an african journal

 

I wanted a messy little notebook to take with me on my trip. I used the tutorial from this amazing blog http://valentinaramos.blogspot.com/ on how she creates her canvases, to make the cover for my notebook. Instead of layering paper pieces on canvas, I layered it on this thin fabric I had. In the end, it ended up cracking a bit, it didn't have as much give as it needs I guess. But I wanted it to be a messy little book.
 

I added my paint and doodles, and here it is. I  may add some words on the front cover, but I havent quite decided. Inside is a mixture of papers with a couple of envelopes and pouches for sticking notes and little papers collected along the way.




It turned out even messier than was expected, but I'm good with that.

freewriting and drawing

I was working on something tonight, and all of a sudden, there was just a burst of free writing on the back of a pizza box cardboard that originally had a to-do list on it. There were random tree drawings. And there is what was going to be a giraffe in the bottom corner. And one of the trees is going the wrong way.

But it was just what I needed.

dancing honu's and other doodles

Happy 2012!
Most of my free time lately has been spent getting ready for the big Africa Adventure. Only four more sleeps. This morning I did a pre-pack, and it went really well. So I took a bit of time to paint some honu's (Hawaiian word for turtle).

I had watercolor painted this background when we were in Hawaii, and I knew I wanted to add some little swimming honu's, but didn't have the supplies with me.


So I painted some quick turtle shapes with white acrylic paint




Then added some paint accents in blues and greens.



And some sharpie lines.


I've also been working on some other watercolor doodles, with some awesome new watercolor brush pens I got for christmas.

I've been playing with something else, trying to get it done before I leave, but its not really going as planned...we'll see what becomes of that. 

(Apologies for the assortment of photos, much of my camera equipment is already packed, so I was struggling through today using my cellphone and different lenses for my photos).