Challenge! A Dark Place

Take a look at a place that seems dark to you, try and find something beautiful.

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Field Experiment #3

Jane's Results
Working more and more with the field Notes sketch book, I've been finding I need a special place for my book and pens  to make them more accessible during the work day.I needed something to hold everything together so I don't have to scrounge around in the bottom of my purse to find the right pens.

I had this old brush holder that I really never liked because it didn't protect the hairs enough, so I decided to repurpose it to be my Field Kit.

 I just folded the bottom up so the brush slots were shorter so my pens would not get lost. I jsut sewed the sides together. Look at my Frankenstein stitches! Sewing is not my thing and if I would have found a stapler it probably would have been stapled together, but this works.

I have also been finding that I needed a hard surface when I sat outside in the park at lunch time. The Field Notes cover is very soft. So I cut a piece of mat board to fit and stitched on either side of it to hold it in place.

When all folded up it looks like this. Perfect to fit into my purse.

This week has been a little hectic. I really only drew twice and here are my results. The first drawing is from the park at lunchtime. 

I also am trying to see the different results I am getting from my different size pens. I used the white pen for the first time this week as well. And often on week ends when I see my husband, he becomes the subject of my drawing, although he doesn't really like when I draw him while he's talking to me. :-)

Leslie's Results

This week has been hectic for me as well. I found myself dropping off and later picking cars up at the mechanic. Not a lot of fun. I also found myself walking a lot and I stupidly walked with flip flops on. Not my brightest idea ever.

Because of my lack of time I decided to embrace the D. Price idea of photos in my art journal. I used my iP0d touch and Hipstamatic to take some pics on the bus into Boston and at the dim sum place we went to. I later printed them out with my Polaroid Pogo, cut them square and then stuck them into my Field Notes. I'm not overly excited with how they turned out. I've included pics of my pages and the 2 image I used as a Pogo print. I think I need to find another way to print my images.
 

Field Experiments Explanation

My car was in the shop so I spent the day working on stuff at home. The new computer is much better able to handle the stuff I want to throw at it. rendering video was so much fast than with my old laptop. Amazing really. On the old laptop a 5 minute video would take 2 or more hours to render and any sort of effects or color correction would cause it to crash. The new laptop will let me do color correction, effects and more to a 5 minute video and still render it in 20 minutes. Amazing.

-LH

Jane Tries It Intro

So I've been waiting on my new computer for a few weeks. After getting it I had to organize it, get programs loaded on it and get it read for video processing. Oh baby, it's 95 degrees outside, i'm sitting in a dark room with nothing but hte monitor illuminating me and a fan on me and the laptop. It is a processing MACHINE. Holy moly stuff that took an hour to render on my old laptop render in 20 minutes or less. I can actually speed up video and not have the computer overheat and crash. 5 minute long video? NO FRICKEN PROBLEM!

I'm busily working on the various episodes Jane and I shot last month but I thought I'd whet your whistle with the intro:

Let us know what you think in the comments!

Challenge! Colors that Shouldn't Be

Make something with the "wrong" color.

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Field Experiment #2

Leslie's Results:
This week my selection from my Field Experiment includes a few select items from my desk and a quick partial portrait. I'm still digging the Uniball Signo pens. I really like that they stay put and dry quickly. The paper in the Field Notes paper can not handle watercolors so I'm sticking to black and white.

One of the things I find most interesting about Dan Price's book How to Make a Journal of Your Life is that he's one of the few art journaling people that actually advocates that you don't give yourself a schedule to write and work in your journal but that you allow the process to occur naturally. his approach is to avoid rules, all rules.This is an important part of this week's journal, I did not work in my journal everyday this week. I simply didn't have time.

He also advocates the use of cameras. I took a bunch of images at Beverly Arts Fest today. I'm going to to look into the best way to transfer them to my Field Notes.

Jane's Results:
I have recently started a new job and it is sucking up all of my time and energy just to get up to speed. One day this week a I did manage to get out to a park and with my little field notes book and pens in hand I managed to squeeze out a quick 20 minute sketch.

It really was a stress reliever. 

I also sketched a tree next to an ice cream shop in Salem before the week got started. I find a lot of comfort in trees. They seem so peaceful and wise. So rooted. 

And here in the middle of a city next to a cement ice cream cone and several planters is this old tree just stretching up toward the sky--oblivious to the chaos down below. All knowing, yet silently watching as life plays out. Oh, if trees could talk...

Challenge! Don't Go There!

What makes you say, "Don't Go There!"

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Field Experiments #1

Jane and I are conducting an experiment. It’s pretty simple, you give two artists identical journals, identical pens and they read the same art journaling book then over the course of the next month they journal. Results to be posted once a week.


The book we chose to read for this particular experiment was Dan “Hobo” Price’s How to Make a Journal of Your Life. The journals we are using are plain Field Notes. For pens we have the following all Uniball, Signo Bit .18, Signo DX .28, Signo DX .38 and a Signo Broad White. If you would like to experiment along with us, the names of each item links to where you can get your own, all pens were purchased via JetPens. I bought the Field Notes directly from Field Notes but they are also available from JetPens. The D.Price books is no longer in print but I found a used copy on Amazon from an independent seller.

 Leslie's Experiment Results:

For my first entry I had gone to a local Cafe, Gulu Gulu and had brunch with my partner. I sketched while chatting with her and the bartender. It was wonderfully relaxing to do a little sketching while we waited for our food and I sipped my coffee. I used to be very intimidated by drawing in public, afraid people would judge my ability or not like that I was drawing them or their stuff. I’ve found that mostly, adults ignore me, especially if I have a small sketchbook like the Field Notes. Kids will look over my shoulder, or ask me if I’m an artist. Mostly, people ignore me.

This is a close up of my sketch of the Gulu Gulu logo, a French Bulldog.

The mugs are simple ceramic and hefty. They keep my hot coffee hot.

Jane's Experiment Results:

I got my Field Notes before I got the Uniball, Signo Bit .18, Signo DX .28, Signo DX .38 and a Signo Broad White pens. As you can see, the pens I did use bled through to the other side. I sat in the car in front of the bank when my husband ran in to get money and drew the tree. We were heading to Vermont and the next drawing in my husband reading from the deck of the place we were staying in Vermont. 

Here you can see the images from the other side bleeding through the paper. 

I really wanted to try contour drawing as suggested in the D. Price book. We went on a brewery tour on one of our days in Vermont and which ended with a stop at the bar to sample the beers. This is where I drew the moose. Funny how both Leslie and I ended up drawing in bars. Bars are actually great places to draw because people are more into their own thing and they tend to stay longer in one place. Again the see through is annoying, but now I have the right pens so I think I'll be happier the next time I post.

Head up! On Jane Tries It

It turns out my computer does not like processing videos that are longer than 5 minutes, so I've sold some of my DayJob stock options to fund a new quad core 8gigs of RAM laptop. I won'rt have it until next week, and it will take me a whole weekend to load everything I need to it and transfer files from the old slow laptop. So, be aware Jane Tries It is about 2 weeks away. Yikes!

Here's a pic to make it better:

or not. -LH

Challenge! Dream a little Dream

What did you dream last night?

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Blog Button

Did you enjoy Put it on Paper? Do you want a blog button? Thanks to StrayDreams for giving me the idea  I got a little blog button from MagCloud that you can put on your blog! Thanks so much for your support! we appreciate it more than you know!

It looks like this:

And you'll cut and paste the red text into a sidebar widget or blog post:

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