Journal Peek-a-boo

...or "A Bit Of Fun With Colour - Part: The Second

Hello there!

In my previous post, I mentioned the li'l journal I made while I was packing and clearing and moving from my home. This be it:

The covers are made from a lovely gift box from a friend of mine. It had lovely vintage designs over thick chipboard so was a no-brainer for covers when it sadly got really rather squished during the packing process. I just couldn't bear to throw it away and couldn't KEEP random bits of cardboard as every inch of packing space would have to count. It's a coptic stitched collection of whatever paper was still lying about and it's become my favourite journal of, ooooh, EVER! I shall very much be making another one ready for the new year.

I had epic fun cutting up scraps to make loads of page tabs, also using some old sheets of alpha stickers which had escaped the packing process. When I found a little box of spare stickers left from old projects they swiftly got added too. Honestly - LOADS of fun!

Then:

...aaaand now:

I loved this journal so much that I actually looked forward to filling pages in every night, and it filled up pretty quickly! Writing was cathartic, but drawing helped me focus and relax. I only had a black pen and one set of pencils - the Crayola Pro set that I mentioned in the previous post. I found these pics that I took at the time:

I don't have the tin any more, and the pencils are way more worn down now but I reckon they're one of the nicest sets I've ever worked with where colour layering is concerned. Anyhoo, I promised I'd share some pages of doodles with you so here we go -

Living with piles and piles of boxes and STUFF, before the house clearance people came, but at least the garden provided some respite.

Of course, the Colonel, my kitty cat, made a regular appearance with his VERY understandable mood swings -

...and of course, his rich and exciting life of adventure had to be represented:

He has a very daring and thrilling private life. I don't ask questions, I am but his servant and chronicler of his exploits!

I recorded world events that affected me emotionally...

...and personal moments that made me smile...

I treated myself to a takeaway - not a regular thing, but intended to cheer me up. HOWEVER - I forget EVERY TIME just how crappy they make me feel! 

I have an awesome friend who lives MILES away, but who kept sending me pictures via Pinterest to cheer me up - it worked! Thanks buddy!

And this is a weird one - I found a perfect butterfly lying on the floor of the out-house. Like so many people, I've always held an almost spiritual significance to butterflies so it upset me. I picked it up gently but there were no signs of life. I put it in a shallow box by the open back door with some sweet flowers and a little sugar water but when there was no movement after a week I assumed it was indeed dead. I removed the water and the flowers but couldn't bear to dispose of the beautiful, perfect creature so left it in the box and carried on. Two weeks later, I heard a gentle scuffling in the box, and as I walked towards it the butterfly flew up and away over the garden hedges. Yep. Weird. And awesome also!

I also recorded grotty days, like when I was utterly knackered from moving boxes day after day after day and just spent 24 hours lying on the floor letting my body rest a while, basically because any and all movement was totally out of the question -

and those times when mother nature likes to remind us that we're the incarnation of a goddess. Thanks mother nature......thanks....

I recorded memories of my childhood that popped into my head as I let go of the heirlooms that I had no space for or had already lost -

 It helped to record them.

Of course, there are always going to be mermaids!

And there were moments of peace and being ready to move on -

So that's that! Somehow, even though this was one of THE MOST traumatic times in my life, I can actually look back at that little book and smile. It makes me happy, and I think that the doodles help a lot.

I'm so glad I had those coloured pencils. I think it's so important to find the colour in life no matter how dark things become, and allow to help you find a path back into the sunshine. If you've never kept a journal, I'd encourage you to give it a go - and make it YOURS. There's no right or wrong way to record your life and your feelings. You can write, draw, paint, collage, doodle, use quotes or passages of prose or poetry, song lyrics or exerpts from tv shows or plays. Use scrapbooking, note books, organisers, sketch books - anything that makes you happy. Not only is it a way to get you through tough times, but it records happy moments, the quirky and the weird, the downright mad and the hilarious. There'll be things you would forget that can be so precious if you record them - maybe not just to you....maybe to your kids, grandkids. And through it all, try and add that all important colour!

I hope you've enjoyed this journey through one my own favourite journals and I hope it in some way can inspire you to keep a record of your life and that of your family.

Sending love and hugs - Shroo :) xxx

ps. The Colonel thanks you for your time. 

You may return. 

Bring cake.

