Let’s COLLAGE
Japan Travel Edition Part 1! 👀
THURSDAY, MARCH 6 @ 7:00PM ET on YouTube
I was trying to finish this sitting on the Shinkansen heading back to Tokyo from Osaka for our last few days of the trip but the wifi was so bad it just wouldn’t let me, so now I’m sitting in our hotel in Shinjuku with a belly full of curry :)
And this week you will be doing collage!
I had so much fun pre-recording this session way back on Feb 16 and have set it up to premiere on YouTube at our regular time, so I am crossing my fingers that everything works as it should 🤞
I haven’t done a lot of collages in my time but whenever I do I always enjoy it more than I think I will. But because I’m a bit inexperienced I had a hard time settling on references, so I turned to the AHP discord and asked for help decided. 🙏 (see the thumbnail above to see what we settled on!)
Now of course if you don’t want to collage you don’t have to, that’s totally fine (make AHP work for you!), but if you do want to, you’ll need to do a little homework.
You will need:
Scissors or something to cut your shapes
Glue or something to stick down your shapes
Paper of various colours to make your shapes



I hope last week’s premiere worked out ok because I set this week up the same way. Please continue to chat and support each other and to share your work in the #showandtell channel discord so everyone can see, and tag @arthangparty on IG!
Have fun and “see you” Thursday!
🤗💖✨
Also if I could ask a little favour, it would be really helpful if you click the thumbnail above and hit the “notify” button - it let’s YouTube know that people are excited about the upcoming livestream and they are more likely to share it to others.
Next ART HANG PARTY! will be Thursday, March 13 at 7pm et on YouTube
✨ Theme: TBD but probably Japan! I’ll be back live!
Do you have an idea for a future ART HANG PARTY! theme?
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MONDAY FEBRUARY 24 / TUESDAY FEBRUARY 25
These two days blend together and I honestly have no idea what day was what.
We were up at 1:30am to to head to the airport for 3:30am to catch our 6:30am flight. It was so early I’m surprised I was even able to get these sketches done.
The left page below was done while waiting at our gate, which was in a really old section of the airport and had like 3 flights worth of people crammed into a tiny section that was meant for one flight. Fun stuff!
The right side explains itself, if you can read my writing.
The first time I travelled to Tokyo I didn’t sleep at all. This time I didn’t have any trouble! I think I got a good 7 or 8 hours in, in a few batches, which I will take without complaint.
One of the times I woke up and the lights were still off I pulled out my sketchbook and drew the other people who were up and about, standing at their seats or who I could just see sitting across the isle.
Eventually we arrived in Tokyo! We met up with our friends Roger and Eric (DJ Strobe who does all the music for ART HANG PARTY!) waiting at customs (they flew from NY) and took the subway to the hotel in Shinjuku.
We didn’t have a lot of time to settle in before we were off to Ray’s first gig! He has a few lined up while we’re here. I’ll share more in the vlog, but here’s a photo of us with Mental Position and Mimi who we know from Twitch. Such a good a night!
Today’s self portrait:
I haven’t been drawing self portraits but I have been taking a few film photos, so I I’ll have to catch up when I’m home
TUESDAY FEBRUARY 25
This morning we made our way over to Ueno Park for a bit of a wander around and stumbled upon the Ueno Shrine. I had a bit of time to get my sketchbook out and do some quick sketches while Ray wandered and took some photos.
Then we walked about 30 minutes over to *drumroll please!* the Kakimori store!
The store itself is beautiful and full of beautiful pens, ink, stationery, etc. I did do a bit of filming in here but once I spotted the dip pen nibs all was forgotten until I stepped outside.
🤭🤭🤭
Here she is! Isn’t she the prettiest thing you’ve ever seen?
Of course I had to try it out as soon as we got back to the hotel room!
This page is a bit of a mess, as I was trying to not get ink all over the bed sheets, but I can honestly say this pen is everything I hopped it would be.
In addition to the nib and holder I got a bottle of beautiful green ink and a sample set of other colours that will be good for drawing with.
I can’t wait to get home and really use this!
Here’s some of what I ate today:
I’ve been taking lots of photos with my film cameras, and lots of photos and videos with my phone. I know for sure I’m putting a vlog of the trip together, and we will have at least one AHP session (we can probably do multiple if people are up for it). I’m not going to share too many photos here in this post (or next week’s), but I’m thinking maybe I pick my favourite photos of the day to share. Sound good?
Photo of the day:
Let the record show that we are on what, our second full day in Tokyo, and I have already basically spent my art supply budget.
We went to Sekaido, one of the best art stores I’ve ever been to. It’s like 5 solid floors of art supplies!
I restocked some of my watercolours (top row) and picked up a few new colours (bottom row), found a fluorescent rainbow pencil, got a few more paint brushes that I really like using with acryl gouache and bought some refills for my glue stick.
I saw a sewing machine gashapon on the way out and couldn’t resist!
Oh, I also got a new paint palette so I could swatch out the paints! I almost didn’t buy it but Ray, being the supportive guy that he is, convinced me that I should. (“It’s the price of a chicken dinner from Swis-Chalet.” Solid argument, that)
It has 52 wells, so I think I’ll add all my gouache to it and the rest of my watercolours when I get home and it’ll be my new go-to.
WEDNESDAY FEBRUARY 26
This morning we headed over to Shimokitazawa, a cool neighbourhood filled with thrift stores and quirky shops. Nothing opens until 11am, at the earliest, so we had a lot of time to walk around to take photos without a ton of people in them.
We stopped into a cafe to rest out feet and I did a quick sketch with new pens I found at a book store :) I think they are Pentel Sign Pens but it was the pretty mint green colour that sold me.
Later we met up with friends for dinner before Ray’s next gig!
Today’s food:
Photo of the day:
THURSDAY FEBRUARY 27
Today we are heading to Osaka!
We got to the train station well early for our shinkansen so I had time to get my sketchbook out and draw some people lining up to buy sandwiches and bento boxes for the train.
Then we found a waiting room where I did some sneaky phone sketches, but it was way too hot in there so I couldn’t stay very long.



I want to say I did these when we went up to the train platform…
I’m having so much fun putting these food pages together!
Photo of the day:
I totally missed Mount Fuji coming up on us. I didn’t realize it was so soon after leaving Tokyo! Here’s my shot, which is nowhere near as good as Roger’s
FRIDAY FEBRUARY 28
First up on today’s agenda was checking out the Sasabe Art Materials Store in the Dotonbori area. We wanted to go early because this is one of the most touristy spots we’ve ever experienced.
I didn’t go crazy at this art store. I picked up a CMYK set of Ecoline markers for $6.75 CAD! The solo markers at home are around $4.50 (they were $1.50 here), so that was a score.
I still need to pick up treats to take home, but these KitKats are top of the list.
We basically walked a ton, as per usual. We were averaging around 11km per day last I checked… 🫠
And of course, all the food.
Photo of the day:
I’m going to leave it here for this week and share the rest of the trip in next week’s post.
Thanks so much for being here and travelling along with me this week!
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The vlog is going to be amazing ✨ 😘
So much fun Melissa 🤩 I am loving all your sharings from Japan, here and on IG stories! Can’t wait for the vlog ❤️ have a great time and safe travel back home!