal format, we will create small compositions from an assortment of surfaces that have been previously printed.

We will also create from some small prints printed during the workshop. This is an informative class and will give the participant all the information needed to begin using a digital process in artwork.


October 18, 2008

Digital Mixed Media Art Journal

There are infinite possibilities when using digital media to create mixed media art and journals.
This workshop will explore a multitude of ideas for using and creating digital prints, patterns and textures for use in journals.

Participants will experiment with their images to create pages and elements that can be printed from any ink jet printer. We will explore the creation of art journals from textural covers to individually inspired content.

Create your own signature journal from the multitude of innovative ideas demonstrated and discussed.

October 19

The Textured Surface

Texture is a scrumptious element to add to journals and mixed media art journals. This workshop is designed to produce extremely interesting textural surfaces by using all sorts of materials.

Examine surface design ideas and develop unique surfaces of your own. There is no end to the way materials can be manipulated to create interest and texture in the surface of your artwork. We will use fabric, digital prints on various surfaces (be sure to bring photographs and prints that you don't mind altering) and an assortment of items.

Discover the techniques that work the best for you and take the time to create your own signature


Go to the artists' nook webstie for information and registration!

Surface Design's Magazine

The summer issue of Surface Design, the journal of the Surface Design Association, has been published. Suzanne Smith Arney wrote an article entitled "Forest Matrix" about my Forest Surfaces work. See if you can get the issue, as always, the magazine is scrumptious in it's visuals and articles. Patricia Malarcher and her staff do a wonderful job producing this magazine and I am honored to have my artwork in Surface Design.

Golden Digital Grounds

For several years, I have been printing on all sorts of substrates using inkAID products. Recently Golden introduced a line of digital grounds for the purpose of printing quality images on a variety of surfaces. Thanks to Golden, I had the opportunity to use this new line of Golden products. The prints on lutradur used in Bark 13 have been coated coated with Golden's white matte and the lace paper has been coated with the clear gloss.

Bark 13 is 16" x 16" and made up of lutradur and lace paper, wrapped around twigs and jute twine with copper wire. The work is assemble on hardware cloth.

Forest Surfaces 9

Finishing photographs of some of my new work, so this will be the first of 3 new pieces I will post in the next couple of weeks. This piece is 18" x 19" and is composed of tyvec, lutradur, watercolor paper, dyed canvas and dyed cheesecloth, with a layer of crocheted hemp assembled on hardware cloth with brass wire.

The original print is a photo taken in Yosemite National Park. This photo is a reflection of El Capitan mirrored in the Merced River. Prints on tyvec, lutradur and watercolor paper are layered with crocheted hemp, dyed canvas and dyed cheesecloth. The lutradur surface is printed over a coating of inkAID white matte precoat. I heat distressed the print on lutradur, which is the top layer.

When the first of the layers were assembled, I created a print on both sides of tyvec without using any precoat so that the print would be a lighter color on the back side. This print is cut into small squares and using brass wire I attached hemp and the squares to the top of the surface that had already been completed. A detail is included.

Bark 11, 27" x 15"

One of 3 new pieces in the works. This one is composed of 3 separate layers of lutradur that is coated with a light layer of inkAID's white matte precoat. Each layer was heat distressed to leave holes and worn away spots in the printed lutradur. The 3 layes of distressed lutradur shows a fragile surface giving the appearance and texture of bark. The original picture Bark 11 (before being digitally manipulated) is a detail section from a Kauri tree in the Waipoua Forest of Northern New Zealand. This is truly one of my favorite places on our planet:)

After the top 3 layers, I tied 5" pieces of twigs into heavy weight jute cord and wrapped that on top of the same Kauri print on metallic crinkle paper. All these layers were wrapped with 24 gauge copper wire and then wired to hardware cloth.

This piece will show for the first time at La Jolla Fiber Arts in La Jolla California. The show will open on July 28, 2008 with an opening reception on Friday night August 1st.

Playing with Inspire Me Thursday

Okay so it isn't quite Thursday, I am a few days late. I have been working on a show of my work for La Jolla Fiber Arts that will open at the end of July. I will start posting some of the work later this week. Until then........

I was visiting INSPIRE ME THURSDAY - the theme from the 12th is "Find the Art in the Everyday". Well everyday I admire a huge cactus in the front of my studio. This year it is endowed with an abundance of flowers and looks outstanding. Taking a pic of a small part of the cactus I create a pattern from a selection of the picture. I then fill a page with the pattern so I could print it for my art journal, (when I print an image to a journal page, I take the opacity down so that the image can be covered with writing). If you are interested, some of my pages are on my www.kathyanneart.com
website.

Here I posted the pic, the pattern and a 16" page full of the pattern.

Check back in a day or two and see some of my new work for the La Jolla show.