Drawing a dragon

My daughter asked me to draw a dragon for her.
This is "Tangerine Leaf", drawn with Copic markers and colored pencils.

I also made this little chibi of the dragon:

One sketch a day: 17-20

I still love the daily drawings in my "visual journal" :)

one sketch a day: day 17 to 20

"Wild animals", charchoal pencils, fine black marker & white gell pen. All drawn from photo's.

One sketch a day 5-8

Day 5: Another kitten

Experimenting with color pencils and  my sepia pen, it works on the paper but the pen bleeds trough the thin paper :(

Day 6: Baby meerkat

Those animals are so cool! This is a quick sketch in blue pencil and micron pen.

Day 7: a butterfly

Experimenting with color pencils.

Day 8: another labrador puppy

Just pencils, charchoal pencil and the white Signo pen again :)

One sketch a day, Restarting the drawing habit: Day 1

Yesterday I went book-hunting on our yearly book "festival" in Belgium: "De Boekenbeurs".  One of the books I brought home is this little "One sketch a day" notebook. It could be just what I need to start drawing reguraly again...

You can see that the drawing space is small, 7 x 12 cm for each day. (about the size of a playing card)
I'm really looking forward to drawing something small each day. We'll see if I can keep up with it for a whole year....

For my first drawing I looked up a photo of an owl.... don't really know why, I just like them :)
I found this picture on Pinterest: wildlifenh.com
And this is my first drawing:

I used graphite pencils, charcoal pencils, a very fine Micron pen and a white Signo uni-ball marker.
So much fun to draw again :)

Fantasy sketchbook, latest pages

Was not posting much I know, but I've been painting a lot...

Fantasy sketchbook page: fairy

Another fairy: acrylics, colored pencils, collage

New Art Journal or sketchbook?

I started my new journal: a Moleskine sketchbook large...

After these pages I decided to dedicate this book to small fantasy-paintings, and I'll continue to fill it with faeries, mermaids and other magical things :)
I'll have to start (or make) a new big book for more free Art-Journalling: collage, paint, experiments...

Mini Art Journal finished

It was fun to make. I decorated the cover with paint-markers.
The small size made it easy to finish a page, but it's time to continue working in my larger book now.

Creating an Art Journal: bookbinding

My small Derwent sketchbook is almost full, time to make a new one. I wanted it to be bigger, but not to big...with a hard cover that I can decorate, and with heavy paper. And very important (for me) : pages have to lay flat, so I can easily work on them...
I couldn't find a journal like that, so looked up some info on bookbinding. You can find the most amazing tutorials on the net. This is the list that helped me the most:

• Davethedesigner
• JANA’S JOURNAL BINDING STEPS and Bookbinding a watercolor sketchbook
• Your Very Own Hard Cover Journal on YouTube
• Ceropegia YouTube channel

I followed these steps, except for the "grain of the paper runs the same direction as the spine of the book", because I wanted to use a block of spiral-bound watercolor-paper.

You'll need:

Paper: 

For the inside and cover: a watercolor-block

For the cover: 

Decorated or white paper (to paint later), the size a bit bigger than half-watercolor block.

The cardboard back of the watercolor block!

A strip of cardboard (not to thick, same height as book-page)

For a "punching template": strip of paper (same height as book-page)

Bookbinding stuff:

A piece of Mullcloth//Cheesecloth to cover the spine.

3 strips of fabric for the spine. (you don't need them for a small book)

Headbands (optional)

Piece of thread, long needle, beeswax (or a white candle)

Bookbinding glue (or white glue) and wallpaper-glue.

Other things:

Scissor, water, towel

Steps:

1 Folding:

- Remove the pages from the block and fold them in half. Make "signatures": insert one page in another.

2 Prepare sewing:

- Tape 3 strips of fabric to the edge of the desk.

- Make a punching-template: take a piece of paper the same height as your pages, lay it on the fabric-tape and make 8 markings: at the edges and on both sides of the tapes. 

- Lay each signature half-open on a towel, align the template in the middle and punch the holes with the needle.

- You'll need as much thread as the sum of the height of all the signatures. (When it is to long to sew, just cut it, you can knot it later) Run it against the candle to make the sewing easier.

3 Sewing:

- Lay the first signature on the tapes. Put the needle in the first hole on the right, from outside to center, (leave a tail to knot later). Go back in the second hole, around the tape and so one...

- At the end of the first signature you just lay the second one on top, put the needle in the first hole on the left and sew to the right...

- At he end you must attach the second signature to the first by knotting it with the tail.

