I'm A Table

I've only just had the inspiration to start on the Creative Warriors March project last week. What can I say? Inspiration comes when it comes. I've done just the first half of the project so far, which is to do a self-portrait on a loose piece of paper, incorporating something from the month of March that's personal to you. I ended up drawing myself with a crochet hook. Even though I didn't actually do much, I was thinking about craft quite a bit, since the weather had finally started to get cooler and I was in the mood to start handling fibre again.



This was a big step out of my Comfort Zone! In the last few years I've done barely any figurative drawing. I've stuck mainly to abstract doodles, swirlies and mandalas. The last time I drew a large, realistic face was over 3 years ago. This was hard! I can't tell you how many times I rubbed out various features and tried again. Showed it to Husband and said, "how does this look?" I couldn't picture how a nose would look straight-on, so I took a photo of myself on my ipod and propped it up next to my sketch book for reference. I did the nose, lips and chin that way. The hand I drew from looking at my own hand. Then I did the colouring with watercolour pencils.

Overall I'm happy with the drawing, as long as I keep reminding myself it's just a first attempt! I like the eyes and nose, but I think I need more practice doing lips, and my chin is longer in real life. I also have just a blank space under my chin instead of a proper neck and shoulders. (Not to mention clothes!) But I can fix that in stage 2 of the project. I think the hand is quite good, though. I haven't been very good at hands so far, but perhaps some more detailed studies like this one will help.

As for the colours, I really liked the shading of the face - just a very pale pink around the edges - and the eyes. The hair could have done with a few highlights: it just looks like a flat plane. I tried to draw purple mascara eyelashes with the watercolour pencil, but they turned out all blobby so I made them into eyeshadow instead. And the hand! I was trying to make it a slightly different colour to the skin of my neck to differentiate it. I didn't meant to make it bright orange! It's so unnatural! But remembering Journal Girl's lesson about playing with colour, I let go and realised I kinda like it.

Part 2 of the project involves incorporating the drawing into an art journal page. Hopefully I'll be able to work on that next weekend. I've already learned a lot from Part 1. I'm better at drawing than I thought I was! I feel more comfortable to study my own face and use it as a source than I might have been in the past. I've also realised that I really like using watercolour pencils. I think I even prefer them to watercolours in a pan for most things. I'd like to get some nicer ones in a larger range of colours.

Stay tuned for Part 2 and other arty/crafty goodness!

Today's post is to update you on my arty activities lately, though I'm afraid progress has been slow at times. Members of Journal Girl's Creative Warriors Course are given monthly assignments, but I have to admit, after an initial look I've been putting them off. I guess I haven't been in the mood for anything out of my Comfort Zone. Or even anything inside it!

I did, however, wite a submission for the Creative Warriors May e-zine. This is a pretty big step for me. I've been blocked from writing zines for about 3 years now. Not only am I writing a personal story and doing an Out-of-the-Comfort Zone drawing, but it will be included in a forum which is bound to receive much more attention than my individual zines ever did! Eek!

I'm going to show you the drawing. I feel pretty embarrassed to show it - but it's meant to be a re-creation of a work I did as a 13-year-old, to go with the theme for my submission. It's not meant to be A-No.1-Standard. I wouldn't use that medium or style now.


Leaves. Coloured Pencil.

I was planning on doing a painting as well, and I had a picture of it in my head. But when it came down to it, I just couldn't squeeze out the inspiration in the time limit. It wasn't essential to the story anyway. Perhaps I'll do it one day still. It's still floating around in my head.

To find out the story behind this drawing, you'll need to get the Creative Warriors May zine when it comes out!
(I'll be announcing when it does!)

