Love Charcoal!

There's just something about the messiness and feel of holding a charcoal stick in my hand that I love! Maybe the smokey smell too of the vine charcoal...

Recently I picked up a large stick of charcoal at my local Utrecht art supply store and decided to turn it to making a quick Zentangle(tm) sketch using some of the designs found in the new Zentangle 6 book.

Love the smudgy property of the charcoal and used a damp paper towel to smudge in places to get some depth and accents going. After creating this work I found anything that touched it or that it touched ended up with charcoal on it, so 2 coats of workable spray fixative were used to seal in the charcoal.

I find that whenever I am working on an art project, it inspires my 12 year old daughter to work on a project of her own. Here is what she recently created when we were Art Making:

If you get up close at the top of her page, you can see in green the names of famous Creatives like Walt Disney, Einstein, Martin Luther King, Thomas Edison, etc. Very cool!

So in the famous words of a young Creative, "Dream Big, Be Creative, Walk Among the Stars!" ;) Tristina

Playing with Lettering

Happy New Year!!! Today was a very relaxed day for me...on purpose...so I could catch up on some reading and art-play. :)

I focused my efforts today on the Cloth Paper Scissors premier issue of "PAGES - The Creative Guide for Art Journaling and Bookmaking" since I know art journaling is something I am most likely able to sneak a few minutes a day in doing for 2012.

I was attracted to the magazine because of the beautiful pictures (I am a visual person who likes LOTS of color!) and it showed prominently on the cover that inside was an article about Graffiti lettering. I am fascinated with Graffiti (photographed skads of it in the Miami area) and take every opportunity to learn more about it and especially HOW to do it! See my efforts below interspersed with other inspiration from the magazine:

I used a combination of Utrecht alcohol based colored markers (with both a brush and chisel point) and Micron pens for the thin lines and calligraphy script (Micron Graphic #2 and #3).

Happy Journaling and Lettering in 2012!  Tristina