Wednesday, November 2, 2011

Ten Months Down, Two To Go (or There’s Only Four Pages Left in My Art Journal!)

The problem with doing the Calendar Challenge over at The Kathryn Wheel is that I’ve counted down the months left in the year more than I think I would have done otherwise.  I can’t believe we are two months away from 2012! 

I’m not really happy with October’s calendar at all.  I did not execute my initial vision for it very well, and then mucked it up by trying to doodle spider webs all over it.  I didn’t spend the time on the doodles like I should have so they just look sloppy to me.  AND, I completely forgot to leave room for the 30th and 31st…duh!  Oh well, it is what it is.stuff 065
I did work on a few other pages which I was more pleased with.
 stuff 080 
I cropped this some and then blurred out the text as it is a bit more personal than I’m willing to share in a post.
stuff 069 
Since I’ve done some small traveling this past month, I also spent some time working in my Sketchbook Project sketchbook – Travel With Me.  After my visit to the Brooklyn Art Library and seeing all the amazing books,  I’m not doing justice to this project at all.  But I’m still having fun with it.
 stuff 071 stuff 073 stuff 075 stuff 077
This month I realized that, even though there are two months left, I am running out of room in my 2011 journal.  My left brain tells me to just limit myself so when December 31 arrives, I can put that journal away and start fresh in a new one for January.  At the same time, my right brain is stressing out because I have two vacations coming up before 2012 and will want to work in it during all that free time.  That in turn is stressing my left brain out.  Up until this year, I worked randomly in 2-3 journals, but I’ve really enjoyed working in one this year – having everything in one place.  I will most likely sneak behind my left brain’s back and a start the 2012 journal early.

Happy November!

21 comments:

  1. Unsettling? Oh my.

    I LOVE your picture of Billy Elliot.

    Funny about forgetting the 30 and 31st.

    Excited you have some more vacations coming up. YAY!

    ReplyDelete
  2. @Becky - I know right!?!? I had planned on just cutting the 23/24 in half for the last two days when I made the calendar. Then on the 23/24 I just kept writing! :)

    Those vacations are sorely needed after the beginning of the year we've had...and I don't mean the kids!

    ReplyDelete
  3. Have you ever thought about doing an Etsy shop?

    ReplyDelete
  4. LOVE your sketchbook pages!!!!!!

    ReplyDelete
  5. @The Blonde Duck - No thank you! :)

    @Jill - Thanks Jilly! What a fun time we had!

    ReplyDelete
  6. Just put some pages together for a travel journal. It will be okay. I am waiting for my sketchbook project book to come. I was unemployed for so long that $25 was hard to come by. October 31st was looming so I bit the bullet so now I am just waiting.

    Thanks for stopping by and checking out my calendar journal. I enjoyed seeing yours. I think we are our own worst critic.

    PS - you asked what I used to make the squares. Each square is just cheap water color. I am not motivated enough to cut 30 squares or circles so I just painted them.

    ReplyDelete
  7. Forgetting the 31`st left you with no candy. "What were you thinking!"
    Ha I keep messing up Nov. lost a whole week.... no turkey for me. Love you Billy Elliot!

    ReplyDelete
  8. I hate it when the last day of the month shares a space with another date or two...the kids don't get it either.

    I love your bagel picture...I had to make it bigger to thoroughly see it....very cool :)

    *Happy November*

    ReplyDelete
  9. @mcmgrad-wow! I'd never have known. Thanks for the info!

    @sharon - ha! Fortunately I didn't really forget about Halloween or the candy! ;)

    @m - what's worse is when that happens into a 6th week and there isn't enough room to put the days up on the school pocket calendar whic only has rows for 5 weeks...that really irritates me. :)

    ReplyDelete
  10. I think your page is great - love how the background is kind of smudgy spooky....you will probably like your page better when you come back & look at it after a break. I am often critical of work when i am 'with it' for too long. Happy November :-)

    ReplyDelete
  11. You are a pretty good draftsman. The design on that guitar is fine.
    Such a pity you didn't go all hippychick, then you could have saved yourself the headaches and gone with thirteen divisions of twenty-eight. I expect your laissez-faire attitude to those extra days is a ancestral through-back to the days when we insisted that if we were going to follow a Jewish fellow we might as well continue using our own calendar as ours and theirs was the same, pretty much. See Council of Whitby. :-)

    ReplyDelete
  12. Love what you did with October and your other pages look absolutely fantastic, so creative!!!

    ReplyDelete
  13. I think your page looks great! Love the sketches in your sketchbook x

    ReplyDelete
  14. I think your Halloween page creates the right feeling- ghostly!! I am never satsified with my work either, we all seem to be very self critical dont we?

    ReplyDelete
  15. I think your pages are fab and the travel journal is a wonderful idea. Great pics.

    ReplyDelete
  16. I love all your creations !! Beautiful colors for the calender month !

    ReplyDelete
  17. @lynette - thank you and yes we are our biggest critic. In this case I think it's valid. :)

    @vince - Let's just say that is why the last two days are missing. That's a much better excuse than "I forgot them."

    @astrid, anesha, Sam, sharne, Sandra de, & janique - thank you for the nice comments.

    ReplyDelete
  18. I think we all learn from our 'mistakes' and we know what we like and when it doesn't measure up to the picture in our head we get frustrated, but I actually like the background for October - it looks fitting for the spooky theme you went with.
    I too love your sketch of Billy Elliot :D

    ReplyDelete
  19. Will you let your real life friends look through it when it is all done? I think this is my favorite thing of yours that you have made. That I know of.

    ReplyDelete
  20. I love your orange October page. I think you see mistakes in it that the rest of us can't see! And you're right ... This challenge makes the year just fly. Only one month to go, can you believe it?! Thanks for linking up for the challenge, Kate :-)

    ReplyDelete