The Gryphon's Feather Studio

You are a Soul

  

You don't have a soul.

You are a Soul.

You have a body.

C.S. Lewis

the soul may be the part of you that sees the dream

 

All you need

is deep within you

waiting to unfold

and reveal itself.

All you have to do is be still

and take time to seek

what is within,

and surely you will find it.

~eileen cady

Point & Shoot Journaling: THREE!

Join me for a new month of Point & Shoot Journaling!  Each month offers unique assignments, techniques and journal prompts.

This month, in addition to the regular weekly offering, there will  be optional weekly assignments specific to the holidays.  

(The holiday component is a bonus, not the sole focus, so there is no obligation to complete everything! no need to be overwhelmed.  It's just you are gonna shoot photos over the holidays and you know it; we might as well have a some fun with them!)

 
 

 

USE THE PHOTOS YOU HAVE TAKEN ALREADY AND THOSE THAT YOU WILL TAKE TO MAKE ART.

We'll be making art journal pages, but all the techniques can be easily translated to other mixed media applications.

And, if you are like me, languishing on your hard drive or your camera's memory card are ten galleries' worth of photographs you love.  We post our images to our blogs and perhaps to FB or Flickr, and then there they sit, until we back them up onto an external drive or store them on disk, and then they sit some more. 

Find the bits of your heart & soul you have tucked into your photos.

I think we can do something MORE with them- something we can touch and interact with.  I think working with the actual physical photograph can create something high-touch versus high tech.  When we work with an image with our hands we interact with it differently, and we connect with the image.

  I love to use my photographs on my journal pages- the images are mine and mine alone, and they are meaningful and personal- perfect for authentic visual journaling.  Because I've taken the photos the content is rich- the day it was shot, the circumstances, the weather, the location, the subject- are just bursting with content we can explore in the pages of our journals.  We'll shoot new photos and pull out ones we've already shot, and then we'll mine them for visual journal pages.  Writing prompts will be included for the photo assignments.  I'll add in tips and tricks and techniques- the ones I use myself on the pages I will show you.

I think for far too long the notion has been expressed that pages have to be complicated and the techniques difficult to master for a visual journal to be good.  Poppycock, I say!!!  Messy is fine if that is your style, but it might not be everyone's.  You will be able to adapt the class to your personal style and explore the ways I approach composition of journal pages, if you choose.

This class, Point & Shoot Journaling is designed to prompt you to print your images and use them on your journal pages. By using digital photography, we have an unlimited and extremely inexpensive source of original imagery at our fingertips.  (you know, the ones that press the shutter button and the keyboard keys...)

   We'll use our point & shoot digital cameras (although dslr folks are welcome!), our existing photo archives, and simple supplies (paper, paint, crayons, gesso, acrylic medium, pencils, pens), to create visual journal pages.  By journaling with your own photographs you will begin to develop a personal visual journal practice.

Each class will consist of a private, password-protected blog, where you will find:

• weekly photo shoot assignments - topics that will make you thnk and stretch
• weekly search assignments within your photo archive - to make you delve with purpose into your files
• Special for December are optional weekly holiday assignments - archive & photo assignments plus a journaling prompt
• Visual journaling / journaling prompts each week to help you pull pages together
• tips, tricks, and techniques for working with your images that will be shown in photograph (or video when needed)  format - my tried and true ways of working
• I will be available to answer your questions via email throughout the class
• a class flickr photo pool will exist to share your work with the class
• I think we should give Facebook a try this time around. 

Each class will be one month long, beginning on the first of the month, and ending on the last day of the month- meaning, I will begin adding material on the first day of the month and cease adding on the last day of the month. The class materials are staying in place for now.  A button in my sidebar on the right will take you to a payment screen.  You don't need to have a paypal account to sign up.  The screen will prompt you with instructions.

Refunds are available up until seven days prior to the start of class.  You may begin a class after it has begun, but since the information will still be available for you to use, the cost is not pro-rated.   

This is not a camera or photo editing software instruction class.  This class assume you can readily use email, your camera, download images, and resize them as needed using your computer's software.  You may want to sign up for a free Flickr account, if you wish to share images or photos with our group. You will also want to sign up for Facebook.  I am going to start a group page on Facebook.  (I'm not finding the Flickr discusion module so useful.)

Supplies:

• a journal you like to work in
• computer w/ internet access and photo editing software (the stuff that is pre-installed is fine.)
• printer
• digital camera
• your favorite pencils, crayons, pens, paint ... journaling tools
• scissors/cutter, ruler
• your favorite glue or adhesive
• matte photo paper, regular paper, glossy photo paper (I like Staples brand photo papers- particularly their matte as it is double sided for less waste)
• clear spray paint
• gesso
• acrylic medium, gloss

You may find you like the tools or materials I use personally, and I am happy to share that info as we go along, but I would guess that most of the class have art supplies on hand, so why not use what you already own?!

