Throwback Thurday: Book O' Doodles

ALRIGHT. So this isn't really a throwback....its more like Oh My Lanta, what did I do!!! WHAT HAPPENED!!! LET ME FIX THIS QUICK kinda moment.

In the recent past I accidentally deleted my Youtube account - well, half intentionally because my playlists were getting out of control and I wasn't really doing anything with it besides hoarding videos about EVERYTHING so I might as well start a fresh. Since I didn't do anything with Youtube on regular basis, I totally forgot about the two videos I had on there, both I really was rather fond of making - and I wouldn't have noticed had someone not asked me about the missing videos ....!! I managed to find one of two - my favourite thankfully.

This was awesome fun.
 In 2012, I discovered bunch of talented people that gave new meaning (at least for me) to doodling and I was uber inspired and HAD TO TRY IT SOMEWHERE..... smallish in case it turns out badly. I had a tiny 3.5 x 5" ish Moleskine planner a thoughtful friend had gifted me that I didn't know what to do with(it was just such small space), and tried my hand at copying some of the awesome artworks, mostly from Maykel Nunes. This took sooo much longer and so much more work than I thought it would!! It is true what they say; the best way to learn , is to try to copy the work of one you admire.

Although I don't think doodling is quite for me - this was an excellent experiment and I love having a little record of discovering doodle art!!!

Trust in magic....

It's been a wild little week~ I really wasn't sure that I would find the time to make a post at all but somehow I managed to find the time in the week to make a few spreads.

The week started with me getting a 2nd cat.
I originally had two cats but one had passed away and the other was left alone. The one that's left, Mamba (whom I named after the black jaguar from The JungleBook only to find out that it was not the name), always had a friend as long as he's been breathing so I thought it was finally time to get him another buddy.

I came by a cat who had just been rescued and was lovable and cuddly as can be; in my mind, they started snuggling immediately and life was rosy. So I was rather distraught to see that my cat was not at all happy to see the new cat; in fact, he made noises I didn't know he could make. I lost so many hours of sleep that my cuddly princeling was being a jackdonkey.
After a few days though , they've exchanged sniffles and the hissing subsided a little and I was finally able to get uninterrupted sleep.

Had a busy weekend with a couple of girl friends - which is a pleasant surprise - since I can't seem to keep good girl friends around :D my little hopes of having girls night out was...possibly on the horizon.

I even went on a date with a couple of guys and found one with possibilities....

So much is happening rather fast and while I've committed myself to being okay with not having control over everything that's happening, this was just hard to wrap my head around.

This was a super easy and super quick spread. I already had some blotches of ink sprays on the page -I gessoed over that. I have some fantastic acrylic paint from the dollar store - you know the kind that comes in tiny containers with all sorts of colors? It's for kids yes, and the paint is not very pigmented - which is horrible for anything else but for soft backgrounds like this. They are so diluted that blending them is super easy.   The main art work is by Karina Skalin - I really enjoy her big hairs and mythical settings. I had colored this one in Photoshop once upon a time and  thought it a perfect piece for something (its been sitting on my desk for a while) - slightly modified but I mean the artwork is gorgeous. There IS a link to the artwork on my digital version.

I really like the flow of the letters....it was just a great piece to put together <3  It felt great to pick up a pencil crayon too - I think I'll do some more of that.

I hope you liked,

Love Always,

Shines.

Your don't deserve me.

This woman is one of my favourite celebrities... Shes' talented , stunning and smart.

I think we are all beautiful, smart and talented in our own ways -but we often forget and let people treat us whichever way they please. We often remain in a relationship because we are afraid to find nothing out there and end up alone.  We often don't speak up because we don't want to seem "out of line."

A quick reminder that,  those who love us will love us for every part of us - the crazy, funny, emotional and weird- and those who can't handle that - don't deserve our love, affection and time.

hope you liked,

Love Always,
Shines.

Good things happen....

It feels like forever and a third since I've done anything in my art journals and nothing feels more creative to me then smashing some junk, paint and making something nice to look at.
I have a few projects in mind as you may know if you've been reading my previous ramblings - but I had to put them aside for a second (which is really hard for me to do because I'm very much about finishing what I started before moving onto new projects -but I'm getting better) and let some creative juice OUT.

