The Book Nook - Jane Davenport Beautiful Faces Review.

Hello,
and welcome to a monthly feature here on the blog 'Book Nook' Where I'll review an art and journal related book on here and also on my Youtube channel. Once a month I'll do a written and verbal review for you guys! This month I've decided to chose a very in demand book Beautiful Faces by the lovely Jane Davenport. Not only do I adore Jane as a teacher but as a person, but she has created a book that stormed the amazon charts for mixed media taking number one spot for many weeks! Even now shes at number 6 and I only think its there currently because the colouring book craze is mammoth at the moment.

This book is filled with not just eye candy, but it is also bursting with information, techniques, ideas and inspiration. I feel personally there isn't a book like it on the market. Published by Quarry books (where I feel the best art/mixed media books are published) Jane's book is not just a book, but an experience.

I did not get sent this book in exchange for a positive review, I purchased this book with my own money, as I have done with almost all of her classes. Others were gifts, and also a scholarship. Now you all know I am a mumma on a family budget, so I make sure I am buying things I think are worth the price tag, and let me tell you this book is.

I've taken many of Jane drawing classes and they are always the ones I recommend to people first, 'Supplies Me' is still by far my very favourite of her courses on offer, for beginners and beyond! even with all the class videos, this book is fantastic reference material for when I'm on the couch or at my desk and want to just draw! instead of watching a video refresher.

Beautiful faces is slightly different to everything else out there, for while Jane was writing this book, she was also filming a sister class, so the pages were bought to life in front of your very eyes. Now I am not a member of this class YET, but it's on my classes to take, I have friends in the class and have only heard great things. Like I said this book in an experience on its own, but I can imagine how amazing it would be to watch them be created layer by layer face by face.

 I have enjoyed sitting with the technique pages,  just pouring over every single detail. This alone is so lovely to be able to do, as with the classes I've taken I spend more time rewinding to catch things than I'd like to admit! But with this book, I spend ample amount of time on each step, so that I too can get the right amount of shading, or my face symmetry right. These book literally has endless tips and beauty to behold...I'll admit more than I expected before purchasing.

The step by step images are all very close up, so the detail you can see is truly helpful when you have the book only as a reference. (I'm just a glutton and want the class as well) I don't want to show too much of the tutorial modes within the book, as that will spoil it for you, but know there is lots of step by step guides for you to fawn over not just for eye candy but for genuine help with your own artworks.

Within the pages of the book is also supply advice! giving you some of Jane's very much love supplies, which are photographed beautifully and also very tempting to buy everything she says is lovely...That is one thing with Jane she will never steer you wrong when it comes to supply buying, I have yet to hate something shes recommended to me. Including paper tips...

All in all I think Jane's book was well worth the pricetag! and I can see myself purchasing copies of this for my nieces as gifts when they are a touch older. I can already picture my niece Sophia losing her mind at all the colours and the step by step guides and shes 7 next weekend. This book is a fantastic one to have in your collection for the beauty and for the brains.

If you'd like the book and the course pop on over to Jane's Website where all the links to all the things are! its a very magical place over there!
On my review scale I give this book a 9/10, truly a must to have in your collection. If I ever manage to squirrel away enough cash for the course as well I'll review it too!

If you have any questions about the book, or have a book you'd like me to review for next month, pop it in the comments! I'd love to hear recommendations!

Tomorrow I'll be filming the youtube review which will go up on Friday the 12th of June, when its uploaded I'll add the video down here  for you to watch aswell.

Take care, Cx 

The Creative License - Raven Ink Book Review

A new segment that will feature on the blog will be art book reviews, I know there are many of us out there that adore some eye candy, and I am a confessed art book buying crazed woman. So many ask me what my favourite books are when I show a new acquisition so I thought as a monthly blog post I would review the books in my collection and any other new ones that may happen to be adopted by yours truly. 

The book in question is The Creative License by Danny Gregory This book jumped into my basket while I was perusing the books at Kinokuniya which is a wonderful bookstore in the city, it is always such a treat when we visit this book store, with all the lush books, and stunning stationery department I could in fact spend many hours and not get bored. I always find myself in the art section of the book store, how could I not! I was feeling rather blah this day, and saw this brightly coloured watercolour  and instantly was drawn to it. The words 'Giving yourself permission to be the artist you truly are' written right up front caught my attention. I as an artist struggle daily calling myself an actual artist, no I'm not famous, no I don't have work in galleries, but I do art...most days in fact so I wondered what this book could do for me, since I struggle so much with OWNING the title artist when referring to the question...'and what do you do?'

