Lisa J's Guest Spot in Sharon's Vintage Circus Journal

Sharon's Round 2 "Vintage Circus" journal came home to her late last year and, as she still had a few blank pages in it, I was able to do a spread!

Sharon's brief was no bright colours.  Trying to limit your palette to softer vintage colours is quite challenging!  But that's where good old Pinterest comes in.

I found this amazing black and white photo of a clown.  I'm not sure why, but it spoke to me.

Perhaps because the circuses of yesteryear are no more, and we look back wistfully in remembrance...

When I was about 7 or 8, I was living in the USA and got to see the Barnum and Bailey Ringling Bros 3 ring circus.  

What a spectacle!   So much going on under the huge canopy of the big top.  So much to see in the 3 rings - too much really!

So I created my own big top, with the old elephant balancing on a ball, the tightrope walker balancing en pointe above him...

And the strong man wielding his 300lb weights with ease, to the amazement of the crowd...

And the sad clown, about to join the party.  "Send in the Clowns".

Here's the whole scene!  

Painted this in acrylics with some water soluble pencil added.

Beautiful journal, thanks for letting me have a play Sharon!

Cheers, Lisa

My Aphorisms Journal is home to me

My round 3 Aphorisms journal is home to me. 

Thank you to all you wonderful artists for helping fill my little journal....I love it !!!!

 Thank you Louise for hosting the swap. xox..

Thank you all!!

Creatures of The Bay Journal by Wendy

I thoroughly enjoyed working in Joan's Creatures of the Bay Journal. I started the background by using three shades of blue and purposely going lighter towards the center for the illusion of light shining down. I used a circle stencil representing the waves or tides/flows of the ocean and also the drop of water used in the saying A rather abstract view point but I do like it.

After recently having fun in my own journals using silhouettes, I decided to use a silhouette of the beautiful whales of the ocean life. There were also some lovely patterned napkins with Joan's journal and I pulled one apart and used the beautiful shells as another layer of my ocean. I know I'm using the word 'ocean' more than "Bay" but this was what I was drawn to do in Joan's journal, so I went with it. Lastly, an appropriate saying for my spread was..."In one drop of water are found all the secrets of all the oceans"...Kahil Gibran
I am very pleased with the outcome of this layout and I hope it brings you some joy Joan, Thank you.

MONOTONES is almost finished

It was a real pleasure to receive my mums travelling art journal- Monotones, and have it in my hands, to touch and look at and then to play in the remaining pages.

I wanted to try and work in the colours not present yet and it was pretty hard because this gorgeous journal already had a rainbow




Monotones is a bit of a challenge for me who is very partial to the entire range of colours and using them quite liberally. I found there was no gold and no red so I went with them. 

The first 2 pages were play and fun and I am also using them as journal prompts in our Australian Art Swap Group and the third one was much more personal.

I recount memories from a long ago family holiday and include some natural elements from that trip.

I have another page in process and am leaving a double page for my beloved mama to play in and then her whole journal is filled!

I did this little one on the back page and I made a video if you want a look through the whole thing. It features many artists work from the Australian Art Journal Swap.

Lisa J's entry in Robyn's 'Travel the World' Journal

Robyn's journal has nearly finished its 'Travel around the World' and there are some great pages in there of where people have been, and where they'd like to go!

I'd like to travel... um... pretty much everywhere!  If I were doing a spread on where I'd like to go, I would have a hard time choosing.  Two faves would be Paris and Ireland, and they had already been done, by Pam and Joan.

So I decided to concentrate on a place that I've been to twice now - Vietnam.  We first went about two years ago, and took the then 15 yo boy and 13 yo girl, for four weeks.  They tolerated it, but didn't love it as much as Scott and I did.  So in May '16 we left the kids at home for almost three weeks and went on our own!  (Don't worry, there was some supervision... :))

We took a huge amount of photos, and I chose two of the places, and photos, that resonated with me, to do 'urban sketches' in Robyn's journal.

The pages are basically A5 size, so an A4 spread.  For my first spread, I drew a scene that we'd had the pleasure of witnessing in a small town southwest of Hanoi, called Mai Chau.

I've included a couple of process photos.  My favourite medium is watercolour, and I generally do a pencil outline first, followed by inking in with a .1 waterproof pen.  Pitt pen, Uni Pin or Micron are my usuals.

 

Then I'll watercolour and add journalling.   

The journalling reads: Mai Chau, pronounced My Cho, is a small town southwest of Hanoi.  Here you'll see the quintessential Vietnamese countryside: terraced rice paddies, bubbling streams, stilt houses.  It's a beautiful part of a beautiful country, and this scene is from a photo we took in October 2014 whilst bike riding.  Scott and I have now been to Vietnam twice and hope to go again!

I have done this scene before, for a theme in the FB '52 Week Illustration Challenge' that I'm a part of.  Much easier the second time around!

For my second spread, I chose a scene from a village on the central coast, Nhon Ly.  Tried to do this one in more of a loose style.  The woman in the right foreground didn't turn out too well; she certainly wasn't that ugly in real life!

The journalling reads: Nhon Ly, pronounced Ne-on Lee, is a small village near the city of Quy Nhon (Kwee Ne-on) on the central coast of Vietnam.  It has amazing views of the South China Sea, dotted with fishing boats, and several huge statues of Buddha.  Like every village in Vietnam, it also has a central market where you can buy your fresh food for the day.  A lot of Vietnamese people don't have fridges so need to buy fresh every day!  Which is why the food is always delicious!  Sadly for Nhon Ly, a massive golf course and resort is being built nearby, which will likely change things greatly for the locals...

We heartily recommend Vietnam as a holiday destination if you haven't been (or even if you have - so much to see!)  The people are friendly, the food is great, it's amazingly cheap, and the scenery is breathtaking.

As I've said, Scott and I will be going back again.  Scott is pretty much hooked - he's now a destination expert on TripAdvisor for Vietnam, and has started a blog with his trip reports and some of our photos - Seriously Not.

Hope you like it Robyn!

Cheers, Lisa