Friday, January 20, 2012

Playing with gouache and a brush pen

I spent more time in my studio during my recent vacation than on most of my vacations, but I did find I couldn't do anything too concrete, too specific. I just wanted to play around and not really make anything. I used my studio book for this.


It just so happens that I also was reading Quinn McDonalds book 'Raw Art Journaling' of which I intend to do a book review sometime soon. It's a nice book with simple ideas about filling journal pages with marks and shapes and words. There I saw the idea of ribbons on a journal page (hers look very different by the way).


This sort of got the juices flowing for me and I started to draw lines with a brush pen and filling them in with gouache. I love my gouache box, because of the bright opaque colors. I didn't mix any color for these drawings, they came straight out of the box.


Once I had some lines on paper I started drawing other shapes and I filled some of the pages fully with color. But I liked the ribbons best. There's something very relaxing about them and they are beautiful too.


I also got to thinking about my word for 2012. I never had a word before, always resolutions that were way too ambitious. I had first chosen FUN, but then I read a quote with the word FLAMBOYANCE in it and I really loved how that sounded. It's like fun for the more experienced.  ;-) So I filled a page with a mind map about that and featured the word in a drawing to see if it would fit me.


After trying some plain ribbon drawings I started adding circles. Don't ask me why, it just seemed like a good idea. And I like how it changes the images and makes them come even more alive.


I still have no idea what these drawings mean, or even if they mean anything, but they sure are fun to do. It's just playing with colors and a brushpen and it's so relaxing. I'm sure I will make many more of these in the future.

I wish all of you a wonderful and artsy weekend!