Archive for Artist Inspiration
Art Journaling on Tumblr
One of my favorite blogs is Art Journaling – a photo blog on Tumblr. I can scroll through the images forever & ever… so much inspiration, so much feeling of connectedness through all the different peoples art expressions. When I started to journal, I’d occasionally draw in my books but now I do it a lot more- to the point of dedicating whole journals to the cause. I especially have fun painting and coloring the backgrounds in which to return at a later date when the creative bug bites.
Have you ever tried art journaling? If no, take a look at some of the images on this site and let me know if they leave you feeling inspired….
Want to learn more about art journaling? Check out these sites:
Art Journaling as a Creative Process
Web Planner Review from Sandra Strait of Life Imitates Doodles
Sandra Strait, author of the popular Zentangle inspired blog Life Imitates Doodles recently reviewed our new Rhodia WebPlanner.
(The WebPlanner) “has Rhodia’s signature silky smooth paper, and the overall look aims at elegance rather than flash. You’d think elegance would be difficult when some of the print is orange. However, combined with gray print, it has a surprising sophistication.”
Sandra – we just love your tangle designs in our Rhodia products! Please visit her blog for the full review – maybe even stick around and peruse her amazing tangle designs which are all accompanied with step by step patterns on how to create them.
Inspirational Habana
I save old magazines and now and again, I cut them apart. Pictures go in one box, words in another. Then one day I pull them out and start gluing them into one of my journals. What I end up with, is often more than I imagined possible. Beautiful, inspirational… Messages to help ground me when I’m feeling down.
This project was inspired by my friend Kim who teaches a Found Poetry workshop. You can see another piece I created here.
Meet Sterling Witt
It’s kind of an odd story on how I came to meet Sterling Witt. I’d heard of him because he had been nominated for a local music award, but he isn’t local to the Lehigh Valley or even Pennsylvania. Apparently there is a rule that allows any artist that has performed more than six times in our area to be eligible for a nomination for the Lehigh Valley Music Awards though I’m not even sure how Sterling, a singer/songwriter/visual artist from a small town near Kansas City, MO even found his way to the Valley in the first place.
I must have first seen something about him on Facebook then clicked a link to see what he was all about. His music is playful & catchy, his voice deep and soothing, but his art, his ART!!! AHHHH! I loved it immediately! Continue Readering »
New Tools: Koh-i-noor Woodless Colored Pencils
Our friend Gail Young recently sent me an e-mail about these Koh-i-noor woodless pencils which I have yet to try. Her thoughts?
- Soft but not smudgy.
- Blend beautifully. Continue Readering »
Art Journal Inspiration from Daisy Yellow.
Daisy Yellow blog has long been an exciting source of art inspiration for me. Tammy’s art, and the infectious way she shares it via her various projects and creative prompts makes it easy to jump right in and start creating. In the following video, Tammy demonstrates and discusses creating a two-page art journal spread in an Exacompta journal.
Pastel Chaos in the Exacompta from Tammy on Vimeo.
This second video shows Tammy flipping through a half-filled Exacompta sketchbook, and I’m sure you will quickly see one of the main reasons I am drawn to Tammy & her work.
Flip-Thru Exacompta Journal from Tammy on Vimeo.
Not familiar with the Exacompta sketch book? You can read my review on my personal blog.
Consider me inspired.
I started out wanting to write a post about calligraphy but as what often happens when I go to search You Tube is that I get distracted by shiny things and one thing leads to another… I ended up at the following video watching a man create calligraphy with his feet. Continue Readering »
Ever try watercolor paints? Here’s a few tips to get you started.
When I was first wanting to try watercolors, I somewhat skipped over the student grade paints which are more binder than pigment, and bought the artist grade paints I read would work best in the long run. Since the artist grade paints are higher quality, (more pigment than binder which means better coverage, better mixing) I think they are easier for a beginner to use- but they will cost more. I believe there are quite a few people who have tried then given up on watercolor paints because they didn’t seem to act as expected – and that’s likely due to the paints being used – not due to operator error. Continue Readering »
Inspiration from You
Once in a while I hear of someone getting stuck- not knowing what to do with those pristine blank pages in a new journal. Last week when I asked people what they would do with a new Webbie if they were a lucky winner in our recent contest, they responded with some truly wonderful ideas. If you didn’t get the chance to read through the comments from that post, I’ve assembled them all here for you – maybe you might want to even print it out and slip it into the back pocket of your notebook for inspiration? Much thanks for everyone who responded.
B Irwin: I was thinking of starting a new manuscript, but practicing calligraphy by writing out verses from my faith is tempting, too.
JustJay74: I will use it at work to jot down all my notes and ideas.
