Week 1, Day 4

Sigh. :) It's been a good day. 

Yesterday, I attempted to do a background that the fabulous Pam Carriker had published in the latest issue of Somerset Workshop.  It totally fell apart.  Her instructions were great, but sometimes my brain simply cannot process basic English at 3am. (Yep, that's when a lot of artist moms get up)  I felt like a heel--a total waste of artistic space.

Just to make life more fun, I had to do a messy, painful job for my daughter, that involved my wearing rubber gloves.  I will not go into any more detail than that.  We were all exhausted, traumatized, and not thinking anything even remotely artistic.  I collapsed on the couch, and my evil anti-art twin said, "What was I thinking?  There's no way I can finish this challenge. I was dumb for even trying."

Then, at just the right time, I got a quick note from an artist I (really, really, really, like REALLY) admire. "Dotty, I showed my wife your blog.  She loved it, and thought you should open an Etsy shop."  



The next morning, 3am couldn't come fast enough. :)

Today, I did a background outlined here by the amazing Shona Cole. ( She's a homeschooling mother of 5, a pastor's wife, and a fabulous artist.  Yes, you read all that right.)  I needed something quick and simple, but that would give a dramatic effect.  With 5 kids, I think Shona has become a master of those types of techniques.

I started with a layer of gesso on my journal spread. Note that I always wrap the other journal pages in plastic to keep them from getting ruined/splattered/stuck together.

Then, while the gesso was still wet, I dropped three colors of paint on the page...

...and used a credit card to scrape it all around.  And yes, I am a Dave Ramsey nut. I think this is a fabulous use for credit cards.










Then I thought, "Dang, I've only got so much time before the kids wake up, and I really don't want to work on something else while I wait for the paint to dry." 

So, I took some serious creative initiative, and invented my own tool.

    

I used the tip of this to do some journaling directly into the wet paint, and made some really cool effects. 

No matter how much I painted over the pages later, you could always see a hint of it.












I used acrylics to paint the tree and the tulip, Pitt Artist Pens for some flourishes, and used yellow and black pastels for accents and outlining. 


The most fun part was adding the Bible verse.  It was from my grandfather's old Nave's Topical Bible that was falling apart.  I love using these books in my work.  He was a preacher for 61 years, and I felt like his books, even the ones that are outdated and almost dust, can live on in this way. 

Lisa Kauss was a big inspiration for the tulip, and I hope one day to be able to paint 1/5th as well as she does.