The Sketchbook Project, Part III by artist Nancy Laliberte

Continuing on with the Sketchbook Project...

To bring you up to speed:  in November 2013, I signed up to be a part of the Sketchbook Project, which is a traveling library of artists' sketchbooks. My book will be traveling in the central US this summer with stops in Chicago, Madison, and Minneapolis. I will keep you posted on dates via this blog and the studio Facebook page. You can read about the previous two posts here and here.

 I pre-painted this page with gouache and added the washi tape right away when my sketchbook arrived. I often do that for a fun challenge to make a go of whatever is on the page when I get to it in the book. It's a great exercise in creative intuition, and not over-thinking about what you are doing. Just go with the flow. When I came to this page in the book, fish was the first thing that came to mind. I grabbed my Pentel pocket brush pen and white gel pen and dove in! ; )  

We have a pet goldfish named Maroon, and it is my 10 y-o son's job to feed it. He's quite good about doing so, but every so often you will hear someone ask, "Did you feed fishy today?"

This page was painted while I was vacationing in Florida earlier this year. Do you see the coastal, beach walk, flowers blooming instead of snowflakes falling influence? The left page was pre-painted with metallic copper paint. Other materials used were gel pens, permanent black pen, and acrylic paint.

From beaches to blizzards! Responding to my environment:  11 inches of snow fell on this day. It was beautiful watching the white stuff fall, but then came the reality of shoveling and snow blowing. Evidently, all that snow made my brain weary as I didn't get a final image of the completed page. Metallic silver paint, snowflake stamps and information on the weather was added after this photo was taken.

A bright and colorful page after the snowstorm. I love practicing painting ideas in my sketchbooks. There is no "preciousness" to it, just pure fun. To balance out the page (and to practice lettering), I added a favorite quote. Some washi tape and a bit of collaged paper was also used on this page.
   

This page features collaged paper with an acrylic painted purple coneflower (echinacea). Birds and butterflies love these flowers as much as I do, so I have them planted in various gardens in my yard. 

Ignoring the cold winter and thinking of summer poppies, that is the way I roll. This page was painted with acrylic paint. Since the paint was a bit thick in some areas, I applied a matte medium over it as an extra precaution to make sure the pages wouldn't stick--which can sometimes happen with acrylic paint. I included a modified page edge and butterfly from my ephemera collection.

The last page:  bright, cheery colors, the butterfly and a bit of inspiration...

The back cover:  Collaged paper, gold metallic paint (sparkle and shine, my friend) and trimmed with washi tape for durability.

I hope you have enjoyed reading about this project as much as I enjoyed doing it. I did not give myself any rules or theme, except to fill it up and have fun doing so, and send it back by the required date. I hope you are inspired to grab a notebook, sketchbook, or even a pad of scratch paper, some fun pens, watercolors, crayons, whatever, and play around with images, doodles, words, anything. Just start by making a mark, a swirl, or even a stick figure, and then go from there. Most of all, have fun and enjoy the journey...  

Nancy
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The Sketchbook Project, Part II by artist Nancy Laliberte

As mentioned in my last post, a couple of months ago I signed up to be a part of the Sketchbook Project, a traveling library of artists' sketchbooks. Today's post is a continuation of the pages I created for my book, "Viewing...from the Heart."

While on vacation earlier this month, I created a couple of colorful spreads using acrylic paint, a permanent ink pen, metallic gel pens (because every day should have a little sparkle in it), and a rubber stamp (which I had put on the page before leaving on my trip). I did accidentally dip my brush in the coffee cup one time, but never in my pie! 

This page started out with a tissue paper background (tissue paper that was inside the box of a recent winter boot purchase), with hand-painted papers and hand-made papers collaged on top of parts of that with matte medium. Some of the hand-made papers had metallic gold (there's that sparkle again!) in them, and as I looked at the page and pondered what to do next, the words to a hymm sung at my church popped into my head. I grabbed my markers and pens and started writing away.

Here is another page spread that started out with hand-made and scrap papers glued down with matte medium, then painted over with Tombow markers and acrylic paints, and then text and a few drawings added with a white gel pen. I've noticed I often use pink and green in my art journaling. And now that I think about, my wardrobe contains a lot of pinks and greens, too...