Today I'm working under the theory that, not having done anything to post about shouldn't stop me from posting. Actually, I've been doing some things in the last week or so, and I'm currently working on writing and taking the photos to be able to share them. Today though, I'm going to do a little activity I saw on another blog called Right Now.

feeling: restless.
reading: The Black Dahlia by James Ellroy.
following: Journal Girl
in love with: Pens!
eating: a home-made ham & cheese croissant washed down with a strong coffee.
waking up: glad there were no nightmares last night.
dreaming about: paint. the brighter the better.
grateful for: all the support that's out there if I choose to reach out for it.
listening to: the breeze rustling the tree outside punctuated with a female voice yelling "come on!" from Husband's computer game!
fantasizing about: rolling around in paint with abandon, and not caring about spills or stains!
working on: changing the way I think.
undecided about: which option to try next on the path of my inner life.
dreading: cleaning the house!
feeding: my need to write.
excited about: all the sources of inspiration I'm drawing on right now!
looking forward to: Eurovision!


Autumn. From Pinterest.

To continue my obsession with writing systems and languages -

In my study of learning to read and write in Block Script, I decided to kick it old school and go back to basics! I want to do some practice in writing the script before I get all fancy and inundate my art journal with it. I went to Incompetech and printed out some 2cm square graph paper. (Love that site, by the way!) At lunch time I studied the information and sample text, and then tried to write a little of my own. I experimented with using a dot to separate words, combining blocks, different word endings, etc.



I just copied out some of the phrases from the back cover of the book I'm reading at the moment. It was fun and I really felt like a little kid all over again, copying out her Ps and Qs all huge and wobbly! I realised very quickly that transcribing the text very much depends on the phonemes, or sounds of how words are pronounced. I spent a lot of time muttering, "arrr...." "stoooo...." "werrrrr...", etc! It could get very interesting, for example, people may pronounce 'the' as 'thuh', 'theh' or 'thee'. This depends on their accent, but also on what words come before and after it in spoken speech. But there's also the standard written form 'the'. Block Script is obviously designed to follow spoken words - there are different symbols for the sounds 'uh' 'eh' and 'ee'. Could a person's accent and therefore their origin be detected in the written script? Fascinating!

Before I go ahead with any more research, I'm going to get myself a proper notebook and writing materials to practice with.
To Daiso!

Also, I downloaded a really cool app called Zen Brush which allows you to draw or do calligraphy on your i-whatever-you-have. I've been using it to practice my Block Script a little:


Badly-drawn capital K.

I'm fascinated by writing - handwriting, alphabets, languages and how they're expressed visually. One of the reasons why I love The Lord of the Rings is Tolkein's creation of languages, and writing systems to go with them. Fonts, calligraphy and artistic uses of the alphabet all please me, and I love seeing artists write in their art journals in florid versions of their handwriting. When I was in school, I spent many hours reading books on calligraphy, medieval Gothic fonts and the Book of Kells. I dreamed of going back to a time when writing was appreciated for its beauty as much as its ability to convey information. So different to our standardised, Times New Roman, Arial world.



Later, when I had access to a University library and the internet, it gave me the opportunity to delve deeper into the amazing world of non-Western writing systems as well. Did you know that speakers of Mandarin and Cantonese use the same writing system? They may not understand each other if they try to speak to each other, but if one writes something down, the other can understand. That's a huge reason why China has such a long-lasting and cohesive culture. Fascinating! Pictographic writing systems like Chinese were built on stylised drawings of objects the writers saw in the world around them. Yet they thrive in the modern world and are able to express new concepts and technologies their inventors never dreamed of. I find this amazing. I've always been quite sad that the Western alphabet is so simple and boring. Only 26 characters and they look like stick figures. Even writing systems like Arabic and Cambodian, though with a similarly limited number of symbols, are much more elegant and beautiful than our alphabet. I guess it's all a matter of perception though - clothes and accessories featuring Western text are popular in Asia because they're exotic and represent membership of a global culture. Still, even with the most beautiful fonts and distinctive handwriting, our bog-standard alphabet just isn't that satisfying for me!



