ARC April

Welcome to the April book review. I hope you have all had a good month. I was over the moon to actually meet 3 of you gorgeous bloggers at the Ally Pally show in London. I was blown away by how many people came up to say  hello, good job they did as I am so rubbish and never recognize anyone.

So my review for April.

The Left Hand of God by Paul Hoffman

This book started pretty well, quite gripping in fact in the first 3 chapters or so. But soon after that it became boring, though only for 2-3 chapters, then the pace picked up again. This up and down feeling continued throughout the book, 2-3 really good chapters followed by 2-3 rubbish ones that were tedious and hard to get through. I found myself skipping paragraphs.

 The story builds again in the final chapters, though I felt I was going to be in for a disappointment, there just wasn't enough pages left to conclude the story..and then it ended. It was only at this point I found out that this was not a stand alone book, but that there was a sequel. I am now in a quandary, a bit loathe to buy the second book, as I really can't say I enjoyed this one. But on the other hand, I feel I have only read half the story and I want to know what happens.

As for the story itself, it is quite a harsh fantasy (no magic)and not for the faint at heart. There are some very unpleasant scenes described in great detail, involving physical violence towards young boys. To clarify , it is a 'war' setting and the boys are being trained as soldiers, but that training is quite brutal. But we do fall a little in love with the lead character, as I guess we are supposed to. We feel his pain and confusion even though he is a cold blooded killer. I was left wanting things to work out well for him, I could not begin to guess whether they do.

So, very mixed opinions on this book. I think if  I see the sequel really cheap I will get it, to see what happens, but  I am not going to go out of my way to go buy it.

My journal page..

When ever I do a project involving paint or ink i always wipe off the excess into a journal or onto scratch paper, while they may not be the right colours for the basis of a new page they do add layers. 

So the base of this is an old wipe off from a stencil and a faint image of a stamp. I added red ink to signify the bloodshed in the book, and the sand coloured criss-crossing drips for the paths the characters take thru the desert.

Next I made some ratty stencils. 

Stencilled 2 of them with black paint.

I added a chevron stencil in 2 colours, using an Andy Skinner stencil. It was quite stark so I knocked back the whole page with a translucent aqua paint. Leaving the rats uncovered.

I was a bit stuck at this point, and wasn't sure what to do next. So I added  a sunburst behind the rats, again with an Andy Skinner stencil...then a border using cream,blue and red paint..over which I added a stamped border.

My next stage was to cut a sword stencil, just from cardstock. I scraped wall filler through it and left it to dry. I wanted it distressed looking so I made sure that I did not smooth the wall filler out, but left it ridged. 

Once dry I coloured it with Treasure gold wax, then added designs stamped using Stazon ink. 

On the other page I wanted to paint a girl, but also wanted to include a map. So I sketched her out and then transferred the sketch to a book page that had a tactical map on it. 

once painted she was cut out and added to the journal, with a 3rd ratty stencilled over her.  Then I needed somewhere to hide my printed review. The pages in this book are quite thin, so after each completed page I glue it to the next page. So before doing that, punched out a finger notch and glued a small envelope between the two pages. 

Here you can see where the review just slides in..

close up of the sword texture..

the map showing through the paint on the girl..

The final page with title added..

Products used..

Adirondack spray inks

Crafters workshop stencils

Andy Skinner Stencils

Artiste Craft paints

PaperArtsy Fresco paint

Treasure Gold

Neocolors

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