This book changes the way you look at things, I love things that have passion about them, and reading the words while drinking in the artwork it oozes passion for art, drawing and journal keeping. He uses his own experiences to explain things, with little challenges to keep you on your toes, telling you to embrace mistakes as they are what you learn from. Creative license helped me overcome my blank page paralysis. 

Danny urges you to draw in pen, something I still struggle with but hope that in the new year I will throw myself into the whole no erasing things notion this book preaches. 

The images in this book are a visual pleasure to look at, they make reading this book a dream, I still to this day open the book up and fip through it to be inspired all over again, catching myself reading sections over and over never tiring of it. 

If you are entertaining the thought of keeping a drawing journal, or a visual account of your days and I know many of us are doing this to an extent in our Hobonichi journals this book is a great companion for you. It gets you out of your little box, and pumps you with confidence, whilst helping you get a feel for drawing even if you haven't ever entertained the idea of drawing a stick figure. 

I high recommend this book for the beginner and for the intermediate, we as artists like to feel that we are not alone in the love for keeping a journal and this book shows such love and joy for drawing everything down and keeping it between the pages of a journal. I have since purchased several other books by Danny Gregory and have devoured every single one of them, each as amazing as the last. 

This book should be your next purchase, you wont regret it! 

8/10

x Courtney

Daily Drawing - Hobonichi a5

This year I've decided to embark on a daily drawing adventure, I did start something like this last year and fizzled out, but because my word of the year (post to come) is Accountability I am throwing myself into tasks that have deadlines, and daily is a deadline when it comes to drawing!  I did start daily drawing in My Midori as you saw in my planner and journal round up post,  but again, with no dates to keep me accountable I seemed to let that fall by the wayside as well.

(yes I know the photo is upside down...dork mode initiated)

At the end of last year. I purchased a Hobonichi in both a6 and a5 size, now I wont go into too much detail as I will have a 2015 Planner and Journal post coming in the next week - we shall leave it at I bought them, I have them, I'm using them (more on that later). I decided that I wanted to use the a5 Cousin Hobo to document my day in drawings not only because I love to draw, but because I think doing the art of drawing daily will vastly improve my skills! I've always said just keep drawing, every single day and your hands will get the message.

Behold my messy desk last night, as it was so hot all day and my studio is literally just a re-purposed garage with no air con! so I filmed late last night.

I will be attempting to film and upload daily as I didn't expect the video to be 10 mins long even though I sped it up, so doing a weekly video is too long! so I shall do my best to get the videos done, and I will do a weekily video post maybe on here as I have other things I want to post!

I hope you enjoyed the little drawing video and the photos!

xx Courtney

2014 - Update! Goals and Chasing Joy.

Good Morning!
Yes months and months have gone by, we have had Christmas and new years, and a long line of family birthdays! My my the last few weeks have been tiring and lovely all at the same time! I made it one of my goals to try and blog and do a video at least twice a month! (start small and work my way up) The school holidays are in full swing currently, with a lot of minecraft happening...

 we had a big Christmas this year, as we do most years now John and I are together, between us there is a lot of family members. Elijah turned 7! and is on his way to grade 2 this year! and little Boo, is ready to start her journey at big school staring Kindy this year aswell.

 2013 started off with a bang, with me getting engaged, and a whole whirlwind of things happening, including the highs and lows of my weightloss journey which I have written about in the past on here. I am still struggling with the balance between this journey and the rest of me. So I decided that for 2014 I would chase one thing, and one thing only.

I decided that this word would pave the pathway for my everyday for 2014, I want to chase joy, and chase it with my arms wide open...so if something doesn't bring me joy...I need to change it up.

With my word safely thrown over my year like a butterfly net, I decided I needed some other goals to live by, as it seems I always set out with the best intentions as most people do! but this year I really want to do the things I set out to do January 1st. I joined a group 12, 52, 365 where we pick goals to do once a week, once a month and everyday....or just one of those, I jumped in with a goal for each category!

To read a book every week for my 52 goal...currently I'm on my second book for week two began yesterday.  Below is the book I finished for my first week..and what a wonderful book it was.

 I decided that for 2014 I wanted to put pen to paper for at least 10 mins a day in my written journal, and in my art journal...of course my new beautiful art box my dad gave me, made that job an absolute pleasure to work in day in day out, I can tote my fave supplies from the studio to the couch each day with no problems...Its one of my fave gifts of the season.