For many years, I've been interested in Chinese and Japanese style brush painting, calligraphy and poetry. When I was at Uni and had the time, I would go to the Asian art section of the gallery and admire the calligraphic works on paper. On weekends I would do Asian-style landscapes of scenes around the campus. Sometimes I would make up haiku to accompany them. (I didn't know it then, but this is an art form called Haiga in Japan.) The English words always looked wrong on the page, though. Those stick figures marching from left to right spoiled the aesthetic of the painting. And trying to write the letters with a Chinese calligraphy brush and ink was never successful. They just ended up looking like those cheesy fonts you used to see on Chinese Takeaway signs with English letters made up of wedge-shaped pseudo-brushstrokes. If only there was a way to write the haiku in English, but in a style that more closely resembled Japanese or Chinese! I was thinking about a more "realistic"-looking and -functioning text that can be written vertically and drawn with a brush. When I finished Uni I got a job and didn't have time for lazy afternoons of painting anymore, but I never quite forgot that artistic dream.



Years later I was surfing the intertubes and somehow randomly came across the unromantically-named Block Script. This experimental writing system was invented as an attempt to slot the English language into a syllabic writing system. Our familiar consonants and vowels are re-formed and built into blocks. Of course, English is very different to Mandarin and Cantonese so concessions needed to be made. But I think this system demonstrates its point remarkably well. I know it's meant to be written left-to-right, but when written vertically, it looks somewhat similar to a primitive form of Chinese.


From Omniglot.

Could this be the solution I'd been looking for all these years? At the time though, my interests were elsewhere, so I filed the information away. It must have been in the back of my mind though, because "learn to write in Block Script" found its way onto my List of 40 Things to do Before Age 40, a list I drew up a couple of years ago. Looking for new experiments to try in my art journal, and remembering my old love of writing in all its forms, I've now found myself studying Block Script. The entire body of knowledge for this writing system (as far as I know) consists of a single page of information hosted on Omniglot.com. But learning to read and write fluently using this system may take me years of practice. I'm already thinking of ways I could streamline and beautify it. I need to do some research on word construction in English, as well as text formatting in both Chinese and Japanese, and possibly Korean as well.
To the library!!

So, the story. Yes, it's been about a year since I attempted a What I Wore drawing. I say 'attempted' because the last few I did are still unfinished. Lately though, I've been trying to be a bit more bold and colourful in what I wear, and I thought these two efforts deserved to be recorded. Especially when I think about them together. Obviously, one is neat for work, the other casual for a fun weekend afternoon. Yet they are similar in many ways. I love how the colours are the same, and even the garments themselves mirror each other, but the looks are so different.



I have learned ... makeup is really hard to capture with watercolour! Also, still hopeless at drawing hands, but at least I gave it a try this time. =)

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On an unrelated note, if you've ever wondered why my netname is ApartmentCat, view this animation on YouTube: Le Chat d'Appartement by Sarah Roper. When I first saw this video many years ago, I was absolutely charmed. I chose the name to remind myself to take risks and follow my dreams, just like the cat in the animation did.

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Creative Warriors host Kira posted an art journalling video last week featuring the Gelli Arts Gelli Plate and I was instantly dying to get one. Unfortunately, being a fairly new product, there's only one company that makes it, it's only available in Australia from online specialty supply shops, and it's rather expensive. Bummer.

But what exactly is this thing? I've never seen anything like it before. Is it possible to substitute something else for it? I searched the Intertubes for "gelli plate substitute" and it turns out that the Gelli Plate is only the latest innovation in the world of gelatin monotype printing. Officially known as a Hectography, the process of producing prints on a gelatin plate has been around since the nineteenth century. It's been used for everything from high art to postage stamps to printing subversive flyers in prisoner of war camps! - see the Wikipedia article for more info. This makes me want to try it even more desperately!

Thankfully, making and using a gelatin plate seems very easy and cheap to do. One of the first articles I came across was this blog post called "Gelatin Printing with Four-Year-Olds". So I figured if they can do it, so can I! There are also plenty of YouTube videos detailing the process.