- Repeat the sewing with the third signature, but at the end now you go under the previous signature and again trough the loop just made (Kettle stitch)

Good demo here. 

- Sew the rest of the pages the same way, at the end just make 2 knots.

- (For the "lay flat": don't pull the thread to hard....)

 - Remove the tapes from the desk. Volia, "book block" finished.

4 Glueing

- Lay the block on the edge of your desk.
- Put white glue on the spine, rub in the creases with brush (or fingers).
- (for the lay flat): don't push the glue to far in between the signatures, use a weight on top.
- Put the piece of mullcloth on, (more glue) and headbands (more glue) and a strip of paper.
- Leave to dry.

5 Cover

Do these steps with the wallpaper - glue.

- Cut the cardboard (back of the watercolor block) in half

- Cut a strip of cardboard (from cereal box ....) the same size as the spine.

- (For the lay flat): don't use a stiff material for the spine. You could even use the paper from the front of the watercolor block, and put on the decorated paper later. (no cardboard)

- Cut a strip of decorated (or white), wider than the spine, and longer than the book.

- Glue the cardboard strip in the middle of the decorated paper.
- Glue the other cardboard pieces at both sides, leave a small gap between the cardboards.

- Turn everything and glue papers on the sides. (decorated or white...)

- Well, you could just use one big paper, but I don't have it now :)

 - Turn it again, cut the corners and fold the excess to the inside. Glue!

6 Assembling

(To be sure the book opens flat, I use my own method for glueing the book block...)

- Take the book- block, put white glue under the tapes and mull, wallpaper glue on the rest of the first page.

- Hold the book block up with the spine on the spine of the cover.

- Open te first page align it, and push it on the inside of the left cover, from inside to outside.

- Because of the thick paper (and wallpaper glue) you can redo if needed....

- Do the same thing on the back.

- Test the lay-flat.

7 Finish
- Let dry and decorate!

Have fun!

Art journaling

Hello,

I decided to write my blog in English, it 'll be an excellent exercise for me, and I know a lot more people will be able to read it.
It's september again, and this means vacation is over....for a teacher. But I did a lot of creative work this summer: I discovered "Art journalling", and it's so much fun.
I like that it's about enjoying the creative process, that you can do whatever you want in the journal.
It's not about the final result, it's about the fun of art... you can keep it for yourself... or put it online ;)...

About the journal:

It's a Derwent - journal. (17 x 12 cm;   4,72 in. x 6,69 in.) 

The pages are very clear white, with rounded corners and thick enough for all the collaging and painting.

There are pockets in the front and back, but I didn't use them. I liked the small format for my first Art-Journal. 

It's almost full...

Some of the pages:

I really tried a lot of techniques... 

The first pages: background: neocolor II, punched stars, collage.

Playing with acrylic paints, faces: cp and markers.

Collage covered with gesso and neocolorII, finished with markers.

collage covered with gesso, stamps and collage

Inspired by "Teesha Moore": neocolorII background, collage border, details: gelpens

Tried to use less colors...

Collage and random paint-blobs...

All in neocolorII

Inspired by "Teesha Moore"

First time with some text added, it's about a heavy storm that killed some people during a pop-festival in Belgium.

Acrylics and collage

I love to make these, so I guesse you'll be seeing more of them on this blog soon...

Art Journal blaadje

Ik heb vandaag snel een nieuw blaadje gemaakt voor mijn mini Art-Journal.
De bedoeling van zo'n "journal" is je uitleven met verf, kleur, stempels, stickers....als wat je wil eigenlijk.
En er mag al eens iets mislukken, het draait allemaal om het plezier van het creëren eigenlijk.
Deze mini-versie waar ik aan werk heeft blaadjes van slechts 12 x 17cm, die staan dus snel vol.
Ik heb ook nog een groter Art-Journal klaarliggen maar dat zal moeten wachten tot in de grote vakantie denk ik.

Voor deze pagina: 

Achtergrond: Papiercollage met groene acrylverf over,

onderaan collage van mos uit tijdschrift.

Figuur: Getekend met Copic-stiften, uitgeknipt en opgeplakt.

Kleed: collage wolken uit tijdschrift.

Haar: lagen acrylverf: groen, zwart en ingekrast

Versiering en letters: witte gelpen en Copic multiliner

De tekst is een quote van Hemingway.

Mijn schetsboek is vol.

Ongeveer een jaar geleden gestart, en nu dus vol.
Ik gebruikte hierin veel verschillende tekenmaterialen: potlood, pastel, stift, acrylverf...
Er staan ook enkele collages tussen.

Hier enkele schetsen uit het boek: