Thursday 24 April 2014

ABC of Flowers

A quick and funky single page for you today. A few weeks ago while doing another page I had cleaned off my brushes onto this page... might seems a dirty thing to do, but..

this is the ideal way to get excess paint off your brush...
it means that paint isn't wasted..
and it gives you a base to start a new page. 

There were 3 patches of colour, Ice Blue, Mocha Mousse and Pansy. The colours don't matter, whether they go together or not.. they can always be covered up, partly or totally. As it happens I quite liked the 3 patches, and decided to just cover the whole page with an alphabet stamp. I have this stamp plate twice.... one plate is kept as a whole for doing backgrounds and the other one is cut up into individual letters.I love this set.  Ink and Dog Words 2.


Next I used the stencil PS009 and black gesso to create these silhouette flowers. You can see more clearly here the original patches of paint. 


I cut out some flowers from scrap paper and placed them over the flowers to protect them. 



I then created some background circles using Portfolio Pastels. Light blue, dark blue, brown and orange. 




Next I mixed some Fresco paints with water, just enough to make it runny enough to drip and splatter. I used 3 colours, first Tango, then some Autumn Fire and finally some splatters of Blood Orange. 



Here is how it looks now that the paint drips have dried. 


Next I took  a white Posca pen and did some doodling. 


To finish off the flowers I added some stems using a Faber-Castell Pitt Pastel pencil, this is a bit like charcoal and is quite smudgie. I then added some white details again with the Posca pen. 


Here is the finished page. I was in two minds as to whether I should add a title or a quote at the bottom right corner. I still might go back and do that, but i will leave it for a while... live with it and see how I feel in a week or two. 

This really was just a 'play and see' page, and I found it very relaxing, pages like this are great for trying new techniques. You don't have to finish them in one session, you can keep going back and adding 'stuff'

Give yourself permission to just play. 


Darcy x





24 comments:

  1. Love the way this has turned out Darcy!

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  2. Love the doodling Darcy, great page!

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  3. wow, Darcy - what a great page! I love it all, from the background (I always do this with my brushes too) to the silhouette flowers, and the doodling. what a great play you had!

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  4. Love that page lots of inspiration there, thanks Darcy!!

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  5. Great page Darcy I love how you built up the different layers.

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  6. This is stunning love the black flowers against the strong background :)

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  7. As always some terrific tips! I love the black flowers against that amazing background! You are an inspiration!

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  8. I am going to play with this; thanks for sharing it!

    Shine on!
    Kelley

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  9. I've always cleaned my brushes of excess paint with paper towels - what was I thinking?!!

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  10. Love the pop of white on the black flowers. I don't often clean off my brushes on a page but I do wipe excess paint onto blank journal pages so I don't waste it. So great tip about leaning the brushes as well!

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  11. Really like this, doodling, alphabet, colours, drips, it's gorgeous!

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  12. LOOOOOOVE this page :D XXX

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  13. Absolutely brilliant - to go from wiping your brush clean to this funky fabulous page - amazing!
    Alison x

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  14. Fabulous page Darcy, love the white doodling ! Sue C x

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  15. Wonderful page Darcy. The flowers look great amongst the fab splatters.

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  16. Another gorgeous. I like it before and after the doodles. Great splatting

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  17. One of my fave things to do is create backgrounds using odd bits of left over paint, the aftermath of cleaning brushes and collecting the overstamping from project and more. Love what you have done with yours, the black doodled flowers are very cool and the splats are devine.

    Thanks for the inspiration Darcy:-) xxx

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  18. Gorgeous page Darcy, really LOVE you and all your fab works, drawings, AJ pages, and......... stamps!!!!!! I'm currently working with them, they are just FANTASTIC haha, a pure delight, THANKS!! :D Hugs, Coco x

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  19. Who knew that cleaning brushes could end up looking soooo fabulous? Great design, Darcy!!

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  20. Wow! This is so beautiful and great idea Darcy. I lovely colours. xx

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  21. I love the doodling on the flowers too!!

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