Bullet Journal Pages 54-55

I wasn't really THAT excited about Monday but I felt like the first one was hard to read so I wrote it again--twice. :) The Zig Writer colored markers don't bleed through the page, just like the black one doesn't. Hooray!!! I love those pens!

Art Time with My Luvies

I just spent some fun time with my nieces and nephew. When we get together we ALWAYS have Art Time! We worked with acrylics on canvas and cardboard. These cuties painted an owl, Batman, and my face on a flower. Aren't they so creative and fun??

While they worked on their masterpieces, I worked on this little lady. Acrylic and Sharpie on cardboard.

Bullet Journal Pages 52-53

I just got back from a quick trip to Dallas to see my sister. These are my journaling pages from the trip. I LOVE journaling this way. I like to write a bunch of phrases and snippets that help me remember fun times. This way is much more fun and satisfying to me than traditional journaling.

Bullet Journal Pages 50-51

I did that Jack London quote in pencil and then sprayed it with a fixative so it wouldn't smear. But then when I went back in to do my Daily To Do Lists I had a bit of trouble getting the ink to adhere to the page. (The large 3 on Wednesday smudged quite a bit).

But my main focus on those To Do Lists was to practice some faux calligraphy. And I'm very pleased with the outcome.

A New Art Form - Digital Lettering

Yes, I know it's been around forever. But I'm very slow to enter the world of digital art because I love and adore paper/canvas/wood and pencil/pen/paint. I really do. I still read actual books that you can hold in your hands because I really do LOVE paper.

I never want the digital world to completely over-take the realm of visual art. There should always be drawings and paintings and sculptures. Things you can touch and hold and see the texture of the brush strokes.

With that said...I am trying some digital art right now. I got a fun, new toy--an iPad Pro--and I purchased the ProCreate app because it seems to be the one most preferred by digital letterers. And man, it's FUN!!

Outside: Ok, here's my first attempt. It's very stiff and elementary. But hey, it's all a learning process, right?

Laugher: Starting to getting the hang of it. I feel like this is extremely close to my hand lettering. And that's what I want. I don't want the program to do the work for me. I want a program that I can use to enhance my own style and hand lettering. 

Explore with Me: I have always wanted to know how to add lettering to photographs and ProCreate make is very easy. I took this photo on a hike one day and added the lettering the next day. How cool is that??

Bullet Journal Pages 48-49

I have always loved Sharpies for bold, big lettering. But I have found a new love...that I kind of like even more than Sharpies.

The Zig Memory System Writer. I've actually had a set of Zig Writers forever--since my scrapbooking days. So really, they're YEARS old. I found them to be too bold and too thick for what I wanted back then but recently pulled out all my pens to inventory and found that not only are the Zigs still working great, I love the quality of line they produce!

Both Sharpie and the Zig draw great, thick black lines. But Sharpies sometimes bleed a bit in the line making the edges of the line less sharp. And the beginnings and endings of the lines can be a bit raw (where you put pen to paper and where you lift off--I'm sure they have official names, but I don't know them).

The Zig Writer doesn't bleed AT ALL and because of the tip shape, it creates a more finished beginning and end to the line. In the picture above you can really see this on the word "Hiya!". The letters all end in a nice, finished, almost rounded-off way. Yeah, I notice tiny things like that. And yeah, it's enough to make me fall in love with the Zig Writer. I'm easily won over by good art supplies! :)

And lastly, you cannot use a Shaprie in a Bullet Journal because it bleeds through to the next page. And...you guessed it, the Zig doesn't bleed. So it's perfectly safe to use in a notebook where you're writing on the front and back of each page. There will be ghosting--there always is. But no bleed.

What about you...what's your favorite pen right now?

From Pencil Sketch to Digital Character

I'm sure there's a faster, more efficient way to do this, but I'm VERY new to digital illustration. I'm also very old school--I LOVE paper and pen or pencil. They will always be my first love. But I'm having a lot of fun trying some new digital lettering and illustration!

For this little lady I did a quick sketch in my Bullet Journal and I ended up really liking the little character that emerged. I love to see the evolution and process of art so I figured maybe you do too. So here are the steps I used.

First, I scanned the page onto my computer.

I then isolated the image in Photoshop by basically painting out all the background.

I used an Instagram filter to lighten up the image which got rid of the ghosting that was coming through from the page behind it. There are still some dots from my Leuchtturm1917 notebook showing through but I'm ok with that. I think they add character and once I add the color they'll be barely visible.

I then opened the lightened image in the ProCreate app on my (new!!) iPad Pro and added some digital color and added back in some of the shading that was lost when I lightened the image.

And lastly, (still in the ProCreate app) I added some lettering for a fun, playful touch.

Bullet Journal Pages 44-45

I'm tracking some things this month on this page. We'll see how it goes. I'm not normally this organized with that kind of stuff but I'm trying to change some habits and make some new ones and need some motivation.

The next page was pretty much a total loss. I don't love how my little crying cartoon came out. But then I last minute added that little sketched character to my Thursday spot and (as you can read on the page) I like her. I took a scan of the page, isolated her and added some digital details. I'll show the step by step process in another post.

Bullet Journal Pages 42-43

The "Hey Let's..." page is a fun way that I like to take notes sometimes. If you follow the lines you CAN with a little work make sense of it. :) Sometimes I'll put the date in the center and journal all around it. It's a sort of mind mapping I guess. Plus I think it's pretty. I've done it forever.

I love that quote by Jose N. Harris. And I think that little pop of color at the bottom of the page is just right!

Silly Little Scraps of Paper

Sometimes I do my little doodles in my Bullet Journal. And sometimes I do them on little pieces of cardstock--especially if I want to use Sharpies or Prismacolor Markers. Because, though I ADORE them, they bleed through the pages of my journal. I put all of the drawings in a drawer of the buffet that sits next to the table where I draw. Not sure what I'll do with them all but opening that drawer and seeing them all there always makes me happy.

Recent Lettering Challenges

 Prompt: Advice

 Prompt: Black

 Prompt: Ocean

 Prompt: Photo

 Prompt: Saturday

Prompt: Yesterday

Bullet Journal - Page 16-17 FINISHED

Remember these pages? Well, I've been working on them all month and my little memory calendar is complete. This was FUN! I will definitely do this again in the future!

Bullet Journal Pages 46-47

I'm starting a new Instagram Lettering Challenge for June and decided to put them all on one page in a calendar of sorts. Though I'm just going to scatter them around the page--not in the order of the days. This one is called Meet Me In June. 

Stay tuned to see the finished page at the end of June.

Bullet Journal - Pages 40-41

Just simple Daily TO DO lists on this spread. But I did practice A LOT of different types of lettering. Yeah, there's really no rhyme or reason to it at all.