Jen Bowles Design

A few Moleskine pages

I have a small (5x8) Moleskine notebook that I've been working in for a while  now.  I thought it would be an art journal but I'm not sure that's the case anymore.  But maybe it is...

At any rate, here are a few pages I created in there recently.

home

{inspired by the illustrations in The Plant Sitter
 by Margaret Bloy Graham. Media used: Golden fluid acrylics, Pitt pen, pencil, Prismacolor colored pencils, Copic markers}

free bird

{inspired by the bird cage--and the fact that I didn't draw a door ;-)  Media used: Lyra watercolor crayons (love them!), graphite pencil, Pitt pen, scrapbook paper, vintage paper, paper scraps, Prismacolor colored pencils}

I'm curious to see what ends up in here next.  Though the blank page can be daunting, it's usually fun once I begin.

Here's to art=fun.

Art Journal Pages

It's been a while since I've posted (or worked in...) my art journal.
I guess #13 Art Journal 1 page per week from my 209 Things to do in 209 isn't going so well.
But that's ok. Plenty of room for improvement ; )
This first page was heavily inspired by Pam Garrison's artwork on the cover (and inside) of the premiere issue of Stampington's Art Journaling publication.  Pam has been featuring a ton of her amazing pages from her latest art journal on her blog.  Definitely go and take a peek!
Back to my page.  I used a black Pitt pen, oil pastels, colored pencils and 2 different kinds of paint--turquoise Lumiere metallic acrylic and pernod yellow Setacolor transparent fabric paint.  The paints were fun to work with and the fabric paint was on clearance at Michaels when I got it (bonus!).  My inspiration was really Pam's artwork, and I do love drawing birds.  Other than that, just playing with my art supplies on a rainy Saturday morning.

The second shot is 2 separate pages, scanned together.  Both of these pages were inspired by the words/ideas written on the pages.  From there I just doodled, playing with patterns, colors and supplies.  I used the same supplies for these pages as  the bird page. I like the 'Consume Less, Culitivate More' page a bit better, not so crazy about the purple on the 'Life' page.  But that's ok, it's an art journal and it's just for fun.
I like fun.
Especially where creating is concerned.

 

2 Red Birds

Another art journal page.
Paint, magazine clippings, pen, vintage wallpaper, banana sticker : )

My Deepest Desire...

Here it is, in Technicolor ; )

That's right, I want to drive a golf cart!
The way I see it, I either have to take up golfing or become a housekeeper at a fancy resort hotel.
Someday though, I will achieve my goal!

Circles and a Square

Hey look, it's a $50 art journal page!  Sure, it's hard to tell just by looking at the finished product but trust me, 50 bucks.
    It started with the painted circles on Monday night.  After I'd done 3 colors (2 pinks and orange) I decided I wanted a punch of darker pink as well.  So I portioned out a squirt about the size of a penny if a penny was about half the size that it actually is.  I painted my accent dots and went into the other room to watch tv with the rest of the family.
You'll note that I did not say that I cleaned up my painting supplies.  Because I didn't.  I also did not mention closing the door to my studio.  Because I didn't.
Fast forward an hour and it's time to take Ebby up to bed.  As I approached the stairs I noticed what I thought were large blood drops on the light beige (very light) carpet.  While quite distressing, this was not shocking to me because a. on Saturday Will had a mysterious bloody nose that may or may not have been caused by Little Dog and he was so shocked that he ran directly to the (light) beige sofa in the library and wiped blood all over the cushions and b.  our cat has been having some issues and I thought I saw a single bloody paw print on the window sill last week.  Alas, Will was in bed and the cat was not bleeding.  The cat had however been in my studio.  On the table.  Stepping directly in the not yet dried up blob of magenta paint.  And then jumping down on the the carpeted floor and up the carpeted stairs.
Yes, 7 round spots of magenta paint on our carpet.  Have I mentioned lately that our house is for sale?!
Fortunately my Resolve/toothbrush/dish detergent triage coupled with a visit from our friendly professional carpet cleaner, has restored the carpet to its original, unblemished glory.
So, a $50 art journal page.
$40 for the carpet cleaner and $10 at Hobby Lobby for a set of 4 Pitt pens.
I love the Pitt pens, they are so fun to draw with.
And with my carpet now spotless (for today at least), I was feelin' the love  for the carpet guy too.

Happy Earth Day

Hope Always

Another day, another journal page.  Unlike my last page, this one was quick.  Not surprisingly, I like this one a lot more.  I definitely work better when I like what I'm making, much less of a struggle.  The other thing that helped me get this page done quickly was that it is a) simple and clean lined and b) heavily inspired by a Hallmark card.  And when I say heavily inspired I basically mean I changed a few colors and copied it.   Usually when I am inspired by  a greeting card (love having my iPhone to snap pictures of cards at Target!) I use it as a jumping off point.  Not this one.  I really like the card--the design and the message--so I decided to just re-create it. 

