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Tuesday, December 29, 2009

Ack!

So, I attempted to add some flowers and butterflies, dragonflies, you know garden things to the upper left side and made quite a mess. Instead of getting out the gesso and "mending" it, I decided to write a simple (and trust me, it is simple) haiku in a pretty frame to put there. I've gotta admit I cheated, I typed it in Photoshop and added pretty things with brushes and then printed it out. I say I cheated because I am in a creative lettering class and really should have hand printed something or doodled.
At any rate, it is what it is.

Here is what she looked like when I started yesterday:


In retrospect, I think I could have just stopped here.




Here is my finished page.



Here is a close up of the haiku.


Meanwhile, some time ago I bought a Strathmore 14" x 17", 60 lb. sketchbook spiral bound. It was on sale for just over $5 because it had a fold on the front cover and many of the initial pages. I've decided to use it to make large pieces of art to be cut up either to use as backgrounds in smaller pieces or to be used as smaller collage pieces.

So far I've gessoed it, added a bit of random bits of paint in 3 different shades of blue and weighted it down overnight because it was curling like crazy. Then just before retiring last evening, I went through some of my stash and an old magazine and tore out things that looked interesting either in color or texture or just happened to catch my eye.

I think I am going to randomly glue down bits and pieces and then maybe use the toothbrush trick I've seen others use (I've never tried it) to spatter bits of a contrasting color around a bit to unify it before cutting it up. I will decide what kind of cutting I am going to do when I see how it comes together.

I'll share my progress tomorrow.

No specific plans for today except to make art. I think I am going to use up the leftover ham by making scalloped potatoes for dinner; that is if I can get the hubster to make a run to the store to get some lactose free milk.

xoxo

5 comments:

  1. I really like the painting of the woman. You did a wonderful job on her skin tones. I think I might agree with you that it may have been a tad better without the Haiku in the corner .... sometimes the hardest thing about making art is knowing when to stop! hugs, nancy

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  2. Love your finished page Vicki!!!
    Daisies are one of the the main things I have always doodled (always dotted my "i's" with them), you certainly used them brilliantly for your garden page!

    Wishing you and yours a very Happy Healthy and Artful New Year!
    oxo

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  3. So pretty...I agree, the skin tones are beautifully done!!!

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  4. I like your page. Yes, it's a tad off balance because the two brightest objects are the haiku and the face. I would play with placing something light over the flowers in the bottom right hand corner. Just set something light there and look at it. Maybe you won't want to add it. Maybe it will make you think of something else. By no means however, have you ruined your page. It's a journal page for one thing and it's in our journals we get to try things out to see what we like and I think you have found out some of that here which means its a success. This isn't math - it doesn't have to be exact! Go start a new page. Try a new person. Put her in a new area on the page. Go play and see how it comes out. I think you will like this page much more when you look back at it later. I think its a keeper!

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