Wanderlust Book Pages

Here are 2 more pages in my Wanderlust book. This first one came with the prompt 'what do you see in the mirror' I wasn't sure I wanted to do a self portrait, but then I found this page in my journal. This is a background started many years ago, like most pages in this book. It is Neocolor II crayons and acrylic paints. It seemed perfect . 

So I added a double border using Metallic pens and Portfolio pastels. 

I then added liquid pearls. 

and using paint markers I did this sketchy weird colours portrait. 

Added a little more shading and it's done.. hope I don't actually look like this .. maybe first thing in the morning lol

The other page is based on the prompt, 'my past' ..

Again I had a background already done.. 

Then I printed off a photo of me from when I was 6 or 7. At this age I was taking dance classes 4 times a week. 

The dress had a lemon yellow underskirt made of net, the top part of the dress was white with sheer sleeves. I was wearing my Grandmother's necklace and bracelet.. I still have those. Oh and the shoes were silver. 

I also had ringlets in my hair, created by sleeping the previous night in 'wrapped rags'.. gawd I hated those things. 

So I applied Mod Podge to my image and attached it to the page. I brayered it to ease out any air bubbles and left it to dry. 

We danced to many types of music in the classes. I took Ballroom, Latin. Modern Sequence and Disco classes, so there was a huge range of music. However the only one that has stuck in my mind is 'Save all your Kisses for Me' by Brotherhood of Man. So I wrote the lyrics out onto the page. 

This was a quick and simple page and definitely from my past as i don't dance at all these days lol Though a few years ago I began tap dancing, the class is just too far away to get to.. I should look for another one. 

For someone who doesn't dance I do have 3 pairs of dance shoes!!! I really should get back to classes . 

Darcy x

Waxy Poppies

Over on the PaperArtsy blog this evening I have a waxy experiment.. I say experiment rather than project as I really was just trying out lots of waxy mediums, to see what effects I could achieve. 

Pop over HERE, and see what I was playing with.. 

Darcy x

Studying under the Masters Week 1.part 4

yes I have skipped a part.. 

Part 3 is sculpting, and mine is started, but I am waiting for it to dry before I can carry on. So in the meantime I am doing...

Part 4. This was an exercise in drawing faces, getting proportions correct and using a specific blending technique. 

The first part involves drawing a face in charcoal (shudder, I really dislike charcoal)

{After a black crayon sketch by Van Gogh 1885}

Then we were to blend with gesso. Not a fan of this outcome at all, I have no idea why. 

I have done this blending technique many times before, but using neocolor II crayons and blending them with white acrylic. 

So I decided to draw the old peasant woman again, but this time give her some colour. 

Drawn out with 2b

Blending the skin tones of neocolorII crayons with white acrylic. 

I kept the colours simple and muted, after all his paintings of the time were all dark and murky, it wouldn't have been a good representation to to her in hot pink clothing lol 

So apart from the skin tones and white acrylic,  I only used Sepia. 

I could have added so much more, .. more layers , more washes, gone back in with graphite or finished it off with coloured pencils. 

I didn't want or need this to be a finished piece though, this is merely a blending exercise, so I am leaving it as is.. 

She looks much older in the colour version, this is I think down to the initial sketch. it was finer, and so I was able to make her face slimmer in the colour one. In the charcoal one, the charcoal spread a lot and made all her features more chubby, making her look younger. 

I do prefer the colour one. 

as a quick experiment, I also tried blending 6b with gesso, a pitt pastel with gesso, and a stabilo pencil with gesso.. 

The pitt pastel blended away into nothingness, the 6b and the stabilo, once blended were almost identical to the charcoal/gesso combo. 

*twiddles thumbs while clay dries*

Darcy x

Revisitation! Jennibellie Challenge

Over on the Jennibellie Ning site there is a monthly journal challenge. This month the theme is revisitation, where we are meant to go back to an old journal page that we don't like and rework it. 

So here is my contribution. 

This was the original page, I was stuck as to how to do it in the first place, and ended up rushing it. I was ok with the right side but really disliked the left side. 

I ripped off the silhouette of the fairy, and was left with this. 

I knocked back the leaves with some brown and green paint, just applied lightly with a fingertip. I then whited out this shape of a head using gesso. 

I used neocolor II crayons and Aquamarkers to fill in the face and wings. Finishing it off with white dots using a Posca pen. 

I also added white highlights to the other side. 

So here is the new finished page. it was difficult to take a good photo just because her face is created over collage and so the page is a bit bumpy. 

Darcy x

DLP Catchup

Here is my catchup post for weeks 5,6 and 7. 

First up, week 5. Add a doodled border. 

Not much to say about this one, I didn't take step by step photos. Basically I wanted a light page, but with interest behind, so I randomly added paint and stencilling and then covered most of that with white paint. I added my doodles using a sharpie pen

Next is week 6, for this week we had to look on pinterest and be inspired by something. I saw this painting, and followed it to find out who the artist was. The artist is Stanislav Sidorov , visit his site here... His series of 'Umberella' painting caught my eye. See them here... 

I had no intention of trying to copy one of his painting, I merely wished to capture the feeling of the movement in the rain and the drippy, merging colours. 

I began by adding strips of patterned paper, this was never meant to show at the end, I just needed a starting point. 

Next I tore up some used/dried baby wipes, and glued those in. 

I now had texture, I needed more movement and colour. So I added lots of drips of acrylic ink. 

as I heated the page to dry it, some of the ink bubbled..LOVE THIS...

It was feeling good, but it needed a shot of 'light' so I stencilled in white, using an Andy Skinner stencil

I outlined each number in black, and then added some dots, first in pale blue then when that dried I added white dots on top. 

I really like this, it doesn't really look much of a finished page. I did think at one point it needed a title or a quote, then I decided I liked it as it is. 

Now for week 7, for that week we had to use a repeating pattern. i did this page while I was away for the weekend, so the photos aren't great as the lighting in the room was a little dim. 

I started by gluing book pages and patterned paper to the page, I then used neocolours mixed with gesso to fill in the gaps. 

I added black stencilling through a Ranger alpha stencil. Then I draped some string over the page and held that in place with strips of washi tape. 

Next I used a bottle cap to make black circles, and a smaller cap to make white ones. 

I chose a small tag as my repeating shape. I coloured each one with neocolours and gesso, and added a little stencilling to each one. I edged each tag, mounted them onto graph paper and stuck into the journal. 

I had some wordfetti already cut out, and chose this quote. I glued one or two words to each tag and doodled around the words and the tags. 

I am still 3 pages behind *rollseyes* I do have excellent intentions of keeping up, life just gets in the way . I hope you are all having fun in your journals. 

Darcy x

Weekly Face on Weds

This one is just a doodle, not inspired by anything, not following any reference. Just doodles and layers..

pencil sketch

 first layer uses neocolor II crayons

a little background stamping then a layer of white acrylic..

background stencilling

coloured pencils added..

flowers stencilled with white acrylic

flowers doodled with black pen.

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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