Last week I found out that a family friend was recently diagnosed with breast cancer that has spread to her spine and her sternum.  She's 23.  I've known her since before she was born and I babysat for her and her sisters for years.  I was, and am, shocked and saddened to hear the news of her diagnosis.  Fortunately, she is a strong woman  with a wonderful and supportive family and extensive network of friends.  She is maintaining a positive attitude and as much normalcy as possible as she begins her treatment.  The whole family has been in my thoughts and prayers daily so when I saw the card  the other night I put it right in my cart.

I had already painted the background of this page pink before I knew what I'd be doing on it.  It's right next to the Africa page in my journal and some of the paint had migrated.  And with pink being the color for breast cancer awareness, it all came together.

{acrylic paint, Sharpie}

No Ice Cream in Africa

Guess who watched a bit too much Idol Gives Back last week?  And yes, we donated, so I could watch guilt free--at least in that respect.
This page started out as something completely different.  However, it took me several days to complete as I kept getting distracted by my paper mache tea set project.  By the time I got back to it, things morphed.
Last week I took Ebby to Panera Bread for lunch.  We took our dessert to go and I decided I wanted to use the bag in my art journal.  I had thoughts of using the logo but just couldn't work it out.  So I moved on.  I went through my old scrapbooking templates, looking for something to use as a pattern to jump start a collage.  For whatever reason, I decided on the ice cream cone.  I cut the scoop of ice cream out of scrapbook paper.  Then I cut the cone out of the Panera  paper bag.  I painted the background and left it to dry.  For 5 days.  Finally yesterday I told myself I had to finish.  I wanted the scoop of ice cream to stand out from the background so I went looking for a page from one of the (only) two thrift store books I currently have in the studio.  And the map of Africa is the page I randomly picked out.  When I saw the map I thought of the stories from Idol Gives Back--the malaria nets, the 15 year old boy whose parents and grandparents had all died and he was left to care for his 3 younger brothers, the living conditions.  So when I put the ice cream cone on top of the map of Africa, it made me think of how much we take for granted (in America, at least at my house).  If we want an ice cream cone we can just hop in the car, drive 2 miles to Bruster's and partake.  I'm thinking that in too many parts of Africa that's just not the case--thus the dripping/melting ice cream tears.
I didn't and don't mean for my art journal page to be making a political statement, it's just me--seeing the world and interpreting it. 

{materials:  acrylic paint, scrapbook paper, Panera Bread paper bag, page from an old almanac, Hero Arts alphabet stamps, charcoal pencil}

Stamp Sampler

I have a few rubber stamps.
The (finely constructed by my favorite brother-in-law) shelf in my studio holds about 1/3 of the rubber stamps that I own.
And I've managed to part with several by donating them to Will & Cuyler's school.
Still, I have a lot.  It's part of the hobby.  Everyone knows that.  Whether it's rubber stamping, scrapbooking, quilting, mixed media.  It doesn't matter.  Collecting supplies is part of the fun.  I'm pretty sure I'm not alone on this ; )
I do use my stamps.  Just not as often as I should.  Or could.  It's rather cyclical I suppose.  But I have so many that I do indeed love.  Oh, what a good idea for an art journal page...
Yep, I liberated 14 stamps from my stamping shelf last night and went to town.  Easy, fun and a great reference.
I should definitely get more stamps after we move.
Totally.
Oh Steve, I think I'll be needing more shelves...

Production notes:  I painted the background with Heidi Swapp acrylic paint, glossy acrylics and Golden fluid acrylics.  Stamped the images in black ink.  Colored a few in with colored pencils.  Cut out the image blocks and inked the edges of the cardstock with Van Dyke Brown ink by Ranger (one of my most used ink pads).  Used charcoal pencil to draw the swoops, pennants and dots.  Enhanced with colored pencils.  Finally, wrote © and company name.  Artfully arranged in my journal and glued down.  Handwritten title.

Kids with Wings

I got back to work the other night in my art journal. 
Now I know that people with wings and hats are all over the place and not terribly original.  The thing is, I've never made a collage person with wings : (  And they always looked like so much fun.  So I did.
I started with WonderTime magazine and a pair of scissors.  It was helpful to be sitting on the loveseat with the Nicholas Cage/Jessica Biel movie, Next on tv.  This allowed me to sit with my husband but also be productive--as the movie (If you can see the future, you can save it) required about 1/10 of my attention.  And to think that I'm not usually good at multi-tasking...Ok, I cut out some cute kids and some fashionable footwear.  Along with some numbers from a Sesame Street ad.  Yesterday I put the peeps and the page together and finished it off with some actual journaling about my history of flying.  And I don't mean in planes.
Unfortunately for the world, I thoroughly enjoyed collaging people and cutting out clothes out of paper.  Which means I will definitely be doing it again.

Production notes:  Tube watercolors for background, magazine cut-outs and scrapbook paper for collages, paper punches shapes (butterfly, sun, star), oil pastels, Sharpies, colored pencils and the white pen.