This is the first week of the series: "How did they do that?"
We all thought it would be fun to be able to look further than a page, and chat with a Caravan traveller and ask the artist to share about their work and the thoughts behind a certain page.
This week I choose
Indy aka SassyIndy in the galleries for the interview. I picked this card from her work to talk about:
image is linked!
I will not make it all chatty (like I use to do a lot LOL) so here we go onto the questions:
1. First lets talk about yourself, can you give us an intro of you as an artist? How did you become an art journaler/scrapper? What was your journey to become this far?
I have always had an affinity with art since I was young. It was my favorite subject in grade school and you would always find me doodling/drawing at the back of my notebook much to the consternation of my grandfather who at that time was putting me through school. In High School, I was the illustrator for our school newsletter. I considered applying for a Fine Arts degree when going for a University but was told back then that there was no money in art. I should have listened to my heart back then. I went to study Psychology but ended up shifting to an art-related course, B.S. Architecture. But you know what? I never pursued my profession. I never really believed I could make art or be any good at it. All throughout those years art would call me back through various other craft forms and passing fancies. Always yearned to learn how to paint and do collage but never had the guts to do it, always telling myself that the materials were too expensive. Until I stumbled upon digital scrapbooking in 2007 and was instantly hooked! Because of digital scrapbooking I re-discovered my artistic soul and started learning photoshop on my own, it even led to work doing some graphic design and scrap-for-hire (I'm a SAHM right now) and creating wedding album layouts for family and friends. Still collage, mixed media, art journaling on paper were stuff I was scared to venture into. Until the Art Journal caravan, even then I was contemplating on going fully digi. But yes, I decided to "Act Now" on the stuff that I keep holding back on. And so here I am right now and let me tell you, just going on this journey is enough.
2. I absolutely love your art journal entry titled "I WILL ACT NOW". Can you tell us what the story is behind this page?
I watched Teesha Moore's video tutorial and was blown away by her work. I love color, and adding lots of details and filling my pages (its very difficult for me to create a simple page layout, I have the urge to fill every nook and cranny, LOL!) and her style just so GOT me. So I just sat down and created. "I WILL ACT NOW" was my 2nd art journal entry, I was still hot on the wake of the first one I created and had lots of stuff I tore out of magazines and I just wanted to play around some more. It was really hard choosing my "One Word" for the year and after choosing "LIVE", I felt that I needed to remind myself that in order to do that, I had to "ACT NOW". That quote by Og Mandino really just summed up what I wanted to tell myself. The artwork just came together, adding the strips of cut-out magazines, combining the colors, just experimenting. I decided to be adventurous and ink in all doodles without penciling - telling myself - "go with the flow, go with the flow...there are no mistakes". I think once you let loose like that everything just seems to come together.
3. How do you start your pages? Do you "think it all out" or "just go with it"?
I find that when I think too much about my pages they come out all stiff and just "trying too hard". So I just go with it and see what will surface. I do sometimes have sudden bursts of ideas or a quote/saying will jump out at me and I have learned to just jot them down (I just can't rely on my memory too much, haha!) I always kick myself when I'm say, sitting in the car on a long trip and suddenly I have an idea and did not write it down. By the time I get back home, most of the ideas would escape me and I'll be tearing out my hair trying to remember.
4. Do you have a ritual when it comes to art journaling? Something you always start or end with?
There is no set ritual - just that I feel the need to have all my supplies on hand near me. I'm a very messy art journaler and I usually occupy the whole dining table or my desk. Everything has to be laid out for me to see and reach easily. I do love to look at patterns, fabrics, pictures and sometimes something will jump out at me that will fuel my imagination and lead me to create the current page I'm working on. Its an ongoing trial and error process for me and I am trying to learn how to do new things and experiment with different styles until my own shines through.
5. Can you tell us about the process of your "I WILL ACT NOW" page? Some steps to share?
I did as Teesha Moore taught in her video and painted in several pages with the background color. Then I went looking for strips to cut-out and paste around the border. Just feeling what fits.. following instinctively what feels right to me. For the "I WILL ACT NOW" page, I thought of creating another dolly. I actually made a lot of mistakes there but just kept going over and over them until it looked the way I wanted (oh stop there, nothing looks the way I want it too but I just keep going, LOL, maybe that's my process there!).
6. I notice a lot of doodles on your pages (which I absolutely love! I can't wait to try it for myself) Can you give us a heads up on how to start doodling? Is there a technique you have or something that always looks good on pages?
Thanks Mendy! I started teaching myself how to doodle by looking at other peoples doodle pages, looking at the combination used and then just sitting down with pen and paper and just having a go at it. There are so many combination - lines, dots, squares, triangles, checkers, squiggles, twirls, dash, zig-zag...start by copying the lines or pattern used until eventually you start becoming comfortable doing them on your own and creating your own combination In Architecture school I remember the professors had us do "stippling" and cross-hatch when they had us render some architectural facades or details - a trick we learned was to use the light box and lay our tracing paper over the photograph of the building or detail to copy. We then apply the stippling work on the sheet of paper. It's a good way to practice the technique.
Well I hope you enjoyed reading about Indy as much as I did and learned a little more or maybe got some information or inspiration out of it.
Hope to have you here again Sunday for a new "Highlights of the week" and next Wednesday there will be another "How did they do that?"
xo Mendy (DutchieM)
image is linked!
image is linked!
image is linked!
