My new Oregon High Desert Crossing Journal is up!

I finally DID it! The new sketch journal is up! But only after going through two interminable months of journaler's block. I couldn't write or sketch or even think about finishing my new Oregon High Desert Crossing Journal, no matter how hard I tried. Whew!

Here's what happened:
In May I drove across the entire state of Oregon, from where I live in Talent (near Medford and Ashland on the west side) to Eagle, near Boise, Idaho, where my brother lives. It was a great trip, 500 miles, with four days on the road and another exploring the high desert Owyhee Mountains in Idaho with David & Marcia (Marcia's my sis-in-law). I sketched and journaled the whole time, with ballpoint pen (mostly) and watercolor pencils, but when I got home......

Well, it seems I got the blues. I loved being with family so much, and went into withdrawal symptoms, I guess. Finally, after weeks of avoiding the sketch journal, filling up the time with building a new work desk, cleaning my storage shed, getting out and refurbishing my old 4-harness loom, and any number of other subterfuges and dodges, I got sick and tired of my shenanigans.

I uncoiled the coil from my journal, freed all the pages, and tacked them up onto a big corkboard visible from my computer desk (where I'd been whiling away much of the time). Now it was In My Face, and inescapable. Looking at them many times a day, I began to see little details I might be able to add, things I wanted to improve, tiny things that m.a.y.b.e. I could manage to creep through.... and I managed to scrape and shovel my way through my "journaler's block," finally emerging victorious last week....

... whereupon I got to work and finished adding text to some pages, color to a bunch, and adding sketches from photos I had taken to a couple of others. The result is a sketch journal I am very happy with. And it's a great example of how to turn an ordinary road trip into an adventure you can relive again and again. I've made that trip across Oregon many times. THIS one I'll remember.

Most people think journal pages, and indeed, entire trip journals, emerge as finished works of art at the end of the trip. Some people's do, I suppose. And some of mine almost do, but often pages need a little finishing later on: color, notes, another bit of writing, a haiku, etc. (here's me, journaling on my brother's patio). Sometimes I want to add a sketch from photos I took at the time. Sometimes I originally only have time for a sketchy little note or picture which I can finish or add to later. And generally a fresh cover is in order. The cover for this journal is a composite of elements from several different sketches, plus color and a border, all constructed in Adobe InDesign, a desktop publishing program.

Last week I was talking with a friend (via email) who thought it might be a good idea if I made Oregon High Desert Crossing into a kind of "workbook" sketch journal, with each spread having a facing page showing what I did to create the actual sketch page. For instance, I could show the page as it appeared, unfinished, at the end of my journey on the left side, and what I did (and why and how) to create the final journal page which appears on the right page of the spread.
It might look something like this (remember, you can click on an image to enlarge it).









Does that sound interesting? If it does, I can make a second version available with that sort of addenda. I'd love to get opinions on this to see if anyone is interested. I'd hate to spend the time and effort on it if no one would find it useful. Please, comment and let me know?

I've left the insanely low price for the travel sketch journals intact (only $5.95) so they'll be affordable. And all my other sketching workbooks (basic and intermediate drawing, watercolor pencil, journaling, wildlife sketching, etc.) are still available, too.

And now, I need to get back to my desk. I'm working on the design and layout (and illustration) of a trail guide for the Oregon Trail Interpretive Center, and the deadline is getting pretty tight.

My New Costa Rica Sketch Journal is available!

What a spring this has been! Rain, rain, and more rain, a Jack-in-the-Beanstalk garden, yet more rain, a trip across central Oregon, and then a bit more rain.....
To visit my brother and his family in Idaho, I spent four days traveling nearly 1091 miles back and forth across the high desert of Oregon, and I sketched and journaled at every opportunity (what a marvelous sketch crawl!).

Actually, opportunities were sparse at times, because even though I had waited until late May for the trip, it rained and snowed for much of the time. But when the clouds parted, and it wasn't raining, I had some great sketching experiences: wild elk along the Rogue River, a colorful young rattlesnake and long-eared owls in the Owyhee Mountains, gadwall ducks diving in a desert lake, a mama pronghorn defending her newborn fawns against circling ravens, and a BUNCH of other adventures. And after a wonderful trip and visit, I came home to another two weeks of rain, which made me gloomy and grumpy..... so I sat down at my computer and went to Costa Rica in my mind.

The outcome of that portable vacation is that I have now a new ebook to offer you! It is called Costa Rica Feb.'08, my travel journal from that sojourn, full of sketches and observations, which you can download for a paltry $5.95.

Also during that rainy/gloomy time, I reviewed what has been happening with my my Workshop Workbook sales since I raised the price from $9.95 to $15.95 in April. I realized that I had inadvertently put the workbooks financially out of reach for many of you in these hard times.

So trusting my heart, I have lowered the price of all my Workshop Workbooks (except for the Observing Nature set) back down to $9.95. Stop by and let me know if I did the right thing!

However, when one lowers a price like that, one has to think about all those wonderful people who bit the bullet and bought the workbooks at the higher price. They would be rightfully miffed.

After some pondering and deep thought I concluded that the only solution would be to offer a bonus download. So... a whole bunch of great people are, as I write, opening their email boxes to discover free download links to Costa Rica Feb.'08. I hope that softens the blow some!

If you write and sketch in a journal on your travels; if you like to travel; if you like to armchair travel; if you are planning a trip to Costa Rica, if you think you might like to try your hand at sketch journaling; ANY of those things ~ and if you can afford $5.95 (I've kept this REALLY low because I'm not sure how great the interest is such a thing), let me suggest you download my sketch journal and get some inspiration for your next trip.

I have a number of other sketch journals you might enjoy, too, including Costa Rica in April and July, ten days in the wilds of Hawaii, the trip across Oregon's High Desert, and maybe even my month-long trek from end to end of New Zealand with Daniel. They aren't cleaned up and uploaded yet, but I plan to do it soon.

I'm starting to pull out of my rain-induced gloom now. It's still often cloudy/rainy, but spring has finally come with 80 degree afternoons and no need to light a fire in the evenings. My garden is producing enough snow peas for daily use and the spinach leaves are 8" across! Fee fie fo FUM!

And remember my woodshed with the roof crushed last winter by the fallen tree? I finally got the rafters hoisted back up and repaired ALL BY MYSELF ~ after a lot of Puzzling Things Out, a big hammer, 2x4s, ropes, electric drill, hand saw, honky galvanized nails, two ladders and a concrete block I hung from the ends of each rafter as I went along to pull the outer end down while I pushed up on the center broken part (the fulcrum technique). Only then could I "scab" it with a long 2x4 securely nailed to each side of the break. I still have to nail the corrugated panel on, but that's EASY compared to mending those rafters! Here are pictures showing the tree on the roof, the repairs partway through, and as it stands now, ready for its roof panel. Click on an image to see a larger version.








So that's the news from the madrone forest in southern Oregon. I hope your spring is progressing in a satisfying way and that you enjoy every minute of it!