A Bit Of Fun With Colour

It's Monday again..... ugh!

 (faffing about with collage images)

I'm not a fan! I think if I had the option, Mondays would - every one of the vile things - be DUVET DAYS!!! So to combat the bleakness of the general Monday effect, AND the VERY cold English winter, I thought I'd just throw a bit of colour at the day. So here we go!

Never Underestimate The Humble Coloured Pencil!

I have a scary amount of coloured pencils, and I managed to keep them all due the convenient fact they pack up REALLY small! See - lookee....

...I mean, it may not seem a lot to some epic art supply hoarders, but it seems a heckuva lot to me! They represent quite a few years of judicious investment and have been worth every penny.

For long enough (ooooo, eons ago) I only used coloured pencils for dry shading and blending, mixing with graphite to ease the blending process and make the colours more natural. I don't have much from that time but I do have this picture of sea gulls that I did as a gift for my uncle WAAAAY back when -

I'm really sorry for the slightly iffy clarity there...it's behind glass in a frame and I honestly couldn't face the hassle of undoing it all just for photos so I hope it's clear enough....kinda.  This was done using my then favourite set of Faber Castell blendable coloured pencils which I pretty much wore down to stumps over the years. Again, I used graphite as a blending base to mute the colours and then added all of the detail with a Faber architect's graphics ink pens, which came in a handful of separate pieces and could be filled with lovely india ink. Very sexy pens they were too. Some bugger nicked them years ago and I still wish I had them as they had the finest and most reliable points ever! Here're some close-ups -

Again, sorry for the slightly gammy photography...the glass kind of mucks about with the tone somewhat, but you get the idea.

Aaaaanyhoo, I ended up using mainly ink pens for years and years and then fell out of arting altogether for quite a while. When I started again, I slowly - li'l bit by li'l bit - built up a set of Derwent watercolour pencils, and when I used them it was always as a wet medium. I guess that's just how my interests developed. If you're new to my blogginess you can see illustrations using these pencils HERE.  Adding Derwent Inktense and Graphitint sets just reinforced pencils as a tool for wet mixed media.

THEN, when mum died earlier this year I had to move, clearing the equivalent of a three-storey house down to a very, VERY small storage unit. I had to be extremely judicious with what I kept and harden my heart to everything else which just plain had to go. The stress was ooooooooo...very stressy McStressface. So I set aside a sketchbook and one set of Crayola coloured pencils that mum bought me AGES ago that I'd never ever used because they weren't water soluble (SUCH a pencil snob!). I made a quick little journal from odds and ends to help me drain my brain every night while I packed up the rest of my life, and started using those pencils as it seems, as I've said before, that I can't live without colour! I'll share a bit of that journal with you in my next post - kind of a 'part two' thing....

SO it turns out that those pencils are AWESOME. AWE-SOME! I can't find any more on websites so I'm worried that Crayola don't make them any more (they have been sitting idle in my old studio for YEARS!) They layer like an absolute dream! I forgot how much fun it was to scribble layer after layer of colour and just play!  As an antidote to Monday blues, I'm going to share some scribbly, sketchy, bright, garish pencilly fun with you and hope it lifts your day! They're not gonna hang in any gallery, but BOY oh boy were they a load of fun!

I guess the moral of the post is not to dismiss ANY art product until you've had a good old play with it - you never know what fun is waiting for you and your arty muse!  Don't forget the silly side of artyness!! Photos will now follow - sending hugs to all, Shroo :) xxx

A Few Pages...

Hello again!

Here are some of the layered,torn pages from my most recent art journal. This journal may help me get back into mixed media art, but it's mainly about identifying my emotions, accepting and dealing with where I am in my healing process. It seems that I can't stop using colour - and lots of it - no matter how dark things seem....must be an inherent optimism kicking in. Thing is that the use of colour and the process of layering it down is beneficial to the soul and I wouldn't change it for the world!

I've put the pages in date order and I've chosen not to explain each one, partly because it's personal and difficult to put into words, and partly so that you can make your own choices regarding any meanings - art is subjective after all.

Anyhoo - hope you like them. If you want any more detail about products used or more photos just let me know ok? Thanks for visiting - hugs from Shroo ;) xxx

Beginning Again

....and Merry Boxing Day too!

