Dream a little dream

A background of spritzer inks followed by stamping, a watercolour wash and some alcohol pens for the dots.  I tried to transfer the photocopied image using a blender pen but it just didn't budge or I was doing something wrong.

I didn't want to waste the image so I used a sepia alcohol pen to give it more of a vintage feel then I created a frame using some strips of paper I had sprayed ink over.  I really love the song, "Dream a Little Dream", so I decided to add a little pocket containing the first verse.

Down at the bottom of the Deep Blue Sea

The background to this page was created using my lovely Kuretake paints.  They seem to be a cross between a watercolour and a gouache paint leaving a good dense colour on the surface of the paper.  This made me think of all those creatures swimming around in the depth illuminated in the dark.   I created this using a mix of gel pens; Saruka gelly roll glaze pens, Mitsubishi Gel pens

I am quite happy with the final result.

Many faces

Here's an exercise in drawing faces which isn't my favourite thing to do.  I do like how it is lovely and bright though.  I was using my water based brush pens.

NUTURE. GROW.

I  was looking through my stack of Cloth, Paper, Scissors magazines and came across an interesting article called Visual Journaling by Melanie Testa (issue 24 May/June) . In it she shared a little of her process, one of which is using tracing paper in her journals.  When she is out and about she takes sketches of things of interest e.g. a bird or a flower, then she comes home does the research and draws it again, this time on tracing paper.  This allows her to be able to use that sketch again and again.

She uses tracing paper not only to sketch on but also to paint on.  Now this initially made me a little nervous.  Putting paint onto tracing paper will instantly cause the paper to distort. However Melanie suggests, "You can also play with the tracing paper's ability to stretch and expand while applying the tracing paper to your work."

Being a girl that uses what I have to hand I decided to try working on tissue paper.  I knew this would throw up more of a challenge but I was well and truly inspired and ready to go and here's the resulting page.

Within the page above I have created a background from left over wet ink and paint from other pages I had been working on so it was basically all ready to work on.  I sketched then painted my one year old jade tree onto the tissue paper then painted it using my Kuretake paints, I love their vibrancy.  Whilst waiting for the paint to dry I cut out some graph paper and outlined a couple of words to link to the plant.  I love my little jade plant, I found it on a cold December morning in 2015. I brought it home as a small branch.. Many people believe that the more these plants flourish the more affluent you will become or perhaps it's you won't be short of money.  Whatever the believe, I used to have one for coming on 40 years and then it just gave up the ghost.  No amount of water, sun, re-potting helped it.

I hope you enjoy the page.

take pART project: "You can find me right here" - week one

With the first workshop complete, I feel happy that I have come up with some very pleasing two hour creative experiences for the groups at Spalding and Boston Libraries.  This week, I showed the group how to make a folded star book using stitched maps.

Next week, the group will go on a journey of choice and learn how to make a meander book.

...by the sea

Working with my Kuretake paints and table salt I wanted to create a beach scene.  The salt really does give it a textured, grainy effect which makes it almost impossible to work over in any detail so I decided to use a image transfer method using sticky tape.  It's an interesting effect to experiment with and it's great to see the reaction salt has on the paint.

The process is quite straight forward, but can be a bit unpredicable, some paper works better than others.

1.  Cut a small image from a magazine or book and place it image down on the sticky tape.

2.  With the sticky side of the tape faced up, wet the back of the image.  In my case it showed some printed text.

3.  Rub the surface in a gentle circular motion until the paper starts to roll.  Add a little more water with your finger when needed.

4.  Keep rubbing in this way until you see only the image and it becomes transparent.

5.  Now apply it to your project.

Growth and Movement in Plants

I  really like the fantasy almost ethereal quality to this page.  To get this effect, I sprayed the surface before spraying inks over the surface and allowing to disperse.  Once dried, I added small marks, dots and dashes using my brush pens.  Finally I stamped a fairy and added some text and illustrations from an old gardening book.