Here are the prompts:
Headline: Triumphs and Defeats
Color: Black and White
Quote: Not in the clamor of the crowded street, not in the shouts and plaudits of the throng, but in ourselves, are triumph and defeat. - Henry Wadsworth Longfellow
I have been existing on my dark side lately so I wanted to start with a black background. I don't have any black gesso yet so I used crumpled black tissue paper and adhered that to my page with gel medium. Then I sponged on some dark grey for more texture. I went a bit crazy with my sponge so I lightened the black more than I intended. To fix that I used a stamp that I made with plexiglass and silicon to stamp black swirls. I found the tutorial for the stamp on Julie Fei-Fan Balzer's website but I can not find it now to provide a link to save my life. My stamp is shown in the photo below. (On a side note, if you think it looks a lot like The Crafters Workshop Cosmic Swirl you're right. I used that to make this 'companion' stamp.)
Anyway, I pulled out the playing cards because triumphs and defeats made me think of taking chances and gambling...things sat that way for a few days. Then I got Carolyn Dube's newsletter with a black and white "spark" which can be printed out and used in your personal artwork. I printed a couple of large copies and a couple of smaller copies and added them to the pile. In her email she said that she kept seeing the moon. I could not stop seeing a black cat. Superstitious people associate black cats with bad luck which would probably lead to defeats. I am superstitious to a point but I am too much of a cat person to believe any of them could be bad luck so I kept thinking of the quote by Samuel Goldwyn "The harder I work, the luckier I get." and probably more triumphant. I cut that little kitty out and put him in the bottom left corner of the page.
That kitty made me happy so I pulled out my favorite Dylusions Letter Jumble stencil and a new Balzer Designs stencil I'd been hoarding, Mini Summer. In my happiness I wanted to add more white on my page so I pulled out the grey and white polka dotted packaging I'd been saving from a Donna Downey product I'd purchased. I started tearing up paper and placing pieces and added some black and white polka dotted Smash tape that is mostly covered now. Got everything glued down and started stenciling in light grey and white. I decided Summer was me and gave her a couple of dark plum highlights like the ones I got in October.
Thanks for stopping by! If you feel moved please leave a comment, they mean the world to me!
- Dawn
9 comments:
I like the depth you created with all the layers and the drama of the white on black. Thanks for sharing how the piece developed--the artistic process is so interesting!
It was really interesting to see how this page developed... I love how it ended up :)
Karenx
Great page! Thank you for sharing the process!
Jenny
Wow! I love your page and the way it evolved. What a great idea to use a stencil to created a stamp. Very clever! Thank you for joining Fall Fearless & Fly!
I really appreciate it when an artist shares their process, because I am mainly a quiltmaker and am learning more and more about the paper arts and the supplies and tools that can be used.
Very Nice Dawn! I love it! I love your thought process and descriptions too. I am going to have to find that tutorial from Julie.....
This is fabulous! I love how you used the cat!!! You have created such an amazing piece with so many layers and depth! So glad you shared this with Fall Fearless and Fly!
I really like the depth + texture you've achieved with your journal page. Especially when the theme was black + white. x
I love this! :) looks like you worked very hard with many layers. I love the curly hair.
Chandra
Post a Comment