ARC August

Welcome to the Auguest meeting of ARC, the Artful Readers Club, where we read and review and get messy with our art.

This month I started reading one of the books on my original list, but totally ran out of time. It's by a great author and I want to read it properly and do it justice, so I put it aside and read a super short book for this review.

This book belonged to my son, I have no idea if he ever read it. According to the printing date inside the book, 1998, so it's been in our bookcase for aaages.

River Boy by Tim Bowler.

hmm well, this was definitely a quick read, it took just 2 days. It is an easy read, but, well it just never really gets going. there are hints of mystery about this book, and that element could have been really explored. But it just wasn't. Maybe I was expecting way too much from this book, after all it is a kids/teen book. I think my son read it when he was about 12.
 I must remember to ask him if he can remember what he thought of it. The story, such that it is, is very gentle, and flows along ok, but is never gripping. The way it is written is very 'flowery' I think that is the best word I can use. By that I mean the author seems to have written this with a thesaurus next to him, using every desriciptive word possible, just cramming them in. I am pretty sure this book could have been half the size and you still would have had the full story just without all the over the top descriptions.
It wasn't a bad book, but not sure I would recommend it to anyone.


My artwork.

I started with Adirondack sprays in Sunset orange and Wild plum, I sprayed them through a circular piece of plastic canvas.

Then I knocked the colours back using a brayer and some PaperArtsy Snowflake Freso paint.

Next I created a border using the leaf stamps from PaperArtsy HP1104 and HP1105 I sprayed some Adirondack Lettuce and Meadow into the leaves.

I added some PaperArtsy HeyPesto Fresco paint to the leaves too., and filled in the spaces with Inky Pool.

Next I used  some Grunge paste through a Crafters workshop stencil, TCW309S I added the paste leaves over the top of the stamped leaves, and once the paste was dry I painted them with several coats of Fresco paint. 

I added about 6-7 colours to the grunge paste leaves..

Each time I changed colour I dabbed it on in a different place on the leaves, making them multicoloured and multi layered.  

Then i took a piece of sandpaper and sanded back the grunge paste leaves. This removes only the highest parts, and reveals different colours on each leaf. 

At this point I was really happy, just love this as a background. I intended it to look like it was framing the view beyond. 

I then wanted to add the river,waterfall and boy from the book. I started with some light grey Fresco paint, and loosely painted in the rocks, before adding 2-3 darker shades. 

Then I added the water, starting with blue, then lighter blue, then light grey, then white. I also added a small silhoutte of the boy, sitting on a rock. 

Here is the whole page at this point..

All I needed was a title, i painted a piece of card with Honeydew Fresco paint, and once dry I popped it through the printer. 

I then cut it out, added some French Roast to the edges and glued it to the page.  i am so pleased with this page. Considering the book was a little boring...

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