My Midori Travelers Notebook  is my written journey, and it is where I put photos, and daily writings, which I am dating for the first time in years! my way of staying accountable is to date the pages so I dont miss any...everyday commitment. It doesn't take me long, I've been inking my pages up with splashes of distress stain just to give it some visual interest, and sometimes some photos or stickers, as I take so many photos, this is a way to use them in here, and in my art journal.

 It has been a long time since I've kept a proper written journal, and I am enjoying the process again. It doesn't take up much of my time, and I know once I reach day 365 I will have a nice little line up of finished Midori notebooks to show for it.
I will do a whole post devoted to my Midori Journal in the coming weeks, as I know there are many that would like to have a look at it.

 and of course, the other thing with my 365 goal is pen to paper in my art journal, now 2013 was not a good year for my art, I barely picked up my art journal in 2013, and when I did, what I created within the pages felt wrong..and lacking life and love. Once I finished my big sewing book, no journal seemed to feel like home...I even tried getting out 6 or 7 journals and working in heaps! which was a train wreck waiting to happen.
So this year, I picked up my strathmore journal which I got last xmas as a gift from my mum, and just started working in it, it already had pages from my Jane Javenport Stencil post in there, so there was some bright life on the pages already...so I ran with it... The Friday Pages blog post will come back this year, with everyday arting, there are quite a few pages that will need to be shown!

 Last year, I won a scholarship to the amazing Print and Scan Workshop with Jane Davenport...I was humbled and totally overwhelmed with emotions at getting a spot when only two were given away, this year I am taking my business to full flight, once I work through the course, and do all my homework, my images and journal pages will be available as Fine Art Prints in 2014. I also want to start working on one of a kind Fabric pieces featuring my artwork, so keep and eye out for that!
There will also be one off original canvases going up into the store as well, I have to finish off my commissions and then I will be jumping onto that moving train with gusto. As of now, I will no longer be doing commissions until further notice.

as for planners! well there will be many a blog post on those! from what I'm using for 2014, to the amazing binder that now has my wedding planner in it....stay tuned! It is lovely to be back, and thank you to all who emailed me over my hiatus to check to see if I was doing ok! It is such a heartwarming feeling when I got the odd email here and there. They are all appreciated.

How is your 2014 shaping up! and what is your word for the year!
xx Courtney.

Friday Round Up - Art and Life.

Instead of just Friday pages, I thought I would change it up, and do a Friday Round Up, tidbits from our week, more mine than ours I guess, as I am the one behind the camera all the time!
the 6:30 wake ups have been KILLING me!

 

barely awake, but trying hard! I have a goal to reach by Christmas, and maybe just maybe I will make it. 

 

trying to keep up with my daily writing, knowing it is helping me, get ideas out of my mind and onto my paper. and my planner, the brains of life hehe.

working on art for a dear friend of mine, just the base layers so far, soon they will have more on them! little canvas board filled with original art.

a page from a journal swap I am in, where each month I sent a journal page to a woman in the group, this page's theme was 'black and white' I struggled very much with this, till something clicked and before I knew it, I was finishing it up!

working on homework for Jane's class JOYnal, a dancing flower fairy! she is still very much a work in progress, but I am at least liking how she is turning out!

every afternoon, I pick this little man up, and he makes my heart sing, telling me all the things he did that day, asking me way too many questions and generally being adorable.

so how was your friday?
xx Courtney

Jane Davenport Stencil Blog Hop! and GIVEAWAY

When approached by the lovely Jane Davenport to be part of her new stencil blog hop, of course I jumped up and down and fist pumped..then politely accepted. I loved watching what people created with her first set of stencils when I worked with her at the Sydney Craft fair this year, to watch people's personalities just jump out of the page as each woman took the stencils and created something wildly different...


I myself never got to play with the first set, but I have enjoyed coveting the second set. As have my teacup humans.

When the package arrived at my house, little Lily Boo was just as excited as I was.  As was master Elijah, who just wanted to be in the photo shoot...this stencil has been used just a little bit!

 Lily wanted to try them straight away, and for me, I'm not going to deny her using them, what harm could she do to them, I always want her to feel like she can use as much of my things I as use myself.

She may have squeeled when she worked out what happens once you lift the stencil, it was ADORABLE to see the glee on her face,  once she coloured in all the lines..what would happen once she peeled the stencil off.

but of course you are hopefully here to see how I used the stencils... Lily is just an added bonus.

So I wanted to make the stencils still look like 'my style' and I hope that by now I actually know what my style is, so I got to work making something that I felt represented me as an artist.
I worked in two journals, my actual art journal and my written journal which is a Midori Travelers notebook.

A simple and more understated approach then something a little more WILD and bold.

