Fun with art supplies? Or whatever.

This weird thing actually started out as thoughts about leaf structures on a magnified level.

No, really, it did.

Then my brain got into the construction paper. And glue. And acrylic paint. And a canvas board. And then... this.

Now the scary thing about this (it's called Leaf, very originally) is that it's currently on the wall of our art gallery at work. Yes, it's showing in public, and that's the reason I'm using it for this week's Illustration Friday prompt, which is shy.

I've said it before: I'm not an artist. I dabble. I doodle. And when I experiment like this, it doesn't ever get seen by the public. Except this year, for some reason. Not only did I bring in this... masterwork? for the staff show, but I also did a three-canvas painting. Yes, painting (it's on the other blog that's linked on the sidebar, but it's no great shakes so don't worry about checking it out). For anyone new to my world, I don't paint.

The staff show was hung mid last week. The thought that people were seeing these things nearly caused shyness overload.

Yep, seriously. To the point where I didn't show up for the opening.  Couldn't handle the thought of hearing an opinion about what until now has been a very private part of my life.

You artists out there are by now thinking that I'm at best neurotic and at worst slightly insane over something that's not a big deal, but for me it is a big deal. I'm a shy person to begin with; to put myself out there is never easy. To put this kind of thing out there? Well, I've used the word terrifying before, and it's pretty close to that.

Ah well. They're on the wall now. They've been seen by people. I haven't died.

I guess it's all ok.

MORE "ART"!!!!!!!!!!

Do caps and exclamation points make it any more exciting, the ol' mixed media mess book?

No, I didn't think so.

Don't worry, I'm fully aware of how ridiculous the whole thing is. It's still fun, though.

"Art". Yes, still with quotes.

I'll never be able to take this nonsense seriously, you know.

Posting this mostly because I'm getting tired of seeing it on my nerdstick...

More "art"!!!

Apparently I'm not doing an Illustration Friday doodle this week. Weird, because I had an idea immediately and I have the materials sitting beside me right now. As they have been for days...

Ah well, I suppose a person can't help her moods.

In lieu of that, then, here's another page from what's increasingly becoming the world's most pointless sketchbook (it may just have to move over to my more appropriately titled other blog, come to think of it). This was cardstock that was scribbled over with felt pens, sliced into triangles with a guillotine, and then glued down in a randomish spiral. I was going to cover it with something else after that, but I decided I kind of like it this way so this way it stayed.

Which is, I guess, the point.

So it has a point after all? Ok then.



Oh, and the exclamation points in the title? No reason. No reason at all. Pointless points.

The gesso is getting out of hand

Or on hand, or something.

I started out applying it with a brush like a good girl, but more and more I'm finding myself making a big, goopy, textural fingerpainting mess.

Who knew when I started this silly book that my big discovery would be that gesso is fun? Especially when you stop thinking about how it's supposed to be used...

I guess I really am a not-so-secret five-year-old.

And my sketchbook is getting les and less closeable.

And another page of "art"

Newspaper headlines and some oil pastel resist, this time.

And it's very blue...

And more "art"

Posted mostly because I'm tired of carrying this scan around on my nerdstick. The newer pages in my --- um, shall I call it a mixed media journal, or just a mucking-around book? -- are getting a little more involved as I get used to making a mess on purpose. I'll try to do some scans of them at some point.

Maybe I'll even take the quotation marks off of the "art" part at some point. That's a fair amount to ask of "some point" though.

And even more "art"

Apparently I really wanted to cover up whatever I wrote underneath this one. It's been a while now; can't quite remember the reason.

Ah well. At least it's... scribble-y? Or something.

And it's got shiny bits. That's always important.

More "art"

Sorry. Just can't seem to bring myself to leave off the quotation marks.

I'm not sure if I'll get around to Illustration Friday this week, so here's another page from the Book of Random Art Supplies. It's colourful, at least, even if it really makes no sense.

Still having trouble with the fact that it's ok to make no sense with this kind of thing...

More pointess "art"

I know pointlessness usually belongs to the other blog, but it's over here today because for various reasons I won't be doing anything for this week's Illustration Friday prompt.

And this?

Is a pizza.

Well, it's tempera over words torn from pizza delivery ads, anyway.

I guess my inner five-year-old was hungry that day.

Are you art?

Insofar as the... thing you see to the left has a title, Are You Art would be that title.  If you click on the photo to enlarge it, you might even be able to see those exact words in there somewhere.  I promise that they're there.

Yes, folks, this is how I've been spending a bit of my time lately.  Doing my best to destroy a perfectly innocent sketchbook.  It's just an ordinary recycled paper sketchbook, but for some reason I've decided to punish it via mixed media.  The pages are wavy, the cover is already warped... and why?

To be honest, I don't know.  I guess maybe I wanted to shake things up a bit.  Try some different techniques without the outcome having to matter.  Ok -- make a mess, no strings attached.

And am I getting anything out of it?

Oh, I don't know.  I'll admit that it's kind of relaxing to come home and gesso the hell out of a page after a busy day's work.  And I'm probably learning things about the various media that I might not have otherwise.

But...

I can't help feeling like a five-year-old wrecking a book for no apparent reason.

Hey, wait.  Is that really such a bad thing?  Maybe we all need to feel like five-year-olds every once in a while...

Anyway, I took a few scans of the thing this morning, so maybe I'll post one now and then if I haven't been doing any doodling (and so far as the doodling goes, I've just been a little busy lately.  That's all).  After all, I hesitated to post this one, but now that I've done it you may as well see just how big a mess I can actually make.

Oh, and don't forget tomorrow: