Anyone bored with sketchbook covers yet?
Look away now, if the answer is yes 😎
This one is A4 size, and it’s the sketchbook I’m using for the Laura Horn Modern Mixed Media course. So far the course content is quite different in style from what I would normally produce, but there are some interesting techniques that I might be able to adapt into some kind of landscape work. Laura is very, very good at what she does, and she demonstrates the techniques expertly.
The cover for this one is mostly layered sheer fabrics – hand-dyed silk organza, chiffon and nylon tulle, on a plain calico base. I drew some loose scribbly marks and lines on the calico first, which you can just about see under the surface, and then layered the sheers over the top to form a kind of landscape.
The scrap of poetry on the front cover, held in place under the top layer of nylon chiffon, is from ‘Home Thoughts in Laventie’ by Edward Wyndham Tennant.
The back is a little more simple, but broadly the same technique:
Sheer fabrics are notoriously difficult to photograph, so some of the colours are not quite right here – textiles always look so much better in person, in any case. This detail of the back cover shows some hand-painted builder’s scrim under the top layer of chiffon.
As usual, I’ve made a wrap-around slip cover, so the inside covers do double duty as pockets.
The Modern Mixed Media course so far has been quite heavily focused on ‘botanicals’, which I’ve struggled to render on paper without it looking like someone else’s work. The best I’ve been able to do so far is a kind of scribbly variation, which I quite like.
I’m not terrifically impressed by the paper in this sketchbook, which is a Fabriano watercolour 200 gsm. The paper has a very prominent texture, which I find distracting. You can see it particularly clearly on this page:
I’ve taken to collaging the pages before adding any paint, which I’m finding easier to handle.
This page is ready for something, though I don’t know what yet. I could easily say the same about myself, most days. Let’s see what the rest of the week brings.
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Thank you so much for sharing this process, Karen. I’m really enjoying your posts.
thanks so much Elaine 😊
Absolutely not bored ! I am unable to stitch at the moment with a silly sore finger ( got a thorn in it gardening ) so I’m just really enjoying indulging in seeing what everybody else is creating . Loving your journal covers ! love Debbie 💐x
thanks so much Debbie – so sorry to hear you’re out of action at present. Thorns in fingers can be very painful! Hope you’re soon better
Love, love, love, as I do all of your work. The sheer layering is fabulous!
thanks so much, Norma. These things almost make themselves, the sheer layers are lovely to work with.
Your work inspires me so much. I’ve been doing daily stitching because of you and love the freedom to mindlessly play. Making beautiful pieces with simple stitches is so joyful, both in your work and for me to do. Seeing your art in your posts is always a highlight of my day.
how lovely, Celeste, thank you so much. I’m so glad you’re enjoying some quiet daily stitching – always good for the soul 🙂
I absolutely love these and your work in general. thank you so much for sharing!
thanks so much Jill 😊
So lovely, Karen. It just makes me smile with happiness.
thanks so much Stephanie. Always good to spread smiles and happiness 😊
I’m always delighted to see what you’ve been up to!
There’s a whole extra layer to learning from a tutor with a strong style that isn’t a natural fit – it can be so useful, but finding a way to learn the thing without doing a poor copy of the tutor is a whole adventure in itself!
thanks so much Rachel. Exactly that, you’re spot on – it’s so hard to imagine the technique done any other way. It’s not a style I would work in, which makes it even harder. An interesting experience though, and therefore a useful one (I think!)
Courses are such fun to take and it is understandable for it to be a bit difficult to get away from the style being taught in the course.
It’s fun to get past it and see where you take it or how you’ll use it. There are so many people working with botanicals, white or black on a background, and so forth and have been for so long that I think of it more as a type of art rather than any one person’s personal style. You get beyond that when you see what they do with what layers (or not) they choose, how they meld and utilize patterns, and so forth.
Courses open something in us, I think. (Look at your own courses for those of us who’ve taken them!) We follow the road until we veer off into our own spaces with it, which is so much fun.
(Never bored of book covers!)
this probably sounds much harsher than I mean it to. I’m not at my best at the moment due to offline things.
apologies.
No, not at all – you write perfect sense, as usual. I totally understand about the offline things, though, and I hope you’re taking time to look after yourself.
Re the course, it’s exactly as you say; it’s going to be a matter of getting beyond the personal and into the more generic, or at least into what’s meaningful for each of us personally. This week I think we’re getting away from ‘botanicals’ and heading more into the abstract, which might turn out to be more my thing. Plus of course I don’t often work on paper outside of sketchbooks, so there’s the added (completely fictional) pressure of ‘doing a painting’ on ‘good paper’… We are such funny creatures. It’s just a piece of paper, after all.
As always, Em, thank you for your insight. I find your words are always so helpful.
Thanks for this.
I had a teacher who had us buy two sheets of very expensive watercolor paper so we see the difference in how the paint moved and what it felt like to use it. I still have some good paper from that class (why am I saving it?) and am coming to the conclusion that I need to make sketchbooks from it so I’ll use it!
We are funny creatures.