I also had ideas of making my own Gift wrap paper using the face stencil in a repeated fashion, but time got away from me!

I wanted to create bold lines, since a black paint pen has fast become one of my most relaxing things to do in my journal...just draw lines, I like to create worlds with just lines. I also wanted to use lots of colour, so welcome to my 'Twisted Sista' spread.

Using paints, and copic markers, paint pens, washii and a few bright distress stains to create something that is uniquely me...and yet show how amazing Jane's set of stencils really are. I used black gesso and a make up sponge to get my girls down and tried to be rough so they didn't look so perfect. My scale like women have become some of my faves things in my journals to date.

In my Midori Journal, I used some distress stain just to give a little colour, a black ballpoint pen and some prisma coloured pencils to create something simple and yet beautiful. I also matched up some washii tape, and of course my written journal contains photographs.

so there you have it...my take on these amazing stencils!
below is something I haven't finished, but she will soon be transformed into something...

I am allowed to give away one set of stencils! so leave a comment below and thanks for stopping by! please leave your email address in the comment so if you win I have a way to contact you!
or if you are just as excited as I am about these stencils and cant wait...you can get them from these places

The stencils are available here:

Northern Hemisphere:  http://www.artistcellar.com/stampstencil/acSignatureSeries.html

Southern Hemisphere:  http://www.instituteofcute.com/stencil-series/

More chances to win a set of stencils! pop over to the other bloggers doing their take on the stencils...these lovelies are also giving away a set each!

The blogging schedule
September 28 - Artistcellar (www.artistcellar.com/wp)

September 29 Jill K. Berry (http://jillberrydesign.com/blog)

September 30 Dawn DeVries Sokol  (http://www.dawndsokol.com)

October 1 - Joanne Sharpe (http://joannezsharpe.blogspot.com/)

October 2 - Connie Hozvicka (http://www.dirtyfootprints-studio.com/)

October 3 - Effy Wild  (www.effywild.com)

October 4 - Tamara Laporte ( www.willowing.org/blog)

October 5 - Dion Dior (http://www.diondior.com/)

October 6 - Courtney Brook (http://ravenscauldron.blogspot.com/)

October 7 - Kate Palmer (http://www.sparkletart.com/)

October 8 - Jane Davenport (http://janedavenport.com/)

enjoy and have fun 
x Courtney

little update on life atm...art and the new filofax.

I've been a little bit MIA lately! and all for good reason, I've been working on commissions and playing in my art journal, plus I got the filofax bug so I was on a crazed hunt for one. When I fall for something, I fall hard, and devour videos and blogs devoted to them, so I fell down a filofax hole lol.
currently on my easel is one of a set of three of a commission for the one client.

 and with each layer, i fall a little more in love...even though I know I have to add in things I wouldn't normally add...I will be taking shots of sections that I want to preserve just for me.

I'm in a mail art group over on Artgeeks and I also put a call out for penpals over on facebook, I miss writing letters and getting little bits of love in my mailbox so I've been sitting making little index cards into postcards to fly across the skies to their new owners.

with my word for this year being organized, I did end up getting myself a filofax...after a much appreciated mermaid circus angel, offered to buy one in her state and post it to me..saving me a lot of cash. My life atm looks like this

 my beautiful leather malden personal filofax, my writing brain dump book and my art journal these three books contain my life and I love them.

I thought I'd lost my muse the other day, my mojo was gone and I was desperately trying to find it...but as a lovely woman said...my mojo was being poured into my filo creating instead of my artjournal, and its true...I got my filo on Monday, and started making it fully mine with customized items and little 'courtney' touches.

I started by replacing the cream dividers because...as much as I like cream...comon...lol do you know me! lol

so I used some of my scrappy journal pages I started months ago to turn into a journal and made dividers.

I also made sure I added a little of myself into my weekily pages...this is where I am atm..but I know I have done a few things since this image, mainly add more colour...because I am a visual girl and wherever I go..there has to be colour.

then I knew something was missing...photos! my world is kept in photographs and I needed my filo to hold the people that ment the world to me, so i started to DIY some little photo holders out of trading card protectors I had lying around. I printed my photos to the protector size, and added washi tape boarder to punch holes in...and before I knew it, I had my family happily at the front of my filo.

 

so that is where I am at...making art...making art snail mail...and getting my life orgaizned and personalized. I want the filo to help me flesh out the ideas for the future of little raven ink...I am in the process of making repeatable patterns to make fabric...featuring the nook dwellers..so look out for that.

have a wonderful Wednesday..yes I didnt cook...but you got art and filo love! 

xx Courtney