Unlike most other times I had an idea of what I wanted to incorporate - I wanted to colour someone's lineart and incorporate it somehow. Drawing is not my strongest suite but I have a GREAT collection of line art by others who generously share their talents on my Pinterest page and in my DeviantArt folder (I have hoarding issues but that's another story)....another element that I wanted to have FOR SURE was some doodling. I really miss marking random shapes on paper that look good together.

I had a quote in mind but I didn't know what image I wanted to use; I wanted to use an empowering image JadeDragonne called Vail for this quote:

for this quote as it's something I strongly believe in even though life has tried to prove otherwise to me.  I chose this lineart by

Good things come to those who wait... or those willing to get up and get shit done!

For a long time, I was part of the group believing that good things come to those who wait and while I waited nothing happened but good things were happening to those getting out there and trying something.  So went and tried a few things and while it got me somewhere it didn't get me anywhere quick.  

It finally dawned on my infinite wisdom that, maybe good things happen to those who are willing to put in some work-and have the patience to wait for that perfect opportunity.  You have to be in practice of willing to work otherwise the opportunity will pass to another who is; and if you are willing to work, even if the opportunity you wanted doesn't happen, another will knock and you have to be ready to work for it.   Everything, I tell you EVERYTHING is an excuse; time is something we can all manage, its a man-made concept and the will of a human being is stronger than anything. When and if you really wanted to do something, you will find time in all sorts of places to get it in your schedule. Just change in perspective and mindset.  All this really were in my head as a jumble but the doodling I got done made it into a communicatable sentence.

What you see in the picture BTW, is a tissue paper with this beautiful doodle that I've been hanging onto for quite some time now -it had fallen apart so I am glad it found itself a good home and it certainly kick started my doodling.


Life, God, Divine Force or The Universe - whatever it is that you believe in - truly works in mysterious ways.... in my case so many have passed by that I could have taken advantage of but I wasn't really willing to work and I was to scared to try.  I went through a hiatus where I was sick of what I was doing to make a living and jumped into something utterly different - and came up top - but that probably only happened because I was willing to try something and put forth an effort.  Still, there are some  things I did right and now that I am ready to finally put forth some effort, things are rolling along rather well * knock on wood*.

Hope you liked my bit of wisdom-sharing there, LOL

Love Always,

Shines.

Travelbook update with tiny haul from a stationary store.

This took so much longer than I thought it would to put together.
As you know my first book binding experience using thread wasn't very good - it's now being held together by tape that I had placed on the spines to prevent bleeding and by the layers over the tape. Either way it's being held together, so I am not complaining.

Originally, I had started working on some covers because I felt that there was a real possibly that I will be making a book with hard cover for the trip, and of course to house all my little booklets that's now lost a home :(  While I am still going to make a home for all my lovely booklets that were once signatures - I have also decided to make another booklet for the trip using the pages I glued together, rather than a book on its own. I think what I will end up is a large fat book that will house all my little booklets from year 2014.  I figured a cereal box would be perfect for this but I digress.

So here is what the little booklet for the Nova Scotia trip turned out to look like.
I threw in almost EVERYTHING I had collected while there like the paper gift bags and snack holder I got on flight and of course the plane tickets. I forgot to show it in the video but every other page is only glued around the edges so that it makes a pocket for all the post cards I got, where a bit of journaling can live. Then I threw in a couple of envelopes that came in the mail as well just in case.
This book was bound using Saddle Stitch tutorial from Sea Lemon ,who really does short and to the point tutorials.

This sounds kinda crazy but instead of covering up theses ads and bits that's exclusive to Nova Scotia, I am thinking of just leaving the background as it is - I guess its more of a smash journal then an art journal.  I'm waiting for my pictures to "develop" so hopefully next week I can get an AFTER video here for ya.

In other news, I bumped into this super adorable stationary store while grocery shopping in Koreatown called MR. PEN.









