LIFE - YOU KNOW IT AIN'T EASY ....

 

I must have been in multi colour mode when I did this page - probably because I was determined to use the wacky figure top left I found on a Ceremony collage sheet!

It started like this, with a painted background, and then I drew these ribbons with a Posca paint pen.  I've included a picture of this pen because I can genuinely recommend them - and nobody is paying me to say this, but I don't mind if they want to!  As you can see you get a really good opacity even over the acrylic background.

Then in went the little man (sporting new eyes) and those blue lines just invited me to write in between them.  I didn't know this is what I was going to write, and appear to have been just getting stuff off my chest as per usual!  I've tried to show here how the lettering is built up from the basic - see the previous post for a tutorial on this.  The white lines and the red dots are also Posca paint pens, and again their opacity is really easy to see.  The little heart is from another collage sheet.

Here I'd just added yet more ribbony lines and even more red dots ...

And then I went a bit wild on the doodling front ... I actually think I prefer the picture above to the finished version, but there you go.  I am occasionally guilty of overdoing it on the decorating front!!.

I really ENJOYED making this page, especially doing the red paint dots.  Funny what will prove satisfying to the creative mind ...

LETTERING TUTORIAL....

I really hope this works for everyone who has asked for it.  Now that I put the pictures up it looks a little bit dark, so if that's a problem please let me know and I will take new photographs.

What I'm hoping is that if you save these images you should then be able to print them out A4 size so that you can read them easily.

Its possible that there's a better way to do this - but this was what I could figure out at the time!  I do hope its useful and please do let me know how you get on with it.  Pass it on if you like, but I'd be grateful if you'd credit me with a link back to the blog!

Have fun ......!

NOT GIVING UP ....

 

It has taken a while, but I've finally realised that a particular door I've been banging on isn't going to open because its not meant to.  This has required considerable mental re-adjustment but hey ho, so I am beginning again.  However, lest I should later accuse myself of giving up too easily, I wrote this page as a justification for being where I am.  It works for me.

It began with me messing about with 3 colours of paint - that ombre thing of shading colours which is all the rage at the moment might have influenced me?  Whatever, it was fun using water to try and get the colours to blend seamlessly - acrylics tend to resist doing that.  I added the thoughtful lady just because I like her - Modigliani again, I do love his work.  The people he paints seem so human and fallible somehow?

Then I decided it looked a bit too clean and pure, so I added a wobbly black line around the outside (using the blunt end of a Promarker) and some grey paint for shading, then followed it up with a crackle effect stamp in grey and black.  That muddied the waters nicely.  There's also pencil shading around the figure - I'm quite into doing that lately.

 

The art word and the numbers are just because they looked nice, and then I wrote on top with the chisel end of a black Promarker - I find they work pretty well over paint, though not everything does.  At some stage I also tried rubbing gesso on with my finger, but didn't much like the effect - it looked better in the You Tube video I watched.

You can see above and below the difference between the basic letters and the finished ones - its a doodly kind of process thickening them up and extending the feet. For the finer detail I change to a Pilot drawing pen - I have them in various nib thicknesses.

And although it looked nearly finished at that point, I got out the Posca Paint pens in order to add doodle dots - as you can see the opacity of these pens is great because I could even add yellow over red and get a good crisp finish.

So there you are - finished page and a resolution made and acted upon.  I am NOT defeated, just taking the realistic decision to regroup and re-form, and see where that takes me.  I wouldn't want you to think I was giving up, obviously!