For some reason I had plenty of unflavoured gelatin in the cupboard. So all I needed was a suitable flat pan to harden it in. The gelatin is supposed to be very solid: a slab that can be picked up, certainly not your everyday jelly! The proportion of gelatin to water was a bit vague, though one video did say at least 2 heaping tablespoons per cup of water. For this plate I used 4 cups of water (2 cold and 2 hot) and 9 tablespoons of gelatin.

I mixed the gelatin with the water and, after waiting for it to cool a little, poured it into the pan. I lined the pan first with plastic wrap so I wouldn't have to cut it out, I could just lift it out. I skimmed off the bubbles with a scrap of cardboard and put it in the bottom of the fridge. Now for the sucky part - I had to wait for it to harden! That's one big plus for the Gelli Plate - it's ready-to-use straight out of the packet.



Unfortunately, due to unforeseen issues (i.e. I was too hot and grumpy to feel inspired), I didn't actually get to use it for about 4 days. It was perfectly fine in the fridge for that time though. The videos warned that getting the plate out of the pan and onto a flat surface can be a bit tricky, but I found it quite easy using the plastic wrap. I put it on an upside-down serving tray. The gelatin plate was a bit crinkled at one edge from where the plastic wrap had lain on top of it while it was hardening. I'll have to watch out for that next time. There was also a small crack in it - I'm not sure if this happened while it was in the fridge, or while I was lifting it out of the pan. Nevertheless, I was ready to begin printing!


Comparison with plastic gift card to show thickness.

Using inspiration from the YouTube videos and blogs, I had collected various materials to use as stencils and mark-makers. I had a new stencil that I'd just bought recently at Riot Art 'n' Craft, one I'd bought years ago on Etsy but never really used, plus some mod-style circles that I cut out of scrap cardboard. I'd collected a lot more items as well, but I didn't use them so I won't list them.

I chose just a few colours of paint from my stash because I didn't want to be too overwhelmed with choice. Included are a new flourescent green and a turquoise that I bought from Riot Art 'n' Craft last weekend, plus some pink, gold and Children's Easy Wash Paint in primary colours. Kira's video had demonstrated how the prints can be made directly into your art journal, not necessarily onto a loose sheet of paper. My spiral bound journal seemed like a good candidate as I can fold it right back and lay it flat. I was worried that peeling the paper off would make it rip at the holes, but that didn't turn out to be an issue. The issue turned out to be that I got paint everywhere and the other pages were sticking together! So I swapped to using loose blank pages that I ripped out of the back of my journal. They're also easier to peel off without worrying about ripping, etc.


My first attempt at paint application.

I started out using the Children's Easy Wash Paint but quickly realised it was really unsuitable. It was way too runny and just left splodgy splodges on the page with no definition of the stencils at all (shown in photo below). So I put that aside and just used the artist quality paint which is a bit thicker. Even still, unfortunately, I was pretty disappointed with the results I was getting. They just didn't look like they did in the videos! When I tried to apply paint to the plate with a scraper, I couldn't get it in an even layer and the scraper left marks in it. Then when I did a print, the stencil shapes came out very blurred and the print had that striated look of something gluggy and wet being pulled apart. Not what I was expecting and/or hoping for at all!


See the glugg? Where are my circle prints??

I persisted though, and found that if I did a couple of prints from the same application, then the second or third ones came out really well. The paint was a lot dryer and thinner, and it didn't have that gluggy look. I felt brave enough to have another go at doing a print directly into my journal. The first one came out all gloopy, so I rubbed the paint all over the page with my fingers (that's why there's pinkish-gold paint all over the background on the left-hand side!). The next ones came out really well and I'm happy with them. There was a slight 'gloop' effect, but the stencil shapes came out much more clearly. I stopped worrying too much about cleaning the plate between applications and let the colours live together in the prints. This mixed, more grungy look was more satisfying and more my style, I think. In the end I was quite excited and started grabbing magazine pages when I ran out of paper!



According to the sources, the gelatin plate can be used for about 4-5 sessions, slightly longer if stored in the fridge. After that it starts to dry out and crumble, or cracks appear. However, this can add some interesting dimensions to your work and you can squeeze a few more prints out of it before throwing it away. One source even noted that you can melt down the gelatin and re-form it into a new plate, though I'm not sure I'd go that far. It's very eco-friendly (though not very vegetarian-friendly, I have to admit!). I decided to throw my plate away and make a new one next time.