I hope you're all well and that the season finds you with the ones you love, happy and content. I've been away for a while - as you can plainly see from the dates on the posts - and spent a looong time debating whether to close my blog down for good, but I figure I at least owe you lovely people some thanks for your support at a really crappy time in my life, and for your patience and let you know that it meant - and means - the world to me.

Breaking back into blogging feels weird at the moment and six months is a heck of a long time to sum up concisely but I'll make a start at least. As it's still the festive season, I'll keep it light as much as possible! I have kept 'arting'.., for myself, and I think it's saved my sanity! I have a new journal - I've actually filled three since leaving blogging - this one being an altered book that I kept when we cleared my uncle's home a couple of years back. I've had to leave a lot behind for practical reasons so it's been an exercise in starting over, and having to let go of so SO much stuff has encouraged me to incorporate more personal items - photos, ephemera, keepsakes etc - into my journals so that they're easy to pack and keep as I continue through life. Space-saving has become an issue! I'll share my progress with you over the next few posts. I hope that some of my rambles and ideas and such might be useful to people and I figure that it's one thing to give advice, but another to share the personal practical applications of it. Can't really do one without the other, eh?

As I'm not overly sure where to begin I'll start with my current journal. I moved back to written journaling for quite a while during my house clearance and house move which was just after mum died. It was such an upheaval that I think I just needed to vent and journaling became a daily catharsis for me. I did find myself still filling it with doodles and pictures when words would not suffice and gradually, the art has taken over again. I still find myself needing to write so at present I have a couple of books on the go but the one I'll share a bit of now is mainly art. I know it's not everyone's idea of journaling but as I've said on many previous occasions it's all about what works for me.

These are my recent journals - I apologise for the dodgy pics, my camera's a bit.....temperamental!

Yep....that's my (*ahem*) TIDY (ahahaha) workdesk. Yep.  This is the altered book journal -

It's the usual thing - I removed some pages and glued others together. I opted to just leave some as single pages as well, some torn or cut, just for variety. I've only faffed about with the first half of the book - I learned that lesson a long time ago. Altering it as I go along ensures that it still closes because I can remove more pages whenever I need to - it doesn't bulk out or tear. I opted to keep this book because it has a lot of surveyors diagrams in it which look cool when they show through background layers: just adding a bit more interest where I want them to.  I kept a box of cut-outs and ephemera which I sifted through so that I could add some tabs and images to pages to alter as I go along. It's worked very well and gives me useful prompts when my mind goes a bit blank.

....Tidy, tidy workspace..... shyeah! aha!

To help me focus and have purpose, I wrote myself a note inside the front cover:

"This altered book originally belonged to my uncle who was a chartered surveyor. It is now a journal to help me re-build my confidence in making art, trying new techniques and developing skills. Although I may choose to share some pages, this is for my own enjoyment and will hopefully reflect my personality, thoughts, dreams and humour. I have no concern that some pages will suffer a natural decay and damage from regular book use...this is as beautiful to me as the art itself."

.....Basically I just needed to re-introduce myself to mixed media work after having been left so long with just one basic set of coloured pencils and a pen! The value of art journaling, aside from the soul-calming element, is that it does indeed provide a safe place for building confidence in using different mediums and techniques. It took a couple of pages of slightly halting messing about before I found my way again but I'm a lot happier now. It's also helped me to settle a little....I miss my studio dreadfully, and having no place to call home for a while was pretty scary, but working on this book helped me to nest a little and feel at home where I am now which was an unexpected bonus!

I'll leave this here for today but I promise to be back with more in the next day or so. I'd like, once again,  to thank the lovely people who left comments on my earlier post, "To Heal My Heart" and who took the time to email me. You've no idea how much your words helped me and reassured me that there is great kindness in this world.  Thanks for visiting again - big hugs to everyone, from Shroo:)

Wishing everyone a very merry Christmas and all the best for a happy new year 2015 from Shroo x

To Heal My Heart

Today has been a tough day.

Today, my mum died. She has fought valiantly against cancer, staying strong and positive but infection wore her down and she was  released from her battle this afternoon just as the sun broke through the rain clouds that have dominated the week's weather. A group of butterflies took flight from the ground outside her window, and she was free.  

She was an artist, a dancer, a pure kind spirit and constant inspiration to all who knew her, including myself. I know she'll live in my heart every day, just as I lived in hers and I will feel her willpower and love with me always. 

