The Artistic Biker is me, Jonathan "Blade" Manning. A treasure troll of a man, with hobbit feet and a sharp pointy head. You may see me traveling up and down the highways of Oklahoma looking for the next place to sketch, paint, sing, dance, write, photograph or simply meditate. I have begun a journey that once set upon, there is no turning back.
If you were following The Big Sekret Project, you know that the secret was an Art Journaling E-Zine that I am working on with Leslie Herger of Comfortable Shoes Studios, Klaire Scattergood of Rhomany’s Realm, Eveline Hessels of Eveline Timeless, Samantha Kira the Journal Girl and Connie Hozvicka of Dirty Footprints Studios. I am thrilled to be included in such an amazingly talented group of artists!
Well it’s here! It’s finally out. It’s 41 pages of journaling, journaling instruction, an interview with Teesha Moore, book reviews and more. And this is just The Beginnings! The zine is a $5 purchase and you can get it at http://artjournaling.ning.com.
ALSO!
Leslie Herger does a ustream broadcast where she demonstrates painting and drawing techniques. Her show is on Monday nights from 6-8 central time. She has decided that the works she creates on her show will go to support developing the arts in rural communities. She has named Oasis Studios and Gallery as the benefactor and is auctioning her paintings right now. 50% of the money will go directly in support of Oasis Studios! Run, don’t walk over to E-bay and bid on that sucker RIGHT NOW! So head over to eBay and bid!
Hello Peoples! I’ve just had an AMAZING weekend. The Snake Artist Bill Flowers and his wonderful partner Jennifer Rowland came to visit my studio! Of course, my studio is not quite ready to receive visitors yet, but I couldn’t let that get in the way. Saturday morning, Bill and Jennifer accompanied me to the Grady County Fair where we tended the booth for the Rock Island Arts Festival. Saturday afternoon we visited the Wild Care wildlife refuge in Noble, Oklahoma. All day Sunday we hiked and sketched wildlife at the Wichita Mountain Wildlife Reserve. Here’s the really cool part, I got to show them their very first ever buffalo, long horned cattle, prairie dogs, collared lizards, rattle snakes, and humming birds. Being from Australia, these folks had never even seen a squirrel before. The way they were amazed by things that we take for granted every day was really an eye opener. It will really impact how I see the world for a VERY long time.
Last week I had the pleasure of talking with Juriaan, the Viking artist. Juriaan is a very talented artist drawing and painting murals out in Washington State. He made a very funny video with his daughter acting as a ventriloquist dummy where he was instructing us on the very basics of cartooning. As he drew, every time he said the word “bunny” she would whack him with a wooden spoon. You can watch that video and many others on his YouTube channel Juriaan13, where he continues to give drawing instruction.
Using his cartooning techniques I drew a bunny and made him a vampire bunny that sparkles just like in twilight. That will make more sense if you watch his video. Then, as my wife is a huge Twilight fan, I had to stake the Team Alice sign. Which of course leads to the song, White Rabbit by Jefferson Airplane.
This was so much fun.
You can watch the video on the YouTube, or in the embedded player below:
02SEP2010Bill Flowers, The Snake Artist, is coming for an in studio visit and we will go out sketching in the wild of the Wichita “Mountains”.
09SEP2010Gary Reef, mixed media artist and all round great guy, will be visiting with me to discuss his favorite mixed media techniques, his use of stencils and spray paints, and life as an Aussie in Norway.
My day job recently took me out of town. Again. It’s getting to be sort of a habit with them. Anyway, I had to leave on a Thursday which forced me to take my show, The Artistic Biker Live!, on the road. I packed all of my cameras and laptop gear, loaded up some paints in some of those travel TSA kits from The Wal*Mart, and prepared for a night of sheer panic.
Turns out, aside from leaving my management stranded at a bar so that I could get to the show on time, things went pretty smoothly. The hotel’s bandwidth wasn’t quite strong enough to handle Ustream, Tweetdeck, Skype, and ICEchat all at the same time so there was considerable lag on the video and on the interview. Otherwise things couldn’t have gone more smoothly. I am looking into getting a broadband card for the laptop so maybe that won’t happen again.
