Italian Language Study Wandering

Sketchbook Wandering is studying languages again. 

I'm taking a beginning Italian language class for travelers as well as an advanced French conversation class. 

Fountain pens, journals & colored pencils are a big part 

of my arsenal for studying. 

Missing my sketchbook wandering, but I'm loving this! 

My brain & spirit are happy.

The Personal Journal: Daily Pages

During my Experimental Sketchbook Class

I kept a special journal with art notes

& anything related that came up. 

{By the way, I did not pose the shot: 

My new wooden mannequin, (who I think has arthritis)

happened to be there when I was snapping the page.}

Recently I read through my previous personal daily journal.

During the early days of stay-at-home, 

I spent a fair amount of time embellishing my personal book 

with color, borders, paste-ins, & stickers. 

I wondered if it was somehow a waste of my time. 

Looking back I see that it wasn't.

While releasing nervous energy about 

the new, unknown situation we were in,

I was allowing myself to play with color, layout, & content.

I'm now enjoying the record that I have of those days.

Here I recorded some notes from a book for young people

about artistic process: Neil Gaiman's Art Matters.

I usually record these types of art notes in a separate book,

but I liked incorporating them into the "master journal."

Currently my daily pages are fairly unadorned. 

My art energy is going to several projects 

that will be offered for public viewing. 

But they have their own journal pages where I am

working out my journey to finished products.

Drawing Lesson: The Graphic Mark & Roses

 

I'm giving drawing lessons to a friend. 

In exchange, she is coaching me 

on my organizational issues & unfinished art projects.

We began by looking at drawings of Felix Topolski

in his book Paris Lost: A Sketchbook of the 30's.

We used viewfinders to isolate small sections

to observe the variety & sensitivity of his graphic marks.

 

I'm in awe of so-called scribbles that

are an integral part of many drawings.

We then made a sheet of our own marks using

a chopstick with simple fountain pen ink.

  My friend was interested in creating a card with a rose theme

for her friend Rosie's family. 

I happened to have a vase of roses nearby!

A simple, gestural interpretation emerged 

on my marks sheet.

I cut it out to separate it. 

And added Prismacolor color.

V.'s was beautifully alive, almost shimmering.

A lovely experience, relaxed & focused,

with Andrea Bocelli in the background,

because V. is an opera afficionado.

Thank You, Friend V.!  

Art Journaling On the Go

A new 8 X 11" page in my art journal,

created at the weekly Library Art Journaling Group.

Sharing & working together, they call it "synergy."

I call it magic.

This was my first "To Go" page in my Daily Journal. 

After watching a ton of videos

about the Midori Travel Journal system,

& about approaches to Bullet Journaling,

I modified my Rhodia A5 size dot grid book

(the best for fountain pens!)

by adding colored elastic cords under which I slid 

loose, folded sheets of blank paper. 

On the go, I can pull a sheet out, draw, write,

& then stick it back in! It worked!!

Below, I'm loving seeing the accumulation of Jan. days 

on my Mini Memory Calendar!

The squares measure 1 1/4 square inch.

The calendars are on premium color copy paper.

Nine days ago...

Today! 
One day at a time a month happens!

Happy End of January!

What to Do? Sketch!

What to do when you go to a meeting

& no one else shows up?

You could

1. Get angry

2. Feel disappointed

3. Sketch! And feel lucky that you're getting

some bonus sketching time

while waiting to see if anyone comes.

4. Oh, and be glad that you have your

traveling sketch kit with you.

In and Out of Lines

My tiny holiday Zumba Girls have changed to Winter Girls.

When I'm watercoloring their fashions, I'm reminded of

my hours of coloring in childhood. 

Later coloring books were shunned by everyone I knew

as being detrimental to creativity. 

Now they are tremendously popular with adults,

& are sold as meditative activities. 

Are coloring books good or bad or neither?

My Prismacolors have replaced Crayolas.

Making this chart also felt like childhood coloring days.

I've been thinking about staying in lines, or not,

sharp edges verses soft, tight verses loose. 

Punching out colored penciled stars from my swatches creates sharp, 

manufactured edges and shapes.

Is this good for creativity, or bad, or neither?

What are your thoughts?

Colored Pencils with Rubber Stamp Printing

Accordion fold card, using a Rubber Stamp "0"

and colored pencil.

 Our Library Art Group had a presentation 

of Rubber Stamping, by one of our participants,

a retired art teacher & awesome artist.

She laid out a beautiful assortment

Stamps, inks, papers, &, what caught MY eye...

...a tin of Ticonderoga Colored Pencils! 000000H!!

I started randomly printing with an "0".

 Something about the repetition with variety, very satisfying.

Something about being minimal when I could have chosen

a lot of different materials.

It seems to be my theme these days: 
Simplification.

Leslie showed us no models, and barely gave a demo.
Therefore, every one was free to follow their own themes.
All processes & works were different from one another.

 I love my old Prismacolors, but seeing the new set of

Ticonderogas was very exciting!! A new toy!

After, I made some color charts. 

My Prismacolors remain my favorites, 

but the Ticonderoga's are fun! 

They got me to re-explore my own colors. 

Thanks to Leslie & to our monthly Art Group for 

lots of inspiration & fun!

Children's Museum Exhibits and Language Learning

An exhibit, exposition, at Musée de la Civilization in Quebec City on fairy tales. Like visits to les bibliothèques (previous post), children’s shows are a source for my French learning (not to mention just plain fun). Here children got to wear fairy tale costumes and play in fairy tale structures including a mini witch's cottage. My notebook, le carnet, served as a place to jot down expressions and vocabulary as well as images. At the museum in Québec, signs in the exhibits are usually in English and French, so it's like reading French with a large bi-lingual dictionary!

When practicing a new language or traveling abroad adults can return to a childlike state, experiencing freshness and newness which, in turn, opens the senses. But refugees learn new languages out of necessity rather than for play. The film Mao’s Last Dancer beautifully portrays the communication struggles that immigrants can experience, along with culture shock and other difficulties. My family of origin learned new languages for survival in harsh circumstances, as well as for delight. 

When I return from a trip where I have had to work hard communicating in my other languages, I marvel at the smooth and fast way that English rolls out of my mouth and at how I shop, ask directions and do business with such ease! I relish the way I can effortlessly read books for adults where I only have to look up an occasional word rather than what, in a French book, can be quite a considerable number.