The Journal Fodder Junkies Daily Challenge Now On Sale

 
 

I am pleased to announce that my latest endeavor is ready for release, and it is officially on sale now in the shop. I've been working on The Journal Fodder Junkies Daily Challenge since October of last year, and my original plan was to self publish it as single book through Amazon's Createspace. Writing took much longer than expected, so I decided to publish it as a series of ebooks. I really wanted to have something ready for all of the teachers as they go back to school.

I'll be releasing a new part of the series each month over the next year with 30 or 31 challenges. Each ebook will be only $5! One of the big advantages of the ebooks, is that each challenge can have it's own page. I envision people printing the book with 2 or 4 pages per sheet and making their very own set of challenge cards that they can use themselves or with their students.

The goal of the series is give artists and visual journalists a daily creative nudge, but it can be used at anytime when you and your art needs a spark.

Part 1 is now ready! I am looking forward to sharing the first 31 challenges to get you through August. To purchase or for more info, check out the shop!

New Website and New Ebook

 
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The past few weeks have been a whirlwind of busyness. So busy, that I haven't been able to keep up with my daily visual journal challenges, and unfortunately, I'm a couple weeks behind posting my weekly Journal Friday posts. I'm working on catching up though, and hopefully I'll be posting new Journal Fridays soon.

At least it has been a good busy, and I've been busy teaching and making art. I taught a two-week summer art program for high school students, and then it was right into teaching a summer camp for little kids. During all that, I was making art in preparation for Arts in the Alley this past weekend in Leesburg, VA. This apparently wasn't enough to do, and in the midst of all of that I revamped the JFJ website and finished up a new ebook. Hopefully you noticed the new website since the blog is now hosted on it. I am excited that everything is in one place.

 

 
 

As for the ebook, it's the first installment of my series based on my daily journal challenges, and it will go on sale in the shop tomorrow. It contains the first 31 challenges, and I can't wait to share it. I just have to look it over one last time so that it's ready to meet the world tomorrow.

I am glad to finally be getting a chance to catch up.

Journal Friday #22

It's been six months, and I'm still going strong with the daily journal challenges. I must admit, though, that I haven't been able to consistently work on them each day, and many times I play catch up with two or three at a time, especially come Friday. But I have been pretty consistent each week. Here's what I've been up to this week.

Watercolor: Symmetrical Drips

Writing into a Wet Surface

Framed Elements: Collage

Resistance

Watercolor: Pressed String

Dreams

Tessellated Shapes

Daily Challenge Book Update


It's been a while since I mentioned anything about the book of daily challenges that I've been writing, so I wanted to take a moment and give a little update.

I have been slowly working on writing the 365 challenges, and I'm up to 223, so I am a little over two thirds of the way through writing it. I haven't gotten very far, though, in designing the book and getting it laid out. The issue has been that there has been a lot going on over the past few months, and I haven't had the time that I would have liked. I was really hoping to have it ready for publication by late summer just in time for teachers to start off the school year with it, but that's not going to happen. Besides, I really wanted to publish it with one challenge per page, and a full-color book with more than 365 pages would be extremely expensive. So, I've come up with an alternative plan.


Here's my plan.

I'm looking at releasing two versions of the book - an ebook version and a physical version. They'll have the same content, but they'll be formatted differently. For the ebook version, I've broken it into 12 parts, one for each month of the year, and my plan is to publish a new part each month that will be sold for download through my online store for $5 a piece. Each part will be just under 40 pages in length with one challenge per page, in full color. That'll be over 400 pages when everything is released! And at some point within the next year, I would like to follow up with a 144 page, physical book with 3 challenges per page that I'll hopefully offer through Amazon's CreateSpace for $25 each.

My thinking was that there are probably teachers out there that would love to use the challenges with their classes at the beginning of a new school year in the fall, as well as artists who just don't want to wait another 7 or 8 months for something to be published. So, come August 1, 2017, I'll release Part 1 of The Journal Fodder Junkies Daily Challenge as an ebook, Part 2 will come September 1, and a new part will be published each month there after. As an ebook, you'll not only be able to view it on your computer or any of your devices, but you'll also be able to print the book in a variety of formats. If you print it with 4 or 6 pages per sheet, you'll be able to create a perfect set of challenge cards for yourself or your students. If you'd like a physical book, you'll have to wait a while longer for it.

Part 1 is almost done, and I can't wait to share it with you in a month and a half!

Art and Soul: Virginia Beach


The spring has been very busy with travel and workshops, so the summer will be a bit less so. I'll be teaching summer camps and a high school gifted and talented program, but the travel and workshops gear up a little bit in the fall. So, if you're looking to take a workshop, the fall will be a perfect time.

At the beginning of October, I'll be teaching three classes at Art and Soul: Virginia Beach. I'm looking forward to teaching a bit closer to home, and invite you to join me in one, two, or all three of the classes. These are the same classes that I taught in the spring at Art and Soul: Portland. Check out the listings below, and I hope to see you there.


Monday, October 2, 2017 - Stencil Savvy - 6:30PM - 9:30PM

Stencils have become increasingly popular over the past few years, and many of us look forward to the latest releases by our favorite mixed-media artists. But what if we could design and make our own? What if we could use our art, our handwriting, and our photographs to make personally meaningful stencils? In this hands-on workshop, you’ll see just how easy it is to create your own distinctive stencils and templates. We’ll start the day by working with simple shapes and designs, and we’ll wrap up with using more complex artwork and photographs. Walk away with a variety of unique stencils and templates ready to be used in all of your mixed-media endeavors.


Tuesday, October 3, 2017 - Wish You Were Here - 9:00AM - 4:30PM

Who doesn’t love going to the mailbox and discovering a postcard from some exotic destination sent by a friend or relative? Who doesn't love sending postcards in return when they travel? But we don’t have to wait to explore the world in order to document our memories and capture those special moments. We can create our own postcards about our experiences of the past, the current events in our lives, and our dreams of the future. In this mixed media workshop we will use the events of our own lives as inspiration for making art postcards that speak to our memories and to our aspirations. We will explore the milestones and signposts of our experience as the inspiration for small personal works of art that could possibly be mailed to ourselves or to others or simply held and treasured as mementos of our lives.


Wednesday, October 4 - Journal Fodder Junkies of the World Unite - 9:00AM - 4:30PM
Come explore the possibilities of a Visual Journal. A Visual Journal is a personal record, a tool for self-exploration and reflection, and an art form for expression. In this mixed-media, hands-on workshop, you will explore the creative possibilities of the Visual Journal as you delve into a variety of activities designed to break your creative blocks. Come see how some simple materials and ephemera can lead to richly layered, and personally meaningful pages.


Focus will be placed on engaging the blank page, using writing and text, layering materials and concepts, and incorporating personal imagery. Join Eric, and stock up on techniques and ideas to add to your creative arsenal.