The Second Leuchtturm (a journal)

When I looked back through my blogposts to see when I did my last journal post I was surprised that was three months ago and was about the end of the first Leuchtturm journal. In that time I have filled an entire journal of which I have shown you nothing yet! So I guess you could say I'm a bit behind on my journaling posts.

So today I want to introduce you to the Second Leuchtturm. I liked the Leuchtturm 1917 notebook so mucht that I immediately started another one. The only difference is that this one is has squared paper instead of a dotted grid. I actually like the dotted better, but I wanted a light blue book and they don't seem to make those anymore so I could only find a squared one.

Here you can see the Second Leuchtturm next to the first filled up one. This is obviously before it was used.

Anyway, today I will show you some spreads from the first 80 pages of this book. The book has 250 pages, so there are more posts to come about this journal.

These Leuchtturm1917 notebooks are somehow perfect for my style of journaling, which is basically like a travel journal of everyday life. They are not perfect in themselves and I would never advice anyone to use them as an allround sketchbook for instance, but for me they are a perfect match. I have a feeling this will not be the last book of this kind I will use as a journal.

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

Grid drawings

As you know, nothing pleases me more than grids. I like the order they give my patterns and the peace they give my mind. They take many hours to finish and for some reason I still have the patience to keep doing them.

Here are some drawings I did in  my Moleskine XL Squared notebook:

These were all drawn with a black drawing pen. I always find dashed lines more satisfying than continued ones, I'm not sure why. They were coloured in with Stabilo 68 felt tip pens, my favorite felttip pens on smooth paper like the Moleskine has.

I swear I could do grid drawings all day long. Whenever I finish one I immediately want to start another. They are seriously addictive, but I guess as addictions go, this is one of the more harmless kinds. ;-

Hope you are all doing something that brings you harmless joy and wishing you all a wonderful and artsy weekend!

Morning Mosaic #10 - step by step

My morning art continues to be one of the most satisfying artsy things I do. My current project is still doing half an hour (almost) every morning of watercolour mosaics. It is slow going, but that makes it extra meditative.

My intention is to from now on show you every mosaic separately step by step so you can see the stages of each painting,  also because sometimes the in between stages are more interesting than the end result. I always feel the need to fill in every shape with colour, but that does not necessarily make the painting better.

Just keep in mind these are experiments where I simply wonder 'what if?'.

Here is mosaic number 10, done in eight sessions:

Now this happens to be one of those mosaics where what I had in mind did not really translate well to the paper. I wanted the hexagrams to show better than they do. I think that would have worked better if I had not let them form diagonal lines. Another lesson learned. I will try a different approach in a future painting where I separate them more clearly.

I think it's important to show the work that did not turn out as I expected. Nobody comes up with a pleasing finished artwork at every try. It's a practice, it's experimentation, it's falling and getting up again, on to the next. The point is having a bit of pleasure while doing it and not worrying too much about the end result. Process over product, always, at least for me. ;-)

Wishing you all a wonderful and artsy day.

The Schiermonnikoog Slideshow - part five of five

The last two weeks of January I went on vacation to the island of Schiermonnikoog. The island was very wet from rain both during my stay and during many months before. But I still found plenty of opportunity to go out and about and sometimes it was actually sunny too. All the wetness gave its own beauty, which I found fasscinating. 

I did not bring my camera, but I did bring my smartphone, so many pictures were taken. This five part series is an impression of my stay. I will just let the pictures speak for themselves, but if you have any questions, don't hesitate to ask.

Hope you enjoy the tour!