"Nothing else is love"

Once upon a time there were these things called CDs.

Once upon a time I had the money to buy them.

Given the rise of the MP3, it strikes me that this may only appeal to a small (and ever decreasing) number of people... but nevertheless, I will press on.

For a while, before I became poor and stopped caring, I was into music in a pretty big way. In fact, to immediately contradict myself - I still do care about music. I just can't afford to pour all that money into it any more,and I would like to think that some of the pretension that I affected at the time has been worn away. (I liked everything before it was popular and going mainstream was an epic sell out and generally deserved the loss of my good opinion... don't you know)

I threw out all the cases years ago when I moved overseas and had to make my collection more compact, but I did keep some of my favourites and I totally love the art on them.

So I decided to use them as inspiration for some of my journal pages.

The Shins are awesome. Seriously awesome. True story... if you haven't heard their music - look into it.

Chutes Too Narrow is still one of my favourite albums... ever. And check out the cool art, its all cut out and stuff... so I thought I would use it as inspiration for the first page of my NEW ART JOURNAL.

ps. note that those jellybeans disappear... aldis jellybeans are awesome.

The new art journal. It's the size of an autograph book.
I figured a small book would be easier to work with initially.

And now to unfiltered photos...

 I drew a little scene and coloured it in with watercolour paint. I really don't mind watercolour being epically messy, but if you want clean lines... wait for a colour to dry before painting the one adjacent to it.

Cut out the parts I wanted out.

Then I started with the next page - referring back to the first page to see which parts would be visible when they are on top of each other.

 Then I went over it all with coloured pencils to make everything sharper and add in details like the bridge, and grass patterns and such. See how only my name and that tiny horse (donkey?) silhouette is visible? Totally planned.

I also cut out the space around my name and that hill and the monsters head. So you can see the next page, which I will show you all later.

I say its a horse, but its ears are very donkey/mule-like.

And there it is. The title page(s) of my new art journal.
Thanks to The Shins and my propensity to horde things.

Do you have CD covers and art that you love? Rip it off  Be inspired!! Use ideas from things around you and make them your own.

"Mercy's eyes are blue and when she places them in front of you, nothing holds a roman candle to the solemn warmth you feel.

There's no measuring of it as nothing else is love."

- The Shins (Saint Simon) 

So many colours!

Simple things can look really amazing. I wish I had so many different colours of paint!

Telly would love this

If you don't get that reference then you clearly don't watch Sesame Street... Telly totally loves triangles.

Me? ... Not so much.

At least not at the moment. I don't know how many of them there are, but I have just spent the weekend on photoshop putting together a whole bundle of coloured triangles to make this monstrosity.

Photo: http://www.minieco.co.uk/paper-gems/ 

The idea for it certainly is less than original, but with art much like this circulating and paper gems like these awesome ones from Mini-eco (click the link to check out tutorials for making your own) I thought a huge colourful triangle-y painting would look cool over our couch.
I tried to paint one by hand... and soon gave up (straight lines aren't really my forte) but this will be printed onto canvas, so its all the same.

Various incarnations will also be available on etsy... you know. At some point :)