The center spread--after pages of color, I kept it simple with black and white and a pop of color using Zentangle inspiration and gel pens. 

After all of that ink work on the center spread, there was quite a bit of bleed-through on this page that I wasn't sure what to do about. I dug through my pile of papers and ephemera and found this fiber-y, ochre-colored piece of paper that inspired me to paint a bird's nest on it. The paper covered up most of the marker, and it's color and texture worked well with the theme of the page.

There are still a few pages left from this fun project that I will show in my next post... 

Curious to give this a try, but don't know where to start?

Don't be shy, come join the sketchbook movement! I will be teaching a mini-workshop, "Creative Journaling for Busy People" on Saturday, February 1, from 12 noon to 4:00 pm at the Center for Visual Arts in Wausau, WI. Cost is $50 + $8 material fee. Just bring a 9 x 12 sketchbook preferably with 90 lb. paper or more, all of your other materials are included making it super easy for you to show up and have fun! Register with the CVA at 815-842-4545. More information is on their website and mine. See you there! 

The Sketchbook Project with artist Nancy Laliberte

A couple of months ago I signed up to be a part of The Sketchbook Project. For those not familiar with it, it is a traveling exhibition of handmade books. Anyone from around the world can participate--you don't even have to be an artist. This summer my book will be hitting the road on the midwest mobile library tour which will include stops in Chicago, IL; Madison, WI; and Minneapolis, MN. I will keep you posted on the dates as it gets closer to the tour. I can't wait to see the incredible books participants have created! 

It has been a fun project as I LOVE creative journaling. In this post I am featuring several pages from my book which is now at the Brooklyn Art Library. (They just emailed me today. Thank you USPS.) More pages will be featured over the next couple of posts including some step-by-step processes of a couple of pages. Some pages were created as spreads and some stand alone. All are a direct, intuitive, and creative response to what was going on in my life--inside and out--at that moment in time. 

Viewing...from the Heart

© Nancy Laliberte

We'll start in "reader's spreads" at the beginning, but this was not the first set of pages I created. I left the inside cover and first page blank until I had something I wanted to say that would set the tone for the rest of the book. In the end, the inside cover page was set up for practicality purposes--handling of the book, and securing the cover art. 

These two pages were done on different days, before starting my regular studio painting practice. Typically, I dig through my mixed media materials and pull out ephemera and paint colors that "speak" to me at that moment. One thing leads to another and a page is completed. 
  

This spread incorporates many layers and materials. The first which included using leftover paint from another project, then stenciling, adding bits of hand-painted collage paper, more paint, ink, and ephemera. Sometimes the text may be a phrase or song stuck in my head, other times the text comes later as the imagery falls into place. All intuitively driven. 

When I first started working in my sketchbook, I randomly opened pages and added whatever paint was left on my palette or painted on a color that I don't typically use--a good way to experiment with color in a fun, carefree way. This page is an example of that. I had also just treated myself to a new checkerboard stencil and used that as a starting point, and then added the chevron washi tape for no other reason than, "hey, a roll of washi tape I haven't used yet..." A few days later I came back to this page and began drawing with my favorite pentel pocket brush pen, added some paint, a stamp, a bit of text, and my daily journaling fix is satisfied. 
  

Loving the pocket brush pen! It makes beautiful calligraphic marks depending on now fast and how much pressure you apply. I was watching a Green Bay Packer game (they won!) during this page, hence the green and gold color inspiration. Other materials used were watercolors and inktense pencils. All fun stuff! More pages to come in my next post...

Curious to give this a try, but don't know where to start?

Don't be shy, come join the sketchbook movement! I will be teaching a mini-workshop, "Creative Journaling for Busy People" at the Center for Visual Arts in Wausau, WI. Two dates are being offered (same workshop, feel free to repeat). The first is this Thursday, January 23, from 10:00 am to 2:00 pm, and the second one is Saturday, February 1, from 12 noon to 4:00 pm. Cost is $50 + $8 material fee. Just bring a 9 x 12 sketchbook preferably with 90 lb. paper or more, all of your other materials are included making it super easy for you to show up and have fun! Register with the CVA at 815-842-4545. More information is on their website and mine. See you there!