Things I'll do differently next time:
* Find a pan that's larger and rectangular so I can do prints that fill up the whole page.
* Add more gelatin and make the plate more dense. It may have been too springy. Even though I could pick it up, it still seemed 'flobbier' than the ones in the videos. It was possibly too thick as well.
* Use thicker paint. Kira said she gets the best results with "Craft Paint" rather than acrylics - I'll try to find out what this is and try to get some.
* Apply the paint with my brayer. I don't like to use it with wet paints as it was quite expensive and I don't want to ruin it. But in the videos it really seemed to give much better, even coverage and a thinner layer of paint than using the scraper. The thin layer seemed to be important for the desired effect.
* Have all of my journals at hand and plenty of loose, blank paper. That way I can continue making prints while I wait for the earlier ones to dry.

It seems I'm all about jumping on board with things lately, and here's another one! As soon as I heard about Bassability's No Stress Book Club I knew I just had to do it. It's No-Stress because, instead of having to read a book and then discuss it, each week there's a question about a book you've already read. So there are no deadlines, no hassles, and if you follow the link-up, you can find out about potential new books to read. I'm in!
This week's question is:

What book turned you into a reader?



I've always been a reader, there's no question of that. I've been reading books for longer than I can remember. Literally. I suppose for the purposes of this discussion, I probably should pick one, shouldn't I?
My Mum tells me that I read my first proper novel at the age of 4, and it was Alice in Wonderland. I don't remember this, but I must have read it, because later in my childhood I came across the story again and I mysteriously knew about it already. At the time I was mystified about how I already knew the story of the Cheshire Cat, and the caterpillar and the Red Queen. When my Mum happened to mention one day that it was the first book I read, it all suddenly clicked. Knowing that made me want to read books even more!

If you want to join the No Stress Book Club too, click on the logo!

Just before New Year I was thinking about How I'm Doing, as I often do at that time of year. I become open to Change and Difference. One thing that I really missed in my life was art journalling. It was like a spiral growing out of my core - I art journal when I feel good, and doing it makes me feel good, so it's like a positive feedback loop that keeps on making me feel better. I hadn't done anything artful in such a long time, it made me sad. I won't go into the reasons why I stopped today. I want to talk about how I started again.

I had all this in the back of my mind when I was reading my favourite blogs one day. I saw that Journal Girl was hosting a year-long e-course, Creative Warriors. A year-long journey to document your health and happiness. It sounded perfect! Not only would it be a gentle pathway to get back into art journalling again, but in a space with like-minded people. People who may not have time to create regularly due to illness or lack of energy. People who may not have a studio and may not be able to work with paints at every session. Me, basically! So I went ahead and spent my Christmas money on it.


One of my first pages was to write the Creative Toolbox list.
(I blurred most of them - I'm not giving it all away!)

One of the concepts that really drew me to the course was that of Couch Art. I don't have a studio, and my hobby room is filled up with other stuff. I don't have a space dedicated to making art. Couch Art says that you can make art wherever you happen to be, with whatever materials you happen to have (wet paint or not), and it's real art! This, finally, was the permission I needed to go for it! I had fun picking out some of my long-neglected supplies and putting them in a Couch Box. I thought that having just a small array of materials to choose from would feel restrictive, but it was actually freeing. Not having to make so many decisions. Plus, using the same papers, tapes and colours regularly saw themes and motifs emerge - a style I can call my own.



I tested out my old textas, and glued on a sticky note with brainstorming ideas.
Yup, that's real paint on there!

I haven't actually finished a page yet. My way has always been to work on many pages at once, inching them all towards completion together. Already though, I'm seeing elements that I'm proud of, and motifs that I used to consider part of 'my style'. I guess they still are!


Long, narrow collage pieces form a border around this page.

