Alice Hendon, Artangleology

Lately I have been working on postcards. Specifically Hahnemühle postcards. At roughly 4" x 6" they make a nice 'do-able' art surface. Something one could sit down and do in a few minutes.  This particular one is a Nostalgie card which has a smooth surface. I was working wet watercolor onto a dry background, just pushing color around with a wet brush. And . . . I did not like the results at all. What a hot mess! Not one to waste a bit of product I figured out something else to do with this postcard.  I began with this stamp from Studio Light and stamped it twice vertically on the card. Color was added using my Copic markers. Already this hot mess was looking a whole lot improved!  I keep a stash of digital images ready for just such an occasion as this. When I don't feel like painting or drawing, I pull out some digital images I have printed out and color them with Copics. This little marker girl was the perfect addition for this postcard. The words are from A

Are you always looking for ways to make your art more affordable? That is my exact thought behind Art on a Shoe String. Making the process of art more affordable for you. And for me, too!  Mark and I were at Walmart a few days ago and I was checking out the leftover school supplies. (Don't I always?) Most  are on big-time sale right now. I found something I had never seen before. These half size composition books. Looks like they took a full size composition book and cut it in half. They came in a pack of ten books for a total of $3.00 - that is 30 cents a book. You can't beat that anywhere! Each book has 100 sheets, which means the possibility of 200 work surfaces. Yes, these pages are thin. You can glue two pages together to make them sturdier, but I elected not to do that.  This is the first page in my book. I cut down a painted page from my friend Niki Green to fit a sheet in the book. Niki had already painted and stenciled even more paint all over the paper making it sturd

  Gotta love Kimberly McGuiness' sense of humor! And you have to love her new sketchbook! This 8.5" square book has 120 pages where you can bring your creativity to life. I was fortunate to beta test this book and I want to show you how I put my copy of Yes This is a Friggin' Sketchbook to use.  This is what the pages look like - a book full of double spreads for you to work your magic on. The floral designs at the outer corners are for you to test your art tool to see how it interacts with the paper. The cream colored pages are smooth and take pen really well. The one concern I had was the weight of the paper. I know from experience that Kimberly has no control over the paper weight. Kindle uses just one kind of paper for this type of book. The book description tells us right up front the pages are a 50 - 61 pound weight, depending on what country your copy is printed in.  I figured the best way to tell what the paper could take was to just jump right in! I went to the v