That night, I interviewed Paula Phillips, a.k.a. @Journalartista. Paula has been a scrap book keeper for many years and has slowly been switching over to art journaling. Recently, she injured her foot and was housebound for several weeks. During that time, she really dove in to the YouTube videos and found herself flooded with knowledge, ideas, and inspiration to share. She began putting out videos, sometimes two a day, on art journaling instruction based on what she was learning and how she was applying that new knowledge. She has since healed enough to be able to return to work, but she still regularly produces videos and even a weekly Ustream program. Paula’s years as a scrapbooker have given her a well trained eye for color coordination and composition. Her pages come together, seemingly without thought, and they usually turn out beautifully. She uses a lot of “ephemera” as she calls it, as well as stamps and stencils.
When I interviewed her, I took a cue from her and gathered ephemera from my flight: A SkyMall catalog, a Continental Airlines magazine, and even that Journal Pocket they give everyone (a barf bag). My flight was at sunrise so the scene I recreated in my journal was of the lady next to me pretending to sleep so she wouldn’t have to interact with strangers.
You can see the video on The YouTube, or just watch it in the embedded player below:
This week I’ll be talking with Juriaan, a freelance artist in Seattle, WA. ”Jay” and I will be discussing the importance in a strong drawing foundation in ALL of the arts and how to get there in your daily practice. Also, this week there will be a drawing for membership in Leslie Herger’s Old Skool Drawing Class. Be sure to check out The Artistic Biker Live!every Thursday 7-9pm U.S. Central time. http://www.ustream.tv/channel/the-artistic-biker
19AUG2010Juriaan The Viking will be joining us to discuss quick drawing techniques that can easily applied anywhere, and life as a professional artist!
26AUG2010Ricë Freeman-Zachery will be joining us discussing her amazing textile works, sewing, and meeting great people even in West Texico.
Podcast Update:
For the last few weeks I have been struggling trying to pull usable audio out of the ustream broadcast so that I could publish the interviews here as a podcast. THAT seems to take a lo-oo-ong time. I will have to figure out another way to do it if I’m going to get all of these recordings online in a more timely manner. But, after the long wait, here is the interview with the Journal Girl herself: Samantha Kira!
Hello peoples, and welcome to Monday! Last week on The Artistic Biker Live!, I interviewed Dawn Sokol, the author of Doodle Diary: Art Journaling for Girls. We had a lively discussion of the importance in keeping youth interested in the arts and how the marketing people always try to push specific categories. That’s how this book became a “For Girls” book instead of for everyone. However, Dawn says she’s not giving up and that she hopes her latest title will seem more inclusive to the guys as well.
We also talked about how doodling is such a simple and effective way to get ideas down onto paper and to get the creative juices flowing. While we spoke, I worked on this week’s journal page “Out Of My Head”.
Dawn is giving away stuff on her blog, http://www.dawndsokol.com, so be sure and head over their to check it out!
You can see the video for this on The YouTube, or just watch in the embedded player below:
This week I’ll be talking with Juriaan, a freelance artist in Seattle, WA. ”Jay” and I will be discussing the importance in a strong drawing foundation in ALL of the arts and how to get there in your daily practice. Also, this week there will be a drawing for membership in Leslie Herger’s Old Skool Drawing Class. Be sure to check out The Artistic Biker Live!every Thursday 7-9pm U.S. Central time. http://www.ustream.tv/channel/the-artistic-biker
19AUG2010Juriaan The Viking will be joining us to discuss quick drawing techniques that can easily applied anywhere, and life as a professional artist!
26AUG2010Ricë Freeman-Zachery will be joining us discussing her amazing textile works, sewing, and meeting great people even in West Texico.
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The Artistic Biker is me, Jonathan "Blade" Manning. A treasure troll of a man, with hobbit feet and a sharp pointy head. You may see me traveling up and down the highways of Oklahoma looking for the next place to sketch, paint, sing, dance, write, photograph or simply meditate. I have begun a journey that once set upon, there is no turning back.