Hi all, sorry for the lack of posts recently. Just before New Year I came down with a flu which took me about 3 weeks to recover from. In fact, even now I'm still feeling a bit tired and lacking in energy. But still, today I wanted to share my Deco Tapes / Washi Tapes haul with you!

Angoo-Mart is a deco tape manufacturer and seller based in China. I have placed 2 orders with them so far, and was very pleased both times, so I thought I'd share my experience with you. The first time I ordered from Angoo-Mart, about 2 years ago, it was very difficult to find deco tapes in Australia, and most overseas suppliers were very expensive. When I heard about Angoo-Mart, of course I was attracted to their cheap prices and large range, and wanted to place an order. The big drawback with Angoo-Mart (but the only one, really) is that their website looks a bit dodgy:


Screenshot of front page.

It's basic and and the design is very old-fashioned looking.There's a bit of 'Manglish' on it, too. Normally these things set off alarm bells for me when placing an order online, but I decided to take a chance when I placed my first order. The site accepts payment by PayPal, which is safer than entering your credit card details.


Screenshot of category page.

There is a huge range of deco tapes and washi tapes to choose from, as well as kawaii stationery, stickers, pencil cases, mobile phone charms and similar items. The site is organised by type of tape, then by width (large, medium or small) and sometimes manufacturer if the category is very large. Many styles are represented: Disney, Hello Kitty, Rilakkuma, Shinzi Katoh and other characters; generic kawaii; patterns like polka dots, stripes and checks; punk and goth styles; elegant French styles; and traditional Japanese styles. And many more! The Decorative tapes are made of plastic with a shiny look, similar to Sello tape but thicker and stronger. The Washi tapes are the traditional Japanese style, with a texture similar to masking tape. I have never ordered the paper or fabric tapes, so I can't comment on those.
Angoo-Mart have a Flickr account, if you would like to see good quality photos of the products.

The check-out process is very fast and easy. I placed my order on 6th January, and I was notified that it was posted on 7th January. The notification email had some personal touches that you don't always see when ordering online. I received it on 25th January, which I think is quite standard from China to Australia.



The items were packed into an amazingly small box. I was surprised at how they managed to fit everything in there! Yet nothing was squished or overcrowded. Everything was safely packed in with no gaps, and the box was lined with batting to protect the contents.



2 free kawaii notepads were included with my order (presumably because it was so large!).



As for pricing, the cost was extremely reasonable. The narrow deco tapes were AU$1.10, and ranged up to AU$1.99 for the wider ones. The washi tapes were a little more expensive at AU$1.99 to AU$2.99. The mini sets-of-3 were AU$1.50 per set. The stationery, pencil cases, etc. are also very reasonably priced. Shipping was a bit more than I would have liked though, at AU$17.20. (Bear in mind it was a large order. The fee is scaled by weight so it would be less when ordering less items.) I had a 15% discount voucher for being an email subscriber, so all up this haul came to AU$61.70. In my opinion this is a lot less than what I would have paid on Ebay or Etsy. Even at Daiso this number of items would have cost AU$78.


The complete haul!

Here's a shot of some of the deco tapes in action in my art journal:


Page is unfinished, obviously!

I have found all the tapes to be of very good quality. The glue will stick well on plain paper, as well as paper that has been painted with watercolour or acrylics. Even the tapes I ordered 2 years ago still stick well in my old art journal:


Clear tape with red grid; black tape with text/shapes (left-hand page).
I've painted over the tape in one spot and the paint sticks no problems!


Overall, I was very pleased with my purchase from Angoo-Mart. The tapes are cheap but good quality, and there's a huge range to choose from. My parcel was posted quickly and customer service was friendly. Even though the website looks a little dodgy, it's easy to navigate. The manufacturers welcome international orders, and are obviously trying to reach a world-wide market, with translations into 22 languages available on the site. I receive the email newsletter once every 3 or 4 weeks (not so often that it becomes annoying!), and there are regular offers and discount coupons.

I will definitely order from Angoo-Mart again!