 It's fairly new, but it was buzzing with people looking and omg there is a whole TABLE dedicated to writing tools -pens, pencils, mechanical pens and pencils... my jaw reached the ground and rolled away from me like they would in a cartoon show!!!


while browsing , I realized they also sold little glass charms for your phones, which glow in the dark so you can find your phone anywhere!! I had received one as a gift and left it in Nova Scotia, which was sad because I didn't know where it came from, but now I can replace it!!!

Of course I had to get a few pens too - and because retail therapy is awesome, I decided to buy a few pens and charms for my coworkers who had made my stay at my new gig incredibly enjoyable,so much so that Iit doesn't feel like a job.  I love these pens - they're so cute and funny :D

That's all today.

Hope you like,

Love Always,
Shines.

Work it baby!

I have been a long time fan of the quote, "good things come to those who wait" and supported it using my life as an example. I must say it was a long wait and nothing particular amazing seem to happen; in fact, things seem to head to the extreme wrong direction of where I wanted to go...and my dream of making a living from being a creative person seem to drift further and further away from me.

Years after - I finally met someone whose life brought an interesting insight to this quote - that it's not about sitting and waiting for something good to happen to you (although, I will confess this seemed like the case for some people) - its being prepared in every way you can be prepared - so that when an opportunity presents itself you are ready to jump on it and take it for a wild ride.
Unfortunately he eventually got lost in his mind and wrapped up in little things....but that's another story.

The key difference is that you have to work for your dreams to make it happen - preparation, or practice is still work. It must be done before you can reach a level where you CAN make a living from it without spending all day to do it. More you practice, more realistic the dream becomes and the dream doesn't seem like a dream anymore but a very realistic goal.
And you get pumped and excited at the possibilities of achieving what you thought was, impossible.

Not having time to do it - is an excuse -reflection of fear- maybe because it may seem like a waste of precious time on fruitless endeavor.
Maybe it's true.
But you won't know until you try...and in retrospect you can only blame yourself for never trying.
TIME is something you control; believe me, you will ALWAYS find time for whatever you want to do.

I had forgotten about this bit - until now as I was starting to get caught up in life and not finding time to make even the smallest thing (like those mini pieces?) and go weeks without creating a single thing ; well, besides create a lot of stress for myself - and thought this was a good reminder specially because I KNOW it will happen again...just gotta keep on truckin'.

OH BTW.
IS THIS NOT SUCH AN AWESOME COPIC MARKER PAINTING OF PRINCESS LEAH?!
just sayin'.

Hope you like,

Love Always,

Shines.

Inverted art

I remember waaaaaaaaaaaaaay back when I was barely tall enough to reach the dining table, we did a project in class where you were allowed to what whatever colour wherever you wanted to on a piece of paper. Then you coloured the whole thing black ; then, when you drew on top with a pointed object, all these BURSTS of colours happened like MAGIC! I forget what the lesson of that exercise was....

It was probably the messiest project I ever made but it was the most fun and I was so sad when I ran out of space to draw more on but it was just too much work to make another page....

Anyhow.

This little spread reminds me of that project and is essentially the same idea. Its definitely not my idea - it's been circulating around the web and I thought what fun would it be to make a spread of that for a quote I try to live by!?  THAT WOULD BE AWESOME . 

So, without fail I found time somewhere and went scavenge hunting at the 4 dollar store near my home and came home with these: two cling alphabet stamps , one with sentiments ( I need to stop buying alphabet anything),  a pack of 4 sheets of foam alphabet stickers, a 10 sheet pack of letter labels and a 20 year date stamp - all for under $2 each. I didn't understand why people dated anything but I realized now - especially with anything that requires practice - it's good to date them so that you can look back and see how you've improved. You can write them ,but sometimes you forget and sometimes there is just not the appropriate place to write it in. Date stamp - the ink will reflect and show - and it was $2, I wasn't crying if I forget to use it or lose it.

Anyway. This is how it's done.

You cover a page with some colour - it could even be,a beautiful picture from a magazine stuck on to a page. In my case, I used a page in my planner(where I try out everything , plan , doodle -its really my "everything" book) that I had tried out some Crayola watercolour pencils I had around and it wasn't bad....but I never knew what to do with that page.  This was going to work out perfectly; and I painstakingly stickered my mantra/motto/ of a quote. This took 8 sheets of labels, if it had taken 8 sheets of stickers (what I was originally going to get) which can ring up $2+ per sheet, I may have cried.