I wanted to share this with you as I've been away from here, caring for her and loving her for some time now. She loved to read this blog while she was able and I wrote most posts with her in mind. I wanted her to know how much I value everything she taught me, and the gifts that I inherited from her. She was my guide through the darkness and my companion in the light and although I feel incomplete without her by my side, I take strength from knowing that all that she was is still with me now and always, in her words and deeds and in her beautiful art. 

She has danced into a glorious colourful meadow of summer flowers, accompanied by the sound of lark song and the love I sent with her. 

Love you mum. Dance and be happy. xxxxxx

Finding Time for Art - Or ELSE!

Let's pretend it's only been a couple of cheeky days since my last post, shall we? Yes....just for a lark... How is it that despite there being twenty-four long hours in each and every sparkly day, there's simply bugger-all time to get stuff ACTUALLY properly done? Or even a BIT done, in some cases.

I've been INCREDIBLY busy - which, in itself, SUCKS - but then, on top of the hectic, I've decided to severely de-clutter. Sounds like a GOOD idea, eh? yeeeeaaaahh...... no. I have this thing where I have to make sure that  stuff's not wasted, which makes getting rid of the crap I have in my house a nightmare! It's even EVEN harder because I actually LIKE my crap.... I love my awesome Disney snowglobes.... I live for my gorgeous books.... I adore my nik-naks and collectables... Parting with any of them at all (and choosing frugally which ones to keep) is like Sophie's Choice every time! Added to which I'm a first class procrastinator. So my house looks like several really quite big bombs have hit it. A lot!

This is not condusive to relaxation - or art. It is, however, a real boon for the stress-fairy, who's become a permanent fixture, limpeting onto my brain and playing havoc with my blood pressure. Normally I'd have out with the paints and the shiny arty things and flap it all about 'til calm returned, but a/ I've packed things away so that they're safe while I sort through stuff and dispose of various bits, and b/ I can't get into the studio as it's full of charity/ebay/collector's shops boxes all piled up ready for re-distribution. Stress-fairy is THRILLED with this and has been happily cranking up that blood pressure for a month now, so this last week, I foraged through a forgotten corner and found a teeny weeny sketchbook and a couple of my favourite Tachikawa ink pens and have determined to set aside a little time every day to doodle and remember to breathe.

 True.

As it's been....a few days (shush) since that last post, I thought I'd share the first few pages with you, sort of whether you like it or not! Moowahaha... You'll notice that they're all sea-based. That's because I like sea-based things. I'm not planning to win an award here, just not to have my head, heart or anything else explode from the results of poor time/space/stuff management. SO here we go...in page order....:

The scanner's not keen on the paper. The backgrounds are all left sort of off-white but my scanner - Gertie - decided to add random blotches. As I can only assume that it's an expression of her own artistic muse. Aww.  This sketchbook's only tiny - it's 5"x5" and that's kind of cool as it allows me to finish things quickly. Less intimidation, more fun! Take THAT, stress-fairy!

....An absolutely accurate - almost photographic - depiction of a standard day on our local coastline. *ahem*

I like cormorants. There are LOADS (I counted - that's accurate) of them around our local docklands, so I added a couple of docky-type images to this beaky chappie just for fun.

 Gertie Scanner really hates this paper... Anyhoo - mermaid! I KNOW! Who'd have thought it? Me, draw a MERMAID! Craaaaazy......

Naughty Octopus! DOWN boy! SIT! It's the marine version of a Freudian nightmare, but then that's octopusesesesesesi for you.  I've not faffed with detail on the octochappie as I intend to throw some inktense pencils his way. When I can reach them. Or find them.

More mermaids, some fishies and a message in a bottle. Sorted.

Another fish. He has a jellyfish for a belly and he likes it. He's a fish.

So that's an update. Sorry it's not more exciting or tutorialy but if you wanna swap - I'll have your studio with paints and tables and stuff, and you can have mine with it's boxes and bin-bags..... Nah....didn't think so! 

I'm off to get some sleep before another hectic day begins. Sending some love out to the blogosphere - if I'm REALLY lucky I'll have time soon to visit YOUR awesome blogs and say 'hi!' - hopefully whilst sitting in a MUCH clearer, muse-friendly space!  Wish me luck! Much love -Shroo :) xxx