I'm back ! I should have been back sooner, but the project that should have been project 7 has gone awry so many times, I haven't gotten it finished. I think it will end up being a scrapped design and I'll start a new piece right over it. Hey... it happens !
A lot of the mixed media videos I watch talk about being intuitive when creating, not trying to control what you do and just let whatever lands just flow out of you, but I had something I wanted and it needed a plan.
My sister Vicky gave me an amaryllis bulb before Christmas to force indoors and when it was gone, I saved one of the stems that had 2 blossoms on the top. I let it lay around till it dried, having no idea what I would do with it. I had not started playing in the mixed media at the time, so I had no idea this is where it would land. I did think a time or two before it was totally dry, that maybe I should press it between some papers to see if the reddish color would transfer and then use THAT to make a card .... or something, but I never did.
Here is how it looked in it's glory days.
During this last week, after deciding I wanted to work it into a project in my new fun art journey, I decided I should glue it to a paper first, in case it was going to be a "crumbler", I would know it before I tried attaching it directly to whatever piece it ended up on. I knew I wanted it to include paper bag, brown papers and other papers that would blend with those brown colors. I didn't realized till late last night (this morning) that I had not taken a photo of it AFTER it dried on the paper, but before attaching to my project, so this one where the glue is still wet would have to do. If you've been around, this strip of paper bag was part of the post where I told how I turned the black ink bottle over and I had said that afterwards, this part looked like a man on a John Deere tractor to me. 馃槃
A couple of days ago I went through my boxes of painty papers to pull out papers to possibly use with it. I hadn't gotten around to posting them, but his past week I had also painted and stenciled on some brown lunch bag paper, rice paper and book pages. Since the dried flower still had some burgundy color on the tips of the blooms, I let that guide me in the beginning to what colors I might want to include. I also had decided to leave the piece somewhat muted or more neutral as opposed to the bright bold colors I normally lean towards.
And so it began, laying on the background papers.
After the canvas was completely covered. I really loved the rice paper in the bottom left. When I had ordered my first rice paper from Amazon, I had ordered a pack of natural and an assorted colored pack. The burgundy strip in the center was also from that pack. I found that it's burgundy fibers wanted to transfer to the papers around it as I used my smoother thingy to flatten it out. Fortunately being mixed media, most unexpected paper reactions just add more interest or at least don't usually cause any issue.
Most of my process photos are taken quickly and end up crooked. I might have glue or paint on my hands and also I don't really want to stop but a second or two while in my creative zone. I only had to show this one because it is the first time I have glued any part of a book page on.
The book I got it from is not ancient, maybe just from the 80s, but the paper that was used is some kind that even in that time, the edges were already starting to yellow as if it were much older. Here though, against the browns, golds and burgundy, it looked quite white. It was ok though, because I knew I would tint the background of it later with some paint.
Even with the dried flower already glued to the paper bag paper, I was not sure how it would accept manipulation as I glued it down and tried to carefully get bubbles and most of the wrinkles out of the paper when attaching it to my project. I had already torn a lot of the paper bag paper from around the flower. I was happily surprised to find that it went pretty well, even when I lightly pressed parts of the blooms and stem. Yay !
After, I added more assorted paper bits and more book page bits to balance.
I had not wanted to cut the bottom of the original flower stem off, but had to in order for it to fit the canvas size I had chosen. Later, I decided to still include it! Since it was glued to the brown paper, I just tore a swatch off around it and glued it right on !
I "thought" I was going to lightly "black wash" a lot of it after I had all the paper on and had yellowed the book paper bits. I had even started to do that on the right where the first bit of book paper went, but before I got started good, I decided that I wanted to try a muted blue instead. Once while I was adding the papers I had laid two small, muted blue painted paper bits on to see if might like it there as an accent color. Although I liked the contrast, I had chosen not too include them. I think that is what caused my mind to change to blue instead of black. I figured I could put a little on and if it looked like it was going to ruin the "feel", I could go over it with black and carry on, but I found once I started, that I did indeed like the blue and was very glad I had decided to try it.
I smudged it around on all the parts, some areas very light, some more concentrated. to make all the parts become related to each other.
The below photo was taken in the morning sunlight and it probably appears a little lighter overall to the eye than it does in the real. My last photo at the bottom of this post may give a better feel of the mood.
Now a black and white, just for the fun of it.
Considering what a short time I have been playing with the mixed media, I was pretty happy with what I was able to do with it.
I'm loving that it is Saturday and that as far as I know, it is wide open (you have to allow for the unknowns, right ?) ... next up I will be loading the dishwasher, putting in another load of clothes to wash and heading back to my art table. I need to go back to a piece or two and finish up the sides and put the last additions to the bird houses, before I get too behind on the bits and pieces that need to be done. Maybe I will seal them all too. I should be ready to start the next project after that.