   

 

 

  

 

 

 

 

Printed Patterned Painted Journal Making Class

 

Why not have a journal full of prepped, ready-to-go pages for art journaling on hand? Using my favorite page surface treatment techniques, you can have a journal filled with pages ready to receive images, collage, writing, drawings, and more paint.  The pages will not stick to together.  All the color and visual texture will beg you to journal! You will find that you will journal more often and more easily when you have a journal loaded with prepared surfaces. The blank page syndrome, where when you crack open a  journal to an empty page and every idea flies out of your head, will no longer be an issue for you!  Two simple binding techniques will show you how to incorporate the papers into a book.  One technique will lie complete flat for use and be so easy to make!

A number of people ave inquired about my teaching my page treatment techniques online.  I have decided to have a class that hcovers as many techniques as I can!  Join in!  It will be a great holiday treat for you. You're bound to discover techniques you will use again and again.

 We'll cover:

• scraped acrylics plus variations
• using gesso - sgraffito, stamping, stenciling (see below), resists
• combing
• stencils and masks- reductive stenciling, gesso and gesso+paint stenciling, using inks and other indoor spray products, making stencils and masks at home
• gelatin monoprinting
• adding surface texture with paper
• guerrilla printmaking- make-your-own foamie stamps, recycle bin stamps, paint rollers, homemade brayer stamps, carving a stamp
• nature printing
• two easy binding techniques will be shown so you can create a book with your papers

.   We will have a photo pool for sharing images at flickr.

The paper you need for the techniques needs to be 90lb or heavier.  The finish should be hot press/smooth.  I am fond of Lenox drawing paper, but anything sturdy will work, including paper grocery bags.

Inexpensive acrylic paint is best. Tube paint has a different feel than craft paint. I use a good bit of Liquitex because I can get that easily and it is less expensive than many brands.  FolkArt acrylics will work fine for most applications.

You will need a little gesso and acrylic medium, as well as other basic supplies.  Each lesson will be preceeded by a supply list.  Know that I strive to keep the list to mostly things you have on hand or can get easily. I don't live anywhere near an art supply store, so I rely on a craft store and a fabric store (Michael's and Joann's) for many things. Inks and spray products for stenciling will be the exception and I will provide online resources for all products we will use. 

The class is deliberately inexpensive so that you should you need to purchase paper or other supplies you can more easily.

The cost is $35 for six weeks of lessons.  You can begin at any time, and all the information will remain available for at least ten weeks following your registration.  Refunds for class fees will only be available until you receive the class username and password.

Blessings

Today I am counting my blessings!  Thanksgiving is headed our way here in the US, and while it hasn't ever been my favorite holiday, I am a big fan of gratitude as a way of improving my outlook on life. 

My favorite holiday movie of all time, White Christmas, has a song I love and actually sing to my littlest at night when she is struggling to find her way to sleep.

 

 

One of my blessings this year has been the great response to my online class offerings. I thank everyone who is joining in the fun! In gratitude, I am giving my November class an extra week of information.  (five weeks of November's fun.)

Here's what we are working on this week:

  

Cupped in my hands are my blessings- my family- my husband and my three littles.  

Feel free to join us. You have plenty of time. I still have people signing on to the first class I had in October as well as joing us in November. I am renaming October's class to Point & Shoot: One, and November's class will become Point & Shoot: Two.  They will remain available.  And, yes, they are different from each other. 

We will keep going in December with Point & Shoot: Three.  I will be adding in special options for working art journal pages around the holidays because we take lots of photos at those times. Also to come will be the much asked about painted papers class- I'll be teaching every way I can of applying paint, print and pattern to pages with acrylics and some other supplies.  In that class, I'll be including a couple of sets of bookbinding instructions.  It will run mid December through January.  More about the new classes soon. 

what this girl needs

 

I have got. to. get .a tutu. and. a wand. really. I'd settle for a crinoline or a tulle skirt.  Got one, you don't want?  I want to have this kind of fun in my life. I could put it on like magical armor. 

 Instead, this morning, I have monkey mind and am driving myself crazy.  You know, the days where your want to/need to/got to do list is a bit over-large and you need to start but instead you think about stray annoyances like how your editor told you no one wants to read about artists shooing cats off their work tables and making tea, and makes you edit out all that stuff from interviews, and then you see an entire chapter in someone's book on this very topic, and the book is wonderful and you want to send a copy to your editor but you know she will think it an insult, when in reality you just want to say, see we DO want to know the everyday details of other artists' days... GAH. Or you update your virus protection and suddenly every piece of software on your laptop begins to open at snail speed and inexplicably freezes every single day...  BAH

I just need to go paint, or write captions, or pack for the river, or put up more Christmas decorations.  Or find a thrift shop with a big tulle skirt that I can dye black or pink...  I keep checking the ones here, but no luck....  Keep an eye out for me, would ya? 

I confess I have been away too long

I confess I have been away too long!  I will be back with some photos.. I spent my time recuperating from my cold at the river... but for now a glimpse of a journal page:

 

The left hand page in the spread has an image for which I have done a good bit of work onto the surface.  The right hand side has a photo of a special someone who recently turned three. (THREE?!!!! How did that happen?)