Once you're all stickered up, you cover cover up with either a dark or light colour.

I found that a dark cover up works best if your picture /background is pale and visa versa.

Any paint will do, but I found that acrylic or oil paint does the best job in coverage as it is denser. Even a dollar store acrylic will do better than watercolours or craft paint (to my surprise) as used here. I tried here water color then craft paint on one page then covered the whole bit in acrylic paint.

Once the paint is dry...the fun of peeeeeling the stickers off to reveal the colour underneath begins.

Ta da ~

ISN'T THIS AWESOME?!

And awesome point about date stamp - I couldn't see the ink from stamp all that well so I stamped on a piece of post it note and stuck it on in the corner and it fits in with everything PERFECTLY.

I was so happy about how easy this was, less messy it was and turned into a lingering issue at the back of my head into an instant favourite spread. So I had to try it again in my journal.
This time I used a page that I had covered with some left over paint - incredibly bright orange paint from the dollar store that I love, but rarely had use for and was glad to be out of it but still couldn't waste.
You think your eye hurts now? Just you wait.


I covered this  spread with the foam stickers. I learned couple of things from this exercise.
1. If you have a darker tone and a lighter colour over it (like I have ) its a good idea to go over that dark area with another bright colour gesso, especially if you plan to use black or dark over colour.
2. Foam stickers are not ideal for this project as leaves residue and stretches out of shape :(
3. Don't use contrasting colors of stickers, it will give you a headache.

Cover in color. I ran out of black paint at some point.
So I just used whatever other dark tones I had - browns, blues...whatever. Then peeel.

ta da~~~~
I love the contrast in this piece. It's so in your face, just like the message.

 Remember that lesson about the foam stickers leaving residue?
Here you are. These suckers are tricky to peel because it IS made of a thin, stretchy piece of foam and it does not want to come off. Even just to reposition the stickers it lost a lot of shape which was not great but not horrible.

As well, because it is soft in material it also allowed for a lot of paint to seep through which was definitely a minus but it gave the letters some character so I guess it's okay.

When trying to peel these suckers off, I found that it's somewhat but not really easier - to take a heat gun or blow dryer to warm up the adhesive before attempting to peel.

I wasn't sure if this was a good idea but I really had to try it out and foam stickers were the only ones that came in the size I thought I wanted (which turned out tad to big in the end) but hey, I had to try it right? I am so glad I did.


Hope you liked,

Love always,
Shines

Great Expectations

The pressure one puts on oneself is second to none.
I don't know why we grow up to expect so much of ourselves? Then we beat ourselves for it when really nobody else but ourselves set us up for fail, and the impossible goal.

I spent so much of my life planning out every bit of my life.
I remember having short term, interim and long term goals and I had a clear vision of the things I was going to have achieved by the time I reached a certain age and when that didn't pan out I was devastated. But because I am bull-headed and stubborn, I tried again and again only to fall flat on my face and reach the lowest of the lows. Being from a family of overachievers , this was really a hard pill to swallow.

Recently, chatting with a friend over glasses of wine and smokes - listening to her wallow and remembering my own bitter sweet memories...I realized if we didn't set such high goals and expectations of ourselves, we may not only be happier but more successful.

Its a common storyline -people who became a great success, they really were not thinking of becoming successful in their chosen, they just wanted to do what they loved and be happy in their lives.

Not saying that we need to be all laid back and flow with the wind- but we need to loosen up on the expectations a little bit....maybe it will lessen the heartbreak.

This spread was created in the natural light and dark (I had power outage on Friday the 13th - in the slideshow you can see one photo by candle light which was quite nice).

