Loosening up

Regular readers of my blog will know that drawing has always been a bit of a bug bear for me, the one thing that I have always been told I can do well yet it is the one thing that has always held me back as an artist. I have never kept sketchbooks of any quality, never wanted to, although I have loads of scrapbooks and texture books and lately have picked up art journaling which I love. Drawing drains and frustrates me yet if I am to produce the kind of art work and illustration that I want to I need to fix this. And soon. So I have bought a new sketchbook and pen which is just for this purpose. Good or bad I am going to add these pages to my blog and flickr and hopefully find my perfect line...

Feeding the addiction...

Bought another moleskine from the Devil's Wallpaper in her new incarnation as Champignons to add to my collection. I shall probably never use it but I don't care. I love books, reading them looking at them, making them, owning them. Old new, whatever. Talking of which I have a few ordered to finish stitching, better get on with it...

Fun and funky

I'm loving this new batch of yuzen papers, there are some fantastic patterns! This one is particularly cool, I nearly didn't list it but it's in my etsy shop if someone wants it before I change my mind!

The finished article...

rather pleased with this one, the client in question wanted her favourite fabriano paper for the pages and chose this stunning dragonfly fabric for the covers. Think I might have to make another one for myself :D

Nearly done!

I love this bit, when the pages are folded and the covers ready to be glued and stitched and it starts to feel like a book. Immensely satisfying.

Travelling Journals

The travelling journals are finished and off on their travels at last, here is my contribution to book one, my summer in Cambridge.

New Tutorial

I've finally got around to posting a new tutorial and as I have been asked a few times about bookbinding I have gone back to basics with an accordian journal, really simple and fun to make and play around with - have a go! If you want to see what goes on inside the book I will post the pages on my whispers blog.

William Blake

Fans of William Blake and journalling should go and check this out as the British Library has scanned some of the pages from one of his notebooks. Very cool. Link here. Found via http://drawn.ca/.