Tuesday, October 23, 2012

Sketchbook Pages: Fertile Grounds (Part 2)

Between cleaning, packing and showing the apartment, I finally got around to finishing the last sketchbook page I showed you. Click on this link to see where I left off.

I was really happy with how the spread was shaping up. I wrote in my quote next - "Fertile grounds for a creative mind..." and then added paint with a palette knife (titan buff, anthraquinone blue and an orangey-brown made mixing Indian yellow hue, irridescent copper light and quinacridone magenta). I loved the bright colours... but it was too over-powering. So I white-washed with gesso and then remembered to take photos:
This is the "aw crap, I ruined it" phase. The step where I sit back and wish I hadn't just added that last layer. I really liked what the page looked like before - sure, it didn't look quite finished, but it was nice! Now it's ugly!

Save it. I can save it.

The quote makes me think of a garden full of creative ideas, so I decided to add flowers to mine. Bright red ones. I chose a few die-cuts, ripped some red corrugated paper and found an arrangement I liked. Before gluing them down, I dripped some watered-down paint (sap green hue) to make the stems. The flowers didn't really pop though - the background was too busy - so I highlighted everything with a bit of gesso.
The flap I attached with tiny eyelets. The back was finished off with some gesso, a collaged image of a flower and a bit of sap green paint.
I am so in love with this page! I'm so happy I didn't stop at a place I was OK with and continued until it felt right. Done. Happy.

Fertile grounds for my creative spirit. Find yours today!

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