I covered the page with paper napkins... painted it brown with some splatters of white.
While that was drying, I drew the girl and heart on the glued pages of my 1st art journal (which didn't pan out- but I love the thick pages in them and use them) painted them with dollar store acrylic paint. In the case of the girl I did some prisma colour penciling as well...The tear is in Sharpie believe it or not!
I  then tore the heart apart and stuck'em with some dollar store white glue.
Stenciled some words with dollarbin stamps from Michael's (I'm such a dollar girl lol).
Here is a picture of the final:

here is a slideshow of the process:

Inner peace

ARRRRGH

There are times I find myself sounding like Shi-fu from Kung-Fu Panda constantly repeating,
Ommmmmm...innner peeaaace... innnner, inner peeeeeeeeeeeeeeace...!

which inevitably gets me more irritated as I can't seem to get my mind clear , focused and regain that cool, calm stillness that was CLEARLY there not too long ago and now cannot be found.
I find myself in this circumstance most often when I am doing to duties of a good friend/coworker/new friend at a party/bar role and lending my sympathetic ear only to find that the person talking to me is happy to simply WALLOW and really doesn't care to fix the problem, or have a conversation even. They just want someone standing there to talk at so that they don't feel/seem all that insane talking to themselves. And because they are wallowing over a magnified nothing, they can't find anything to be grateful for even if they were one of the luckiest people I've come across.

Truly, I enjoy being there for my friends and lending an ear or two , or three to help vent out some steam over some sort of beverage because we all need that sometimes. I'm even willing to wallow with you and cry it out and throw things together if need be; but don't bring back the horse from the dead just so that you can beat at it a little more and don't lose reason altogether?

This piece was inspired by an acquaintance/friend I've only been hanging out with for a few months. She was super lonely and was having a lot of confidence problems because guys were just not that interested and she had too much pride to let them go and accept that he may have not been the one. Months of "how dare he"s and plotting schemes to make the guys feel horrible and regain their interests so she can reject them.
Never you mind that you're working a minimum wage job but can afford to live in a condo and party daily because your devote family would not let the youngest on the street or go without something she wants, including your rich and protective brother. First world problems, let me tell you!

Either way, she was invading my mind and I couldn't get a string of productivity out even if the world depended on it. So I decided to play in my art journal and let my emotions rule over the pages.

I glued on some bright red tissue paper left over from I don't know what, using...regular dollar store white glue to get some folds to add texture. The I took some paint out (again, from the dollar store) and just painted the thing black. Then brown. The I splattered them using the brush - which turned out to be super therapeutic and there were layers and layers of that until i was done.


As I was starting to feel better, I wanted to do make something on this paper. I am really thrilled about this page because it finally allowed me to use a magazine cut out I've been holding on to for EVER. it's a beautiful vector art and I thought she was fitting to demonstrate inner peace.
I Outlined her with this "PUFFY PAINT" (guess where I got it? the Dollar store) to outline her and accentuate her and smudged Glitter Glue all over her body (that's right, from the dollar store -trend?).

I cut a piece of paper and painted it bright yellow - regular printer paper - and painted the quote on.

It's such a great quote. Truth be told I am sure I drove a few of my friends insane with my wallowing and disturbed their inner peace; but, what can you do but be a friend? Its tricky to learn to be sympathetic but not get so emotionally invested that you lose your balance and ability to do what YOU need to do.
There will also be the cases when behaviours of people you don't care to acquaint yourself with disturbs your inner peace...because it affects you in some way.

Conclusion: art is so much more therapeutic and effective than meditation (for me anyway).

Hope you liked <3

Love always,
Shines

Listen

OOOOH MYYYYY GOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOSH.

I love this piece. 
I love modelling paste.

This piece took me waaay longer than I expected it to take and was sooo much easier to put together than I thought it was going to be, which makes it a pleasant surprise and a great reminder that I really should stop worrying about things too much as they will come together as it should. It was worth every worry though, and is my current favourite spread.

This started with my trying out modelling paste and getting rid of itty bitty left over paints in shades of blue.
I painted the spread without any intentions to  make anything but just to use up this dollops of paint left in tubes, taking up room and figured something will come of it one day. *groan*

Anyhoo,

This really was fun. I was determined to use and try out all the little stencils and material I kept buying but was too chicken to try out and I thought well. Gotta do it one day; and did pop open my light modelling paste and spread it over a stencil...and it was GLORIOUS. They were the most PERFECT little dots ever.
When it was dried I tried some more on a Damask pattern I love and it was even better. Couple of days later when it was fully dried I painted it with some watery acrylic paint and it was just gorgeous.

