From the Leuchtturm (my journal) plus I have another vacation coming up (blog break alert)

The Leuchtturm1917 notebook that I am currently using as a journal is an absolute pleasure to use. Because of that it is filling up quite rapidly. I started it about two months ago at the end of July and am now approaching 200 pages of writing, drawing and collage. The book has about 250 pages, so I am already in the back of my mind thinking about what I will do after and I must admit getting another Leuchtturm is very very tempting.

Here is a selection of some spreads from this book, just to give you an idea of how I am filling it. Hope you like these peeks into my journals.

When I go through my pictures for the blog I always reread the pages to make sure nobody's privacy is infringed or that I'm writing about stuff that's just a bit too personal to share on a blog. I don't hide much, but that doesn't mean I just share everything without thinking. Anyway, because of the reading I noticed just how much of these writings were either done on the ferry or talk about travel and appointments and being busy.

It's been a full time as I've said in previous posts. At work I'm part of a huge project which means many meetings on the main land and extra hours of work and in my personal life there were all sorts of events and social things that also meant a lot of travel. You can tell life is busy when I have to take the morning ferry four times in one week for instance. I like how the journal reflects my life.

But! Now I will be having a little break from that, because I will be going on another vacation! Yes, it's my fourth one this year and again it is at my sister's house just like last June. This time I will not be dog sitting her lovely dog Jinte, so I will be able to go on longer day trips and I already have several planned, like a photography trip to the zoo and a day in Rotterdam with a friend. I look forward to it very much and yes, this time I will bring my camera!

Because of this vacation and the fact that right after it there will be some crazy times again full of appointments, classes and also a fun weekend trip to Amsterdam with coworkers, I will simply not be able to blog for the coming weeks, not if I want to stay sane that is, haha.

So this is a long winded way to tell you I will be having a longer blog break. Probably for about three weeks. Hopefully when I come back I will have many pictures to share and look back on a wonderful few weeks.

Until then I hope you all will have a wonderful and artsy time!

Around here lately ...

Just some photographs out of my daily life of the last few months.

Drawing classic movie stars. Julie London.

Reading Robin Hobb's latest. Sigh...I cried. A lot.

Keeping the company of a good dog while drawing.

Keeping the company of a good cat while drawing.

Experimenting with doodles.

Grids on the ferry, the beginning.

Grids on the ferry, the conclusion.

The very first session of my new morning project, watercolour mosaics, at my studio table.

The bliss of receiving an order of  a notebook and pens in the mail.

A feather on the beach.

A thing that looks like a feather on the beach.

I am feather obsessed apparently.

My regular house guest, he really thinks he lives here.

Festival time! Into The Great Wide Open is held every September on our island.

I had a wonderful time (and a free ticket!).

Street humor.

A fascinating tattoo magazine, all about handwritten fonts.

Visiting the Groninger Museum

What does it say about me that in a building full of beautiful art I am mostly drawn to this wallpaper pattern?

Always the journal, always always always.

In busy times like I have been going through lately it's things like these that make me realize there is so much more to my life than work and obligations and that I am indeed very fortunate. Photography helps me see the things I am grateful for and puts all of it in perspective. I like that.

Hope you are doing well wherever you are and wishing you a wonderful and artsy day!

Grid drawings

The love of grids continues and will never ever ever stop. Not that I would ever want it to.

Here are some drawings I did in the last few weeks in my Moleskine XL Squared book.

Most of these were done spread out over many nights. They take hours from start to finish and I can never finish one in just one sitting.  I like to take an hour or so before bedtime and unwind with a bit of colouring and drawing while listening to podcasts. It helps quiet my chaotic mind (at least a little).

Hope you have some art to help you unwind in busy times and wishing you a wonderful and artsy weekend.

A cat while you wait ...

This isn't a real post. Just a quick message of sorts.

Usually on Friday I do two or three posts for the coming week, but right now life is a little bit full and busy and I need a little relaxation before another full week comes along. Not fretting about the blog will help, so I won't be posting in the coming week.

But ... I don't want to leave you empty handed so here is the king of relaxation showing us how it's done:

I think we can all learn something from him, don't you?

Wishing you all a wonderful and artsy week!

The next morning project (a step by step)

So I finished my last morning art project a few weeks ago. I filled a book with portraits and I enjoyed it very much. The nice thing about doing those portraits was that it was a pretty fast way to fill a page. I could draw one of those ladies in about 15 to 20 minutes, so every morning I did my art I filled a whole page in my sketchbook.

With that in mind my next morning project is extra daunting. You see, I have decided to fill a watercolour sketchbook with watercolour mosaics. If you have been on this blog for a while you may have seen some of my mosaics in older posts, but I have never really filled a sketchbook just with them. They are, shall we say...a little time consuming?

I do my morning art only 30 minutes every morning and so far the ones I have done (only two) have taken me eight sessions a piece! The book I am using is an A4 Seawhite of Brighton watercolour sketchbook and it has 35 pages. So with a little calculating that means filling this book will take me over 40 weeks! Probably a lot more, since I skip vacations as a rule and sometimes have to skip a day for practical reasons like travel or work.

That being said the actual doing of these mosaics is incredibly relaxing. It's basically drawing little shapes and colouring them in, pretty much the thing I love about all my patterns. So the project may take forever, but at least I'll be very zen every morning, haha.

I thought it might be interesting to show you the process of one of these paintings today, so you can see how such a page comes about and why the hell it takes so long.

Here's a step by step of the second mosaic I did:

That black blob on the right is my cat Spooky who likes to  join me sometimes. :-)

Each picture represents half an hour of work. I draw the mosaic out with a ruler and mechanical pencil and then do each colour seperately. It's a bit of an experiment to see how things turn out, but mostly it's jus a very meditative practice that I enjoy doing.

I will be sure to share some more pages from this sketchbook when I have finished them, but, as you may have guessed by now, the updates of my morning art project will be bit less frequent than before.

Hope you enjoyed this peek into my process and wishing you all a wonderful and artsy day.