In The Studio

I've begun to talk about the Computer Room as the Studio. I've bought a table and some storage stuff to hold the constantly increasing amount of art supplies, some of which I've made myself.

I've been asked if I could show the stamps I've been making out of children's fun foam, and here are some photos both of the stamps and, in the case of the doodle one, of some paper that I stamped. I've used it in more things and if you come back you will see more of it.

The photo in the middle shows the detail. It is amazing what one can do with a toothpick or with a stylus. It is OK if they don't stamp clearly. Frankly most of the time clear stamping is not what is wanted in Art Journaling.

I've been watching a lot of YouTube. I bought a Roku box about 6 weeks ago thinking that I'd be watching a lot of Amazon Prime since I already had Prime just for the shipping. Turns out that I've gotten to borrow some books instead of buying them and there is Amazon Prime TV as well. I'm already paying for it, so why not watch it. But what I'm doing on the Roku box most of the time is watching YouTube tutorial videos for drawing and painting and Art Journaling. I've learned a lot just by watching what other people are doing since the people doing the videos are rarely professional teachers.

One of the things I learned was how to make these stamps out of fun foam and glue. I made the three big ones to help me with putting layers onto the pages with paint. But the incised ones are the surprise. They are extremely useful.

You notice I am not cleaning them. Basically you can't so what you do is stamp them on scrap paper and use those papers for collage papers on another project. You just keep stamping until the paint is all gone.

And here is a project where I used the stamps. The houses were stamps that I made. You can see them in the last photo. The Balloons were scratch paper that I put the extra paint on from previous projects, and to some extent  just to play with the stamps to see what they would do.

This counts as my 3rd layout. This time in the bigger journal. I'm very pleased with it, and frankly with myself.

I've also been taking online classes. One of them is on drawing the face. Drawing, especially faces, is one of the things I've been avoiding for 50 years. I always hated what I did. The photo below is only the second face that I've done. She doesn't have hair because the part of the class that I've already done didn't include the hair. It does come in a later video.

I drew along with the teacher. And I'm very pleased with how it came out. It is actually better than the photo.

Another class is a lettering class. Don't have anything to show yet, but I have been doing the class homework and it is doing what the teacher, this time a professional one, intended. I'm loosening up. The words and letter in the layout above were from things I typed into the computer and printed out.

Take care all.