I still didn't know what to do with this. I didn't have a sentiment in mind or anything and I wasn't sure I was going to do anything to it in fear of ruining it because it was just so perfect and it was not going to get better.

Then I came across this quote which was just perfect. It pulled what I was learning the past 2 weeks and put in a succinct sentence.  I feel that this is probably the truest thing ever and most frequently forgotten.
I firmly believe that humans are incredible beings with great powers - the power of the mind is second to none - but we forget what miracles we are caught in the rush of the day. We forget, that we are wiser than we believe because of all those around us telling us that we are not.

I drew the girl on a piece of thick card stock that used to be a certificate of appreciation for some volunteer work I did and gave her some colour with acrylics and pencil crayons. Found the prettiest eye I could find in the stash of magazine clippings. The glow is actually a painted tissue paper -2 layers of watercolors... To much surprise this gives the tissue paper heavier matted texture which is quite nice.

And all that glitter? Dollar store glitter glue - that is an amazing invention - probably by someone who uses glitter a lot and wanted to streamline the process. Or a very keen observer. ANYWAY.
Here is a quick slideshow of the spread:

And a quick photo of course:

EEk.
You can't really see the quote:

" At the center of your being you have the answer. You know who you are and you know what you want. You just need to listen. The quieter you become the more you can hear."

Hope you like,

Love always,
Shines

Bent

Well.
You know that song by Pink, Just Give me a Reason?
When I first heard this song, I didn't really listen to the lyrics but I heard the chorus and it moved me. I thought it was another song about a girl who's heart was broken.
When I REALLY heard the song for the first time and watched the music video I cried.
It echoed what my heart couldn't express....and of course, I had to make this moment - that it happened and I am in admission of it - they do say that the first step to recovery  IS, admission.


I wasn't really sure how this would turn out.
I played with some paint and light modelling paste(which is just the most fantastic thing EVER, I love it).
I didn't realize this but water on modelling paste will cause the paste to desolve and lose its shape...which was cause for panic at the time but it grew on me and added a nice incomplete effect.

I wanted to go for some sort of...well, I don't know what...I think I was more interested to try out different materials. The heart is actually the LCBO paper bag with layers of acrylic paint. I thought if I wrinkled it after, it would give some texture - it didn't really but I like it.

Hope you like,

Love always.
Shines.

Dance in the rain

I love hand-lettering.
I have great penmanship, but I admire those who can take ordinary,good "penmanship" and turn it into thought/emotion provoking works of art.I haven't the patience to learn such art but I try to show my appreciation for it whenever I can, like my little Moleskine book o'Doodles and in spreads like this one.

I am sure we've all been handed our fair share of lemons in life.
When it rains, it pours...you know it, felt and but lived through it and gave yourself a good pat on the back for making it through another pail of lemons with gritted teeth, making various flavours of lemonade.
At least that was me.
Now I think that its not just what you do that matters in these dire situations...its also your attitude.
If you keep going through life with the survival mentality you miss all the little joys along the way because you're always thinking what's next? Instead, if you waltz through it - with the attitude that you will try to enjoy even this sack of nutjobs, it doesn't seem as bad.

I had been wondering about the imagery for this quote for quite some time - my technical ability wasn't going to be able to portray what I needed . I tried to not think about it (but I couldn't help it cuz it was THE quote I wanted to use as this was the one that summed up the week's "enlightenment") too too much. I had this weird idea that, what I need will be taken care of when I need it.

Of course, weekend rolls around and I'm starting to feel a little more panicky about this.
Then I saw a newspaper left on the bus - Cartoon section, my favourite - and my eyes just about popped right out when I saw Mutts -which is my favourite cartoon strip and it was EXACTLY what I needed.

NOT saying that you should go through life with the attitude and expectation that all you need will be taken care of, but just to not over-worry about everything because as we all know, it almost always works out as it should.

Love always,
Shines