Sam C.: I hope to use it for my architecture drawing class in the coming school year Continue Readering »
NOFO Rhodia
For one of the last treats on my Greenport vacation, I went to Aldo’s for a double expresso and one of his great pecan scones. 
Heading outside towards the back patio, I spied a large Rhodia pad with “NOFO” sketched on the cover.
Of course, I went over to say “hi” and asked, “How do you like your Rhodia pad?”
The man looked up and said he liked them, loved the feel of the paper, and wrote all his music in them. He bought them in bulk at Dunkerley’s in Southampton.
He looked familiar, and then I realized I was talking to Josh Horton, the former Supervisor of Southold Town. While he was in office he helped to save more than 1,000 acres of open space and farmland, which makes him a hero in my book. He is also a staunch advocate for the preservation of the area’s maritime heritage.
Josh Horton also plays in a band, Corky Laing & The Memory Thieves, and for the last two years has organized the NOFO Rock and Folk Fest, held at the Peconic Bay Winery in Peconic, NY. This year it will be held July 30-31. The lineup includes Foghat, Elvin Bishop, Corky Laing & The Memory Thieves, John Sebastian, Commander Cody, and several more national and local talents.
We chatted for a bit, including how much we both missed having a Dunkerley’s store in Greenport. A Staples and Office Depot were built in nearby Riverhead, and their business dried up. Happily for us, Dunkerley’s continues to boom along in their Southampton location.
Josh said he would send me a photo of his NOFO Rhodia pad, but I forgot to give him my card. Anyway, if any of you will be out on the North Fork at the time of the weekend festival, please be sure to go hear Josh and his band, and say hi to a fellow Rhodia aficionado.
NOFO Rock and Folk Festival 2011
Corky Laing & The Memory Thieves
Aldo’s -
Setting goals and intentions for the 2nd half of 2011
Today is the first day of the rest of your life. It is also the first day of the 2nd half of 2011. Today I decided to set a very specific intention for the rest of the year. Having felt burdened for the 1st half of the year by an emotional heaviness, I am first and foremost consciously choosing to let go of that which isn’t serving me and focusing on that which will nurture my growth. I find whenever I mindfully attach intention to any project or situation, it significantly increases the quality of whatever I’m looking to achieve. Continue Readering »
The Ultimate Rhodia Writer Getaway
This is Joyce Pepos’s writing retreat in Mount Hood, Oregon. (I *LOVE* this!)
From Joyce: “This sweet writing space is located on an old logging deck of 40 years back – which we have turned into a meadow of wild flowers and a large outside fire pit – we also have built a Labyrinth which is dug into the ground five feet deep and 35 feet wide… awesome! Continue Readering »
Keeping a Dream Journal
The secret to keeping a successful dream journal is to keep it (along with a pen or pencil) near your bed and to write in it immediately upon awakening. This creates a greater opportunity for retention of what you may have experienced while dreaming. Continue Readering »
st|ART: Tammy’s new e-zine with a focus on art
I consider myself to be a creative person and often feel if left to my own devices that I’d forget to eat, pay my taxes, and sleep. I mean that when I get in the zone, I get in the zone. I will sit and create for such long stretches that my legs will cramp up and I get dizzy from not eating. I always thought I was alone in this madness until I started reading Tammy’s blog, daisy yellow. I’m not sure how she does it, (though I highly suspect superpowers may be occasionally called into play) but this woman appears to run circles around me when it comes to creativity. Her blog is a plethora of everything I love. Art, art supplies, beautiful photos, tips, and a whole lot of creative encouragement. All in all, Tammy simply rocks! So when she sent me a note telling me about her new e-zine st|ART, I wanted to make sure all of you knew about it as well. If you are wanting to venture into the world of art journaling and need some guidance, Daisy Yellow is the place to be and st|ART will most definitely keep you inspired!
Big thanks to Tammy for showing us how she worked on the name of her zine with Herbin’s Bleu Pervenche in a Webbie!
Faber Castell Artist, Don Colley
Last month at the NAMTA show I had the opportunity to meet Don Colley, an artist who hails out of Chicago. Don was over at the Faber Castell booth, and came by the Exaclair booth to ask me a question about our paper sizing (which I didn’t know.)
During his visit, Don showed some some of his sketches on an vintage ledger, a Quo Vadis Note 27, and mentioned he had sketched in Rhodia, too. He draws on all different types of paper, journals and notebooks with pencil, color pencils and inks. 
Don pointed out to me how flat the accounting ledger lay–almost perfectly flat–making it a great surface to work. Other than our very large planners which come close, I don’t think any of our books with sewn binding lays as flat as that ledger. I made a mental note to mention this to our product developers in France.
I thought Don’s sketches were better than any photograph–and told him so. He is one of the most talented portraitists I have ever seen.
You can see more of Don’s work on his website, on this Faber Castell video, and on our Rhodia Drive Facebook page.
